Topics

11

Mach4 General Discussion / Mach4 error comp calc failed with current tool radius

« on: August 10, 2016, 07:06:47 PM »

Can someone help me understand why I'm getting this error message in mach4? I'm trying to machine an outter contour, using the wear option in fusion 360. And as soon as I get to this option in mach4 it throws the above error.

12

Mach4 General Discussion / Mach4 probe setup and use

« on: June 25, 2016, 09:46:32 AM »

Does anyone know where I can get information about calibrating and us sing a probe in mach4? Is there a place to enter the information about the probe tip?

13

Mach4 General Discussion / Mach4 probing mode

« on: June 23, 2016, 12:30:13 PM »

I noticed mach4 probing is done in absolute mode. Wouldn't it be more beneficial to probe in incremental mode? I know that now when I probe I have to move the axis where I want them then zero the axis in order for the probe to work, otherwise I get errors. Whereas if it was in incremental wouldn't I be able to move my axis to the location then run my probing and have it move from current location like it was zeroed. I am using soft limits and have to continually shut them off when I probe then turn them back on before I run my program. I k ow that I will forget about that eventually and cause an unneeded crash

14

Mach4 General Discussion / Mach4 probe setup problems

« on: June 20, 2016, 02:19:48 PM »

I'm trying to set up a probe in mach4 using a probe, c48, c32 boards from cnc4pc. Trying to follow the setup instructions that came with the hardware, I'm experiencing problems get it to work. I can get the probe led from the diagnostic screen to light up, which I assume at this point the probe is setup correctly and working, but when I go to the probing screen in mach4 and try to probe a surface. The axis moves a short distance and then a message appears regarding no probe encountered. I'm also using the Ethernet smoothstepper for connectivity between my hardware and Mach. Does anyone have any ideas what could be wrong? I've tried to contact Arturo from cnc4pc and the guys from warp9t and neither one has been responsive. I'm really getting tired of hardware vendors not having problems taking my money, but when it comes time to support their products, they are nowhere to be found! Sorry for the side rant, just getting sick of some hardware vendors. Definitely going with pmdx for future needs.

Rod

15

Mach4 General Discussion / Mach4 Spindle setup

« on: March 16, 2016, 10:29:48 AM »

Good morning, I have a question for the Mach 4 gurus on this site, as i'm trying to wrap my head around this and not getting anywhere fast, LOL. How does the system use the max spindle and Max motor speed. Does it use it to as a gear ratio then male the adjustment to the vfd 0-10v signal? Also is the Feedback ratio only used for closed loop functionality? I'm going to layout a scenario and could someone please tell me if i am on to something or hanging out in the breeze somewhere?

Example Scenario: If i set min spindle speed to 0, and Max spindle speed to 5000, and the Max Motor Speed to 3600. will mach figure out how much voltage (between 0-10V) to send the vfd using some formula and the 5000 and 3600 values from the Max Spindle and Max Motor Speed, if i command an m3 s2500, or m3 s950


MinRPM The minimum RPM the spindle in the selected range
MaxRPM The maximum RPM the spindle in the selected range

Feedback Ratio
By default the Feedback ratio is 1, a value of one is used in an application
where the feed back device is mounted on the spindle. If the feedback device is
mounted on the motor or some other part of th gear train the feedback ratio
can be used to get the correct speed.

Max Motor RPM
The maximum RPM of the spindle motor. The reason for the maximum RPM is to allow for proper
scalling of the motors RPM on all ranges. The motor RPM is used by motion devices, plugins, VFD's, Lua
etc for planning the proper motor RPM to get the requested spindle RPM.

16

Mach4 General Discussion / Mach4 spindle setup

« on: March 08, 2016, 09:29:13 PM »

Does anyone have any info on setting up a spindle in mach4? I have a vfd and motor working in mach3 using pwm but can't seem to figure out how to setup the spindle in mach4. I have a cnc4pc c32 Bob with ess, my motor and vfd are from charter oak automation. Vfd is danfoss, motor is Chinese 3HP 3600rpm.

Rod

17

General Mach Discussion / Mach3 lathe

« on: February 01, 2016, 08:08:15 PM »

Can the mach3 lathe be setup with a Y axis? I'm using my VMC for turning as well as machining and would like to be able to use the y axis to align my tool to centerline so I'm not above or below CL with my tools. then set the x and z offsets.

18

General Mach Discussion / Help with machined parts wrong size

« on: December 22, 2015, 05:00:53 PM »

Could someone help me understand why when I am machining something parts of the part come out the wrong size. I machined a part today that had an inside pocket and outter contour. The inside pocket came out to size but the outter profile came out almost .010" larger than it should.

19

General Mach Discussion / Mach not cutting right

« on: November 14, 2015, 10:58:34 AM »

I have a strange issue. When I move an axis using mdi to a specific location Mach will move there and repeat every time, but when I'm running a program the part always seems to come out around .010" to large. There are no values in the tool offset fields. Does anyone have any idea what the problem could be

20

General Mach Discussion / Control Panel Setup

« on: November 11, 2015, 08:17:00 PM »

Good Evening, I would like to setup my control panel to have a series of buttons to control functions like cycle start, feedhold, X zero, Y zero, etc.. I would also like to add an encoder to move the Different Axis. I would like to do this without purchasing anymore hardware than I already have. I have a cnc4pc C32 Multifunction board, Ethernet Smoothstepper. How would I go about implementing these features with this setup.

Could I just take a button and connect one end to an input on my BOB and the other end to a grouns on the BOB then tell mach what pin is being used and what to trigger when it is pressed? Or do I need to have some more electronics installed between the button and mach? I see a lot of stuff regarding MODI/O, Brains, POKEYS, etc.. Do I need these or can it be done in a much simpler way?