Messages

3361

General Mach Discussion / Re: Some starting advice for two steppers on one axis

« on: March 05, 2016, 08:01:50 AM »

My apologies to Sterling for following him around the forum but his diagram reminds me of Steel Nick’s excellent foam cutter design.

You just need to replace the hot-wire with a horizontal axis ??

Tweakie.

3362

General Mach Discussion / Re: Possible to send pulses directly to stepper driver while connected to a BOB

« on: March 05, 2016, 07:39:58 AM »

Just rambling…

It’s probably way OTT for your application but I had a similar situation a while back and after much experimentation and thought settled on a system of using two stepper motors driving one axis through a differential gear arrangement. One motor (controlled by Mach) did all the work of driving the axis and the other motor (controlled by a plc driven by sensors) made the corrections.

Just something to think about, perhaps ?

Tweakie.

3363

FAQs / Re: Wiring Limit, Home and E-Stop Switches

« on: March 05, 2016, 01:51:40 AM »

Typically...

C:/Mach3/xmlbackups

Tweakie.

3364

General Mach Discussion / Re: Spindle servo drive not working with mach 3

« on: March 04, 2016, 10:52:38 AM »

Is the spindle working OK now ?

Tweakie.

3365

General Mach Discussion / Re: Pictures to GCode?

« on: March 04, 2016, 08:56:04 AM »

Good fortune my friend 

Tweakie.

3366

General Mach Discussion / Re: New user

« on: March 04, 2016, 08:50:33 AM »

Come on Stew, you can’t learn it all from my website because I am not yet halfway through the learning process – I still have miles to go yet. 

I do appreciate that some may find that it is not easy to learn CNC and may struggle with it but nowadays they are in a very small minority. CAD/CAM software (such as Vectric) has moved on leaps and bounds in recent years and it is just so easy to design a part, create the Gcode, run Mach and produce the goods. We don’t necessarily need to know or understand exactly ‘how it works’ we just need to know exactly ‘how to use it’ (perhaps a bit like driving a car).
In an earlier post someone said ‘Hell if it was easy everyone would be doing it’ well guess what – looking at the numbers of new members to our forum who are starting out using Mach4, everybody is doing it. 

Tweakie.

3367

General Mach Discussion / Re: Pictures to GCode?

« on: March 04, 2016, 08:40:14 AM »

I am thinking of doing something similar, basically have a picture, convert to Gcode and make a 3D relief using router/mill and small ball nose end mill.
I did read that having the subject in black and white gives better results? But what to use, I did have a mess around with CamBam, but couldn't fathom how to get it right.

If it's any help http://openbuilds.com/threads/producing-3d-reliefs-for-free.380/

Tweakie.

3368

General Mach Discussion / Re: Pictures to GCode?

« on: March 04, 2016, 08:02:32 AM »

LazyCam is probably not the best tool to use (but it is possible to create the Gcode for an image with this).

As said, it depends on the type of image you require to engrave and how you wish to engrave it (rotary, impact, laser, etc.).

Just sticking with Arsoft products...
Excellent 3D (2.5D) reliefs and lithophanes can be produced with Mach1Filter.exe ( a long forgotten tool - even Art forgot he wrote it   )
Excellent Line Art, Shades of Grey and impact engraving can be produced with the Impact engraving / Laser plugin (my favorite).

A forum search should provide more details and reproduced images etc. from both of the above processes ( and, of course, they are both free  ).

Tweakie.

3369

FAQs / Re: Wiring Limit, Home and E-Stop Switches

« on: March 04, 2016, 07:24:10 AM »

Another thought…

During the setting-up of your limit switches you may have accidentally created a corrupt .xml (easy to do if you are using an external motion controller).

There may be an easier way but when something similar happened to me I had go to the Mach3 / xmlbackups folder and load an earlier .xml (rename it to <my profile>.xml and copy it into the Mach3 folder) and then re-make the required changes to my settings. It worked just fine second time around.

Tweakie.

3370

FAQs / Re: Wiring Limit, Home and E-Stop Switches

« on: March 04, 2016, 06:53:52 AM »

I really have no idea what you have done but suspect you have accidentally created a GND or Earth loop with your wiring changes. Perhaps re-track your work and see if you can spot something.

Tweakie.