Messages

141

General Mach Discussion / Cool CNC Features

« on: January 08, 2018, 10:43:51 PM »

So I've got a Mori Seiki SL1 lathe that I fully rebuilt with all new stuff and Mach 4 and I'm thinking about buying a Fadal VMC to replace my home built Bridgeport CNC. My Bridgeport CNC has been awesome, but I'm looking for more capacity and tool changer. I don't want to retrofit it but as Fadal's are old I want to be prepared to in case the electronics go.

SO I was wondering what cool features Professional CNC's have.

Here are some examples of physical features and neat programming ideas:
1. Tool Changer
2. Spindle Load - to know how much load is on the tool.
3. Seen some neat g-code manipulation where they have the machine spray coolant while moving the carriage around to clean it off after the part is finished machining.

Any other things a professional lathe or vmc would have?

142

PoKeys / Re: Pokeys57CNC & Mach4, spindle question

« on: December 06, 2017, 10:21:47 AM »

Not sure. There are two ways to get threading to work, either with a sensor that detects a notch in some material connected to your spindle or a rotary encoder that connects to your spindle.

Not sure if you need index if it's a rotary encoder. I'm not in front of my machine, but looked at the schematic online and it seems a rotary encoder doesn't need one, just A, B, Z and power.

143

PoKeys / Re: Pokeys57CNC & Mach4, spindle question

« on: December 05, 2017, 12:14:44 PM »

What’s the encoder for?

144

PoKeys / Re: Pokeys 57E and M16 BOB How to wire to turn coolant on with a 12V Relay

« on: November 28, 2017, 01:02:26 PM »

Nope. Returned it. It wasn't up to snuff. I ended up going with the Pokeys57CNC and for the most part love it. Better to have an all-in-one.

145

PoKeys / Re: PoKeys57CNC, spindle speed measurement jumps like hell

« on: May 02, 2017, 11:25:17 AM »

Maybe you can help. I'm having a problem with the same type of thing. I've got the pokeys57cnc and everything works on my lathe; just didn't have the encoder yet. So I hooked up an encoder from CNC4PC yesterday and setup the pokeys plugin. My encoder is 500PPR so I set that. I don't always get a value of '0' when the spindle is off, but when it's on, no matter what the RPM is it reads something in the 10,000-11,000 range. It's not consistent it jumps all over the place. It doesn't ever stay in one number range it's constantly changing like in your video.

Now I haven't used the shield wire of my encoder, but I'll try that when I get home. I'm a novice with electronics so I'm not sure I understand what you did to yours.

146

PoKeys / Re: Pokeys motion steps overflow

« on: May 02, 2017, 11:11:32 AM »

I had the same problem in the beginning when using the Pokeys 57E, but switched to the 57CNC and don't think I had problems since.

Sorry I can't help, but motor tuning seems to be part of the culprit I think.

What I've found is the pokeys needs to be reset when having problems. So take pics of all your Mach and Pokeys screens or write down all the values. Then make sure the pokeys is on and use the pokeys configuration software. That is an outboard program that has nothing to do with mach; make sure mach is closed too. Then in one of the menus there is 'clear settings' button. Click that clear the settings, turn the pokeys off and on and again. Then go back into Mach and re-set up the pokeys. This seems to work for me when something is not working correctly.

147

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Using physical button to set Gcode for Tool Change

« on: April 25, 2017, 12:55:31 AM »

Ok. So some weird things going on.

I did what I said above. The feed hold codes and other codes didn't work. The cycle start did, kind of. Also figured out how to use the jog functions. They're further down the list in Inputs.

When I setup the cycle start it works, but then cycle start keeps running and other functions aren't useable. If I set it to active low then it automatically starts whatever is in mdi or gcode screen.

So I'm not sure what's going on, but with cycle start setup the program doesn't run correctly or shutdown correctly. Mach core is still running. It's like the cycle start is still going.

Any help would be appreciated.

148

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Using physical button to set Gcode for Tool Change

« on: April 23, 2017, 02:00:32 PM »

Ok question. In previous post I made, someone said to look at the Mach4Core API Help file for the codes I'll need, but it doesn't list CycleStart () as such it references the code in lua as mcCntlCycleStart  so what's the difference?

Daz, how does this code look?

end,
[mc.ISIG_INPUT0] = function (state)
if (state == 1) then  
        CycleStart()
    end
end,
[mc.ISIG_INPUT2] = function (state)
if (state == 1) then  
        mc.mcCntlFeedHold()
    end
end,
[mc.ISIG_INPUT3] = function (state)
if (state == 1) then  
        mc.mcCntlMdiExecute(inst, "G01F100")
    end
end,
[mc.ISIG_INPUT4] = function (state)
if (state == 1) then  
        mc.mcCntlMdiExecute(inst, "G01F1")
    end  
end,
[mc.ISIG_INPUT5] = function (state)
if (state == 1) then  
        mc.mcCntlMdiExecute(inst, "G01F5")
    end  
end,
[mc.ISIG_INPUT6] = function (state)
if (state == 1) then  
        mc.mcCntlMdiExecute(inst, "G01F10")
    end  
end,
[mc.ISIG_INPUT7] = function (state)
if (state == 1) then  
        mc.mcCntlMdiExecute(inst, "G0G53X0Z0")
    end  
end,
[mc.ISIG_INPUT1] = function (state)
   -- if (state == 1) then  
--        CycleStart()
--    --else
--        --mc.mcCntlFeedHold (0)
--    end

end,


Also need to use a physical button to control jogging, such as moving x axis up and down. Looked at the mach4api help file and haven't found what code I need. Thanks.

149

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Using physical button to set Gcode for Tool Change

« on: April 23, 2017, 01:40:53 PM »

Ok thanks I'll try that.

150

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: How to make Mach 4 wait for spindle to come up to speed?

« on: April 23, 2017, 01:00:17 AM »

I get that, but I'm using the built in Lathe Wizards and I can't figure out how to get the code in there. I can't even edit it once it's processed as it's not a text file.

I wonder if the built in wizards have a post processor I could edit?