Messages

891

General Mach Discussion / Re: Homing Problem - Axis do not consistently back off the switch

« on: September 23, 2014, 01:45:33 PM »

This may help.

http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,25616.0.html

892

General Mach Discussion / Re: Feedrate on multi-segment curves

« on: September 23, 2014, 12:57:35 AM »

I could play with the acceleration settings to see if it really is a factor though.

It will be. The higher accels the better you will fair out. Nothing happens instantly but the closer you can get to it the better. Keep in mind though, the higher the accels the more rigid the machine will need to be to benefit from the results.

That's a lot of trouble to go through though for something that should be fixable through the settings, be they motor tuning settings or something else.

The something else would be the Gcode. Garbage in is garbage out. No controller (Mach or any other) will accept any old gcode you load and then produce the moves you think it should. You can't expect to load Gcode telling the machine to make certain moves and then be upset with the machine because it did what you told it to instead of what you wanted it to. It may be a bit of trouble to make all of the line segments equal but I bet it isn't as hard as it would be to build a controller that can read the programmers mind. I'm not trying to be short but trying to put things into perspective.

Look at some of the topics on lasers, laser engraving. Fine control of timing and power is extremely critical. What you are trying to do is going to be close I would say in the amount of control needed but worse in some ways. With the lasers if they change the power or turn it off, the effects are realized almost instantaneously. In your case it will not be. Your roller that is contacting the material will have mass and it will take some time to dissipate the heat (correct me if I'm wrong). What you are trying to do is interesting and seems pretty simple but I think you may be underestimating the demands that will actually need to be met for you to meet your goals. If you have some hard numbers to work with it may not be as critical as I am thinking. Do you know what size windows you have to work with? What are the min and max speeds and pressures that will produce acceptable results? How do they relate to one another? Are they linear? Could you control another variable easier or faster? Can you control the heat faster (maybe a hot air gun using PWM)? Maybe you could make the line segments longer than needed so that the welding wheel is traveling at a constant speed the whole length of the part needing welded (essentially lead in and lead out moves) and fire a solenoid to bring the roller in contact with the material? This would be a Gcode nightmare for sure. Maybe you could vary the pressure on the wheel based on the blended velocity? Maybe you could use a rotating wheel and friction to generate the heat and have better control? Maybe a water cooled wheel and a heat gun on an axis that moves the heat closer when velocity is higher and further away as it slows down (kind of like torch height control but not really   )? I wonder if G93 (Inverse time feed rate mode) may be the answer for you? Maybe a laser for the heat source and the wheel just to mash it together at the right time? I'm really just thinking out loud but this is interesting when you think about it.

Hopefully if nothing else this is food for thought.

893

General Mach Discussion / Re: Keyboard Stops Working

« on: September 21, 2014, 03:05:14 PM »

This may help all of you.

http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,25616.msg180583.html#msg180583

Brett

894

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: 5 axis desktop machine Kickstarter

« on: September 20, 2014, 05:48:26 PM »

Very Cool! 

895

General Mach Discussion / Re: Old version download

« on: September 20, 2014, 09:39:54 AM »

Right you are Zasto, my bad.

ftp://anonymous:guest@machsupport.com/

896

General Mach Discussion / Re: Old version download

« on: September 19, 2014, 08:06:36 PM »

Here you go.

ftp://anonymous:guest@machsupport.com/

897

General Mach Discussion / Re: newbie

« on: September 12, 2014, 04:18:44 AM »

Another great source is http://www.machsupport.com/help-learning/f-a-q/ If you see a question you do not know the answer to just click on it and the answer will be displayed below it.

898

General Mach Discussion / Re: Do I have a problem

« on: September 07, 2014, 08:45:30 PM »

You cannot jog with the keyboard from a page that does not have the jog enable LED on it.

Brett

899

VB and the development of wizards / Re: homing macro and Ismoving

« on: September 07, 2014, 08:32:59 AM »

Thomas, I will see if I can find any details about Art Code 3336 and if I do I will post my findings. Until then let me tell you that any Art Code error I have ever seen was generated by one of three things. A bad macro, a bad plugin or bad Gcode. I recommend you set up a new profile with all things being default. The screen, the ref. all home script (which is basically the code I recommended earlier), everything. The only plugin you should have installed is the CS Labs. Make sure you can operate the machine without getting the error and start adding your custom bits in one at the time and test to see what it is that is causing the error message.

I do not think you are going to be able to initially reference the machine with much success any other way than having the operator click a reference all button. My experience with the CSLabs tells me the script in that button will have to be very clean and cannot contain any While IsMoving() loops for sure. I also tried using LED 999 and countless other ways. The only thing that made it stable and eliminated all sorts of weirdness is the code I posted earlier. I can understand sending the machine to a set position at the beginning or end of each program, that I understand. This is usually done by commanding those coordinates or with a G28, G30, or G28.1 in the G code. I have not tested these g codes with the CSLabs because if this machine gets out of position (following error is too great) the servo drives will throw a fault which will force the operator to reference the machine after resetting the fault. This eliminates the need to reference the machine before each cycle.

Mach and CSLabs are very capable but they (or any other controller or hardware) are only going to work the way they are hard coded to. Our job as machine builders is to get what we want without asking the controller or hardware to do things they cannot. This often means we have to rethink the way we are doing things. But, that is the best part about being the machine builder, we have that option. Code does not, it can only work as it is written to. We have to be creative enough to stay within those bounds and still get what we want.

Brett

900

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions

« on: September 06, 2014, 07:06:49 PM »

Hey Terry, No, I do not know.

Brett