Messages

871

NC Pod / Re: Homing with the ncPod

« on: February 03, 2007, 03:06:07 PM »

Ryan

No the machine I am hoping to use the Pod on is not quite finnished.    Almost but no switches yet.

If the Pod won't do this dual switch homing strategy, that will be a ball breaker for me and I will have to revert to LPT   

Just now I am getting all the wiring, cable management and electronics enclosure together, so hence my desire to know about the Pod.

Greg

872

General Mach Discussion / Re: Page up - Page down

« on: February 03, 2007, 06:47:39 AM »

Great!!!!  I was hoping it would be something simple like that.

Now that you pointed it out I found the reference in the manual.

Thanks  Hood   

873

General Mach Discussion / Page up - Page down

« on: February 03, 2007, 03:07:47 AM »

I have got myself one of those flexible keyboards. It's great, impervious to dust an swarf.

One problem. It is not the extended version. Has no number keypad.

But what I did not think of is that it has no Page up or Page down which I use to jog the Z axis.

Is there a simple way to asign those actions to another couple of keys?

Prefer not at this stage to go making my own screens or any thing that complex. 

874

NC Pod / Homing with the ncPod

« on: February 02, 2007, 09:51:46 PM »

I have noticed that when slaving A with X that all settings for A become redundant and it just follows X. (as it should most of the time)

Even reversing the direction of A in "homing and limits" does not work while slaved to X.

I had to reverse wires on A to get  one motor to run LH and one RH.

So my question is will Mach's homing strategy work where using two homing switches will "square the gantry" ?

Or will the Pod not be able to differentiate between the two axis ?

See section 4.6.6 paragraph 5 of the Mach Mill user guide if you don't know what I'm on about. 

875

NC Pod / Re: Slaving over a hot Pod

« on: February 01, 2007, 07:46:18 PM »

Got my Y and Z axis done so now I am back to trying the Pod.  Really want this to work now.   

Latest version of Mach  .041,   Plugin  .038  and   Pod Firmware 2014

First thing is slaving is now working like a dream.  YAY!!!!

Everything else is still the same so the fix must have come about through software updates.

One thing that has come up and only happens when on the "Tool Path" screen.

The out put starts to stutter.  Change to any other screen and it smoothes right out again.

Any ideas on this one?

876

Newfangled Solutions Mach3 Wizards / Re: Circular pocket question

« on: January 31, 2007, 07:54:19 PM »

Thanks Ronginger. 

Do you have any sugestions as how to best manage that situation of a pocket within a pocket?

It is something that comes up all the time for me.

Nothing wrong with sheetcam it just does spiral pockets differently.

Sheetcam starts at the outer diameter, ramping down as it starts, cuts a circle, then does a Z lift, moves

over and does it all again at the step over amount.  Works it's way to the center that way.

Newfangled as you well know does a clever little corkscrew in the center down to Z level, then

spirals out to the finished diameter.

Seems to my inexperienced self that newfangle's way is quicker and just plain sexier.    

877

Newfangled Solutions Mach3 Wizards / Circular pocket question

« on: January 30, 2007, 09:09:27 PM »

I really like the circular pocket wizard in the newfangled set. 

When I do circular pocket in Sheetcam it does it in a strange way so I prefer the wizard.

I like how it can spiral down in the centre etc.

Now on to my question.

When I do a pocket and then want to do a second pocket in the same spot but deeper (smaller diameter)

how do I set the start depth of the second pocket to the finnished depth of the first?

What I have beeen doing is scrolling through the gcode and run "start from here"

There must be a better way.   

I could reset Z zero but then it mucks up my rapid clearance etc etc.

878

NC Pod / Re: Report Any NC Pod Driver, Firmware or Documentation Download Problems Here

« on: January 30, 2007, 03:41:58 PM »

The listing on the plugin page says it is .037 but if you download and install, it comes up as .038

879

NC Pod / Re: Report Any NC Pod Driver, Firmware or Documentation Download Problems Here

« on: January 29, 2007, 11:43:57 PM »

Looks like there is a new version of the Mach plugin V2.00.038

Also a new version of the firmware for the Pod. V 2014

Moderator please remove this post when the locked,  "latest version"  thread is updated.

Thanks,   Greg

880

NC Pod / Re: Slaving over a hot Pod

« on: January 26, 2007, 07:06:48 PM »

Sent you a PM dave