Messages

5491

General Mach Discussion / Re: Using Oscilloscope with Mach3

« on: December 31, 2011, 04:54:06 AM »

Hi Vogavt,

Just one tip - If you are using a mains operated oscilloscope (without an autotransformer or other means of isolation) make sure the earth connection of the probe is only connected to an earth point on your machine.  Shorting various unknown points to earth while testing can ultimately spell disaster. 
The portable, battery operated, hand held scopes are in may ways a lot safer to use when it comes to trouble shooting as they have a floating GND and the above does not apply. 

Tweakie.

5492

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: Spindle water cooling system 2.2KW

« on: December 30, 2011, 11:16:03 AM »

Great idea Juan. Do you have any information on the temperature controller you are using ??

Tweakie.

5493

Tangent Corner / Re: X-Mass Gift for my son

« on: December 30, 2011, 07:36:38 AM »

Sorry to say this Brian but it looks like he is growing real fast.
From that last picture I think you are going to be building a new one for next year. 

Tweakie.

5494

General Mach Discussion / Re: Y-axis "creep"

« on: December 30, 2011, 07:28:38 AM »

Yes, config, ports and pins, motor outputs. Make sure that all your axis motors (X, Y & Z) step and direction, are either all active high or all active low.

I have found that if you have a mixture of some active high and some active low, it results in the creep which you are seeing.

Neptune,

Whilst I do not doubt you cured your problem in the way in which you say there is really no evidence to support the above statement. Mach allows a mixture of active HI / LOW without issue.

Tweakie.

5495

General Mach Discussion / Re: Spindle output messes up tool change

« on: December 30, 2011, 07:18:03 AM »

As Graham says, it would seem logical that a tool change would be prohibited whilst the spindle is actually running. 

Tweakie.

5496

General Mach Discussion / Re: CNC Dictionary

« on: December 30, 2011, 07:12:35 AM »

"WTF" comes naturally with my engraving. 

Tweakie.

5497

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

« on: December 29, 2011, 09:32:54 AM »

Hi Brian,

My electromagnet was a gift from Andrea (Robotmar) http://www.robotfactory.it/Cnc_indexMain.htm (look under Micropunti) who had the first successful results using a magnet with the Mach Impact / Laser plugin. He shows the construction on his website or in this thread http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,16446.0.html but other than that I have no specific technical information relating to the field properties / iron saturation etc.

Hope this helps,

Tweakie.

5498

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

« on: December 29, 2011, 07:35:49 AM »

Initially there was failure.
I mapped my B Axis direction pin to Output #1 (which is my spindle relay) and used the relay to fire the magnet. Unfortunately my version of Mach doesn’t like any Output # being repeatedly turned on and off rapidly as it introduces extra delays while it, presumably, catches up. This has caused missed pulses and ‘patterning’ indicating the repetitive nature of the problem and shown in the first picture.

Then there was success.
To be fair, Mach had never intended for an Output # to be cycled in this manner so I constructed a separate magnet driver circuit which is driven directly from the B Axis direction pin and this performed perfectly. The image produced is ‘dot-perfect’ to the laser produced image and was made from exactly the same GCode in exactly the same time frame of 80 minutes.

Tweakie.

5499

General Mach Discussion / Re: Spindle moving slowly from right to left

« on: December 29, 2011, 05:30:25 AM »

Hi Ben,

I am really pleased that you found the problem and it is working OK. 

Tweakie.

5500

FAQs / Re: Problem with setting up mach3

« on: December 28, 2011, 12:20:51 PM »

How do I know what the right port adress is?

Start/Control Panel/Performance & Maintenance/System/Hardware/Device Manager/Ports (LPT1 : LPT2 : COM1)   

Thanks for your help btw, also now before when I would push the keys to move my table, the numbers on the xyz axis would grow and shrink according to which key I pushed, now that won't even work. Any suggestions?

Check your keyboard settings are correct for your country in Control Panel under Regional and Language Options.

Tweakie.