Messages

7661

General Mach Discussion / Re: Laser for Cutting PCB Solder Paste Stencil

« on: September 28, 2010, 11:09:16 AM »

Had second thoughts about this one and deleted my earlier post.

One of the cheap, Chinese, stepper control boards would work and if you were careful in the way it was fitted then either the original or the new options could be used, as required. Something like this  http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/3-Axis-12-36V-3A-CNC-Stepper-Motor-Driver-TB6560-NEW-/250703238018?pt=UK_BOI_Industrial_Automation_Control_ET&hash=item3a5f13d382

Tweakie.

7662

General Mach Discussion / Re: Laser for Cutting PCB Solder Paste Stencil

« on: September 28, 2010, 09:52:21 AM »

Exodus,

I don't think there is any modification necessary. Just draw your required stencil and send it to the machine to cut. If I am missing something here perhaps you could elaborate.

Tweakie.

7663

General Mach Discussion / Re: mach3 stop on screen

« on: September 24, 2010, 07:35:20 AM »

Is it possible to add a feed hold button that does the same as using the mouse and clicking the feed hold on the screen?
or somehow using a key board stroke.

Am I missing something here guys ?.

Whats wrong with just using the space bar for feed hold ?.

Tweakie.

7664

General Mach Discussion / Re: Steppers sent steps when changing screens

« on: September 24, 2010, 05:27:33 AM »

Keith,

Sounds like it could be an electrical noise problem. You could try re-routing your cables clear of your monitor and separating the mains wiring runs from the signal wiring runs.

Tweakie.

7665

General Mach Discussion / Re: Power Supply for Motion Controlling

« on: September 24, 2010, 05:11:29 AM »

Hi PJ,

I think we are going round in circles here.

The Astrosyn 402 spec says that it's inputs are TTL compatible (in my book, that's the 5V standard) it does not specifically state that it complies with the 3.3 Volt standard. As I said earlier 3.3 Volt may not be enough to operate some opto-isolators, at least not reliably and I think you should check this point with Astrosyn before proceeding further and looking for problems that may not exist.

You could try using a PC with 5 Volt parallel port or fit a PCI parallel port card with 5 Volt output, either of these two options may solve the problem.

Tweakie.

nb. You are correct - the pulse is associated with step within Mach.

7666

General Mach Discussion / Re: Power Supply for Motion Controlling

« on: September 24, 2010, 02:11:07 AM »

If pin 5 is a problem you could try using another pin number and allocation to see if you have the same problem.

What model breakout board / stepper driver are you using ?.

Tweakie.

7667

*****VIDEOS***** / Re: Vinyl cutting.

« on: September 24, 2010, 02:03:41 AM »

Arbo,

Any vector code works just fine.
When I built my cutter the Roland blades were very expensive but now the Chinese equivalent blade and holder is so cheap it is just a matter of building a spring loaded mount. 

Tweakie.

7668

General Mach Discussion / Re: Acu-rite Glass Scale Position-Trac Coding

« on: September 23, 2010, 12:00:28 PM »

Right - I see what you are trying to achieve now.

As far as I am aware Mach does not operate in closed loop mode.
With servo systems the feedback loop is closed within the servo driver and errors corrected at that point rather than within Mach itself.

This does not mean to say that Mach cannot be operated in closed loop mode but you might just have to be the first person to do it 

Good luck,

Tweakie.

7669

General Mach Discussion / Re: Power Supply for Motion Controlling

« on: September 23, 2010, 10:38:23 AM »

PJ,

The direction signals that you measured with the voltmeter, are they rising to a high level of 5 Volts ?. (some pp outputs only swing to 3.3Volts which may not be enough for some opto isolators in the drivers).
Changing the configuration active high / active low for the step pulse may help.

Tweakie.

7670

General Mach Discussion / Re: Acu-rite Glass Scale Position-Trac Coding

« on: September 23, 2010, 05:24:41 AM »

I really don't think there would be any point in doing this unless you are saying that the accuracy of servo mounted encoders is not good enough.

Tweakie.