Topics

11

Tangent Corner / Roman Numerals

« on: February 20, 2008, 06:57:51 PM »

Hi All.
I want to engrave a small clock face with Roman Numerals.
I have Googled for a font without success.
Anyone any experience or ideas on using Roman Numerals in AutoCAD or know the location of a font(free)

tmsmith

12

LazyCam (Beta) / Lost facility in V2.58?

« on: November 09, 2007, 04:56:16 PM »

In  a previous version of LC (not sure which one) I am sure there was the ability to rotate the job so that the number of layers could be checked.
This is present in Mach2.58 but I cannot get it to work in LC2.58.

Anyone know differently.

tmsmith

13

General Mach Discussion / Speeding up text

« on: October 16, 2007, 05:47:25 PM »

HI Gang,
I am preparing to do some 'embossed' lettering.
Trying out the code generated by LazyCam it takes a long time to cut because I am using a 1/16 cutter to get good definition of the letters.
However this means the larger areas between letters take a long time to cut.
The answer must be to use two different size cutters.
How do I go about achieving  this using LC.

I feel someone must have already solved  this problem.

tmsmith

14

LazyCam (Beta) / Joining chains/entities in LazyCam

« on: September 29, 2007, 06:04:20 PM »

In LC v2.47 I do not appear to be able to join together two separate chains.
If I select two adjacent chains the option is greyed out in the menu displayed by a right key click.
This means the cutter lifts clear then restarts the cut when it should just carry on around the profile.

Has this option been lost in these later versions or am I mis-undertanding something?

tmsmith

15

LazyCam (Beta) / LC v2.081 Text

« on: July 09, 2007, 06:08:57 PM »

I have tried using the TEXT facility in the latest LC without success; is it fully implememted?
I entered text, and was instructed to drag out a box and the text would appear in the box.

I could find no way of drawing a box or dragging the text..

Anyone done this yet.

Impressive list of fonts though.

tmsmith

16

General Mach Discussion / Spindle direction control

« on: June 08, 2007, 04:12:17 PM »

I am trying to set up my *second* digispeedXL spindle control card.
My first ran OK except M3/M4 did not change the spindle direction which was clockwise.
I thought I had a faulty card so obtained a second card.
This time it rotates CCW with the same setup BUT again direcction cannot be changed with M3/M4

On checking using the Digispeed Manual  setup routine I find that M3/M4 is not effecting the direction LED.
l
I am using Mach3 v2.064 and a Xylotex card.
I cannot spot a wiring or config fault.
Can anyone point me in the right direction to correct this fault.

Malcolm Smith

17

General Mach Discussion / Spindle speed problem

« on: May 10, 2007, 02:02:07 PM »

Since I last used my mill something has changed and speed control of the spindle speed has been lost.
I am using mach3 v2.064, a digispeed XL control board with spindle speed fed back using a pulse index board from CNC4PC.
 If I give M3   and a S~ codees the spindle surgeees into life then settles back to minimum speed.
This occurrs whatever speed I ask for eg S2000.
I have checked through all the config settings and tried some alterations but no success.
With the digispeed on manual I can turn the speed right up, no problem.
If  I use the automatic speed calibration it winds the speed way up in descrete steps.
I sometimes get the message 'PWM bumped to minimum' on the status line which seems tto cover the symptoms.

I am not sure whether or not I have upgraded to 2.064 since my last use of the mill which could mean a wrong setting but I have gone through the digispeed set-up more than once and cannot see a fault.
I am assuming it is not an electronic fault.

Can anyone suggest my next move; I am getting very frustrated.
I seem to remember having this problem before but cannot remember how I solved it.

Help
Malcolm Smith

18

Feature Requests / Write Wizard addition

« on: April 28, 2007, 04:28:03 PM »

The write wizard will generate text in various fonts very well and this can be imported to Lazycam easily.
To mill pockets around the letters a rectangular border needs to be drawn.
Can the facility to draw a rectangle on the LazyCam screen be added so the pocketing facility can easily used with text.

tmsmith

19

General Mach Discussion / Write Wizard

« on: April 20, 2007, 05:26:38 PM »

Hi,
On my Windows xp indoor computer I can enter some text in 'Write' and send it to Mach3 rel064 where I can machine the lettering on screen.
When I do the same thing on my W2000 computer connected to the mill I get code where all the co-ordinates are zero, despite the moves being the same in both cases.
Needless to say the code will not run.

Can anyone give me the reason?.

A second query - in my XML backup folder in Mach3 there are lots of what I presume are xml backup files. What is the system for generating these files?
Can I deletes any of them? - some appear to be empty.

Malcolm Smith,

20

General Mach Discussion / Beginner Just gotetting up

« on: April 14, 2007, 03:42:01 PM »

Just got my little Boxford mill set-up to work  with Mach3, and excited to be cutting metal at last
Tried cutting a 20mm square in a piece of brass with a shallow cut and 0.080 cutter.
It cut the square ok so I increased the depth of cut and re-ran the program using the same zeroes.
This time it was slightly off from the original   cut. A third run showed similar errors.
I think it could be a backlash problem or dropping steps.

Anybody got a straight forward procedure for checking out these possibilities?

Thanks
TMSmith