Messages

1261

MACH TOOL BOX / Re: X6-1500GT-USB

« on: June 09, 2015, 06:30:46 AM »

Alan,

Have a read of the Mach Customization Guide ( has basic info for creating Wizard's and also the Mach Macro Programmers reference Manual.

I use Mach Screen for modifying screens. Here is the link:
http://www.kd-dietz.com/klausphp/
RICH

1262

Tangent Corner / Re: Arnold's pet

« on: June 05, 2015, 02:15:45 PM »

legislation was quickly introduced regarding the operation of drones which effectively stopped the experimental Amazon development

Hey Tweakie,
 
Not here my friend .......I see more "elder men" reacting to years of programming than ever before!
AND some of the programming should be against the law.

RICH

1263

General Mach Discussion / Re: Need Help

« on: June 05, 2015, 02:06:35 PM »

markstk57,

1.Watch all the mach videos.
2.Then read, STUDY is a better word, the Mach manual for the mill.
3.The basics are all the same, but, there are specifics / differences for PLAZMA work.
4.Consider buying "CNC Programing Handbook by Peter Smid" as it a excellent reference.
  The first 100 to 150 pages will provide a vast knowledge base in a short time for you to go forward.
   I highly recomend it.

Have fun in the learning,

RICH

1264

General Mach Discussion / Re: Need Help

« on: June 05, 2015, 01:34:59 PM »

markstk57,
I will assume that by being new to CNC you are meaning that you don't know much or anything about CNC and that you are trying to use Mach3 as your controlling software.

You may want to confirm or explain more about the above.

So I will just say that CNC is not "Plug N Play " and you need to read the manuals for Mach, watch the videos, learn the basics, and know something about the controller you are using. IE; You need to configure Mach to use it based on your machine.

Welcome to the learning curve,

BTW, DO NOT plug or unplug the motors with them powered up......if you don't know what your doing you could  end up doing damage!

RICH

1265

VB and the development of wizards / Re: Center Probe Wizard

« on: June 03, 2015, 04:54:53 AM »

Wes,
I deleted reply #2 which had the exe file.
Try again.

RICH

1266

General Mach Discussion / Re: Where are Mach3 settimgs held?

« on: June 01, 2015, 05:30:28 AM »

Bear,

1. In config>Select Native Units    tick inches in  the flyout and also tick OK. Then Config> Save Settings.
2. You can also add a   G20 in the Initialization String which is in Config>General Logic Configuration

RICH

1267

General Mach Discussion / Re: Tool Wear Modual

« on: May 31, 2015, 07:01:42 PM »

Terry,
There are different grades of material for inserts, but not sure if an industry standard exists as most
manufacturers have different numbering or desigantions for the grade.

BUT.... thinking out loud......

Each tool is being tracked and if one uses a different insert / grade then that should be a different tool number and as such one could make it part of the tools descriptions.

RICH

1268

General Mach Discussion / Re: Parallel port for PCI bus that works with Mach3 - just passing along info

« on: May 29, 2015, 07:56:13 PM »

FWIW,
I just installed a Rosewill RC304 2 port Parallel PCI card. It does work. I read this complete thread and others in anticipation of having problems with the card installation. I used the drivers that came with the card, it did install, but, I had problems with Mach
recognizing the second port. So the follwoing is what I did:

COMMENTS:
0. Make sure you turn off / unplug the pc before attaching or removing any card! 

1.This info pertains only to the Rosewill RC-304.

2.Info is for an XP installation.
 
3.MY PCI slot is 5 volts only.The RC-304 is a 5 volt card. Some cards are dual voltage / universal cards.

4.The cable that connects to the card for the second pp must be attached correctly. Get it backwards
  and the card will not work correctly since the pins are all screwed up!
  The ribbon cable has one RED line on it, and if you look at the card you will see a white dot and also
  a white line near the cable connector. So connect the cable such that the RED line on the ribbon cable
  is also on the same side as that white line and dot.
 
5.I removed the existing single pp card and also uninstalled the drives for the card.
  This was done via System Properties>Hardware>Device Manager selecting Multifunction Adapters,
  select the device , double click on it and select Driver, and finaly click on the Uninstall option.
  You will see that the device is no longer listed and that under Ports(COM & LPT) no LPT is listed.

6.Reboot the pc and confirm item 5.

7.The RC-304 card came with instructions on how to install the card for Windows XP and listed the drivers
  in folder RC-302\WinXP.There was no folder by that name but there was a folder called RC-302\XP.
  ( So when the wizard prompts you for the location browse and select that folder as it said it could not
  find the file .......NmPar...........)

