Messages

6411

General Mach Discussion / Re: Slaved Axis Direction

« on: August 12, 2011, 05:15:22 AM »

The outsides are driving my axis and I have connected the insides together with a shaft, the idea behind that is that if one starts to labour a bit the other one will help keep it running, kinda like hooking up two locomotives in tandem. Maybe a bit of overkill, but it works.

Rod,

Have you used a flex coupling between the two motors ??

Tweakie.

6412

General Mach Discussion / Re: software question

« on: August 12, 2011, 02:22:22 AM »

There is no direct interface for "external to the system RTCP" but position data can be sent to external devices and control data can be received from external devices in as near "real time" as us humans would perceive. So I suppose the answer has to be Yes.

Oh and it's 6 axis. 

Tweakie.

6413

FAQs / Re: z home switch

« on: August 12, 2011, 02:01:34 AM »

Hi Chieffy,

I am pleased you have it working OK now.

Basically the switch contacts bounce, making and breaking contact many times and the software thinks the machine has backed off the switch when in fact it hasn't. The Debounce delay has been incorporated within Mach to take care of just this situation.

Personally, I would doubt the quality of the particular switch that caused the issue and perhaps replace it with one of better pedigree as soon as I could. 

Tweakie.

6414

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: G40, G41 and G42 have no effect.

« on: August 11, 2011, 12:10:24 PM »

Terry,

It does the 2.5D (xyz) and 4th. axis and DXF etc. Pretty versatile and it just keeps getting better. 

Tweakie.

6415

Mach SDK plugin questions and answers. / Re: Impact engraving plugin

« on: August 10, 2011, 08:40:31 AM »

Se vuoi farlo ti troverà il modo. 

Tweakie.

6416

General Mach Discussion / Re: what software has this interface?

« on: August 10, 2011, 08:20:10 AM »

 

I must admit that some of the elderly people living in my street that I have spoken to are genuinely scared by all this. Think I may save up to buy one of your "Paramount Maurauders" 

Tweakie.

6417

Mach SDK plugin questions and answers. / Re: Impact engraving plugin

« on: August 10, 2011, 08:10:12 AM »

Andrea is the expert on this, I am just a beginner. His site has more details http://www.robotfactory.it/

At the moment I am thinking that more force than currently available may be necessary for Marble, slate etc. but as said earlier I still have a lot to learn and a lot of experimenting to do.

Tweakie.

6418

Mach SDK plugin questions and answers. / Re: Impact engraving plugin

« on: August 10, 2011, 07:17:22 AM »

Many, many thanks to Andrea (Robotmar), who has provided me with a couple of his magnets, I have now started out on the road of Impact Engraving.
It is extremely slow at 300mm/min compared with the laser but as nothing can catch fire (unlike the laser) the machine can be left unattended to just get on with the job. The initial results are extremely promising and now I have produced a “standard”, with which to compare my results, I can perhaps experiment with some different settings and magnet drive configurations.

Andrea has discovered a good combination here :-  the type of magnet, impacting the work on the return (spring) stroke and using one pole (phase) of a bipolar stepper motor driver as the power source. His method works beautifully and at the moment it is hard to see just where, or even if, any improvements to the system could possibly be made. Excellent work Andrea.

Something unexpected about this process is the sound – it sounds just like someone using a typewriter, an unusual sound to come from my CNC and a sound like I have not heard in years.

There is lots for me to learn here and I will post further results as I proceed.

If anyone else out there is using Art’s Impact/Laser plugin for impact work please let us know just how you are getting on with it and perhaps post some pictures of your work. Some information on your magnet and the drive source used would also be good.

Tweakie.

6419

FAQs / Re: z home switch

« on: August 10, 2011, 05:57:44 AM »

Hi Chieffy,

It could be switch bounce. Try increasing the Debounce Interval in Config / General Config and see if that helps.

Tweakie.

6420

General Mach Discussion / Re: what software has this interface?

« on: August 10, 2011, 05:03:59 AM »

I hear that you Guys in SA are rich compared with us poor Brits. 

Tweakie.