Messages

251

General Mach Discussion / Re: homing swithes

« on: July 08, 2008, 08:07:25 AM »

here is his XML file I tried posting it yesterday but for some odd reason it didnt go!

252

General Mach Discussion / Re: homing swithes

« on: July 07, 2008, 09:31:59 AM »

to add a little more information to this.  I hae talked with him on the phone about this issue.  Here is the break down.

With no limit switches connected to the machine (But they are set to active in ports and pins)  When he opens mach3  he gets the LED lights on the screen for x and Y next to the DROS Z led is not lit.

When physically connecting the switches and prode to the drier box.  The Z limit switch and probe do work.  But X and Y do not.   These switches have been proven to work on another system so that removes then from the problem.   
We hae changed the LPT port in bios from SPP to EPP and this does not help.

The cnc control system is from Minitech, there was a problem with the cnc control unit a year or so ago, but it has been repaired.  Limit switches have not been run on this machine in the past.  We have verified that the switches are setup correctly in ports and pins.

Hope the background on the issue helps diagnose the problem a little better.

253

Screen designer tips and tutorials / Re: 640x480 screen set......

« on: May 06, 2008, 03:29:07 PM »

got it going........  had to tinker with the screen alot   but it works and it works great!
I know the screen pic is blurry sorry bout that.......

The setup......

Dual monitors one is a 17 inch sits off in the far right corner of my bench,  the mill is on the far left corner.   The keyboard and mouse are both wireless so they move easly.   The monitor is something I picked up at a flea martket for $7  Its a 12 volt screen so I have it powered off of the Pc`s power supply.   I can see and all the functions clearly.  And its not hard at all to click the buttons,  now if it was touch screen.   Ohh man!

254

Screen designer tips and tutorials / 640x480 screen set......

« on: May 06, 2008, 01:21:19 PM »

Is it possable to make a 640x 480 screen set?  I have a small LCD panel that I got for $7.  It of course wont do any resolution above that.  I have very limited space and having just the needed buttons I use would be a great space saver!!!!!!

255

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Small 4 and 6 sided necklace beads

« on: November 30, 2007, 08:33:05 AM »

There were done on my maxnc........ YES MAXNC  (After I did all the work to it) Its finally able to produce small detailed pieces. (ma chined in wax)

256

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: My Upgraded Maxnc 15 OL

« on: November 24, 2007, 02:38:43 AM »

finally got the chinese rotary table to work right and made some fixture reciever and ring arbor for machining wax tubes.
The rotary table is cheap.... there is no support on the inside near the front of the table.  I has to turn a step into the housing and make a brass bearing that press fit onto the face and sat in the step.  This cured ALOT of the run out issues.

I needed some sort on interchangeable fixture setup as I am doing alot more flip jobs ect.  The stepper motor for a 4th axis worked but the resolution was not so great and the slop in the motor itself made of setup issues.   The idea behind this setup is to have a receiver bolted to the face of the rotary.  This has a .998 in bore.  My fixtures will be made to simply slide into this bore and lock in with setscrews.  Well you get the idea from the pics.

257

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach 3 issue with very large (22 meg) g-code

« on: October 05, 2007, 08:19:43 PM »

unchecked them all,  and now when I load the 12 meg file  I get the watchdog has been triggered.

re ran the driver test and it looks really flat.    CPU is regestered at a 1.7   (AMD 2100 +)  AMD never could get the numbers right!

258

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach 3 issue with very large (22 meg) g-code

« on: October 05, 2007, 06:09:52 PM »

turn off....... hummm.......  I dont really use the visual toolpah screen... let me see if that does it.......

can you tell me what to turn off so I dont screw it up?

259

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach 3 issue with very large (22 meg) g-code

« on: October 05, 2007, 05:30:06 PM »

the video card is an AGP ATI Radeon 7000 series 32 meg

I re wrote the toolpath with less stepover  and changed the actual part so it wasnt so high in Z and lowered the resolution of the part.  All these things added up to a G code that was half the original size

260

General Mach Discussion / Mach 3 issue with very large (22 meg) g-code

« on: October 05, 2007, 04:20:40 PM »

I had an issue this morning with my mill missing steps.  When I ran a specific code it ran like dog snot.  Missed steps  sounded ugly ect.  I tried running a code I knew that worked  and it ran fine.  Went back to my other code....... crappy.   Rebooted,  re-ran.... ugly still.   

I noticed that the problem code was 22 + meg in size.   changed to peramiters and got it down to 12 meg and now its running fine.   My first though was a computer issue  so I ran the signal test in mach.   No spikes.   

Is there an issues with large g-codes?   Something I need to know about?

The computer is an AMD 2100+  with 1 gig of DDR ram.   

I run lots of large code  and would like to head this issue off now,  rather then when I need something.  I machine wax  so I know that its not a material hardness issue.  Even when running the code at 50% feedrate the motors stalled and sounded just bad!

Any Ideas?