Messages

11

General Mach Discussion / G31 Probing with G68 Rotation enabled

« on: April 17, 2018, 11:34:53 AM »

Hello again everyone

I've noticed, if I use a G68A0B0R90 command, or if I enter a value into the "Local System Rotated" box on the MDI screen, when the probing starts (G31Z0, or auto tool zero on the main screen), the Z axis doesn't behave like it does without the G68 command enabled.

When the G68 is enabled, the Z does move down, but slower than normal, and both the X and Y axis sort of 'drift' away from the spot the probe command was initiated at.

Is there some way to change this behavior, so only Z moves during the probe?

Thanks!
Z

12

General Mach Discussion / Re: G28 moves twice, not understanding why.

« on: April 16, 2018, 08:01:23 PM »

Ahh, well there it is in black and white.

It's amazing what you can learn when you rtfm 

Thanks,
Z

13

General Mach Discussion / G28 moves twice, not understanding why.

« on: April 16, 2018, 06:38:11 PM »

Hello all,

This isn't really that important in the grand scheme of things, but I'm curious why this happens.

At the end of my gcode, which uses several different G52 offsets, I've got this:

Code: [Select]

G28Z0
M44 (----------------------vac disable)
G52X0Y0
G0X0
G28Y0

Basically it moves to the center of my jig in X, then uses G28Y0 to bring the cutter closer for a manual tool change. This all works well enough, but for some reason, the G28Y0 moves the Y axis back to the center of the jig first, before eventually changing direction, and making its way to the actual Y axis home switch.

It doesn't hurt anything, it's just wasted movement. Any ideas why this happens?

If it makes any difference, I am using Fixture 1 (G54), with its X0Y0 being the center of a jig.

Thanks,
Z

14

General Mach Discussion / Jog keys disabled during tool change?

« on: September 25, 2017, 01:00:27 PM »

Hello all,

I've done a lot of searching about this, it seems it should be simple, but nothing has worked so far.

I can jog around just fine when I start Mach3. I load a program, run it, get to the first tool change, and the jog keys no longer do anything. I need to be able to jog to manually zero the next cutter. The "Jog ON/OFF" button is green, the keybinds are all still fine. The only way I can get the keys to work is is to press "GOTO ZERO", which is not what I want to happen. I have another machine, running the same version that doesn't behave like this. I've compared the general config settings between the two machine, and I don't see any difference. I'm sure I'm just missing a setting somewhere.

This just recently started happening, I don't know what changed. The last things I was working on was setting up a charge pump, and enable pin for my motor drivers. That all works fine.

I've attached my XML file, if it helps. Any ideas?

Thanks,
Z

15

General Mach Discussion / VFD Spindle responds to S commands, but only sometimes.

« on: September 18, 2017, 09:25:10 PM »

Hi again everyone,

I've got another machine I've been working on, and I've run into a new problem I've never seen before.

If I start the VFD spindle, and issue S2300, the spindle speed goes to 2300. Issuing S4000 (or any speed for that matter) adjusts the spindle speed as expected, however any subsequent S commands do not change the RPM at all, and will not, until I turn the spindle off, and back on again, using the button, or an M5 command. The RPM slider also seems to become unresponsive at this point, as well.

I've verified that this happens not only when running the commands in MDI, but also running a test program. After two S commands (sometimes after just the first S command), the spindle stops responding to changes.

I updated Mach3 to the most current version, but the issue persists. I also hooked an oscilloscope to the VFD PWM output pin, and no change is being made to the signal by Mach3 when asking for an RPM change.

My next step is to start a new profile and re-configure everything, but before I go through all that, I thought I'd ask about it.

Any thoughts?
Thanks, Z

16

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 + USBSmoothstepper + G540 VFD 10v output?

« on: April 26, 2017, 08:31:00 PM »

Finally figured it out. I checked the PWM signal coming out of the Smoothstepper on an oscilloscope, that looked fine. The +10v analog signal coming out of the G540 was a mess though, very noisy. The +10v reference voltage from the VFD turned out to be the culprit, a cap across the VFD's ground and output cleaned it up nicely.

Thanks for the ideas, guys.
Z

17

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 + USBSmoothstepper + G540 VFD 10v output?

« on: April 24, 2017, 03:04:27 PM »

Hi Craig,

Thanks for the response.

The output pin in question is actually on the G540, not the Smoothstepper.

This is pretty much all the manual for the G540 says about it:

Code: [Select]

ANALOG OUTPUT: This is a 0V to +10V opto-isolated analog output intended for use with VFD drives. VFD OUT goes
to 0VDC while the G540 is disabled. Connect VFD GND, VFD OUT and VFD +10V to the VFD drive inputs. Make sure the
VFD drive positive voltage does not exceed +12VDC. Do not short VFD OUT to any other terminal. Do not reverse
polarity to VFD GND and VFD +10V or the G540 may be damaged.
Based on this, I expected that the output would be +10v. Maybe I should look into using an output from the Smoothstepper instead? I guess I hadn't considered that.

Thanks,
Z

18

General Mach Discussion / Mach3 + USBSmoothstepper + G540 VFD 10v output?

« on: April 24, 2017, 12:37:23 PM »

Hello again everyone

I have a 220v 2.2kw Huan Yang VFD. I have it successfully under the control of Mach3.

I'm using Mach3, and a USB Smoothstepper connected to a Gecko G540.

I have tested the VFD manually, and confirmed that it will reach 24000 rpm using the front panel controls.

My only problem is, the output pin for the VFD from the G540 (pin 8 ) never goes all the way to 10vdc. I have my #1 pulley configured as 12000 min, 24000 max. If I measure the voltage on this output pin, as I increase the requested rpm, the voltage gradually increases from 0v to just over 5v, but never reaches 10v. The result is, the spindle never goes above about 16000 RPM.

I have verified the ground and +10vDC on the VFD connections.

I've tried changing the VFD to use the 0-5v range instead of 0-10v, but this seems like a band-aid fix, and I'm having troubles getting the requested RPM to match the actual RPM when I tried this.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!
Z

19

General Mach Discussion / Re: Ok, now what did I bump?

« on: April 04, 2017, 03:57:02 PM »

If it were a problem that was causing me to not be able to continue working, that's what I'd be doing. Since it technically still works, just not as expected, I thought I'd post here, and maybe learn something new. If all else fails, I will go to a backup.

Thanks,
Z

20

General Mach Discussion / Ok, now what did I bump?

« on: April 04, 2017, 01:33:00 PM »

Hello all,

Since the dawn of time (well, maybe slightly less than that), when I pushed start after a tool change, my spindle would start, then it would move directly to where it needed to start the next cut, and it would run the next tool path, as expected.

As of a couple days ago, it has changed. Now, after a tool change, the spindle does not start, which scared me to death, then it moves at a slower rate, back to the position it was at when the last tool path ended. The spindle then starts, dwell is activated, and it moves to start the next tool path. It works, but not the same way it used to.

I've compared the settings in Mach3 to my other machine, and I'm not finding what is different. My gcode files have not changed, in fact, some are several years old.

Any guess as to what I might have changed to cause this change in behavior? About the only thing I've changed in settings recently was g54 commands.

Thanks,
Z