Messages

61

General Mach Discussion / Re: Kernal Speed and Chatter

« on: September 14, 2009, 01:07:41 PM »

Paul,

I am cutting .5" solid surface material.  I am using a .25" Solid Carbide UpCut Spiral O Flute Onsrud 63-775 bit.  I am cutting .125" with each pass at 90 degrees to the surface of material.  I am using a Milwaukee 5625 router in my machine and it has a standard .25" collet.  The bit has a CEL of .75" and only the cutters are showing out of the collet.  The router is set at 14,000.  The machine is a MechMate.

I think I understand and have answered all your questions.  

Thanks for you help.

Cruiser,

I am cutting with a bit that recommended by Onsrud for solid surface material.  I need to use .25" bit for details.

The little piece missing is from a tab that broke off.

62

General Mach Discussion / Re: Kernal Speed and Chatter

« on: September 14, 2009, 09:39:12 AM »

Based on my reading of the CV Notes, I made the following changes to my Mach configuration:

CV Look Ahead 200 lines.
CV Dist Tolerance 100 units
Stop CV on angles > 90 degrees.

After restarting, I cut my Diamond at both 35 and 70 IPM and the cuts were smooth.  But when I cut at 100 IPM, I still had chatter.

I have since changed the CV Dist Tolerance to 50 Units.  I recut the Diamond at 100 IPM and I still had the same amount of chatter.

My X and Y motors are tuned to 450 Velocity and 30 Acceleration and Z is 150 / 10.

I would like to hear more from those that have some experience with these configurations changes.

For those that don't think software has an effect.  Yes, it does not cause chatter but it affects the way the machine operates.  For example if you have CV set and you cut a rectangle and a very high say 400 IPM, you will get rounded corners.  Changing to Stop will give you square corners.

63

General Mach Discussion / Re: Kernal Speed and Chatter

« on: September 13, 2009, 11:59:58 AM »

Sid,

I think you are on to some thing with the CV issue.  I lookd over the document on CV and I wish the author would have included some number examples for settings.  Also it would be nice to know what the values mean.

The default for Distance Tolerance is 180 and I set my to 100.  I also set my Stop CV Angle to 90.  My look ahead to 200.

I recut my test Diagonal cuts at 35 and 70 IPM and things were smooth but when I cut at 100 IPM my chatter was back.

So I think that these parameters are making an impact. 

If any one has some experiencing with these setting please post your settings or what your experience has been.

Ger21:  I am cutting at these speeds because I am getting chatter.  I would love to be able to cut at 300 IPM with no chatter.  But chatter doesn't go away when you cut faster, it only cuts faster.  At least that is what I am experiencing.

I will be happy to report my experience and settings when I have done some more testing.

Thanks for the suggestion.

64

General Mach Discussion / Re: Kernal Speed and Chatter

« on: September 12, 2009, 08:22:16 PM »

Hood,

After the two test I just described, I don't think it is mechanical.  The diamond cuts are at a 45 degree angle and the chatter is bad at a slow 35 IPM.  The 4" 45 degree had chatter marks but the cut was smooth.

So I don't think it is chatter.  Straight cut are okay.

I have been over my machine and it is tight.

65

General Mach Discussion / Kernal Speed and Chatter

« on: September 12, 2009, 08:03:56 PM »

I am having a problem with chatter on my cuts.  There are members of another forum were I built my machine that think the chatter is caused by the kernal not being set at a high enough rate or that the Dell Pentium III machine is having a problem processing the files.  I ran the test program that comes with Mach and the computer passed the test.  Is there anther way to check for kernal speed or a computer problem with regards to the kernal.

I am starting to question that it might be the computer.  I am cutting a diamond shape that has 2" length legs with the diamond sitting on a point so the cuts are at a diagonal.  I am cutting solid surface material with .5" O Flute End Mill.  When I cut this small pattern, there is considerable chatter.  Tonight I cut a small 45 degree 4" cut and there was chatter marks but the cut was smooth.  

The last cut makes me wonder if I am having a computer problem and the bad chatter I am getting is the result of the computer not being able to process the cut commands and is skipping.

I would appreciate some input or suggestions.

Thanks

66

VB and the development of wizards / Re: Code to check spindle and cycle start ON

« on: January 22, 2009, 06:37:11 PM »

Scott

I know how to do the shuttle pro so that is not a problem.

Please tell me where to find the documents that refer to the user LED, DRO, etc.

Thanks for your help.

67

VB and the development of wizards / Re: Code to check spindle and cycle start ON

« on: January 22, 2009, 09:32:19 AM »

Scott,

Why would you assume that it is running in macropump?  It is my understanding that in macropump, macros run all the time or that is the what I learned watching the video.

Where is the a list of the user LED, DRO and Vars?  I did not know that.

From your third line, it appears that the macro does not run all the time in the macropump and you can turn it on and off.

So let me see if I understand this correctly.  This is what I understand.

The code that checks to see if the spindle and cycle start are active along with setting the User LED on or off based on the if else statement is located in my macro that I call with I push the button on my shuttle pro.  The actual ZTP probe code that will do the work resides in a macro in the macropump and runs only when the user defined LED is turned off.

If this is correct, point me to the information that tells me how to place the macro in the macropump.  Also the list of user LED, DRO and Vars.

I have another question...... I think some one said that the macropump will not allow another macro to run if the gcode is running so do I need to check if the spindle or cycle start is active.  Don't I just have to turn the User LED off?

Thank you.  This is what I needed to know.
 

68

VB and the development of wizards / Re: Code to check spindle and cycle start ON

« on: January 22, 2009, 09:04:41 AM »

Your first response, you tell me to SetUserLED.  That is where it comes from.

"Well for one thing, your not putting out any info so that the other Macro can NOT run under those conditions."  You aslo made this comment and I don't understand what you mean.

69

VB and the development of wizards / Re: Code to check spindle and cycle start ON

« on: January 21, 2009, 07:06:10 PM »

Scott,

Thanks for your help but you are not answering my questions so I still don't understand.  If you don't have the time to answer my questions that is okay but I am not just looking for a solution but understanding.

Regards

70

VB and the development of wizards / Re: Code to check spindle and cycle start ON

« on: January 21, 2009, 09:06:14 AM »

poppabear,

Thanks for responding.  Since I have not learned all the codes, I am not sure I understand one part of your solution.

Let me also give you some more details.  For my Zero Touch Plate, I am not using a mach screen for input or results.  I have added an LED to the touch plate.  Before running the ZTP macro from my Shuttle Pro, I touch the plate to the bit.  If the LED turns blue (the color of the LED), I know I will not drive the bit throught the touch plate.  I then can run the macro.

What I realized is that with out some code to check if the spindle or a cut file is running, if I accidently pushed the ZTP button on the shuttle pro, I could have the macro run at a bad time while I am trying to cut a file.

So I do not have a user LED but I will try you have suggested.  

I know that my code for the spindle is correct because the macro aborts when only the spindle is active.  But if the spindle is off and I engage Cycle Start and then run the macro, the macro will not abort and it starts to do a ZTP run.  I realize that the chances that I have code running and the spindle is off is rare but my past programming experience I program this way.

Since I have not worked with Mach that much, I am not sure why this is happening.

Does that help?

I also do not understand this comment.  "Well for one thing, your not putting out any info so that the other Macro can NOT run under those conditions."  Could you explain?

Thanks for your help.