Messages

5291

General Mach Discussion / Re: spindle relay

« on: January 25, 2013, 01:58:26 AM »

Hi Rhys,

That's good news, I am pleased that you have got it working OK.

(It's possible that Pin 1 of the LPT parallel port somehow got hung up and was not toggling on / off then restarting the PC cured the problem).

Tweakie.

5292

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: New people welcome !! Come in here and introduce your self!

« on: January 25, 2013, 01:53:01 AM »

Hi Ron,

If you post your question as a new topic in the General section I am sure there will be some quick responses with suggestions that should resolve your problem.

Tweakie.

5293

General Mach Discussion / Re: spindle relay

« on: January 24, 2013, 12:09:48 PM »

Hi Rhys,

Obviously, if you are connecting your relay between Pin 1 and GND and using Output#1 for the switching then this Output# has to be configured for Active High (as you have in fact done).

The only thing I can suggest is that you check your Mach3, Ports & Pins configuration to make sure you have not used Pin 1 anywhere else (for any other functions) and created a conflict.

Tweakie.

5294

General Mach Discussion / Re: Changing computers

« on: January 23, 2013, 11:11:49 AM »

Jim,

I vaguely remember something that came up years ago where a PC, that had been previously used with a printer (connected to the parallel port) still had a document waiting in the print queue.

Windows, bless it’s little heart, chose every quiet moment to try and communicate with the now non-existent printer thus causing problems with the logic state of some of the parallel port output pins.

Just maybe, perhaps ?

Tweakie.

5295

General Mach Discussion / Re: I can only see 2 decimal places on feedrate window

« on: January 22, 2013, 01:47:57 AM »

Hi Ray,

You will need to use one of the Screen Designers - opening the .set file (typically 1024.set) the format of the Feedrate DRO's are shown as %4.2f - the 2f is the number of decimals shown - change this figure to 3f if that is the number of decimals you require.

Tweakie.

5296

General Mach Discussion / Re: delay in PWM pulse (LaserMode)

« on: January 20, 2013, 03:36:15 AM »

Not sure if it helps but this is Synrad’s approximation of the relationship between tube output power and PWM % (this curve may alter dependant on the PRF).

Tweakie.

5297

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: New people welcome !! Come in here and introduce your self!

« on: January 20, 2013, 01:23:49 AM »

Hi Ken,

Welcome to the forum.

I have a sneaky feeling that we may be learning more from you than you will learn from us. 

Tweakie.

5298

General Mach Discussion / Re: PWM signal not showing correctly

« on: January 19, 2013, 02:49:20 AM »

Hi bdn,

Jeff (JJWMACHINECO) initially used a pot, fitted to his Z axis, but as you suspect it was not very long lived.
He then switched to using an encoder and more details of his work are some further links to follow are here;  http://oplaser.co.uk/opsupport/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=491

Tweakie.

5299

General Mach Discussion / Re: Cambam to Mach3

« on: January 19, 2013, 01:59:30 AM »

excellent attempting the z axis jog tonight and hopefully carving some designs out...wish me luck

Good fortune my friend. 

Please post some pictures of your work.

Tweakie.

5300

General Mach Discussion / Re: Cambam to Mach3

« on: January 17, 2013, 10:58:25 AM »

As far as I know there is not a window (within the standard Mach screens) that shows the design. Although, someone may have produced a special screen set which incorporates a compiled GCode simulation of the design but I am not aware of anything.

Within Mach3, Config / System Hotkeys Setup - click on Z++ then press the page up key, click on Z-- then press the page down key (these come up as scan codes 33 & 34 on my machine). If that does not solve the problem then I will have to put in some more thought  

Tweakie.

Addition...

I may be misunderstanding exactly what you mean by 'design' the Mach display window will show the intended toolpath as well as the current tool position so in the case of a profile then the full outline should be shown in the screen.