Messages

251

General Mach Discussion / Re: Increasing feedrate when threading

« on: November 05, 2013, 04:10:49 PM »

That's fine.

Are you using a licensed version of Mach?
Threading is not enabled if you don't have a valid license.

I've never used the PP for threading so the only other thing I can think of is do you have the index input (Ports and Pins -> Input Signals) set to the pin you have the spindle sensor connected to?
The fact the tool moves into position then stops, sounds like mach isn't receiving the spindle signal. When you command a thread cycle, the tool moves into position ready to start, then pauses briefly while it waits for a spindle pulse.

The other problem could be your acceleration/speed isn't fast enough for the thread you're trying to cut, although I'm not sure what Mach does if that is the case. However a quick way to test for this, would be to slow the spindle down and cut some air to see if the threading is going to work.

252

General Mach Discussion / Re: Increasing feedrate when threading

« on: November 05, 2013, 02:44:23 PM »

What I meant by pulses, are the steps for the stepper drivers.
Are you still using the Pokeys to control the steppers?

253

General Mach Discussion / Re: Increasing feedrate when threading

« on: November 05, 2013, 02:26:20 PM »

Jason, what is actually creating the pulses to control the lathe?

To display the speed on a DRO, the input can be taken from pretty much anywhere, but as I said in my last post, inorder to sync motion to the spindle (i.e. when cutting threads), whatever is generating the pulses must be capable of the required syncing, and have the spindle pulses directly fed to it.

254

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach Turn - a couple questions

« on: November 05, 2013, 01:24:45 PM »

Nah, the tool slots are clear all the way to the centre mounting hole.

Setting up seperate offsets will have the advantage of the offsets being somewhat near where they need to be, so saving a little bit time when swapping out tools. I'll try it once I get things up and running and see what's going to work best.

255

General Mach Discussion / Re: Increasing feedrate when threading

« on: November 05, 2013, 01:17:10 PM »

The issue is whatever is creating the actual motion (i.e. the actual pulses), be that the computer via it's PP or an external controller, has to be able to see the spindle pulses real time inorder to sync movement to the spindle pulse(s). Whenever you introduce things like USB or Ethernet into the mix, you introduce indeterminate delays (i.e. the delay varies depending on various factors which lead to random time delays), so you can't have for example the spindle pulses being inputed to the PP and expect an external motion controller to be able to sync to them as the delay would cause unreliable syncing.

For external motion controllers there are a few options. SS/ESS are probably the most popular at the cheaper end of the market, but you've got buy from the US or Aus (PMDX do them, and if you're needing a new BOB, PMDX are some of the best).
In the UK, Zapp Automation sells the russian controller which I've completely forgotten the name of (control logic???), and CSLabs stuff. Best to drop them an email to see what they've got in stock as website stock levels aren't always accurate.
Other UK option is Eaziform/ConquerorDesign, but none of their stuff is Mach compatible.

Everything else I can think of are all US based.

256

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach Turn - a couple questions

« on: November 04, 2013, 07:05:56 PM »

Thanks for that.
I'll grab a copy of 57.

My turret just has wedges for normal square shank tools, so although Z will be fairly repeatable, X won't.
Boring bar/drill holders are bolt on, so should be reasonably repeatable, but only if I make enough holders to avoid swapping tools.

257

General Mach Discussion / Mach Turn - a couple questions

« on: November 04, 2013, 06:25:26 PM »

I see various mentions of 66 having issues regarding turning, so what's the newest recommended version for turn?
Or more precisely, what are the known bugs in the later versions?
I think my little lathe is still running 22, and I adopted the "if it's not broke, don't fix it" attitude so have never bothered upgrading it to any of the later versions, however for the new lathe I figured I'd better update a bit.


How do people handle tool offsets with turrets?
I know you can have tool x loaded in tool position y, but when the tools are swapped, they're never likely to ever clamp back in the exact same position, so is there anypoint in having offsets for every tool when they'll need to be reset when the tool is refitted?

258

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: Denford Cyclone retrofit

« on: November 04, 2013, 06:08:05 PM »

Cable trunking hides a multitude of sins


Wiring Tidied by mc_mtb, on Flickr

I've started modifying the basic lathe screenset to get a layout I'm happy with, and so it can handle the KFlop, as various buttons need to be changed so they notify the KFlop plugin, and the DROs changed so they read directly from the KFlop.

I'm also working on configuring the KFlop, and trying to decide how the various functions I need are going to be coded. I'm aiming to have the KFlop handle as much of the critical stuff as possible, and then just notify Mach when things havn't worked how they should. Things like halting everything when a Servo faults will be handled directly by the KFlop, along with talking to the PLC, and things like stopping when the door gets opened.

259

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: Denford Cyclone retrofit

« on: October 30, 2013, 07:04:09 PM »

The turret works!

Found a couple issues in the ladder that were causing the wrong move to be calculated, so fixed them and also added in rungs so it only attempts to move once for each toolchange attempt. I still need to add a couple time outs so the turret can't sit spinning endlessly if something goes wrong, but I'm happy the basics are now working.

I grabbed a quick vid - http://www.flickr.com/photos/mc_mtb/10582127085/

Now onto configuring the KFlop, so it works with Mach, and can talk to the PLC.

260

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: Denford Cyclone retrofit

« on: October 29, 2013, 09:11:45 AM »

I noticed that earlier when I was comparing prices for a complete package (mostly out of curiousity), and realised that CS mention the IOs for the main modules on the IO module page. The CS has the benefit the main modules have more IO (32In/16Out) on the main modules compared with the Kanalog (only 8In/8Out that are 24V, along with 8 80V relay drivers).
Price wise there's not much between them. To get a Kflop with analog and comparable IOs to just a CS main module, CS is a bit cheaper, but if you then need a threading module, then Dynomotion is cheaper.

Anyway, I got the Click programmed. Then followed by a bit head scratching, and flipping all the logic in the position detection subroutine, the turret spins, locks, then starts spinning again 
I need to run through all the logic that calculates the move direction and number of positions, as if I request position 3, it always moves in reverse, stopping and locking at 1 and 5. I'm hoping it's just something simple in my code.