Messages

3931

VB and the development of wizards / Re: M10P1 NOT WORK USB MOTION CARD :o

« on: June 18, 2013, 07:44:43 AM »

Ian,

The M11 / M10 commands are pretty much an exception in so far as they are not treated by Mach3 as ‘stand alone’ commands. They must be followed by the Px parameter (where x = the Output# that is switched) and they then only come into effect upon subsequent Axis (any axis) movement.
Greg (at Warp9) has not succeeded in getting Mach3 to pass the associated Px parameter (together with the M11 /M10 commands) to his external motion controller so assuming this is always going to be the case then other external motion controllers may suffer with the same issue. (Greg’s solution is to define the Px parameter in his SS config. file then associate it with the M11 / M10 commands at run-time within the SS engine).

Tweakie.

3932

VB and the development of wizards / Re: M10P1 NOT WORK USB MOTION CARD :o

« on: June 18, 2013, 05:02:38 AM »

Just a note…

The M11 / M10 commands (with config. defined output pin of choice) now seem to work just fine with the latest revisions of the Smooth Stepper software.

Tweakie.

3933

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: CAD file convertto DXF, but G code is not reading

« on: June 17, 2013, 01:58:13 AM »

Hi mvd535,

Welcome to the forum.

To change the motor direction for your Z axis - In Mach3  click Config / Ports & Pins then change the active state of Dir Low Active for your Z axis then click Apply.

In Mach3 click File / LazyCam you should be able to load your DXF's there to create the necessary GCode. There are help documents for using LazyCam here http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,12078.0.html

Tweakie.

3934

General Mach Discussion / Re: motor tuning - pulse setting relation to kernel speed

« on: June 16, 2013, 12:47:54 PM »

I think this problem stems from blended axes speed when using constant velocity mode. Perhaps reducing your axes velocity settings would be the safer (more reliable) approach.

Just my opinion.

Tweakie.

3935

General Mach Discussion / Re: do they not simply make a wireless break out board?

« on: June 13, 2013, 03:47:50 AM »

Hi Nobby,

I doubt you would buy one ‘off the shelf’, so to speak, but I am certain you could cobble one up if it was your desire.

The prime factor with CNC is accuracy / repeatability / reliability / etc. and anything ‘wireless’ potentially opens the doors to outside, unwanted and perhaps unexpected, influence to the machine’s operation.

A wireless breakout board could be considered the same thing as having a radio controlled CNC machine. A very neat idea but not a risk I am prepared to take so I think I will just stick to shielded cables and hard wiring for now.

Tweakie.
 

3936

General Mach Discussion / Re: Sherline 4 Axis Mill (For Laser Welding)

« on: June 12, 2013, 01:20:17 PM »

Does this help ? http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,24786.msg175400.html#msg175400

Tweakie.

3937

General Mach Discussion / Re: Spindle

« on: June 12, 2013, 07:39:45 AM »

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you Mike. 

Incidentally, I had M03 and M05 fail yet M04 still worked OK. As nothing like this has ever happened to me when using the parallel port I concluded that as the SS updates the .xml configuration it was caused by a communication error (or something similar) and just put it down to experience.

Tweakie.

3938

General Mach Discussion / Re: Spindle

« on: June 12, 2013, 06:14:28 AM »

Mike,

I recently had a similar problem which turned out to be a corrupt .xml, (probably caused by me, making many changes to the various settings in an attempt to cure another problem).
I created a new profile then re-configured Mach3 (creating a fresh .xml) then everything was fine again.

Tweakie.

3939

Tangent Corner / Re: Pyrography.

« on: June 12, 2013, 03:42:54 AM »

Hi Brett,

I know we joked about the chip implants (shortly to become a legal requirement here in the UK for all dogs) but I am sure the day will come when it will apply to humans (sort of living chip'n'pin) 

Tweakie.

3940

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: Easy text label g-code?

« on: June 12, 2013, 03:20:05 AM »

Perhaps take a look a F-Engrave (it's free) http://home.comcast.net/~sskroch/Fengrave/fengrave.html

Like all software there is a learning curve but you should be up and running in no time. F-Engrave will create a separate GCode file for each different label which then has to be loaded into Mach3 (one at a time  ) but it is all pretty simple and easy to do.

Tweakie.