Messages

6741

General Mach Discussion / Re: Blue smoke

« on: May 28, 2011, 11:27:54 AM »

Paw,

There is a good chance you connected the stepper wires (or one of them) incorrectly. The bipolar steppers you are using have two separate windings which can be checked with a multimeter (or other continuity checker).
One pair of wires is A - A# and the other pair is B - B# now it doesn't matter which way round the A's or the B's go but you must not get them mixed. (I have learn't that with stuff from China you cannot rely on the colour coding of wires being correct you have to check them with a meter just to be sure).

Hope this helps,

Tweakie.

6742

General Mach Discussion / Re: Probe wiring

« on: May 28, 2011, 05:38:11 AM »

Sorry, I did not appreciate that Ajax were unresponsive.

Yes you could connect the probe to a DC310B input and thus via fiber optics but, if it were me, I would connect direct to input 481 on the MPU11.

Tweakie.

6743

General Mach Discussion / Re: Probe wiring

« on: May 28, 2011, 04:53:52 AM »

I think you should contact Ajax directly. They provide all the details of connecting probes and the use of their motion controller with Mach3 so should be able to give you all the information that you need first hand.
(the fiber optics do not form part of the probe connection).

Tweakie.

6744

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

« on: May 28, 2011, 04:33:50 AM »

Whilst still on the Impact / Laser plugin - I recently carried out some basic measurements of the trigger pulse duration and timings so I thought I would share this information together with some other basic stuff which I have put into a PDF document.
I hope this will be of interest to other users of the plugin and perhaps of assistance to new users when setting up their systems for the first time.
Although I expect to update it with additional information soon, the first issue is attached.

Tweakie.

6745

General Mach Discussion / Re: Tool plate/setter wiring.

« on: May 28, 2011, 04:25:01 AM »

Great news Craig. Pleased you have it working. (the LED is usually off and only comes on when the plate is touched)

Tweakie.

6746

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

« on: May 28, 2011, 01:42:17 AM »

To avoid double posting I have added some more information relating to this plugin in this thread, starting here. http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,12444.msg127947.html#msg127947

Tweakie.

6747

General Mach Discussion / Re: Tool plate/setter wiring.

« on: May 28, 2011, 01:38:30 AM »

Hope this makes sense.

Tweakie.

6748

General Mach Discussion / Re: Tool plate/setter wiring.

« on: May 28, 2011, 01:12:44 AM »

Hi Craig,

Sounds like you are almost there.
Your current problem seems to be with GND. The cutter should be at the same potential as your USB GND, that way when the cutter contacts the plate the digitize LED illuminates.
The resistor does not go in series with the plate. The resistor just connects your pin 10 to +5 volts, then the plate connects to pin 10 as well.

Hope this helps,

Tweakie.

6749

General Mach Discussion / Re: Help with Estimate Program Run Time

« on: May 27, 2011, 02:46:01 AM »

Rhino is calculating the time on the parameters it has set and Mach is calculating the time on the parameters it has set and there is a good chance that the two lots of parameters are not the same.
For example acceleration settings can make a huge difference in the GCode program run time even if the set feedrates between Rhino and Mach are the same.

Tweakie.

6750

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

« on: May 27, 2011, 02:25:07 AM »

I have been using the Impact / Laser plugin quite a lot recently and one problem cropped up twice (one time too many in my book).
Depending on the image height and the vertical stepover the scan can sometimes finish at the top right of the image. If this final pixel turns the laser on then the work is automatically spoiled when the laser path is draw diagonally back across the work when the head returns to the X0,Y0 origin.

As Art generously made the code ‘open source’ it was time to take a look and I have now added code to always turn the laser off before returning to the origin at the end of the scan and (as belt and braces) altered the return path to X0 then Y0 rather than the diagonal. In addition, I took this opportunity to remove the redundant 40uS runtime check box  and make a couple of alterations to the appearance of the UI.

The modified DLL has been attached just in case anyone else using this plugin has encountered the same problem and needs a solution.

Tweakie.