Messages

3411

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: The Laser Project.

« on: July 27, 2014, 08:02:46 AM »

Just a short 1 minute video of the combined engraving / cutting toolpath using a logical AND between PWM and laser trigger as described in posts #856 / #857


https://youtu.be/8fUg6ebWut0

Tweakie.

3412

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: The Laser Project.

« on: July 27, 2014, 07:42:38 AM »

Hi Jammer,

Thanks for posting the link – there is no doubt that laser development, new thinking and technology advancement is cracking on at an alarming pace and that article made very interesting reading.

One thing that’s often not made very clear in press releases is that laser beams do not actually contain any heat – they are just a coherent stream of photons (having no mass) and it is the reaction of the molecules in the material they come into contact with which actually creates the heat. Another point that is often overlooked is that when cutting metals it is the high pressure assist gas (often Oxygen) which actually does the cutting (much like oxy-acetylene or plasma work) and the laser beam is merely the catalyst.

Tweakie.

3413

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 Bug Reports

« on: July 25, 2014, 10:48:48 AM »

Hi Craig,

Correct sir - PCMCIA card - not sure if it would work or not but it arrived in the post this morning so I had to give it a try. 

Tweakie.

3414

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 Bug Reports

« on: July 25, 2014, 08:55:01 AM »

Well, I had to try v.1914 with the Vista Laptop and an IEEE 1284 ‘plug-in’ parallel port. I can’t say I fully trust it with an engraving bit just yet but it seems OK just cutting air.

35 seconds of the test  http://www.graytel.talktalk.net/M4b.wmv

There appears to be a slight issue with v.1914 – the A axis responds OK to the MDI command but not from GCode – strange ?.

Tweakie.                                 

3415

General Mach Discussion / Re: New people welcome !! Come in here and introduce your self!

« on: July 24, 2014, 08:29:19 AM »

Here you go. 

Tweakie.

3416

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 Bug Reports

« on: July 24, 2014, 03:44:06 AM »

Hi Steve,

I know you are very busy and I am sorry to bother you with another question;

Will Mach4 incorporate a command set (similar to the Mach3 M11P1 / M10P1 or E1P1 / E1P0) which is capable of switching an Output on / off at the exact time of an axis movement for us laser users ?

Tweakie.

3417

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions

« on: July 21, 2014, 11:43:52 AM »

Hi Art,

The addition of the changeable registers is nice and much better to select Freq. / PWM rather than the odd / even signal.
My system seems to run better with a 2uS step pulse although it is difficult to be certain – one thing for sure is that anything >2uS causes me step problems.

Just out of curiosity, in the future, will we have any commands to operate in a similar manner to the M11P1 / M10P1 ?

Tweakie.

3418

General Mach Discussion / Re: Help with Spindle RPM. %90 done jsut cant get MACH to see it

« on: July 20, 2014, 08:35:35 AM »

Hi Chris,

I am led to believe that Mach4 will handle the speed compensation perfectly but it may be some time before Mach4 is fully operational and ready for release. It should be noted that Mach4 will not be outputting a PWM signal directly, it will be the responsibility of the various, third party, external motion controllers software / hardware to interpret the Mach4 output data and generate the relevant PWM duty cycle accordingly.

If you Google "rc gov esc" you should find a few links of interest.

Tweakie.

3419

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions

« on: July 20, 2014, 08:30:19 AM »

Sounds great Art, I particularly like the idea of 1000 discrete power levels.

I look forward to following your progress on this and maybe even following in your footsteps although I keep saying 'the Impact / Laser engraving plugin is going to take a lot to better'. 


Tweakie.

3420

General Mach Discussion / Re: Help with Spindle RPM. %90 done jsut cant get MACH to see it

« on: July 20, 2014, 06:31:21 AM »

Hi Chris,

As far as I am aware (but I am always pleased to learn something new) Mach3 just shows the change in spindle RPM proportionate to tool loading and as G97 (constant surface speed) does not work correctly in Mach3 there is no speed compensation via the PWM duty cycle.

My approach would be to use a Constant Speed ESC as this would be a simple solution to providing the necessary RPM compensation in relation to variable tool loading.

Tweakie.