Messages

11

General Mach Discussion / Re: Joystick control for robot arm.

« on: July 13, 2008, 11:29:08 AM »

What I would like is to have 6 controls from either one or two joysticks, X, Y, Z, A, B, C.
But they have to work at basically the same time wtihout a selector switch.
I have an AxidPad joystick that has two analog joystick pots, 8 bottons, and a digital thumb pad.
Perfect for controlling the arm.  Just need a way of interfacing it with Mach3.
My regular keyboard works perfect, except for it is an either on or off state. 
The joystick gives you speed control, which is perfect for slow arm adjustments.

12

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 pausing during move

« on: July 12, 2008, 10:31:59 PM »

I had the same thing happen to me on my old computer.  It actually stopped for about a minute.
It seemed as if the whole computer locked up.  I took the chance of just waiting, and it paid off. 
It didn't happen often, but it happened about 3 times over a 6 month period.
Now that I have the new computer with faster processor and bigger memory, my problem went away.

Basically with the new computer, I have had zero problems.

13

General Mach Discussion / Joystick control for robot arm.

« on: July 12, 2008, 10:24:36 PM »

I am building a robotic arm and had planned to use mach3 to control its movements.
But what I really would like, is to use a Mach3 with a joystick. 
There is a joystick control that comes with Mach3, but it is limited to X and Y movements only.
The key controlls work great, but don't have speed controls, like a joystick.

So....

Does anyone know whrere I can find a joystick plug-in for Mach3 that has more then just X and Y controls?

Any help would be great.

JonnnyElectronny

14

General Mach Discussion / Re: Why did this bad cut happen??

« on: June 30, 2008, 06:10:34 PM »

Well I bought some new aluminum and will head down to the shop to cut a new piece.  This time, if I need to stop my mill, I will use feed hold.
Everyones advice has been great.  Thanks again.

JonnyElectronny

15

General Mach Discussion / Re: Why did this bad cut happen??

« on: June 30, 2008, 08:00:12 AM »

Alright.  Thanks for all the advice.  Feedhold is the button of choice.
 
Still not sure why things would get messed up by pressing stop. I can understand missing steps on my stepper.
But Mach3 is just a number counter.  If you press stop, it should just stop counting.  If you press start, should just resume counting.
I would think it to be no different then a movie or music cd.  When you press stop, the movie stops, when you press start, the movie continues.
Although (you are right) I would press pause in that case.  Laugh

Thanks guys.   Jonny

16

General Mach Discussion / Re: Why did this bad cut happen??

« on: June 29, 2008, 09:28:59 PM »

I have always wondered about that.  Usually if I have to use stop I adjust my feed rate to "as low as posible".
I have used stop in the past without any ill effects.  Did it have any reason to do with cutting a circle?

Thanks.

17

General Mach Discussion / Why did this bad cut happen??

« on: June 29, 2008, 06:47:37 PM »

I hate mistakes. 

I was in the middle of cutting this part (see pciture). I noticed a clamp was getting to close to my cutter.
I stopped Mach3 to adust the clamp. When I restarted my machine again, I noticed that it now had a mind of it's own.

Why did it not just keep cutting my circle?  What happened?  Everything else cut just fine.

Jonny

18

General Mach Discussion / Re: How to increase circle resolution?

« on: June 27, 2008, 06:01:55 PM »

Another quick note for Corel Draw users...

I have been playing with "DFX Tool" for Corel Draw and it is a great program. 
Exporting DXF files using this program has worked very well. Most of the Lazy Cam problems I have been incountering have gone away.
I can produce offsets faster and better, I can actually use the "drill selective circles" feature.
Arcs and circle cutting have greatly improved.

If you are using Corel Draw at the very least, down load their trial program and give it a try.

Jon

19

General Mach Discussion / Re: How to increase circle resolution?

« on: June 26, 2008, 09:57:08 PM »

Thanks for all the help guys.  I will have to look into these other programs.
 I have tried increasing the amount of nodes in Corel Draw and I must admit that I am getting good results.

I was aslo able to test "DXF tool" for Corel draw, not to bad at all.  Helped remove extra lines of code and smooth out curves and arcs.
The "DXF tool" worked best on just plain circles.  Used up just a few lines of code, using radious commands.  Nice.

20

General Mach Discussion / Re: How to increase circle resolution?

« on: June 26, 2008, 08:14:14 AM »

Found a fix for Corel Draw resolution.

When a normal circle is exported from Corel to a DXF file it is divided into 63 line segments.  So smaller circles look ok, but the larger circles look choppy.

So.......In order to increase resolution in a large circle, you must first "convert it to curves" then add more nodes.  The more nodes you add the more resolution you curve will have.
Unfortunately this greatly increases the amount of G-code, but it's a sacrafice I'll make for now. 

I hope this helps someone.

Thanks.    Jon