Messages

1

General Mach Discussion / Re: calibrate mach3 to the vfd or the vfd to mach

« on: July 22, 2016, 10:26:39 PM »

..... and when I click on the Spindle + or - Buttons either in Mach 3 or the USB Jogger it takes it a while to slow the spindle down.

Sounds to me like Mach3 is controlling your VFD.

IMO modbus is a far superior way to have Mach3 communicate and control a VFD.

Have you considered whether the VFD is ramping up and/or down slowly because that's how the VFD is setup?

2

General Mach Discussion / Re: A Axis not Rotary but Affected by Rot 360 Rollover

« on: May 30, 2016, 05:27:47 AM »

I remember a conversation with Art Fennerty when he said checking "A axis is Angular"  does one thing and one thing only.

That is, it tells Mach3 to NOT scale the A axis DRO when changing from G20 to G21 or vice versa.  Nothing else.

So that would suggest to me you may be stuck with this particular issue.

3

General Mach Discussion / Re: Rotation radius or diameter? for display

« on: April 26, 2016, 12:22:56 AM »

It is a fairly trivial matter.  Would take me probably five minutes.

As I say the toolpath display comes out perfect here.

Up to you.

4

General Mach Discussion / Re: Rotation radius or diameter? for display

« on: April 25, 2016, 10:04:03 PM »

Well up to you but I would do a fresh install.

Then I would do a fresh xml.  Starting from scratch.  Will only take a few minuets if you note all your settings.

5

General Mach Discussion / Re: Rotation radius or diameter? for display

« on: April 25, 2016, 09:13:08 PM »

Z axis Dir is Pin 7 on Port 1; C axis Dir is Pin 7 on Port 2. No conflict.
I use the C Dir as a universal sync signal when tuning the X, Y and Z servo drivers.

OK my bad.

xml works here.  Then that only leaves a corrupted installation or a poor version.

6

General Mach Discussion / Re: Rotation radius or diameter? for display

« on: April 25, 2016, 07:17:59 PM »

Had a bit of a poke around with your xml. 

You had two motor outputs assigned to pin 7.  I don't think that was affecting anything.

Loaded my test file.  Would not display correctly until I zeroed all the axis DROs.  It then displayed correctly.

I have never noticed that behaviour before but it did the same thing with my xml.  Probably never noticed it as I would normally reference and zero DROs after startup and before loading file.

So try starting Mach, reference and/or zero all DROs and then load your file.

7

General Mach Discussion / Re: Rotation radius or diameter? for display

« on: April 25, 2016, 08:27:55 AM »

Using Version R3.043.062 here

Just ran up a test job.  100mm diameter.  Origin at the outer circumference (50mm offset)

Entered 50 in the "Rotation Radius" field.

Toolpath display comes out exactly right.

In the tooplath dialogue box my seting are as per pic

8

General Mach Discussion / Re: Rotation radius or diameter? for display

« on: April 25, 2016, 05:49:14 AM »

But what value to put in the DRO? Radius, or Diameter?

Many years ago there was a so-called bug fix which changed the label on the DRO from 'Rotation Diameter' to 'Rotation Radius' in order to get the surface cutting speed working correctly. However I don't care about the surface speed.

Yeah it used to be all messed up.  You had to enter radius to get the display right and diameter to get the feedrate compensation correct. (might have been the other way around, I forget)  I'd call that a real bug.

Anyway a number of years ago we got it mostly fixed.

I still think "Rotation Radius" is a poor descriptor for the field, bit it is what it is.

Enter a value equal to the distance the Z axis origin is offset from the centre of rotation and if you have other settings correct then the display will be correct.

9

VB and the development of wizards / Re: THCOn () what am I doing wrong?

« on: March 13, 2016, 07:13:35 PM »

OK I found some info.

I did search before posting but had no luck.

Then I tried again and found an old post on this issue.

THCOn () does in fact not work even though it is documented in the above manual.

However startTHC does work

And it is also in the manual.  Should have looked a little harder.  

EDIT:  that leaves the implied question above.

Is there another or better way to have THC default to the ON condition?

10

VB and the development of wizards / Re: THCOn () what am I doing wrong?

« on: March 13, 2016, 07:01:58 PM »

I should add that all I want it for is to set THC on by default.   Default upon startup is off.

Simple macro to include in the initialisation string to set THC on.

There may even be a better way to have THC to default to ON.