Messages

201

Modbus / Re: Arduino Modbus, Complete, Documented and free

« on: March 31, 2012, 08:12:00 AM »

Shilling,

Wonderful job. The documentation is very impressive and detailed too.

I am using arduino with modbus slave sketch by Juan Pablo. It only implements funtions 3,4 and 16 of modbus. I am using it mainly for tool change, auxillary keypads and analog inputs for FRO and spindle override. Programming the chip with Uno and putting it on my BOB with serial port. This way it costs me less than $10.

I have yet to try your sketch on my Uno. Have you tried connecting MPG through it?

Zafar

202

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: Large Oxy Profile Cutter

« on: March 04, 2012, 12:40:06 AM »

Here's a photo of the machine from overhead crane.

203

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: Large Oxy Profile Cutter

« on: March 03, 2012, 06:00:46 AM »

It's been quite some time since I updated on my machine. It is in full operation now.

Some things I would like to share about shortcomings of Mach3 for oxy/fuel cutters. For a big machine like this we can't align the work pieces to the axes. So Mach axes had to be rotated for alignment. I used G68 for it. But another thing I learned that for big machines like these you need reverse run too. Sometimes the flame stops cutting in the middle of cut and then you have to pause and then reverse run the gcode to reheat the work piece and start cut again. And then what. I discover that reverse run doesn't work with rotated axes . Reverse run doesn't work with tool compensation (G42, G43) too. That can be catered for in the cam software (a little inconvenient for the operator, but doable). But reverse run and rotated axes not working together was a pain.

Luckily I found a free utility on net for g-code manipulation called grecode.exe. This neat little software runs from command line and you can move, rotate, make arrays etc. of your g-code with it. Put it in a few macros and wizards and we are all set for job setup on machine that is easy for operators.

There were some more minor things which came up during this project. My designed screens with dark grey background looked very nice in the workshop environment but when I installed them in a space where it was bright daylight then suddenly it appeared that the screen contrast makes it unreadable. Changed graphics to a light grey scheme and that fixed it.

Anyways, I learned a lot about Mach and the flame cutting process with this project. Next project is a plasma cutter with THC.

Zafar

204

Brains Development / Re: Arduino -> modbus -> Brain

« on: February 27, 2012, 09:07:13 PM »

I've also noticed that only the first 10 AND based rungs work in a brain. All the AND's after the 10th one don't get triggered in any case. I break the brain into 2 parts for them to work. Is it a bug with brains?

Zafar

205

Modbus / Re: External led DRO

« on: February 22, 2012, 07:16:25 AM »

It is possible with modbus and arduino. You'll need to program the arduino for modbus and the 7 segment LED displays. Open source codes are available for both.

Zafar

206

Brains Development / Re: Mach3, Arduino, Modbus and MPG

« on: December 06, 2011, 06:12:28 AM »

I tried the same mpg on PP and it works perfectly. With brains and modbus running, the MPG1 Velocity DRO on the settings page shows lag with the MPG movement. I suspect that's the culprit. Is there a fix for that 

Zafar

207

Brains Development / Re: Mach3, Arduino, Modbus and MPG

« on: December 06, 2011, 12:39:10 AM »

You can request steps faster than your machine can travel if you aren't careful.  I'm not sure if this is whats going on in your case but I have seen this.

Brett,
This situation you described happens in multiple steps mode when feed rate is set too low. This happens on PP too. In my case the overrun is with the velocity mode. The step mode is behaving similar to a PP and I have no problem with that.

Zafar

208

Modbus / Mach3, Arduino, Modbus and MPG

« on: December 05, 2011, 11:33:54 PM »

Hi,

I've been successful in communicating with an Arduino Uno though modbus. Analog input, output, LED's, buttons and all. Why Arduino? Instead of Pokeys, ModIO or Cubloc? Because it's easily available where I am.

Today I tried MPG with Arduino and found it smoother than Pokeys. I am using ModIOMPG brain for the MPG. The only problem is that the axis keeps on rolling for almost half a second when I stop rotating the MPG. I am not using MPG tick count in the brain. Not sure how to calculate it in my Arduino. Is this the reason for this behaviour of MPG or do I need to tweak some other settings in Mach. I've tried different baud rates but they don't make any difference.

Another thing I've noticed is that when I switch to single or multi-step mode from velocity mode and then back to the velocity then the axis jog speed slows down to one fourth of the previous one. When I restart Mach, I can jog at full speed once again. I am running it on Mach V3.042.020.

Zafar

209

Brains Development / Mach3, Arduino, Modbus and MPG

« on: December 05, 2011, 11:18:05 PM »

Hi,

I've been successful in communicating with an Arduino Uno though modbus. Analog input, output, LED's, buttons and all. Why Arduino? Instead of Pokeys, ModIO or Cubloc? Because it's easily available where I am.

Today I tried MPG with Arduino and found it smoother than Pokeys. I am using ModIOMPG brain for the MPG. The only problem is that the axis keeps on rolling for almost half a second when I stop rotating the MPG. I am not using MPG tick count in the brain. Not sure how to calculate it in my Arduino. Is this the reason for this behaviour of MPG or do I need to tweak some other settings in Mach. I've tried different baud rates but they don't make any difference.

Another thing I've noticed is that when I switch to single or multi-step mode from velocity mode and then back to the velocity then the axis jog speed slows down to one fourth of the previous one. When I restart Mach, I can jog at full speed once again. I am running it on Mach V3.042.020.

Zafar

210

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: Large Oxy Profile Cutter

« on: September 24, 2011, 12:19:34 PM »

The retrofit is complete. Cut our first profile yesterday. Next 3 days will be spent on training the operators and programmers for the use of new control. I'll post more photos later.