Messages

541

General Mach Discussion / Re: M3 M4 switching

« on: March 05, 2016, 01:16:35 PM »

I have attached two photos of the board that came with the motor and the wiring diagram for it as well.  The speed pot has a MIN and MAX as well as a RESET position.  When turned through the min and max you can feel detents but once you get past min going to reset there is nothing.

When the kill switch is closed:

1.   If the pot is set to RESET, only the D11 light comes on.
2.   If the pot is set between min and max, the D11 and D7 light but no movement.
3.   If the pot is then moved to reset, the D7 goes off and if the pot is then moved to something other than reset the D7 and D6 light and the motor begins movement.

What I gather from this is that the reset position is simply moving the pot to a point where the wiper wire is not connected and therefore I need to put one of the relays on the white pot wire.  Am I anywhere close to correct?  If so, can you point me to an appropriate relay for this?

For the other relay I assume (and we all know what that means) that I need a DPDT(?) relay between the motor MC-68 card, red and black wires, that can handle 95v.   Again, can you point me to a relay that would do this and would I need a separate power supply or can it be powered by ?

Thanks for taking time to ‘edicate’ me.

542

General Mach Discussion / Re: M3 M4 switching

« on: March 05, 2016, 07:19:25 AM »

All good info, thanks.

The motor is a permanent magnet type and the brushes are perpendicular, not offset. I have tested it on the bench and it runs both ways by reversing the wires.   

I thought I would be able to rewrite the M3 and M4 macros to read the actual spindle speed and not reverse until actually stopped.  I usually start these queries with an admission that I am an electrical idiot.  Should have done that this time too.

You say that the drive for the motor must  be turned off as well. Are you saying the Gecko and/or UC100 need to be powered down as well? That would certainly defeat the purpose of having it switched automatically. 

543

General Mach Discussion / M3 M4 switching

« on: March 04, 2016, 05:38:16 PM »

Have a bench top lathe (Seig C3, 7x14) that I have converted to CNC.  Currently run with a Gecko 540, Mach 3 and UC100.  Would now like to automate the spindle direction change through Mach.  Current machine has a 350 watt brushed DC motor with a 3 position switch reverse-off-forward.   I am upgrading the motor to 750 watt, 7.5 amp, brushed DC out of a treadmill which has a controller with speed control and magnetic speed sensor.

In spindle setup for Mach3 you specify relay #1 and #2 for m3 and m4 commands.  What would you recommend to use in this application?  Any help appreciated.

TIA

544

General Mach Discussion / Re: My Mach3 Adventure, so far

« on: March 02, 2016, 05:56:41 PM »

Thanks Rick.  Just had an occasion to review the Arc article, Nicely done.

545

General Mach Discussion / Re: REFERENCE

« on: March 02, 2016, 05:45:01 PM »

Assuming you're using Mach3 Mill, after your gcode has returned you to 0,0, and some Z value, or you have hit 'ref all home', select the tab 'MDI Alt2' and use the box right of 'Input' to enter a on line gcode command such as G01 F20 X1 Y-2.

Hope I understood your question.

546

General Mach Discussion / Re: Spindle calibration, how I manage to get it working

« on: January 04, 2016, 03:53:10 PM »

I converted my Sieg lathe (Microlux 7x14) to CNC this spring.  I have been able to get approximate spindle speed to work. 

Since the spreadsheet has only one column do you use the highest/fastest spindle gearing or doesn't it matter?

TIA

547

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Help with Tool Change Script for Large VMC with Umbrella Style Tool Changer.

« on: December 03, 2015, 11:52:07 AM »

It would be helpful if you resolve this to post the results.  It would help all of us in learning the issues , approach and LUA commands that are needed. 

Thanks

548

VB and the development of wizards / Re: Mach3 turn macro - Pause restart

« on: March 11, 2015, 04:46:54 PM »

Yes, thank you.

549

VB and the development of wizards / Re: Mach3 turn macro - Pause restart

« on: March 11, 2015, 10:57:12 AM »

Thomas, thank you so much for taking time to look at this.  I haven't done any Mach scripting in a couple of years and had been banging my head against a wall for a few hours when I posted.

Contrary to TP's opinion I do RTFM but the programmers reference manual only has this:

SystemWaitFor
Sub SystemWaitFor(Signal As Integer)
This function it is used to tell Mach that a macro script is ending, and that any further
GCode execution should wait for the Signal to go active. If used, this function should
always be the last line in a macro and it should never be used within a loop.
Arguments:
SignalID must be one of the pre-defined Mach3 CB output signal constants (see
CB Constants), or other value or expression that evaluates to one of those values.
Return Value:
None
Example:
See also:

Since the manual does not contain the CB Constants it refers to I assumed, wrongly, that Poppa bear's use of ReStart was a constant.  After leaving it alone for a few hours I reread his example.  I missed a line of code:

ReStart = IsActive(INPUT4)            'this is input signal 4

I like your code, thanks again

550

VB and the development of wizards / Re: Mach3 turn macro - Pause restart

« on: March 10, 2015, 04:55:00 PM »

Hi Tom, thanks for taking a moment to look at the code.

I too would like 'resadble code'  as you suggest.

Let me see if I can explain.

the lines: code "(...)" output a message in the Status box.  I use it to remind me what each step is before I continue.  Tool change or jog primarily.

as for the combination before and after those lines they are supposed to pause and restart the execution of the macro see Poppa Bear;s response here:

http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,7491.0.html

I just converted my bench lathe to CNC and do not as of yet have spindle control so a couple of those code entries remind to start/stop the spindle.
This is just the first part of code to turn a part.