Messages

4231

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions

« on: September 03, 2014, 02:05:04 AM »

Thanks Art, I look forward to trying your setup, allbeit at a much slower feedrate  (4500mm/min with my steppers and ballscrews) when details become available.

Tweakie.

4232

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: A Wee Prober

« on: September 03, 2014, 01:55:00 AM »

Hi mc,

No sarcasm intended sir - it is certainly a great project - please keep up the good work.

Tweakie.

4233

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

« on: September 02, 2014, 11:33:29 AM »

Great work Art, the project is all starting to take shape now you are into the actual 'power on' testing stage 

Tweakie.

4234

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: A Wee Prober

« on: September 02, 2014, 02:49:02 AM »

This is certainly an excellent project mc.
Thank you for taking the time to post all the details and pictures they are most informative.
I just can't wait for the next installment 

Tweakie.

4235

General Mach Discussion / Re: I had something for a minute...

« on: September 02, 2014, 02:34:13 AM »

So far  I have nothing working.
I guess I need to go back to using the DOS software that it came with.  I cant get Mach3 to do anything.  $175 down the toilet...

Are you really going to quit that easily ?? 

I certainly wouldn't - many things beat me for a while but I always get the better of them in the end (particularly if I have spent $175) 

Tweakie.

4236

Mach SDK plugin questions and answers. / Re: Impact engraving plugin

« on: September 02, 2014, 02:17:34 AM »

Hi Jan,

Your trigger circuit looks fine and that is a very nice screen set you have produced 
Unfortunately, the plugin will only support parallel port operation at this time 

Tweakie.

4237

General Mach Discussion / Re: PWM Spindle Control using Mach3 - How I did it

« on: September 01, 2014, 07:46:43 AM »

Well spotted Krypton - you are quite correct - only the unused inputs should be tied to GND.

Tweakie.

4238

General Mach Discussion / Re: I had something for a minute...

« on: September 01, 2014, 01:58:05 AM »

Just a suggestion and perhaps the first thing to check - go into Win. Device manager and check the address of your LPT port then check you have entered this address into Mach3 / Config / Ports and pins for Port #1 and that the port is enabled.

Tweakie.

4239

Mach SDK plugin questions and answers. / Re: Impact engraving plugin

« on: August 30, 2014, 12:13:02 PM »

Running the Impact / Laser engraver takes much of the system resource so displaying the picture during operation would perhaps not be practical.
There are a number of different programs that will produce similar results. DotG comes to mind and this can be found here http://dotg.weebly.com/download.html
The start-up menu for the Impact / Laser plugin is written within the source code so you will not be able to make a translation of that part easily.
The electro-magnet Andrea and I have been using can, I think, still be obtained from him - check out his website or possibly drop him a line http://www.robotfactory.it/
I have never really thought about THC and engraving non-flat surfaces but that sounds like an excellent idea to me.

Tweakie.

4240

Mach SDK plugin questions and answers. / Re: Impact engraving plugin

« on: August 30, 2014, 08:42:11 AM »

I have a crazy Idea on etching tombstones on it's site,I would go with a generator and a small machine that could be placed directly on the granite or mable.

Brilliant - there are a number of professionally made machines that do this task but they are not at all complicated so I think you could easily better their performance and design. 

The problem with SSR's is that they only switch at the 'zero crossing point' of the a.c. waveform so switching speed is limited to the frequency of the a.c. (here in the UK it is 50Hz and that is not really fast enough to be of any use).

Tweakie.