Messages

21

General Mach Discussion / Spindle doesn't stop when emergency button is pushed

« on: August 06, 2008, 12:15:36 AM »

I'm not sure if this is a feature, bug, or misconfiguration. I was jogging around to do some simple cuts, and decided to hit the emergency button. Fortunately, it wasn't an emergency, as the spindle relay stayed engaged. Is there a place to configure this?

22

General Mach Discussion / Re: Limit Switch annoyance

« on: August 05, 2008, 01:09:39 PM »

Glad I could help . I appreciate the advice. The more I play, the more I realize these Cherry microswitches are close to worthless. While milling, they trigger an event if the mill vibrates too much. After experimenting, I found I can trigger one of them with a slight tap with a screwdriver! Unfortunately, my Sherline doesn't really have room for the big limit switches. Are there microswitch-sized limit switches available? If not, is there a different brand that might be better? Or perhaps something external I can do, like surrounding the switch in rubber or sorbothane?

23

General Mach Discussion / Table limits and homing

« on: August 05, 2008, 01:00:58 PM »

Well, I've finally got the coordinates of my machine entered in to Mach3. A few more questions/issues..

From what I gather, it seems the limit switches are more of a 'backup', and that, once it's homed, it shouldn't go outside this. However, my limit switches are my home switches. I'd like to build in a 1/4 inch or so buffer, so it won't hit the limit switches. While it seems easy to build in a buffer at the other end of travel, how can I move home a little bit past the home/limit switches?

Also, how can I adjust the speed at which it homes? It's painfully slow. I could see it's a good idea for accuracy, but wouldn't it come off the switch slow, and set then?

Also, in the display in the upper right, how do you pan and zoom? I noticed this in the tutorial videos, but it wasn't clear how it was done. I suspect it might be the scroll wheel on the mouse, but I'm using a touch screen, and my backup device is an old trackpad. Is there another way?

Thanks!

24

General Mach Discussion / Re: Limit Switch annoyance

« on: August 01, 2008, 03:14:48 PM »

What switches are preferred? When I think of microswitches, I always thought of Cherry, which is what I used. I used shielded wire. When I put together my CNC, I really didn't (Still Don't have much knowledge as to what's commonly used. I'd also be curious what's used for precision triggering for home switches.

25

General Mach Discussion / Re: Limit Switch annoyance

« on: August 01, 2008, 12:35:44 PM »

Thanks a great deal for the help. I'm not in front of the machine at the moment, but I think it makes a lot of sense it's switch bounce. I'm just surprised my 800MHz VIA is fast enough . Does anyone use other techniques, such as low value capacitors at the switches? Or can/should it be done all in software?

26

General Mach Discussion / Positioning output on material

« on: August 01, 2008, 12:32:06 AM »

I've got another basic, newbie question. I'm trying to make the mini roadrunner as a test. It keeps trying to put it outside the limits of my machine. I know this might be worded differently from how you're used to dealing with things, but how can I 'put' the roadrunner just where I want it on the material? Do I have to change it in LazyCam? Or is there a way to do it within Mach3?

As a possibly related question, is there a place in Mach3 to put the limits (Size of X, Y, and Z) of your particular machine?

27

General Mach Discussion / Re: Limit Switch annoyance

« on: July 31, 2008, 10:55:52 PM »

Well, I have to say, from my perspective as a newbie, this is one of the most helpful forums I've seen. I think Mach3 is the type of program that just changes the field. The more I play with it, the more I'm impressed. However, by it's very nature, it's going to need a little hand-holding to get it running. I've been getting my hand held so much I'm not sure I'm not going steady with someone .

As for the weirdness I mentioned, I'm running 2.63. I've noticed it 'feels' easy to trigger it so you need to reset. If i happen to just hit the reset button when I don't have to, it triggers an 'alert', and I have to hit the reset button again. My next step is to see if I can configure the limit switches as home switches too. Maybe this might fix it?

28

General Mach Discussion / Re: Limit Switch annoyance

« on: July 30, 2008, 01:06:33 AM »

That did it! The only weirdness is that when I hit the limit switch, it backs up very slow (Which I'm sure is a good feature) until the switch opens back up. Then, instead of speeding up, it stops! I have to hit the reset switch again. It's a minor issue, just odd. I thought it was a timing thing (Goes slow for 1/2 second, switch doesn't open in that time), but I found all 3 axis's were slow permanently when a limit switch is closed, and it stops when the switch is opened again.

Thanks again!

29

General Mach Discussion / Limit Switch annoyance

« on: July 29, 2008, 10:24:47 PM »

Perhaps someone knows a workaround for this...

When I'm jogging an axis, if it hits a limit switch, it stops (As it should!), but I can't get it to go back. If I hit reset, it just triggers again. The only way I've found to get out of this is to power down my stepper motor electronics, and manually move the axis until it's no longer triggering the limit switch. I'm glad at least I have handwheels on the ends of my motors!

30

General Mach Discussion / Re: Problems with Parallel Port inputs on Motherboard

« on: July 29, 2008, 10:21:25 PM »

I figured out. I guess a night of sleep helped. I re-used the profile from another computer, but it was set as 'Emulated' for some reason. Unchecking that fixed things. The auto setup still doesn't work, but I'm not concerned at the moment. Thanks again!