Messages

7551

FAQs / Re: Step and Dir signals

« on: July 12, 2010, 08:33:05 AM »

Hi John,

Excellent explanation you have given there.

It is not really meaningful to talk about these signals as having active levels since they are doing something whatever level they are.
where the sense of the signal can be active low or active high is arbitrary but the ability to swap the sense can be useful for testing

Not quite sure about this bit though. The terms "active high" or "active low" are meaningful to me and are understood by Mach3 when it comes to setting everything up. 

Tweakie.

7552

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

« on: July 11, 2010, 11:22:28 AM »

I came across this neat little program last week - It is just so simple I had to make some little boxes. My congratulations Rahul.

http://rahulbotics.com/personal-projects/boxmaker/

Tweakie.

7553

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Re: Gertrude Gets Some!

« on: July 10, 2010, 11:16:25 AM »

Thanks Chris.

Protein stains........ Where I grew up we called them skid marks. 

Tweakie.

7554

General Mach Discussion / Re: Drifting X-axis, making step ladders one side whereas other side is smooth- SOS

« on: July 10, 2010, 07:02:58 AM »

Hi Khalid,

No much help really but I had a similar problem, long while back, where one axis only was gaining steps. These gained steps were produced from noise spikes which were treated by the controller as a genuine step pulse. Although they were random they were pretty consistent and my problem was finally solved by fitting another, better quality, breakout board which managed to filter out the extremely fast noise spikes.
Although it is unlikely to be the same problem I would suggest that you look for electrical noise as a cause of this event.

Tweakie.

7555

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Re: Gertrude Gets Some!

« on: July 10, 2010, 06:44:29 AM »

Thanks again Chris, now I know why some of your wax photos have water droplets on the surface. 
I will look out for one of those blaster's 'second user' (I'm 3rd generation related to Mr Scrooge also).

Tweakie.

7556

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Re: Gertrude Gets Some!

« on: July 10, 2010, 05:15:29 AM »

Thanks Chris.
One more, perhaps silly question. What is the best way to remove the wax chippings off the finished work ?. (the tiny bits of wax seem to stick to my stuff).

Tweakie.

7557

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Re: Gertrude Gets Some!

« on: July 10, 2010, 04:31:23 AM »

Looks easy Chris. 

Can you make your own wax for this fixture or do you have to buy the ready made blanks ?.

Tweakie.

7558

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

« on: July 09, 2010, 07:28:38 AM »

Hey Sam, our buddy Dave has already guessed it - I used the new Dyson wheels.  

Terry, Its all done with mirrors    If your main aim was, for example, raster graphics then the faster the machine (and lower the mass of all moving parts) the better but for vector work, which is my requirement, then the machine can be just as slow as it turns out.

The first little bikes shown were cut too quickly at too much power and the acrylic overheated (boiled possibly) and they had a bad surface finish. Doing them again (lower power, slower feed) produced much better results (these ones are about 20mm long) and this was the original traffic sign artwork.

Tweakie.

7559

General Mach Discussion / Re: Is anyone else using E1P1 / E1P0 to switch output #1 ?

« on: July 09, 2010, 01:30:18 AM »

The example I have been using was created using a Roland engraving program which outputs HPGL, this was then converted to GCode. Then I edit the Z moves to the E1P0....

Tweakie.

7560

General Mach Discussion / Re: Z Axis Drifting or Loosing Steps?

« on: July 08, 2010, 01:50:58 PM »

I think I am back to what I thought earlier - lost steps.

Tightness, binding, excess speed and electrical noise are all possible causes but electrical noise usually affects more than just one axis.
If you are absolutely sure it is not binding or excess friction on the axis then I would suspect the motor or possibly a loose coupling on the screw.

Tweakie.