Messages

4651

General Mach Discussion / Re: MI2000 CNC machine from 19's year

« on: March 08, 2013, 03:23:57 AM »

Terry,

It is my thinking that the bank of opto-couplers (on the small board) would not be necessary if this CNC machine was serial controlled. 

Tweakie.

4652

General Mach Discussion / Re: MI2000 CNC machine from 19's year

« on: March 08, 2013, 02:35:59 AM »

Thanks for posting the pictures, they help a lot.

We have established (via PM) that the e-stop is not latched in the stop position and that the stepper motors lock when the machine is switched on. This means that you will only have to find the step and direction pins to get the axes moving – there should be no drive enable signals to worry about.

The first thing you will need to check is the parallel port on your PC.
As a general rule older equipment (such as your CNC machine) uses the 5 Volt TTL standard and more modern equipment (perhaps your PC) can use the 3.3 Volt TTL standard.
From a fresh start of your PC and with no software running use a multi-meter to check each of the PC parallel port pins with relation to pins 18 to 25 which are GND (with luck you will find one that it TTL(high). If it measures approx. 5 Volts then everything is OK but if it measures approx 3.3 Volts then, in my opinion, you will need to use another PC or fit a new parallel port card to your PC which has 5 Volt outputs.

The CNC machine’s step and direction pins could be any combination of pins 1 to 9, 14,16,17.
Probably the most common usage is X axis 2,3 – Y axis 4,5 – Z axis 6,7 but your machine could be any combination and it is a laborious process to find the correct combination however, with patience it is doable.

Tweakie.

4653

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

« on: March 07, 2013, 12:03:21 PM »

The Parliament Building is probably the most photographed building in Hungary. It's symmetry is just outstanding.

This laser produced rendering is just 50mm square and I think, makes for a good example of the detail that can be reproduced within lithophane’s in general.

Produced from a standard JPG image which I cropped to make it rectangular then using the Mach3 Laser / Impact plugin I scaled it to fit the Corian blank, set the max. laser power to approx. 30% and hit Cycle Start.

By the time I had finished off a can of beer it was done.

Tweakie.

4654

General Mach Discussion / Re: MI2000 CNC machine from 19's year

« on: March 07, 2013, 07:15:01 AM »

It's a long shot, but it may give some clue as to the communication protocol and possibly identifying the pins for the step / direction setup.
I have spent some time, as I suppose you have, searching the net for information on this machine but found nothing of any help at all.

Tweakie.

4655

General Mach Discussion / Re: MI2000 CNC machine from 19's year

« on: March 07, 2013, 05:54:16 AM »

Could you possibly post a picture of the circuit board which your LPT parallel port cable connects to on the machine ?

Tweakie.

4656

General Mach Discussion / Re: Laser modulation signal?

« on: March 07, 2013, 02:28:46 AM »

Hi Charlie

A lot of experimental / pioneering work is being done by others using low powered (1 Watt) diode lasers in this thread http://hobbycncart.com/forum/63-151-12937-16-1362353174

Because the rate of burn (apparent laser power) can be varied by changing axis speed there are currently two software programs being developed which will create the required Mach3 GCode from a BMP image. Your solder mask could be considered an image so it is more than likely that it could be produced by this method and without the need for PWM control.

Just a thought.

Tweakie.

4657

General Mach Discussion / Re: Pendant Tutorial???

« on: March 06, 2013, 06:25:22 AM »

Hi Jim,

Have you checked the plugin's page http://www.machsupport.com/plugins.php

Tweakie.

4658

Brains Development / Re: PCB Milling bits

« on: March 06, 2013, 02:36:44 AM »

Hi Peter,

As TP says, this is really the wrong thread for your question.

However, I use the little engraving bits (available from China via ebay) - some are better quality than others, although they all claim to be carbide but they are cheap enough to take the chance.
The Dremel may not be the best spindle to use (the front bearing is not that well supported) but if you use fast speed and shallow cuts it will make a reasonable job of fine work.

Tweakie.

4659

General Mach Discussion / Re: Interested in Low Power Laser Engraving

« on: March 06, 2013, 02:10:14 AM »

Hi John, Terry,

The crystal block 3D stuff requires a wavelength of typically 1064nm (as opposed to the 10600nm of the CO2 lasers) so YAG lasers are more often used for this type of work. (This is bit of a specialised area involving reasonably costly equipment which can also be quite expensive to run).

Tweakie.

4660

General Mach Discussion / Re: Need help converting HPGL files to GCode for my Mach3

« on: March 05, 2013, 06:06:56 AM »

Hi Miles,

Welcome to the forum.

Try LazyCam (it comes free with Mach3) - it can convert HPGL(2) to GCode.
Providing the HPGL file size is not too large it makes a reasonable job, allows scaling and some limited editing etc.

Tweakie.