7a.It was noted by others that the drivers provided on the CD were no good. I downloaded from MOSchip site
   and other sites the drivers for the card. What I found was that the drivers provided on the CD were of the
   same name and date as all the other drivers that were downloaded. So I used the drivers from the CD.

8.Installed the card, pc found new hardware and followed the installation via the wizard manualy selecting
  the folder RC-302\XP. It installed the drivers, but, the LPT ports were LPT2 and LPT3, so I changed the
  the assigned LPT part number via:
  System Properties>Hardware>Device Manager>Ports,select the port and use the LPTport button to select the port   desired port number. Also ticked enabled plug and play detection, and also ticked Never use an interupt.

9.Click the Resources for each LPT and note the I/o Range settings available:
  For LPT1 they were: DC00-DC07   I used DC00 ( first number) for port 1 setting in Mach config
                      D880-D887
  Also used the first number listed for port 2 settng in Mach config.

10.NOW FOR THE PITA, part.........

   The second port would not work correctly for inputs I had defined to Mach in ports & Pins.
   Think i may have had the the ribbon cable backwards - GO BACK AND READ ITEM #4-.
   Also in Mach Diagnostics the lit LED's didn;t seem correct.

10a.So I uninstalled the card drivers using the file ....NmUninst....in the Rc-302\XP folder.

10b.Shutdown the computer, removed card, reboot and shut down again.

10c.Installed the card, and confirmed the correct ribbon cable orientation to the card.
    Reboot, it found the new hardware, but the install wizard didn't work worth a darn.
   
11.So...... I used the manual install method:
   Control Panel>Add Hardware>ticked that i have already installed the hardware,Selected PCI multi Io    controller, when asked for the driver i used the .....NmPar.... file, the card drivers were installed
   and LPT1 and LPT2 were assigned. ( I don't remember every single step in this item ).

Both ports work fine in Mach and now have pins 2-9 as inputs.

Note: In Mach config the first numbers for the resources were used, I first unticked the Port Enable,
      typed in the resource setting ie; DC00,Mach changed that to 0xdc00, then ticked Port enable.
      Did the same for Port 2.

PC'S suck sometimes. 


RICH

1269

General Mach Discussion / Re: Motor tuning 166 Oz steppers motors

« on: May 28, 2015, 10:27:10 PM »

with a load they are skipping or loosing position

That's what i meant by headroom.....
Go back and look at all the stuff about steppers on the Gecko site for understanding stepper basics
as it's beyond what I can comment on here.

Probably at the velocity you don't have much motor torque left so as soon as it sees a load  
it starts to skip. Don't know how much your using just to move the axis ( it can be measured ) so if that is minimized you have more power left for machining. Frankly i changed out the motors on my Sherline from
...i think they were something like 160 in oz ...to 500 in oz and have plenty of power and velocity.
I use 500 in oz on the Atlas mill and can do 100 IPM and break end mills. The motors are only using 3 amps
 and the inductance is low and only using 36 volts.

Supply voltage, amp setting, gearing used, how wired can all make a difference in the motor / axis preformance. And understand that there are trade offs.  Increase voltage and velocity will  increase. As motor rpm increases torque decreases. More amps more torque ....but none of these are single change and single performance improvements. Manufactures provide motor curves based on different voltages providing a  torque to rpm / steps' rev plot.

Go to the gecko site and you will find some formulas to calculate and you will find that Gecko say's you want power = speed x torque!

So what i am basicly saying is that the "whole" thing is a SYSTEM and the system needs to be designed to meet YOUR needs.

Sorry, but this stuff is not just plug and play....but....having a look at what a lot of vendors provide and users use is still a good base to kick off from.

BTW, I think in the Members Docs i posted some basic design stuff for the 6" Atlas Lathe Conversion
thread.

RICH
 

1270

General Mach Discussion / Re: Motor tuning 166 Oz steppers motors

« on: May 27, 2015, 09:00:41 PM »

Find the max velocity for which you start skipping, then reduce that velocity by 30%.
Now start increasing the acceleration, increasing by a value of 1 until you start to skip,
reduce that accel value by say 30%.

So now you have a point by which you can refine the tuning. Depending on what you doing
you may want to allow more "headroom" to take care of machining harder to machine materials. 

Now that said, what you are after is power and that is torque x speed.

Have a good read of the info on the Gecko site as more than what you want to know is available.

RICH