Messages

8151

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.

8152

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.

8153

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

« on: February 04, 2010, 07:02:04 AM »

Thanks for posting the link - This needs investigating further.

Tweakie.

8154

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

« on: February 03, 2010, 09:25:56 AM »

Not certain it is a bug as I have been running the auto tool zero for possibly 12 months now without issue and it has had plenty of use.

Greg has done a lot of work on this correcting possible problems that could occur, depending on the current Mach settings in force when the script is envoked and perhaps the best for me has been the addition of the G90 to this line Code "G90 G31 Z -15 F" &ProbeFeed 'Probing move at ProbeFeed rate.
Other related factors (which have been well discussed on the Zone)  include residue on the tool shank or in the collet, partially insulating the tool from ground and also how good is the earth connection of the spindle shaft through its bearings ?.

There are, I think, so many variables to be considered before assuming it is a bug (setting the Zaxis scale factor to 2 and then using auto tool zero should spell disaster).

Tweakie.

8155

General Mach Discussion / Re: mach 3 plasma troubles

« on: February 03, 2010, 09:08:20 AM »

Hi Matt,

Ive got as far as trying to cut a part and have two problems, im using a touch off switch on the z axis and when the torch comes down and touches the switch and resets the z height to zero for some reason mach is adding or subtracting seemingly random numbers from both the x and y position at the same time, so the machine then thinks it is in the wrong place so cuts to the side of the shape and then cuts the shape. Any ideas? The G code is exactly the sae as i used to use in the old version, it has nothing in it about the x or y axis?

As nobody else has chipped in my feelings are that you have a noise issue here. The routing of the switch wiring and screen grounding should be checked also any other wiring that could pick up noise. Ideally all wiring runs should be screened and grounded at a single point.

Hope this helps a bit.

Tweakie.

8156

General Mach Discussion / Re: ArtCAMPro and Mach3

« on: February 03, 2010, 08:57:35 AM »

Hi George,

There are a number of different reasons, probably a list as long as your arm, but for reliable Mach operation that you can trust no other applications or avoidable background tasks should be running at the same time as Mach.
This is why a dedicated machine PC without any frills is the best bet.

Tweakie.

8157

General Mach Discussion / Re: wiring cnc control to ltp port??? how???

« on: February 03, 2010, 06:42:08 AM »

Hi Alex,

You can use any of the output pins you choose. The setup I have chosen is:-

Pin2 - Xstep
Pin3 - Xdirection
Pin4 - Ystep
Pin5 - Ydirection
Pin6 - Zstep
Pin7 - Zdirection

Does this help ?

Tweakie.

8158

General Mach Discussion / Re: wiring cnc control to ltp port??? how???

« on: February 03, 2010, 06:10:07 AM »

Hi Alex,

If you use a breakout board this enables a parallel LPT cable to be used from your PC. Then connect the breakout board pins to your CNC controller in accordance with the step and direction assignments you have set within Mach.

Tweakie.

8159

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

« on: February 02, 2010, 03:27:21 AM »

I have never had this problem (yet!) - Z axis always stops on probe contact.

I use PCB material for the touch plate and obviously the copper surface has to be kept very clean or else the oxide film becomes an insulator and would cause problems.

Nice machine you have built revwarguy - please post some pics of things you make with it etc we would all be most interested to see them.

Tweakie.

8160

Share Your GCode / Re: Degree Wheel

« on: February 02, 2010, 02:50:01 AM »

Nice one Mike - I can see that a lot of work went into this. Good idea about offsetting the calibration lines and numerals.

Tweakie.