Messages

7211

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: heeks cad and cam

« on: February 09, 2010, 02:34:51 AM »

Well – I have now spent some time with Heeks CNC and Heeks CAD and beautifully presented programs they are. Although they are capable of doing many things that I require, the error trapping routines leave much to be desired. One wrong move or incorrect entry (and I always make plenty of these) caused the programs to abort and this happened so many times that I lost patience and decided to give up altogether.

Has anyone else got any more comments or information on these programs ?.

Tweakie.

7212

General Mach Discussion / Re: How to attach 24v relay to mach3

« on: February 07, 2010, 06:38:12 AM »

This should do it.

Tweakie.

7213

General Mach Discussion / Re: losing probe signals with USB game controller?

« on: February 07, 2010, 03:21:09 AM »

I think Ray has already summed up the situation but this is my interpretation of the chain of events……

There are basically two programs running here at the same time and the speed at which they each execute is not always the same. Mach has many tasks to execute at the same time (screen refresh, keyboard poll, port monitor, etc. etc.) whilst being asked to update a DRO and will be considerably slower to respond or complete the task than the auto tool zero macro. Therefore it is possible for a macro to write a new value to a DRO and then read from this DRO the old value because Mach has not had time to update it fully. The ‘while / wend’ controls the speed at which the macro executes and has little, if any, effect on the speed at which Mach executes whereas the ‘G4’ dwell controls the speed at which Mach executes but has little, if any, effect on the speed at which the macro executes.

Tweakie.

7214

General Mach Discussion / Re: Prox Switches

« on: February 06, 2010, 10:05:58 AM »

The diode doesn't have to be anything special a 1Amp type 1N4004 or similar would do just fine. (It just stops the back emf from the coil damaging the PNP transistor when the load is disconnected).

Tweakie.

7215

Tangent Corner / Re: HERE'S WHAT'S HAPPENING IN MY NECK OF THE WOODS

« on: February 06, 2010, 09:46:59 AM »

Go on Rich - get on out there and build him a snow cat or something to trash. 

Tweakie.

7216

General Mach Discussion / Re: Prox Switches

« on: February 06, 2010, 09:41:40 AM »

With this type of sensor you cannot wire it directly to your BOB.
The easiest solution would, I think, be to operate the device at 12 Volts and connect the output (black) wire to a 12 Volt relay coil with the other side of the coil connecting to ground (blue) then, just in case there isn't one already fitted within the sensor, connect a diode across these relay coil connections (polarity + to black / - to blue). You can then use the relay contacts N.O. or N.C. (as you choose) to connect to your BOB and ground.

Tweakie.

7217

General Mach Discussion / Re: Prox Switches

« on: February 06, 2010, 08:12:42 AM »

Have you decided on the type of proximity switches you want to use (make and model) ?.

Tweakie.

7218

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: Dixie Duke - A machine in the making.

« on: February 06, 2010, 05:39:05 AM »

Right on Sam - that's going to be some machine when it's complete.
Keep posting the pics of your progress with this one as I never got to see the final build pics of your router.

Tweakie.

7219

General Mach Discussion / Re: Motherboard for Mach3

« on: February 04, 2010, 12:20:23 PM »

The one I use is the GA-8 SIMLH P4 Titan-DDR Motherboard which works perfectly with Mach and my machines.
This is an old board which was bought second hand on ebay - most new boards do not have the parallel port nowdays (although I do use a PCI parallel port card the onboard port is still handy to have).

Tweakie.

7220

General Mach Discussion / Re: losing probe signals with USB game controller?

« on: February 04, 2010, 08:21:30 AM »

Is this line to be added or changed in the blue screen mods that I downloaded?  I haven't made any changes to what I installed.  What effect does the G90 code have in this instance?

If your machine is operating in Incremental Distance Mode when the Auto Tool macro is evoked then it will not work correctly.
The macro was designed to operate in Absolute Distance Mode and for this reason Greg suggested adding the G90 'to be sure to be sure'.

Tweakie.