Messages

3691

General Mach Discussion / Re: Position Errors Only on Diagonal Moves

« on: January 14, 2015, 02:11:12 AM »

Hi Ray,

Are you re-drawing the 45 deg. rotated square in CAD/CAM or are you using the Mach3 'Local System Rotate' function and the existing Gcode ??

Tweakie.

3692

General Mach Discussion / Re: Parallel port for PCI bus that works with Mach3 - just passing along info

« on: January 13, 2015, 07:48:11 AM »

I am only just beginning to get into the cnc scene. But, from what I gather about Mach 3 is that it is very feature rich for the price but it is picky. And, with me just getting into the hobby, Id like to stick to tried and true methods. Its only a cnc plasma table. I dont need top notch, nor all the bells and whistles. But, then again this is my first machine. Do you have a good resource for this ethernet smooth stepper topic, where I could read up on it? After all the trouble I just went through with Windows XP and the first parallel card Its sounds like a definate possibility in the future.

http://www.warp9td.com/

Tweakie.

3693

General Mach Discussion / Re: coil winder spindle control

« on: January 12, 2015, 12:02:40 PM »

I think your best bet is to increase the Acceleration settings in Motor Tuning.. If you need a slow start then make your first move a G01 at a lesser feed rate.

Tweakie.

3694

General Mach Discussion / Re: Need a 4 axis controller board

« on: January 12, 2015, 07:55:20 AM »

OK, thanks for satisfying my curiosity. The DRV8825's are rated at 2Amp when fitted with the heatsink but even then fan assisted cooling is still required to stop them shutting down.

Tweakie.

3695

General Mach Discussion / Re: Need a 4 axis controller board

« on: January 12, 2015, 01:38:54 AM »

Yeah I actually used it with Mach 3 on another setup and it worked just fine.  Unfortunately the setup was unreliable.

May I ask why the setup was unreliable ?

Tweakie.

3696

General Mach Discussion / Re: Need a 4 axis controller board

« on: January 11, 2015, 12:35:53 PM »

I have never tried the UC-100 but that should work just fine with Mach3.

Tweakie.

3697

General Mach Discussion / Re: Need a 4 axis controller board

« on: January 11, 2015, 12:09:18 PM »

You could use the G540 as is with a PC which has a parallel port, running Windows XP up to Win7 (I think) or else you would need a Mach3 external motion controller such as the Smooth Stepper http://www.warp9td.com/ for Win8 and onwards.

The ESS already has basic compatibility with Mach4 (and this is currently being worked on by Warp9) so forward upgrades from Mach3 to Mach4 will be possible in the future.

(There are many other options - I have only mentioned the devices / products I have experience with).

Tweakie.

3698

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: ORAC Spindle Swarf Blaster®

« on: January 11, 2015, 11:33:41 AM »

Excellent solution - I like that idea.

Tweakie.

3699

General Mach Discussion / Re: Need a 4 axis controller board

« on: January 11, 2015, 11:23:36 AM »

Just my opinion but probably the best solution is the Gecko G540. http://www.geckodrive.com/geckodrive-step-motor-drives/g540.html
Many others have purchased the cheap Chinese boards via the bay and after one problem or another have had to replace them so if you can stretch to the extra cost of the Gecko you will only need to buy once (and the after sales support is second to none).

Tweakie.

3700

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach 3 Appears to not handle non-printable characters in Ascii files.

« on: January 11, 2015, 08:33:16 AM »

 

Tweakie.