Messages

4111

General Mach Discussion / Re: Newbie with TB6560 1st time testing problems

« on: March 24, 2013, 12:03:07 PM »

Hi Gary,

When the CNC machine is disconnected from power the motors can easily be rotated by hand. When the CNC machine is powered up the motors should lock and cannot easily be rotated by hand.

After a fresh start and without Mach3 running - using a multimeter measure between pin25 and each of the other pins, in turn, on your PC’s parallel port until you find one that has a voltage present. Ideally the voltage you should find will be approx 5 Volts. If  you are unable to find a voltage then start Mach3 and try again.

Tweakie.

4112

General Mach Discussion / Re: Newbie with TB6560 1st time testing problems

« on: March 24, 2013, 08:58:15 AM »

Hi Gary,

Many, before you, have had unresolved problems with the TB66560 boards and this is perhaps not the best board for you to be starting out with, however...

Perhaps you could try the supplied .xml file and see if this works (you can always go back to your own manually entered settings).

Do the motors lock when power is applied ??

Does your PC have the 5 Volt TTL standard for it's LPT parallel port or is it the 3.3 Volt TTL standard ??

Tweakie.

4113

General Mach Discussion / Re: Faster output

« on: March 23, 2013, 10:01:00 AM »

I am really pleased that you have got it working OK.

This is, I think, another classic example of Mr Hood's brilliance of knowledge and determination to help others.

Tweakie.

4114

General Mach Discussion / Re: Faster output

« on: March 23, 2013, 04:02:38 AM »

Ooops, my bad - totally forgot you are using the ESS. 

Tweakie.

4115

General Mach Discussion / Re: Input pin issues...?

« on: March 23, 2013, 03:41:50 AM »

Hi Boris,

I doubt that there is a pull-up on the computer’s LPT parallel port (although you could possibly have a bad Pin 10). There are, however, often a pull-up’s on the inputs to the breakout board / controller board.

I suggest that you wire your e-stop so that it takes pin 10 to ground with a pull-up to +5 if necessary then configure e-stop as Active Low.

Tweakie.

4116

General Mach Discussion / Re: Faster output

« on: March 23, 2013, 03:17:01 AM »

That's strange because I use Mach3 R3.043.066 and the M10P1 / M11P1 work just fine here with my laser so perhaps have your configurations set up incorrectly.

The M10P1/M11P1 commands produce a signal on Output#1 which in turn should be configured to the LPT port output pin of your choice. The chosen output pin number should not be enabled for any other function (ie. spindle) within your configuration.

Tweakie.

4117

Share Your GCode / Re: Help with gcode...

« on: March 21, 2013, 02:05:33 PM »

Sorry, but I don't think the .ngc file extension is a supported Mach3 format. 

Tweakie.

4118

Share Your GCode / Re: Help with gcode...

« on: March 21, 2013, 01:40:08 PM »

Probably need a better image than the one posted but I can get the outline engraving, minus the circles, easily enough if it's any help to you.

Tweakie.

4119

General Mach Discussion / Re: Motors locking when not in MPG screen???

« on: March 21, 2013, 07:10:01 AM »

Hi Shane,

Ideally you should not have the Kernel speed set any higher than you need it to be.

I often run GCode in excess of 300,000 lines of code and I always make a point of turning off the Toolpath Display before hitting Cycle Start. Problems here, I think, relate to the graphics card capabilities rather than the PC, but I may be wrong.

Tweakie.

4120

General Mach Discussion / Re: Parallel Port output pins ?

« on: March 21, 2013, 06:03:20 AM »

Hi Boris,

I think you need the wiring diagram of the breakout board you are using to establish the correct connections.
Obviously there must be exceptions with a 36 pin Centronics connector but all the breakout boards I have ever used have a DB25 connector so the PC to Machine LPT cable is straight through connections DB25 to DB25.

Tweakie.