Messages

21

General Mach Discussion / Re: Go To X and Y Zero?

« on: June 19, 2009, 02:28:29 PM »

I don't know. Can you tell me where I can find the steps per unit?

Thanks for the response.
Bill

22

General Mach Discussion / Go To X and Y Zero?

« on: June 19, 2009, 12:44:18 PM »

Hi,
Go to X zero Y zero question:
I use a screen set that has an XYO button. If I zero the X and Y DRO’s and then jog off and click on the XY0 button the machine returns to zero for both X and Y.
My problem is when I enter adjustments for touch plate thickness and half the diameter of the bit into the X and Y DRO’s and then jog off and click on the XY0 button, the machine moves back but the DRO’s show a number like .0004 when I asked it to go to zero.

Here is my touch-off technique:
1.   I touch off of the bottom left Outside corner of X.
2.   I make the correction for the plate thickness and half the bit diameter.
3.   I select the X DRO and enter the value with a minus sign in front of the number.
4.   I repeat this for Y.

Example: I touch off using a .062 bit and a .01 thick plate.
1/2 of .062 = .031 + .01 = Total .041 DRO adjustment in the Minus X or Y direction. (-.041 Enter) I'm not sure if I'm using a bad technique or I have a setting issue with Mach3.

I was also thinking that it might not make any difference if I select Cycle Start from a point other than X and Y zero. () No matter, it still bugs me that the machine is not moving to the position requested.

I hope this makes sense. Any ideas?

Thanks,
Bill

23

General Mach Discussion / Re: New - First Question - X - Y - Z - Touch Off Plate - Screen and Script Request

« on: May 05, 2008, 04:35:25 PM »

Hello Jim,

I have tried out the system and unfortunately there are a lot of issues at the moment.

When I select any of your buttons, the machine does move but the stepper motors sound weird.

If I select Touch Z,  I get a Y- movement.
If I touch X right I get a Y- movement.
If I touch Y away, I get a Y- movement.
If I touch Y Toward, I get a Y- movement.
If I touch X Left, I get a Y- movement followed by an abrupt reverse movement that causes a reset situation.

Also, On the Front Page or Run Program page, there is now an extra window beside the plate thickness window and the plate thickness window is out of position to the left by about 1/4 inch.

I think that you will probably need to check this on your machine to understand all of the above. I understand it is not available at the moment but I think you will need to check these issues when your machine modification is complete.

I'm too new, maybe a more experienced type will try. I'm afraid I would just cause confusion. I will continue to check back to see if others are successful with their test.

Thanks!
Bill

24

General Mach Discussion / Re: New - First Question - X - Y - Z - Touch Off Plate - Screen and Script Request

« on: May 05, 2008, 03:13:02 PM »

Wow!

That sounds really nice. A friend who helped me said that he thought a separate page would allow users to keep all the other options available and that is what you decided on. COOL!

I do feel confident with the touch off system now and another friend explained a minor difference in his techinque but it is basically the same.

There is one area that you mentioned that does bring up a question in my mind. I do like the thought of using the Tool Window to input a specific tool from the tool table but what worries me is the following. Again, please correct me because I am probably wrong on this but it is my understanding that if a tool is selected from the tool table, offsets will be applied.
Are offsets applied when selecting a tool from the tool table? The reason I ask is because my tool path drawings already have the correct offsets compensated for. I do not want Mach to make any offsets to my drawings. If offsets are applied, I can see that after completing the touch off routine, that it might be possible to go back and change the tool number to 0. (not sure)

Thanks!
Bill J.

25

General Mach Discussion / Re: New - First Question - X - Y - Z - Touch Off Plate - Screen and Script Request

« on: May 05, 2008, 01:58:34 PM »

Progress!

I now can select "Go To Z" after doing the touch off routine and the tool bit moves to exactly where it should be. (cool)hA!

