Messages

3911

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Making MACROS turn on OUTPUTs faster by inlining your code!!

« on: August 08, 2014, 08:36:29 AM »

Something's not quite right - they will not turn Output 0  on/off here. 

Tweakie.

3912

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions

« on: August 08, 2014, 05:10:32 AM »

Hi Guys,

I agree with your findings. Although I get smooth machine motion with Mach4 v.1914 and Darwin v1.10 (using my Samsung laptop + parallel port) I would not trust it 100% as I would v.1900. There seems to be a lot more going on in the background with v.1914 and this gives me some cause for concern.
Something I did notice and mentioned in another thread, is that the A axis works OK from MDI but not from GCode.

Tweakie.

3913

General Mach Discussion / Re: Transformer DIY qquestions

« on: August 08, 2014, 03:46:49 AM »

Best talk to the manufacturer of your transformer to find out how it has been wound.
I would expect to see 24 Volts across the blue / blue but it sounds like you have two 12 Volt windings in parallel (sharing a common start) rather than two 12 Volt windings in series.

Tweakie.

3914

General Mach Discussion / Re: Tangential knife problem rotating knife

« on: August 08, 2014, 02:13:05 AM »

Gregan,

Mach3 has a problem with tangential control - when it comes to cutting circles the blade will, under certain circumstances, rotate whilst it is in the work. The only satisfactory solution I have found to this problem with G2/G3 commands is within the CAD/CAM program (Aspire) to create lead-in's and lead-out's with exactly the same radius as the circle being cut. Blade rotation then happens during the lead-in / out and not within the work.
I am not certain if the problem exists with arc-tangent curves as I have always used G2/G3.

Hope this helps.

Tweakie.

3915

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

« on: August 07, 2014, 01:08:18 PM »

Hi Art,

Thank you for the detailed explanation - you make it all sound so simple 

Seriously though, I think I understand your intention and it seems just terrific - I especially like the possibility of a non-linear response curve, as you say different materials behave differently and certainly not all in a linear manner. Another thing comes to mind - when raster scanning, ignoring the areas where the laser is not firing (not scanning those areas) speeds up through-put a great deal.

Keep up the good work my friend - I wish I had your brains when it comes to software development 

Tweakie.

3916

General Mach Discussion / Re: Transformer DIY qquestions

« on: August 07, 2014, 12:45:15 PM »

I suggest you connect your rectifier bridge first then measure the a/c voltage output (it is liable to be higher than 24V). Tot up the total current you will be drawing from this PSU (Steppers, relays etc. etc.) then you have the figures for your capacitor calculation. Also best to make certain that you are not going to try to draw more current from this transformer than it's manufacturers specification.  (should have kept the label)

Tweakie.

3917

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

« on: August 07, 2014, 11:48:48 AM »

Hi Art,

I agree, the 4 – 5 power levels will not be enough. Just a thought but could you not just run at 10kHz and limit the duty cycle to 50% (the original plugin only achieves, at best, a 50% duty cycle at 12.5khz).

Quote from Synrad docs…
In most cases, the laser does not achieve full depth of modulation when driven by Command signal frequencies over 5kHz at duty cycles greater than 50%.

Scrub that thought - it would not enable more power levels in just half the band.

However, I don't understand quite how you are going to do it but I like the idea of byte streaming power levels.    External PWM generator ??

Tweakie.

3918

General Mach Discussion / Re: Transformer DIY qquestions

« on: August 07, 2014, 02:54:29 AM »

No problems using the toroid at 60Hz.

The capacitor value is calculated from :-

C  = (80,000 * I ) / V

C=uF, I=amps, V=volts

Watts = Volts * Amps

Tweakie.

3919

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

« on: August 07, 2014, 02:08:47 AM »

Hi Art,

That Gearotic laser control looks like a very interesting project indeed and I look forward to following your progress.

Regarding the engraving plugin you may be interested in work by TomTom in Japan - he has produced raster and vector plugins (based on your original engraving plugin) and these videos relate...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-BHEPkvaVI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5L_xaxfXNjM

Tweakie.

3920

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: DC-K40 Laser conversion issue

« on: August 06, 2014, 10:32:38 AM »

My advice is to take the connection directly from the PSU GND to the LPT GND not going through the spindle relay.
If you need to use the spindle relay then take the interlock protection circuit through the spindle relay.

Tweakie.