Messages

31

General Mach Discussion / Re: Need a little help to just get the motors moving

« on: December 01, 2005, 11:17:27 AM »

Please let me know your address where I can ship your Christmas present - do you prefer Ferrari or Porsche ?

Works like a charm. I'm going to play with it tonight and see where I sent my self astray. I quick look suggests that I should have had a lot more Active Low boxes checked.

Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou.

32

General Mach Discussion / Re: Need a little help to just get the motors moving

« on: November 30, 2005, 11:55:54 PM »

Hi David,
  Your e-stop will always be active (it cannot be turned off). However, if you are having problems resetting(the big red button on the main screen and other screens) go to the e-stop again in the configuration inputs and check or uncheck(one way or the other) the "active low" box, save, and try again. You should be able to activate Mach3 then....if this is what problem you are experiencing.

John (Bloy)

P.S.  Let us know if this gets you further

I went back to the online video tutorials and found that the first part of the configuration is actually in the first, installation video. That certainly helped me understand that I could start with a really clean initial setup and not have to setup any limit switch items. That helped take some confusion out.

I checked the Estop "active low" box but still got nowhere. When I use the cursor keys and Pgup and Pgdown keys, the DRO's move just fine now but nothing from the motors. I also saw someone on the CNC Zone forum was at his wits end trying to do the same thing as me - misery loves company.

So, at this point, my old Mach 2 installation still works fine. My new Mach3 configuration is very clean - motor pin settings only + Estop set to "ActiveLow". No LED's lit in the wrong place on the diagnostics screen that I can see. Motors are still stone, cold, dead though.

Is it possible that my Mach2 installation is interfering with Mach3 ? Please say "no" because if I uninstall Mach2 I won't have a working mill unless I reinstall.

Don't give up on me.

G'night John Bloy

David Morrow

33

General Mach Discussion / Need a little help to just get the motors moving

« on: November 30, 2005, 12:15:35 AM »

I'd like to get Mach 3 to just get my motors turning.

I'm afraid I don't find the configuration tabs very intuitive andI find that the manual bogs me down too much at first with all of the limit switches etc.

It appears that I just need to set the port & pin numbers on the motor output tab. I think I have that all figured out.

On the input signals tab, I have cleared all of the check but the Estop check is always there when I come back to this tab even after saving the configuration. Could this be causing me a problem ? ( I have no Estop switch wired yet).

I have my motors tuned at 40,000 / unit which is the same setting I used in Mach2.

34

General Mach Discussion / Re: Easy way to migrate configuration from Mach 2 to Mach 3 ?

« on: November 28, 2005, 12:04:48 AM »

Sure, I'll up load it but it will be a bare bones file as I am not yet using any control features of the board other than to drive the motors.

35

General Mach Discussion / Easy way to migrate configuration from Mach 2 to Mach 3 ?

« on: November 27, 2005, 10:48:25 PM »

I'm using the Soundlogic breakout board and when I first setup Mach2, I downloaded the XML file from Campbell Designs. Ran like a champ after setting the motors up.

Campbell Designs doesn't have a download for Mach 3. Is there an easy way to migrate my configuration to Mach 3 without grinding through the configuration setup field by field ?

Thanks,

David Morrow

36

General Mach Discussion / Re: Can any Mach 2 screens or settings be used in Mach 3??

« on: November 12, 2005, 02:15:26 PM »

I'm just getting things set up in Mach 2. Would you suggest just moving on to Mach 3 instead ?

37

General Mach Discussion / Rapid Speeds vs Cutting speed

« on: November 12, 2005, 02:04:55 PM »

If I set a high velocity in the motor tuning section I can get my axes to move at a pretty scary rate for my little Sherline mill. It obviously can't cut at that sort of feed rate though.

Can anyone tell me where I set the cutting feed rate ?

My main concern is that I don't accidently try to cut at the same feed rate as that set in the motor tuning section.

As was mentioned by someone else here, I'm sure happy to see a support site other than Yahoo. Yahoo's Mach2 site seems pretty popular, I just don't trust Yahoo.

Thanks everyone.

38

General Mach Discussion / Odd lead in cutting

« on: November 12, 2005, 01:33:04 AM »

I'm just getting my feet wet. My little Sherline is running and cutting stuff and I'm just doing the basics. I'm trying some test cuts in mdf and have started to get an odd problem. I drew a basic rectangle in my cad program and saved it as a dxf file. I brought that into Sheetcam and created the cutting path without any problem. However, when the cutpath shows in Mach2, at the location where the cut starts, it has a cateye shaped path which is actually cut. Everything else is perfect. The lead in is set to zero in Sheetcam.

What am I doing wrong ?