The method I used was. (Not very automated but it works)
1. Touch the plate.
2. Make the corrections for tool radius and plate thickness in the DRO window.
3. Do this for both X and Y
4. Touch off Z
5. Then select "Go To Z"

Mach Glitch: If you need to select a negative number in the DRO window it initally reads + instead of -. When you select enter, the number then changes to -.   (Version 2.63)

Now it would be very nice to automate this touch off routine by adding a window that would allow you to input the diameter or radius of the tool and some how have the individual X+, Y+, X-, Y- arrow buttons make the correction for tool radius automatically.

It would also be neat to have a separate window for the input of touch plate thickness for X and Y. On my Blue Screen modification, there is a window for touch plate thickness for Z.

Can this be done? I know I would really like that but the more manual way does work.

Thanks,
Bill

26

General Mach Discussion / Re: New - First Question - X - Y - Z - Touch Off Plate - Screen and Script Request

« on: May 05, 2008, 09:56:33 AM »

Thanks,

I will take a look at the post. If you have a newer version of Mach3 you will find a very neat tool that will add the script to your button.

Go to the "Operator" tab then select "Edit Button Script" the the cursor changes to a hand then Left click on the desired button and a edit script window will open where you can add or edit a script.

I will work with touching off some more today and let you know if I get my issues cleared up.

By the way, if you go to "operator" and do not find the "Edit Button Script" which is a very nice option, you need to downlad the newest version of Mach. I am using Ver. 2.63.

Thank You for your efforts on my behalf.
Bill Jenkins

27

General Mach Discussion / Re: New - First Question - X - Y - Z - Touch Off Plate - Screen and Script Request

« on: May 05, 2008, 01:36:49 AM »

Hello again,

Are there some examples of the touch off sequence somewhere on this site? It would help me a lot to see the basic sequence that is normally used. It sure seems like there should be.

I have the scripts and plate working perfectly but I still have a lack of understanding regarding tool radius correction.
Questions like when do you make the tool radius compensation - before or after touching, where you do it, and so on.

A friend did explain this but I must be doing something wrong.

Thanks,
Bill J.

28

General Mach Discussion / Re: New - First Question - X - Y - Z - Touch Off Plate - Screen and Script Request

« on: May 04, 2008, 10:08:48 PM »

Hello,

I did get an answer to the script modification I was looking for on the following link. I do appreciate the help here and will continue to check back to see if other tips and techniques are posted.

A lot of detailed work has been put into this CNCZone thread by a man named Ernie.
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=56079&page=6

Thanks,
Bill J.

29

General Mach Discussion / Re: New - First Question - X - Y - Z - Touch Off Plate - Screen and Script Request

« on: May 03, 2008, 03:30:34 PM »

Thanks very much Jim,

I have a friend in my area (Knoxville, TN) that went out of his way this morning to explain some things to me via a Skype Voice Chat. (2 hours)

Now, I do understand things much better regarding the touch off system or locating a part home. I would like to explain his method which is probably the standard techniques but I feel that I would use the wrong term or in some way confuse the issue.
I would like to overview my understanding just to see if you think I have a handle on it and if you think I should or should not edit the scripts.

The following is a new guy rambling about what he thinks he has learned.

In general, I now understand that I can use the offset page to correct for tool radius for X and Y for touch plate operation and at the same time, not affect the offsets that I already have made in my drawings.

Also, I believe I understand that I could add a script line for the X+ and Y+ arrows that would take care of the touch plate thickness or I can add this additional offset to the tool radius and type it into the offset window. Or I can touch via X- and Y- and not have to make a touch plate thickness correction.

All of my G-Code drawings (tool path) already has the proper offsets for each tool diameter. So I now believe that I do not select a tool in the tool window. I understand that I leave the tool window at tool #0 to prevent offsets from being applied in my drawing.

Please let me know if this is different than your method or if you have any points that you think I'm simply wrong on.

At first, I just wanted to push the X+ or Y+ arrow and (somehow)(via magic script) have the tool radius compensated for along with touch plate thickness. Since I already have offsets in my drawings and therefore I should not select a tool in the tool window, I think that I should make the tool radius offsets for touching off on the offset page.

