Messages

31

General Mach Discussion / Re: Machine setup help - urgent if possible :)

« on: July 24, 2016, 05:12:17 PM »

You obviously quoted me before my sly edit. It's the S/Speedchange macro you need to edit, not the M6 for the spindle speed.

You'd need to check in what order the scripts get run, especially if both M3 and S are on the same line.
As long as they don't both get called simultaneously, you could essentially have identical code in both to test for the correct gear, so even if the M3 gets called before the speed change, the M3 macro will of already done the gear checking, so by the time the spindle speed macro is called, it just checks for the correct gear and then sets the VFD as required.
Then on just a speed change, the spindle speed macro will handle the gear change.

32

General Mach Discussion / Re: Machine setup help - urgent if possible :)

« on: July 24, 2016, 04:10:14 PM »

If you were to use a tool range for special tools that need manual zeroing, say tool 50 upwards, then you can test for that in your M6 script, and handle them differently.

As for the spindle speed, I think you're probably going to need to use some non-standard coding in your g-code files.
Does your current M6 S/speed change script have anything in it to activate a feedhold while the speed is being changed?

33

General Mach Discussion / Re: Bridgeport Knee Mill Conversion?

« on: July 24, 2016, 01:32:44 PM »

Cat patch cable is stranded wire. Patch cable is meant for making up the leads from sockets to computers, so is stranded for reliability and flexibility. Non-patch cable is usually solid core.

I think personally, I'd get everything installed and wired cleanly in a cabinet. Ideally twisted pairs are better, but standard cable should work just fine. The new encoder I just got for my lathe spindle came with standard un-shielded multicore cable, and it works just fine despite running over the spindle motor and past the VFD. I even tested it before fitting by running the spindle up to speed with the wiring in place, and it never gained any spurious encoder counts.

34

General Mach Discussion / Re: Bridgeport Knee Mill Conversion?

« on: July 24, 2016, 01:03:33 PM »

I used CY cable to connect my drives to the Kanalog as that's what I had lying around, and have never had any issues, although the cable distance is only about 12-18".

CAT6e network patch cable, would give you shielded and twisted pairs cheaply, although it would be on the smaller side for wiring up, but as long as you're careful to make sure the wiring is well secured i.e. not relying on the terminals to hold it in place/support the weight, you shouldn't get any problems.

35

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

« on: July 22, 2016, 07:00:24 PM »

The key word to search for is "linearity", or "linearity.dat"
The linearity.dat is the file that stores the calibration info, but it's not user readable.

http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,31386.0.html has a spreadsheet for calibrating

36

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

« on: July 22, 2016, 05:27:54 AM »

To use the auto cal feature, you need feedback, but it got broken at some point in time.
It's still possible to manually edit the file though, but I can't remember the correct format.

37

General Mach Discussion / Re: Bridgeport Knee Mill Conversion?

« on: July 22, 2016, 05:24:52 AM »

Glad you got it sorted.

Now I've seen the photo, it reminded me of the Matchmaker setup -
Head by mc, on Flickr

38

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

« on: July 22, 2016, 05:05:11 AM »

There is a spindle calibration file. If the VFD is controlled via Mach, then it will most likely be via a step/dir to 0-10V converter.
VFDs themselves usually a fairly linear relationship between input voltage and commanded speed, it's the 0-10V generator that will often not be very linear. The spindle calibration file allows you to compensate for non-linearity.

I'm pretty sure the auto calibration feature in Mach 3 hasn't worked for a good few versions, but if you do a search for spindle calibration, it should throw up some posts about how to edit the file manually. You may need to also have a search over on the yahoo group.

The other option, depending on the VFD, would be to implement Modbus control of the VFD. That way you get very accurate control, however implementing Modbus can be pretty problematic, especially if you're not of a more geeky nature!

39

General Mach Discussion / Re: New maching- Converting HM48 to CNC with mach3 or mach4?

« on: July 21, 2016, 06:55:00 PM »

The difference between the A and S, is A is Analogue +/-10V output, and S is step/dir output. If you're wanting to do rigid tapping, then the spindle will need to be controlled as an axis directly by the controller, not via Mach.

I'd personally look at adding some form of counterbalance to the head, either gas struts or a pneumatic cylinder with pressure regulator.

Nothing wrong with belt drives. A correctly tensioned toothed belt of the correct tooth form will give negligible backlash. If you're using servos, then for optimum performance you're going to have to use a reduction, otherwise you'll not get the best performance from servos.

If you go CSMIO, then the 4th axis needs to be controlled via the same method as the other axis. If you go KFlop with a Kanalog, you can mix and match.

40

General Mach Discussion / Re: New maching- Converting HM48 to CNC with mach3 or mach4?

« on: July 21, 2016, 06:13:27 AM »

Regarding the Mach 3/4 and CSMIO/KFlop options.

CSMIO will work with Mach 3 or 4. KFlop only has a plugin for Mach 3.

Regarding rigid tapping/indexing, CSMIO you'll need the Threading module, and you're limited by what can be programmed in Mach.
KFlop you can program to do pretty much anything you want it to, provided the hardware will support it. You do need to know some C programming, but there are plenty people to help.

I'd suggest you read the manuals for both, and get an understanding what would be involved to achieve the functionality you'd like.