Messages

5271

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: gcode for hood emblems

« on: July 21, 2011, 04:37:13 AM »

Vectric Cut2D and Vectric Cut3D are both good programs. I purchased VCarvePro earlier this year and that is just brilliant but it all depends on how much cash you want to spend on your software. There are trial versions of all these programs which you can download together with examples of things to make for testing your machine 

There are also lots of free or trial programs which perform this function quite well BMP2CNC is not bad - do a Google search and see what you can find.

Tweakie.

5272

General Mach Discussion / Re: Lost Steps

« on: July 21, 2011, 04:21:12 AM »

Hi Stefan,

A wild guess - your little Z Axis gearbox is jumping a tooth.

Tweakie.

5273

General Mach Discussion / Re: G540 and CNC4PC c19 speed controller trouble

« on: July 21, 2011, 03:26:21 AM »

There is a lot of info in Chris's PDF which you can download from here http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=15457.0;attach=21882

Tweakie.

5274

General Mach Discussion / Re: Blank screen

« on: July 21, 2011, 03:20:25 AM »

Hi Ernie,

Are you saying that Mach did not load on your garage PC or that the program from the memory stick did not load ?

Tweakie.

5275

General Mach Discussion / Re: Unprogrammed Z axis down feed

« on: July 21, 2011, 03:16:09 AM »

I'm thinking it's a noise problem on the step input to the driver.  Probably related to power line conditions as it's very intermittent.  Since the last direction for the Z axis when cutting is down, any noise on the step input big enough to trigger movement is going to result in down motion.  I'll search the forum for advice on power line noise suppression.

Hi Peter,

What you say here makes sense but, depending on your steps per unit and microsteps, you would need hundreds of individual noise pulses on the step pin just to move the Z Axis 1mm. That being the case, that amount of noise would be extremely unlikely to affect just the Z Axis.

My suggestion would be that you check all your wiring thoroughly and if possible try another LPT parallel port cable and if everything checks out OK then suspect the Z Axis driver.

Tweakie.

5276

LazyCam (Beta) / Re: LC never produces valid GCode

« on: July 21, 2011, 02:58:39 AM »

Hi Hoagie,

I don't understand either as I am not doing anything different to you.
Just a thought - are you setting the depth of cut for your selected tool#  correctly ? because this is what determines how many passes the tool path makes.

Tweakie.

nb. (Your code contains a G43 not the tool radius offset G42) 

5277

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: CNC Pipe Bender

« on: July 20, 2011, 10:53:10 AM »

Excellent !

Tweakie.

5278

Tangent Corner / Re: Ooops !

« on: July 20, 2011, 05:47:57 AM »

Hi Mikee,

Can't help with the lathe project - I know nothing about lathes 

Still thinking about hexapods - it would be reckless to the extreme to have any machine in control of firing a laser and deciding the direction in which it is to be fired as even these little green pointer thingies are capable of damaging eyesight in an instant.

Tweakie.

5279

LazyCam (Beta) / Re: LC never produces valid GCode

« on: July 20, 2011, 04:43:54 AM »

Hi Hoagie,

That's what I did only I missed out steps 2 & 3 (only because it was an example and not code I was going to use).

I am not the best person to answer questions on LC as I don't actually use it any more but yes the G41 / G42 cutter radius compensation would have to be added to the code to obtain the correct size product. (To use the offsets function within LC requires the licensed version, I believe).

Tweakie.

5280

General Mach Discussion / Re: reset tripping randomly

« on: July 20, 2011, 04:06:19 AM »

installed capacitors .01 mfd on all inputs

Mark,

The capacitors you have fitted between the switch inputs and ground need to be 0.1uF if they are to have any effect on preventing electrical noise.

Tweakie.