Messages

3811

Building or Buying a Wood routing table.. Beginnners guide.. / Re: 6040z water cooled spindle motor rust inhibitor

« on: December 21, 2015, 02:14:23 AM »

If it’s any help…

I Have been using closed loop water cooling systems for some years now and can confirm that a 30% concentration of (vehicle) antifreeze and distilled water works well for cooling, preventing corrosion (radiator, pump & fittings), sub-zero freezing and preventing organic growth within the tubing. (Take care with the antifreeze though, many types are toxic – especially to animals).

Tweakie.

3812

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach 3 vs Mach 4

« on: December 20, 2015, 07:00:35 AM »

Hi Rob,

I am following along behind you on the Warp9 forum and awaiting the updated driver also. "Easter" made me smile but thinking about it you may be right.  

Tweakie.


My apologies for going a bit off topic Dirk.

3813

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach 3 vs Mach 4

« on: December 20, 2015, 06:16:21 AM »

(yup I'm aware of the PP plugin for M4, although this does not do some of the internal stuff that the M3 PP did [thc + m10/m11, etc])

Hi Rob,

Just a heads-up...
The Darwin plugin for Mach4 handles the M62/M63 commands (replacement for the M11/M10) just fine, last time I looked.

Tweakie.

3814

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach 3 vs Mach 4

« on: December 20, 2015, 04:33:48 AM »

Hi Dirk,

Taking the decision between Mach3 and Mach4 (at this moment in time) would, I think, be tough.

(If it's any help, I have licensed versions of both - I use Mach3 for the actual work and Mach4 for playtime. For me, the day will come when Mach4 will be ready to fully take over from Mach3 but it could be a while).

Tweakie.

3815

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: parallel port timeout

« on: December 20, 2015, 02:59:22 AM »

Sounds like that is just Mach4 (Darwin ?) timing out because it is not a licensed version - nothing to do with parallel port settings or the number of lines of code.

Tweakie.

3816

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Add a laser to my CNC

« on: December 19, 2015, 11:02:26 AM »

Your laser would be switched on/off using a TTL signal (5volts or 3.3volts) not sure why you would want to use a relay.
Modifying your Vectric post-processor to replace any Z axis movements with a small A axis movement would seem the easiest way to use the A axis direction signal as the laser trigger.

Tweakie.

3817

Forum suggestions and report forum problems. / Re: Mach4 Release Dates and content

« on: December 19, 2015, 02:45:10 AM »

I don't know why this has not been done - it was sort-of implemented some while ago in the Newfangled ftp downloads section but that seems to have just dwindled.

Perhaps the most complete release schedule is maintained by Steve (PMDX) which is here; http://www.PMDX.com/Downloads_Mach4/Mach4_Hobby_Releases/

Tweakie.

3818

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Add a laser to my CNC

« on: December 19, 2015, 02:07:13 AM »

Within Mach4 two very special commands (which do not have any noticable delay) have been added to switch lasers (and other fast acting devices). These commands switch an Output# of your choice which you have mapped to an output pin number (to provide the actual signal output).
The Mach4 command M62P1 will switch on Output#1 and the command M63P1 will switch off Output#1. Both of these commands need to be followed by an axis (any axis) movement (because activation only occurs at the instant of initial axis movement).
There are other methods and the following short video was made (before the M62/M63 commands had been written into Mach4) using the A axis direction pin for laser switching. My Gcode included the command A0.01 to turn the laser on and A0.00 to turn the laser off. My laser output power was varied between cutting and engraving toolpaths using the spindle speed S### commands.

https://youtu.be/8fUg6ebWut0

Tweakie.

3819

General Mach Discussion / Re: M3 M4 M5 spindle relay solved

« on: December 19, 2015, 01:37:08 AM »

Hi Manny,

Thanks for posting this information which I am sure will help others that follow.

Tweakie.

3820

General Mach Discussion / Re: Im stuck - Just cant get anywhere..

« on: December 18, 2015, 01:23:01 AM »

I am sure it is all a bit daunting to start with but you will soon get the hang of it all.

The (parallel port) driver is not required for USB operation.

Your USB device will have it's own driver, this should be installed (according to the manufacturers instructions), When starting Mach3 a screen will ask if you want to use this device, say yes and then proceed to the config. plugins to set everything up.

Tweakie.