Messages

1621

One on one phone support. / Re: Please can i get some phone support

« on: February 22, 2013, 12:24:52 PM »

Do you have a spindle index sensor configured and working?

Brett

1622

General Mach Discussion / Re: Settings lost?

« on: February 22, 2013, 12:23:38 PM »

You can have multipul profiles set up for Mach.  You may set one up for metric and one for inch for the same machine for example.  You should have a Mach 3 loader.  Click on it and it will give a list of all the profiles on your PC  to choose from to open.

Brett

1623

General Mach Discussion / Re: limit switch triggered

« on: February 22, 2013, 11:47:20 AM »

Jim, it may well be worth trying.  The interference will go down the wires but shielded cables should eliminate the worries of that.  This is why you only attach one end of the shield, at the controller.  You simply cannot eliminate EMF, you can only try to guide it where you want it to go.  What you hope to do is give a path of little resistance to ground and away from your low voltage bits.  Ground loops are like big antennas, they simply distribute the noise all over.  It gives them a path to run around freely wreaking havoc without ever having to go to ground.

Brett

1624

General Mach Discussion / Re: Settings lost?

« on: February 22, 2013, 09:10:43 AM »

Maybe you were looking at one one profile while your settings were actually a different profile?  The different profile settings are stored in your Mach 3 root folder with the file extension .xml

Brett

1625

General Mach Discussion / Re: limit switch triggered

« on: February 22, 2013, 09:06:09 AM »

Jim, it would be easy enough to load an older version just to see if it helps.  I don't think it will, but can't hurt anything to try as long as you back everything up before you do.  Just copy your whole Mach 3 folder and put in on a thumb drive.  As to why it is doing it now after doing for a while you must understand, many things effect EMF.  Humidity being one great example.  Ever slide your socks on the carpet and get a shock when you touched something metal?  The results vary greatly with the relative humidity.  How about rub your hair with a balloon?  That doesn't work if your hair is wet.  Noise can be a real PITA to put it lightly.  I remember a while back a guy had a machine that had been running fine, all of a sudden it started throwing false limit switch triggers.  The problem was he had added a fluorescent light over his machine.  So, what has changed that effects your machine?  

BTW that is why Industry uses 24v for signal wiring, very resistant to noise due to the big difference between a high and low signal threshold. I am glad to see at least one company has seen the benefits of 24v I/O as it makes my life a lot easier as I dont have to have extra interfaces to convert the 24 to 5 and vice versa.
Hood

No truer words have ever been spoken Hood!

Brett

1626

Modbus / Re: My experiments with Mach3 ModBus and Arduino, Part I

« on: February 22, 2013, 08:29:10 AM »

The screens are Buttons 1-100.  The mdi page is button 2 or 3 I think.

Brett

1627

General Mach Discussion / Re: Modbus spindle control?

« on: February 21, 2013, 07:54:54 PM »

Does this help?

http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php?topic=23759.new;topicseen#new

Brett

1628

General Mach Discussion / Re: Tangential Cutting issue, need advise

« on: February 21, 2013, 04:06:06 PM »

That's great Jay.  I wonder if you could edit your post processor to make any Z + move a feed instead of a rapid. And if so, would that eliminate the need for lead ins.  I don't think it will but would be interesting to know.  One other tidbit when useing tangential, make your code as clean as possible.  In other words, say you want to cut and arc.  Make its one smooth arc instead of a bunch of tiny ones.

Brett

1629

General Mach Discussion / Re: Tangential Cutting issue, need advise

« on: February 21, 2013, 01:24:24 PM »

Jay, can you add a z positive move just before any posotive moves the z has already to clear the work?  Maybe just above the wrok but below the Z positive where you are adding this line.  I would like to know if that works.

Brett

1630

General Mach Discussion / Re: Tangential Cutting issue, need advise

« on: February 21, 2013, 12:10:52 PM »

Jay, I know exactly what your saying. I watched the video too.  When the tool lifted up the knife was already rotateing to the angle it started the next cut.  Careful tool path generation is the best fix I have seen so far.  I will see if I can find out more for you though. 

Brett