Messages

5831

General Mach Discussion / Re: Is is possible that some motherboard does not work with Mach3

« on: March 16, 2011, 05:30:11 AM »

Jeff,

Is it possible than in changing motherboards you have made an additional (or broken a previous) ground connection ?

Tweakie.

5832

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: Cad Software!!!

« on: March 15, 2011, 01:43:54 PM »

Hi Fred,

Not all CAD / CAM programs will import a .jpg raster drawing (which is what you have) and turn it into a vector drawing (which is what you need to put into LazyCam) but here are some, off the top of my head, which are free, you will have to Google to find the download sites.

G-Simple (I made my first CNC part using this)
CamBam (free version has some unresolved quirks but I have used this a lot in the past)
HeeksCad (still under development but improving all the time)
DraftSight (this has only recently been released and I have not tried it yet)

There is a free version of Google Sketchup which now has many plugins making it more than suitable for home CNC use. It will import many file formats allow re-design and even export GCode (the GCode is tailored for the PhlatPrinter so needs a little editing but is not too difficult to do).

I will take a look at you .jpg and see what needs to be done. 

Tweakie.

5833

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: Cad Software!!!

« on: March 15, 2011, 12:52:24 PM »

Hi Fred,

There are loads of free CAD /CAM programs you can use to get you started, unfortunately they never seem to be quite so good as the ones you have to pay for. 

What do you want to do ?

What sort of photo ?

Tweakie.

5834

General Mach Discussion / Re: Stepper motor working in 1 direction only!

« on: March 15, 2011, 09:50:21 AM »

Dave,

Pins 6 & 7 are the low end of the opto isolator circuits and they should be connected to Ground or 0 Volts (pins 18-25 of the LPT port if you are not using a breakout board or 0 Volts of the active breakout board supply).

Tweakie.

5835

General Mach Discussion / Re: start-up

« on: March 15, 2011, 09:43:41 AM »

Sorry, I forgot to mention that you also need to go into the Offsets page, Zero the offsets and then save them with the button at the bottom of the page.

Tweakie.

5836

General Mach Discussion / Re: Stepper motor working in 1 direction only!

« on: March 15, 2011, 09:09:35 AM »

Hi David,

Welcome to the forum.
I have not actually used the XL25 I am just going by the manual but it would seem that the XL25 inputs should be connected;
Pin 1 to computer LPT pin 2
Pin 2 to computer LPT pin 3
Pin 6 GND
Pin 7 GND
And mach configured (active high) something similar to attachment (it is not usual to use Pin1 of the computer LPT port for step and direction signals)

Now this should work but it is not the preferred way to do it because the computer’s LPT port can sink more current than it can source. Either (a) connect Pins 1 and 2 of the XL25 through current limiting resistors to +5 volts and use pins 6 and 7 as active low inputs from the LPT port pins 2 and 3 or (b) use an active breakout board which can provide the TTL level signals to the XL25 without loading the LPT parallel port.

Tweakie.

5837

General Mach Discussion / Re: start-up

« on: March 15, 2011, 08:15:59 AM »

There is probably more than one way of doing this but I uncheck the persistant DROs and Offsets.

Tweakie.

5838

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: BobCADCAM Automatic Roughing g-code

« on: March 15, 2011, 06:01:52 AM »

Hi Steve,

I am not sure why you should want to invert the code as machines are usually set up with +Z being away from the work and -Z being towards the work as your example code shows. Do you have your Z axis configured correctly ?

Mach does have a 'Multipass Wizard' which should do, more or less, exactly as your example code.

Tweakie.

5839

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

« on: March 15, 2011, 05:50:15 AM »

Hi Trickey,

I never got a 'welcome aboard' when I joined the forum and I am feeling a bit left out here 

Tweakie.

5840

General Mach Discussion / Re: Is is possible that some motherboard does not work with Mach3

« on: March 15, 2011, 05:45:32 AM »

Hi Jeff,

That motherboard sounds good.
I don't suppose it's any help but my initial VFD / PC problems were caused by an earth loop. The machine frame is connected to earth and the heatsink of the VFD is bolted to the machine frame. Disconnecting the incoming earth to the VFD solved the PC problem (it now gets it's earth from the machine frame and the shop radio works again, without any 'wailing' at start up   ).

Tweakie.