Messages

21

Mach3 under Vista / Re: uc100 in windows 7 having brain farts

« on: June 22, 2014, 01:52:31 PM »

The "motor tuning button did not work" makes me think that you have installed Mach3 uncorrectly.
I mean the motor tuning does not work if you did not install Mach3 with it's installer, but if you just copied the folder with the files to the computer.
My experience is that only this button does not work if you installed Mach3 with copying instead of installing it with it's installer,
I've seen this issue at a few customers when helping them resolving their installation problems.

If you did that too, I advice you to do not do the installation this way as Mach3 will have brain farts if you do not install it with an installer...

If not this is the case then please e-mail me at info at cncdrive dot com and send me your .xml settings file and tell me the Mach3 version you using and the plugin version and we will look into it to see what the problem might be.

22

General Mach Discussion / Re: Any Practical, Working, Supported Alternatives to the Parallel Port

« on: May 29, 2014, 03:23:43 PM »

Yep, I'm one of the developers at CNCdrive Kft.
And the UC100 and UC300 can basicly do all what the SS can do, except it has not that high output stepping frequency, but especially the UC300 has some advanced functions compared to the SS,
like the analog inputs which you can use for example to feedrate override and spindle speed override with externally connected potentiometer, or just map that input into an internal variable and control other things using the variable value... it has analog outputs too. And there is a setup screen where you can attach any Mach3 internal functions to any inputs with simply selecting the function from a dropdown list.
And I was not talking about that the UC300-5LPT has 84 I/Os in total, can be useful for complex machines.
So, we have some advanced functions....

The UC devices could always (I mean from the very beginning) do threading with the single slot sensor, this is the same what MAch3 is capable of doing by itself.

And you know finding real info on the internet is mostly not easy or the informations can be missleading, because customers who are satisfied with a device mostly not writting anything on forums, because they are satisfied and using the device instead of writting on forums.

23

General Mach Discussion / Re: Any Practical, Working, Supported Alternatives to the Parallel Port

« on: May 27, 2014, 07:25:04 AM »

The lag I mentioned was with controllers which use the full encoder rather than just the index pulse. The advantage of a device using the full encoder is that the Z axis tracks the spindle completely, in other words the spindle can slow or speed up or even stop and restart and the Z axis will still be in sync.
Steve has worked out the issue but whether he has passed on the info to the people that make such controllers I have no idea.
Hood

I got it now, thanks for the explanation Hood.
And I agree, using an encoder gives you higher resolution and closer tolerances than using a single pulse per rev feedback signal, ofcourse assuming that the follower algorithm works correctly and stabile.
It's not a simple task, we currently working on the same, implementing the encoder feedback thread cutting to the UC100 and UC300, should be ready and released soon .. still testing the algorithms...

24

General Mach Discussion / Re: Any Practical, Working, Supported Alternatives to the Parallel Port

« on: May 24, 2014, 03:55:31 PM »

The UC100 and UC300 can cut thread with the index pulse feedback and there is no lag like what Hood mentioned, because the thread cutting commands are executed and sync-ed by the external device, so there is no delay...

25

Mach3 under Vista / Re: uc100 in windows 7 having brain farts

« on: May 12, 2014, 02:24:25 PM »

Hi,

Make sure to disable the USB suspend function in your Windows 7. power management settings, otherwise Windows can remove the power from the USB port to save power which will make your UC100 device to loose the power and loose the settings.
From the symptons what you wrote this seems to be the problem.

Br, Balazs

26

SmoothStepper USB / Re: SS with Polish translated Mach

« on: January 15, 2009, 04:45:16 PM »

Hello,

Thank you for sharing me this info.
And did you find any solution yet to solve the problem?
Or do you think that there is no solution for this? 

Thanks in advance.

Best regards,
                 Balazs

27

SmoothStepper USB / SS with Polish translated Mach

« on: January 15, 2009, 10:42:42 AM »

Hi to everybody,

I have a problem with SS with Mach3 Polish translated version.
The problem is that the plugind does not appear in the Translated version. 
I hope somebody knows a solution to solve this.

Any help appritiated.

I attached some pictures below to let you see the problem.
The plugin menu seems empty.   

28

General Mach Discussion / Re: mach don't control the spindle switch

« on: March 27, 2008, 07:15:50 PM »

Hi,

Hood, thanks for the good advice!
I have just sent my XML file to Bec, I hope the machine will work with it, because I have just wired up a stepper controller and tested the functions with these settings, so it must work with it, or if not something strange error is there.

I think if it will still not work then Bec should reinstall Mach.

29

General Mach Discussion / Re: mach don't control the spindle switch

« on: March 27, 2008, 05:24:29 PM »

Hi,

On the board, there's centronix-36 pin connector, therefor the cable cannot be cross-link, so that cannot be the problem.

The phisical wirings are only made with pluging the cable in... so he cannot make a mistake, only if cable is broken/damaged, but with another CNC controller program it runs well and relay is also working.

With an LPT tester program relay is also working and we can see that it is wired correctly to pin8.
So, the board is OK, because it's running with another controller program and pin to pin connection is good.

So I still just can say, that we separeted the error into MACH and sure that the cause of the problem is on the PC side!

On the other hand MACH is working e.g. at me with the same board and with the same settings, so I still do not see any logical reason for the problem.

30

General Mach Discussion / Re: mach don't control the spindle switch

« on: March 27, 2008, 04:07:14 PM »

Thanks for the fast answer.

I also never used MAXNC mode and also only knows about it that it needs some special hardware which we do not have in our board.

The pinout of our board:

          pins
stepX - 2
dirX    - 3
stepY - 4
dirY   -  5
stepZ - 6
dirZ   -  7
relay  -  8

All step and directions and the relay is active high, I also recommend to use Sherline 1/2 mode, because it gives much smoother running for the steppers.