Messages

131

General Mach Discussion / Re: Wiring motors

« on: July 17, 2008, 06:05:55 PM »

Robhi,

Do you have a link to the website with the motor wiring so I may advise on the wire combinations?

Kristin

132

General Mach Discussion / Re: power supply

« on: July 17, 2008, 05:50:13 PM »

Robhi,

Just a suggestion, rather than spread your questions over several different posts/topics it's easier for people to follow along on one thread and see your overall questions/problem.

Kristin

133

General Mach Discussion / Re: Wiring motors

« on: July 17, 2008, 03:54:10 PM »

Robhi,

What type of driver are you using? Also are the motors bipolar or unipolar? There is no real +/- with steppers, if they go the wrong way either switch one pair of leads or invert the direction in the software.

Kristin

134

General Mach Discussion / Re: vinyl cutter?

« on: July 13, 2008, 11:37:14 PM »

Nik,

Interesting might be my system but I am seeing 2 quarter round segments on each turn and they look like it would swing a weird path, it's getting late so I am not going to let it keep me awake. Can you post the g-code for that one, I'd like to load it up and run it on the desk just to see what it looks like. Perhaps some of the others that do sign cutting will pop back with a comment also, I can see this as useful for the occasional one-off things I want to do and not pay the big bucks to the local printer for their setup charges.

Kristin

135

General Mach Discussion / Re: vinyl cutter?

« on: July 13, 2008, 07:02:18 PM »

Nik,

Great, I think if you can open it with Corel you can save it as DXF so problem solved I hope. Let me know how you make out.

Kristin

PS- just downloaded signgo and can't find how to export as HPGL, it was the full ver not the lite.

136

General Mach Discussion / Re: vinyl cutter?

« on: July 13, 2008, 06:17:44 PM »

Again I am not a user of this but I am pretty sure the offset is generated in the software, including the loops you mentioned, bigest hurdle is trying to convert hpgl to dxf although I think I found a source at Guthry software for a trial converter you could give a try with and it's only $30 USD for a single license if it works. Let me know how things turn out, I might just mount a swivel knife in the mill and have a wack at it or build a small table just for cutting vinyl.

Kristin

137

General Mach Discussion / Re: vinyl cutter?

« on: July 13, 2008, 04:56:21 PM »

Nik,

Not that I ever actually learned how to use the likes of autocad, it would seem that you need to explode your drawing, extend the lines by the offset and reconnect the path with a radius equal to your offset. So if I am following what your saying if I were to look at a cut vinyl sheet I should see tiny circles at the outside of each direction change? I have some vinyl logos coming in a day or two, sure hope he didn't harvest out the scrap as I would like to see this. I am pretty sure when I worked at a laser and waterjet place about 10 years ago the software took care of this automatically as it converted the vector graphics to g-code or whatever they were using, I do know that a broken path would ruin a thousand dollar brass sheet in a second.

Just thought of this option, using a software like signcut to generate the HPGL file then convert the HPGL to DXF, process through lazycam .... Well I didn't say it was the shortest distance between two points but neither is the cutting path.

Kristin

138

General Mach Discussion / Re: vinyl cutter?

« on: July 10, 2008, 10:06:03 PM »

Nic,

What does a vinyl cutting machine do? does it lift the knife and reposition in the corner before going in the next direction on a 90 degree cut? For that matter a small radius may not be all so bad unless your working with real small cutouts as it would prevent the edges from lifting.

Kristin

139

General Mach Discussion / Re: No stepper motor movement?

« on: July 09, 2008, 06:09:28 PM »

Well you are using the correct units, its only these old fashioned Americans that use ancient imperial oh and Jim Pinder of course

Hood

It's not that Hood, it's just I get a funny look from people when I ask for the 25.4mm wrench. Also a lot of swarf to cut down stock sizes to metric, not to mention I don't think I could find a metric tap or die within a hundred miles!

Kristin

140

General Mach Discussion / Re: No stepper motor movement?

« on: July 09, 2008, 04:57:50 PM »

Karl,

No shame at all, there are so many settings in Mach it boggles the mind! I would fire up the PC first, sometimes random stuff comes out the LPT port and could crash an axis. Next on to setting your # of steps and motor tuning. Happy Happy Joy Joy as Ren & Stimpy say!

Kristin