Messages

4891

General Mach Discussion / Re: G31 issue

« on: February 20, 2013, 12:15:08 PM »

Do you want the long story or the short story,(;-)

(;-) TP

 

4892

General Mach Discussion / Re: G31 issue

« on: February 20, 2013, 03:22:09 AM »

Hi rrc,

This is an ongoing issue which will perhaps never go away.

Revisions to Mach have, at times, changed the way in which it processes the combination / mixture of VB (cypress basic) and GCode commands within a running macro / script.
I have made 4 changes to my probing script over the last 3 years in order to resolve various issues (as I updated to later Mach versions) and I am currently very pleased with the operation of the G31.
I use the probing function, for tool position setting, many times each day, 7 days a week and it is faultless, but I will never become complacent (at the suggestion of others I did fit an over-travel, e-stop, switch to my tool-setting probe but, so far, it has never been invoked).

My suggestion is that you look closely at the probing script that you are using and perhaps search other threads on the subject in order to correct it’s operation.
(If it is of any help to you, the probing script I am currently using is at the bottom of this page http://www.cooperman.talktalk.net/files/17.htm - I am not saying that this is the 'be-all' and 'end-all' because there are better scripts around but this one works for me).

Tweakie.

4893

General Mach Discussion / Re: limit switches triggered after sitting idle for a few minutes

« on: February 19, 2013, 06:52:43 AM »

Electrical noise is generally one or a series of relatively high amplitude and very fast spikes appearing on an input to the BOB or controller. These spikes are often so fast that it requires a pretty high quality scope to be able to spot them so don’t be surprised if you find nothing. Scope probe connects to an Input and it’s Screen to GND. Measurements should be taken whilst the machine is in operation so take care.

The best bet with electrical noise problems is to fit miniature 0.1uF capacitors (one connected between each used Switch Input and GND) at the controller / breakout board end.

Tweakie.

Addition;  Just a suggestion but another thing that has caused problems is the Watchdog Timer – Config / General Config – Make sure ‘Use WatchDogs’ is unchecked.

4894

General Mach Discussion / Re: Z axis

« on: February 19, 2013, 05:31:15 AM »

Hi Nick,

Welcome to the forum.

Within Mach - Config / Ports & Pins / Motor Outputs - change the Dir Low Active state for your Z axis.

That should do it. 

Tweakie.

4895

Modbus / Re: My experiments with Mach3 ModBus and Arduino, Part I

« on: February 19, 2013, 02:47:11 AM »

Hi KM,

An excellent, informative and well prepared article - thanks for posting.

Tweakie.

4896

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

« on: February 18, 2013, 08:11:51 AM »

One more test using the dreaded Toner. 

Tweakie.

4897

General Mach Discussion / Re: New people welcome !! Come in here and introduce your self!

« on: February 18, 2013, 02:01:48 AM »

Hi Vaugolor,

Welcome to the forum.

If you post your question as a new topic in the General section, giving as much information about your machine/setup as you think is necessary you should receive some suggestions towards resolving your problem. (sounds like a stepper motor related problem to me).

Tweakie.

4898

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

« on: February 17, 2013, 12:35:02 PM »

Hi Dan,

You are not wrong - the mess was not as bad as I was expecting it to be, but I would not want to be doing this as my day job. 

Tweakie.

4899

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

« on: February 17, 2013, 08:27:24 AM »

Something that just had to be tried…

As mentioned earlier, others have a lot of success using lasers to melt / fuse printer Toner onto the surface of wood and I just wondered if it would work with copper clad PCB material.

There are a couple of difficulties to be overcome – firstly getting a thin and even layer of the toner powder onto the copper surface and secondly getting a low enough power level from a 40 Watt laser so as not to completely vaporise the toner.

Once these challenges have been overcome – it is a breeze.

Tweakie.

4900

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: Mach3 adding extra loops in a string of arcs

« on: February 17, 2013, 04:11:11 AM »

Hi Guys,

Thanks for taking the time to explain the problem to a dumbo – finally I understand (or at least I think I do).

I fully appreciate that this is not the answer to the problem but for me the solution would be to CAM the tool radius offset profiles and leads (the downside is the cost of the CAD/CAM software, if you don’t already have it).

Tweakie.