Topics

51

NC Pod / Slaving over a hot Pod

« on: January 18, 2007, 12:06:11 AM »

 I am building a router that has R&P drive on each side of the X axis.

Although the Y and Z axis are not done the slaving in Mach through LPT has tested well on the completed X

So as Art has released a plugin for the Pod that has slaving I thought I would give it a go 

One side of the drive is designated X and the other side A.  Slaving is selected in Mach X to A

Motor tuning is set the same to both drives.  Try to jog. No go. Just acts like it is stalling. (turns slowly, makes a lot of noise)

Tried all sorts of velocity and accelleration settings. Nothing works.

Deselect slaving and X jogs perfectly on its own.

What am I doing wrong. Something stupid I guess. 

52

NC Pod / Not returning to zero

« on: January 14, 2007, 11:49:02 PM »

Disabling legacy mode in bios has made comunication more stable.

However I have a funny problem.

Set all DROs to zero, run the roadrunner, DROs not ending on zero.  Gcode last move is go to zero but DROs not returning to zero.

Watching the Z axis DRO during code execution. Z spends most of the time at -0.1 and goes up for rapids returning to -0.1

Each time (or most) it returns 0.0025 different than the last. So they add up to a cumulative error by the end.

See pic for screen capture at the end of roadrunner execution.

53

Forum suggestions and report forum problems. / Time for an ncPod forum?

« on: January 04, 2007, 11:01:45 PM »

I asked this question over at CNCzone and got not much response.

Art is developing a plugin for it and I believe it may become a popular alternative.

For that to happen people need to be able to find out about it and info is a bit light on as yet.

What do you think?   

54

General Mach Discussion / Big Tool?

« on: January 01, 2007, 06:44:32 PM »

On the Quantum video there is a screen called "Big Tool"

Is this a Quantum thing?  Or is it some version of Mach?  Is it in an optional screen set?

I did search about this but came up squint. 

55

General Mach Discussion / Debounce quetion

« on: October 20, 2006, 01:38:25 AM »

Can someone explain the difference between "debounce interval" and "index debounce"

And the effect of useing one rather than the other or both?

56

General Mach Discussion / LPT woes

« on: October 13, 2006, 04:57:27 AM »

Posted this on the "zone" but might get more help here   

Been running Mach3 on my laptop via a buffered, not optoisolated, BOB.

Quite successfull, no problems.

Now as per prevailing opinion I have hooked up a desktop with on board LPT. 1.67 ghz 368 mb

Same version of Mach, same xml, same printer cable. Ports and Pins still correct.

But it is just not getting any signal from my homing and limit switches. Even the estop does nothing.

Doesn't matter if active low or high. Motors run fine on jog so its not port assignment issue.

Swap back to the laptop and no problems.  Do I have a dud mother board? Something I'm overlooking?

Any clues???

57

General Mach Discussion / Mach to DeskCNC?

« on: September 30, 2006, 07:02:53 PM »

Heard a rumour that Art is going to write a module, or whatever it's called, to make
Mach run a DeskCNC controller board.

Any truth in this?

This would be very good news to my way of thinking.
An alternative to the problematic printer port at a very good price.

So I am hoping this is a good rumour.

58

General Mach Discussion / Screen display when maximised?

« on: September 19, 2006, 12:39:19 AM »

It would seem that Mach does not follow the windows convention of
allowing for the bottom toolbar when maximised.

Do I have this right or am I missing some basic setting?

Mostly noticable for me when using wizards as the buttons along the bottom of
screen are partialy hidden behind the windows tool bar.

I have tried this at other screen resolutions.

Am I doing something really dumb???

EDIT: Should add that this has been the same on all upgrades I have tried so far.

59

General Mach Discussion / Homing question

« on: August 25, 2006, 05:39:51 PM »

Mach 3 R1.84.002  I asked this question on CNCzone but did not get a response yet

I have homing switch position on the X axis at 100mm in from the left or zero end of the mill table
so that it is less distance to reference from middle work area. Saving time.

That switch is active if the table is already within that 100mm of the travel.

When referencing the axis goes in the negative direction looking for homing as it should.

Now acording to the PDF manual, if it is already active it should look in the other or positive direction for home but it doesn't. 
See section 4.6.5 of manual.

The program says "One or more homing switches are active....Please fix, then home"

Now what am I doing wrong? Is it a bug?

Thanks, Greolt

60

General Mach Discussion / Upgrade the installation

« on: August 25, 2006, 08:13:34 AM »

I want to upgrade from 1.84 to 1.90.

Do I just install over the top?  Uninstall? Whats the go?

Just paid the purchase price and will install the license after I upgrade.

Thanks