Messages

7101

General Mach Discussion / Re: Sherline mill 5400 - Motors not moving the didstance Mach3 DRO shows

« on: March 06, 2011, 04:01:11 AM »

The road runner program is to large for my milling table.

Mike,

On the main screen alongside the X and Y DRO's are the Scale DRO's (currently set to +1.0000) entering 0.5 and pressing return here will scale that axis to half size (and so on). You can scale anything up or down in size as well as turning things inside out.

Tweakie.

7102

General Mach Discussion / Re: AutoZero Plate for Z Axis

« on: March 06, 2011, 03:52:48 AM »

Glad to hear that you got it sorted Nicolas.

What are you going to make with this machine ?    Don't forget to post some pictures of your work.

Tweakie.

7103

General Mach Discussion / Re: Video Card requirements for Mach 3

« on: March 06, 2011, 03:49:45 AM »

Will,

As Jeff says you may not need a separate video card, from my experience some integrated graphics motherboards work OK and some don't you just have to try it and see.

Tweakie.

7104

General Mach Discussion / Re: axis problems

« on: March 06, 2011, 03:37:28 AM »

If you are trying to learn how to use your new machine and you wish to use imperial units then Mach should really be set-up in imperial units.

Yes you may have to redo your motor steps but this is not rocket science and getting everything right now will save you lots of grief and configuration problems in the future not to mention possible problems with imported GCode from other programs.

Tweakie.

7105

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach 3 Upgrade issue - for a frustrated Aussie

« on: March 06, 2011, 03:18:58 AM »

Lance,

All the VFD's I have used have had separate inputs for CW and CCW rotation and these are connected to separate output pins from Mach, one mapped to M3 and one to M4. This then lets the GCode specify CW or CCW operation with the M3/M4 commands.

Tweakie.

7106

General Mach Discussion / Re: Possible G2, G3 bug

« on: March 06, 2011, 03:03:21 AM »

Phil,

I think we have all been caught out by this one sometime or another   

Don't spend too long with the manuals either, life is far too short to read all the manuals 

Tweakie

7107

General Mach Discussion / Re: Steppers and mach out of sync

« on: March 06, 2011, 03:00:24 AM »

to cut a long story short my x axis which is directly driven by a leadscrew will not consistently match up with the DRO readings in mach 3.

For this statement to be true the step pulses that Mach sends out are not being translated correctly by the stepper motor.

Have you thoroughly checked all the obvious mechanicals such as slipping coupling joining leadscrew to motor, tight or binding spots on the slides or leadscrew, anything loose etc etc ?

Tweakie.

7108

General Mach Discussion / Re: AutoZero Plate for Z Axis

« on: March 05, 2011, 12:05:32 PM »

Nicolas,

I am sure you will figure out the way to do it.

I'm off home now, I will check on your progress on Monday.

Tweakie.

7109

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: Thrown together coil winder ;)

« on: March 05, 2011, 11:47:21 AM »

Now that's what I call Scottish innovation. 

Tweakie.

7110

General Mach Discussion / Re: AutoZero Plate for Z Axis

« on: March 05, 2011, 11:42:35 AM »

Nicolas,

Just to be sure I have altered your diagram to reflect the same series connection of the switches although I am sure that you know what to do now anyway.

Tweakie.