I still would like to add a line to the script that would take care of touch plate thickness for the X+ and Y+ arrows. If you think this is the way to go, I can post the X+ and Y+ scripts.

Thanks, I hope I didn't cause frustration or confusion with any of this.  Any ideas are appreciated.

Bill J.

30

General Mach Discussion / Re: New - First Question - X - Y - Z - Touch Off Plate - Screen and Script Request

« on: May 02, 2008, 04:31:18 PM »

Update:

Now that I have played with the “Auto Tool Zero” button, I would prefer to check one axis at a time. It’s a neat button and I may add a all in one script to it later on. 

The following refers to buttons that are found on the modified Blue Screen Set. There are four arrows, X+, X-, Y+ and Y-. There is also a Z arrow that I already have a good script for. To see this specific screen you can click on the link. Scroll half way down the page. I do not have any preference on the screen set but it does have the arrow buttons that I want to use. http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?p=436270#post436270

After experimenting, I became confident that I could touch off of X, Y and Z using the XYZ arrow buttons. I zeroed each axis after touching and after completing the touch routine for XYZ, I selected "Go To Z" and then selected "Regen" and finally “Cycle Start”. I’m not sure if this is the technique or sequence that most use or not but it seems to work.

There is a script associated with each of these XYZ arrow buttons. Now I need to determine if the individual scripts for the X and Y arrow buttons accomplish the following.   (I have a good Z script already)

(1)   I need the scripts associated with the X+ and Y+ arrow buttons to make the compensation for my touch plate thickness for X+ and Y+ only.  (not for X- and Y-) My touch plate is 0.0635 inches thick.

(2)   I need all the X and Y arrow button scripts to reference the tool selected in the tool information window and make the radius correction. It is important that this radius correction only be applied for the touch off script. My drawings already have compensated for the tool offset. My tools are in the Mach Tool Table as recommended.

A friend walked me through the Z script last night and I now have some understanding of what the script says but not enough to write the script from scratch. Below are the current X+, X- scripts. If changes need to be made, I should be able to edit Y+ and Y- the same way.

Thanks in advance for taking a look at them.

From what I see in these scripts, it does not make the corrections described above. But I really am clueless about the script language and codes.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is the current script for the X+ arrow button:

Rem   VBScript for probing in the x direction
If GetOemLed (825) <> 0 Then       'Check to see if the probe is already grounded or faulty
   Code "(Probe plate is grounded, check connection and try again)" 'this goes in the status bar if aplicable
Else
   Code "G4 P1"         'Pause 1 second to give time to position probe plate
   CurrentFeed = GetOemDRO(818)    'Get the current feedrate to return to later
   Code "F4"
Rem   Probe left
   XNew = GetDro(0) + 3      'probe to current position + 3 inches
   Code "G31 X" &XNew
   While IsMoving()      'wait for prob move to complete
   Wend
   XNew = GetVar(2000)      'read the touch point
Rem   move back to the hit point incase there was an overshoot
   Code "G0 X" &XNew
   While IsMoving ()
   Wend
   Code "F" &CurrentFeed       'restore original feed rate
End If
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is the current script for the X- arrow button:

Rem   VBScript for probing in the x direction
If GetOemLed (825) <> 0 Then       'Check to see if the probe is already grounded or faulty
   Code "(Probe plate is grounded, check connection and try again)" 'this goes in the status bar if aplicable
Else
   Code "G4 P1"         'Pause 1 second to give time to position probe plate
   CurrentFeed = GetOemDRO(818)    'Get the current feedrate to return to later
   Code "F4"
Rem   Probe left
   XNew = GetDro(0) - 3      'probe to current position - 3 inches
   Code "G31 X" &XNew
   While IsMoving()      'wait for prob move to complete
   Wend
   XNew = GetVar(2000)      'read the touch point
Rem   move back to the hit point incase there was an overshoot
   Code "G0 X" &XNew
   While IsMoving ()
   Wend
   Code "F" &CurrentFeed       'restore original feed rate
End If