Messages

11

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Re: Engine Mounts

« on: February 08, 2010, 04:44:35 PM »

Here is the part being made. Feel free to critique my program. It cuts a lot of air because I set it up for raw 2 in stock with a runout allowance. I had already cleaned this stock up checking tool offsets.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9B2d5HABSJk

Monty

12

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Re: Engine Mounts

« on: February 08, 2010, 04:42:18 PM »

I think I finally killed the last hardware bug in the lathe. Made some more parts for the engine mounts today. Watching the machine cut the first part was a mixture of panic and exhilaration. Of course I had triple and quadruple checked everything, but I still expect disaster at any moment. I haven't got the grooving routine dialed in yet. I don't like the finish it leaves. It would be better without the finish pass, but I can't eliminate it from the wizard. The parts are good enough to use and I'm just happy to have a stable machine.

13

General Mach Discussion / auto toolchange cycle start elimination

« on: February 08, 2010, 12:36:07 PM »

This pertains to mach3turn.

I've selected the auto tool changer option in the general config. but for some reason when I call for a tool change it still requires a cycle start to continue.

What gives

The one good thing is since my chip control is not totally dialed in yet, it gives me a chance to remove the birds nest from the boring bar 

Monty

14

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: My Big Project am I crazy

« on: January 31, 2010, 01:00:20 PM »

Matt,

I'll try to help if I can. I felt a lot like a blind man in a dark room trying to work my way through some of this. I've bumped into enough stuff to have some idea of how things work, but I'm no expert by any means. My shins hurt though. 

Monty

15

VB and the development of wizards / Re: lathe turret macro

« on: January 31, 2010, 12:55:01 PM »

Just a note to anybody who downloads this. I have had a chance to run it a lot more and find bugs. The biggest problem is I did not put any code in there to check for missed events. For instance if you have your debounce set much over 100 you my have problems seeing the strobe falls. This can cause the turret to keep rotating around past the desired tool station. It may detect the strobe fall on another station and incorrectly position the turret. Fortunately this is found when the macro checks to see if the selected tool matches the final position and it does throw an error. To make it more robust there should be some code to deal with this and rotate to the desired position. Also I need to fix the logic around the tool change when you are selecting for the same tool, but with a different offset. I would also like to add a homing routine if the turret is out of position. Right now I just do it manually by some LEDs on the diagnostics page.

Those are the major things that need to be fixed. I'm currently trying to get a lot of other bugs worked out and this is low on my list of things to do. I'll probably wait until after mach 4 is released so I can update it for that. I should also tidy up the logic and make the position checking a sub routine. I took the lazy cut and paste approach.

Monty

16

General Mach Discussion / Re: Advanced Spindle Control

« on: January 31, 2010, 12:36:47 PM »

Thanks Hood,

I'll check it out.

Monty

17

General Mach Discussion / Re: Advanced Spindle Control

« on: January 30, 2010, 01:44:14 PM »

Hood,

It's a Yaskawa 5.5 KW.

I can do a lot of the things I want to accomplish using the 4th axis on the Bridgeport, but it makes a terrible mess and the additional setups are a pain. It would be great to be able to do it all in one shot in the lathe with all the mess contained. Plus I can use flood coolant.

I'm not really sure it's feasible without a brake on the main spindle. I'm not sure how well the motor can maintain position under load.

I'll contact Rutex

Thanks for lead.

Monty

18

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: My Big Project am I crazy

« on: January 30, 2010, 12:39:07 PM »

Matt,

I would use the M6start and M6End macros to accomplish what you want to do. You will need some logic in the macro to look at the selected tool and decide what spindle goes with it. Then turn on the appropriate output to your relays. Prepare yourself for confusion. I would check out the mach customization docs. Also have a look at the Wiki and the mach2 manual. The info you need is spread out all over the place.

You might also find my turret macro helpful to get an idea how things work:

http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,12990.0.html

Brett has been reorganizing all the inputs and cleaning up the OEM button and DRO naming conventions for Mach4. Lets just say that it is rather organic in its present state.

The offsets to the spindle in use will be in the tool table.

So when you call for T0110

You are asking for T01 (spindle #1) and offset 10 (can be 10,11,12 etc) so you would have offsets for various tools in spindle #1

T2 can be spindle 2 etc.

Monty

19

General Mach Discussion / Re: Advanced Spindle Control

« on: January 30, 2010, 12:28:32 PM »

Ray,

That would work great if mach handled PID loops within the computer. It would work with EMC. But to work with mach I've got to have something with encoder input to handle the PID loop.

It may not exist.

Oh well, I might just have to start on the 5 axis machine.

Monty

20

General Mach Discussion / Re: Advanced Spindle Control

« on: January 29, 2010, 07:03:23 PM »

Yes,

It has an encoder. The positioning was done with an add on board. It could position either the motor or the load. depending on where you put the encoder. But I can't use any of that functionality because I can't get the board and even if I could it would be a real pain to interface.

What I had in mind was to move the PID loop to the +/-10V controller. So it would read the encoder on the spindle and move the motor to the commanded position. My drive would be a "dumb" amp at that point. The analog controller would receive speed and direction instructions from Mach. Rather inelegant I admit, but the only way I can get here from there without a new spindle drive.

Monty