Messages

751

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: A axis acting as a spindle then toggle back to a rotary.

« on: November 22, 2016, 08:15:53 PM »

Is there a sample of this swapaxis ( ) macro I could forward to the company

They don't need the macro scripting that would provide for swapping the axes. They would only need to know
what macro's  ( like ie; M200, M201  ) will and when  be  called out in the gcode.

You have not confirmed that the mill spindle is servo driven and may use a vfd. I know nothing about about your machine.

Your X,Y, Z axis and rotary is stepper driven. I don't know anything about the spindle motor. That being the case you may not be able to use the swapaxis function. It won't work.

I watched that video by the way.

What exactly did you purchase. Surely you must be able to get the purchase order for it.
I would also assume that you have  some manuals for the machine.
 
We need to know the info or we will be going in circles and wasting my time.

RICH

752

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: A axis acting as a spindle then toggle back to a rotary.

« on: November 22, 2016, 04:19:42 PM »

Some considerations before we continue:

Before doing anything you need to check how accurate your machine is as this is going to be a grinding operation. I will assume that the
grinding wheel is say, 1/2" max. diameter.

The positional accuracy for the X5 is stated as <= to 0.0004".
Your grinding max pass would be only 0.0005" deep or smaller and a finish pass would be even less. Calculated axes resolution is 1/step
per= 1/10160= 0.0001" and doubt if will be that and would guess it's 0.0004" on the Z movementif your lucky. The Z movement will be following
the profile on center of the prepared work.

There is no spindle runout specification for the machine. Now now matter what you do to true up the grinding wheel it will have some runout. Lets
say 0.0002".

So that tells me the machine right from the start is not quite accurate to do what you want it to do.
 
Consider the grinding wheel. I will assume it's max diameter to be say 1/2". You will need to true both the sides and bottom of it before
grinding. You will not have a sharp edge ie; no radius on the corner so don't expect to grind to a sharp corner as was portrayed in your
posted picture.

Why I note the above is that you understand that grinding to some part tolerance with what you have may not satisfy desired end result.

Now you have wheel wear to consider and haven't the foggiest on what you can expect per pass. So you will need some compensation per pass
or need to check part dimensions to see what needs to be adjusted. During the actual grinding you would need to stop the machine.

How do you plan on touching off to locate the part from a home position? That would set a G54 for the current wheel based on the direction you
would start grinding.

What's all this B.S. you may ask?
You want someone to do a post processor for you and they need to know what coding needs be in place depending on what you want to do and how!

So think about the complete sequence / steps of how the qrinding operation will be accomlished. Any Macro # callout required will need to be
conveyed to them when / if required in the grinding sequence.

Just a few thoughts.....we didn't even get into the machine setup yet!  

RICH

753

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: A axis acting as a spindle then toggle back to a rotary.

« on: November 22, 2016, 01:28:26 PM »

Take a picture of the rotary please and post it.
I am thinking the rotary is stepper motor driven. Additionally the X,Y,Z axes are stepper driven.

Also has any modifications / changes ever been done to the machine?

This is important,

RICH

754

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: A axis acting as a spindle then toggle back to a rotary.

« on: November 22, 2016, 10:28:23 AM »

When you grind will you be using live tooling mounted  the X axis of the lathe?

I need to look at your current configuration.

Do you info on the rotary in the manual?


RICH

755

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: A axis acting as a spindle then toggle back to a rotary.

« on: November 22, 2016, 10:18:27 AM »

I'm not sure on the stepper or the servo motor.

That's important to know and would make a difference. A stepper on the 4th axis is fine for indexing but sucks for
driving a spindle.


Later,
RICH

756

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: A axis acting as a spindle then toggle back to a rotary.

« on: November 22, 2016, 10:12:11 AM »

only thing I am getting from this forum is about some swap axis macro
Where is it?
can I get a copy of it?

once I get these details I'll go back to them and have a post developed

don't think so ....be patient

You need to understand what swap axis does and what the limitations in using it are. I gave you the basics in my reply #9 and I also referenced a link in reply #4.
I also told you to read the topic.

Info on some of Simpson's Macro's.
http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,11422.msg96092.html#msg96092

Here is a link to a board created by Simpson so the swap axis is done via hardware
and also macro's posted
http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,11422.msg99637.html#msg99637


Also undestand that in those threads he was developing the ability to use the mills spindle to hold the part to be turned and swap to be able to do milling using
the 4th axis controlling its spindle.
 
That sid note that I siad the following:

The macro provides the proper scripting to do what you want to accomplish.
SO
You can't just copy something and use it unless it is correct for how your
machine is configured and what you want to do.


RICH

757

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: A axis acting as a spindle then toggle back to a rotary.

« on: November 22, 2016, 09:31:57 AM »

mflanders,

I need to have some questions answered so I can better try to help you.

Do you currently use a Syil x5 combo machine?

Are steppers or servos used for the X,Y,Z  axes?

Is the mills spindle manually controlled or is a VFD used?

Do you have the 4th axis package and is it stepper or servo driven?

Assume you are using MAch3....What version?
Post your xml file that you are currently using.

Till then,
RICH

758

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: Using M98 and M99

« on: November 20, 2016, 09:20:30 AM »

Glad it helped and enjoy the learning curve.

RICH

759

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: Using M98 and M99

« on: November 20, 2016, 08:49:39 AM »

Read the Mach Mill Manual, see pages 10-30 & 31.

Simple example as used in a Gcode:

M98 P01 L10  ' the 01 is the subroutine and 10 is the number of times it will repeat
M30          ' program end and rewind
O01          ' start of the subroutine
G1 X 1.0 F5  ' add gcode commands for whatever you want to do
     "                         "
M99          ' return from subroutine  / repeat


RICH

760

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: A axis acting as a spindle then toggle back to a rotary.

« on: November 19, 2016, 11:07:30 PM »

SwapAxis (?,?) and ResetAxisSwap (?,?) are scripting functions used in a macro. The macro is called in the Gcode. The macro provides the proper scripting to do what you want to accomplish.The ?,? above are integers designating the different axes. Read the Macro Programmers Reference Manual.

A,B,C are rotary axes rotating about the x,Y,Z AXES. A,B,C can be rotary ( degrees ) or linear depending on how they are defined. You can't continously rotate the A,B,C axis in Mach.If the mill spindle is manualy controlled you can still define spindle in motor tuning. Note that XYZABC AND SPINDLE needs to be defined in Ports and Pins and tuned.

So you can swap, say A and Spindle, calling the correctly scripted macro at the proper place in the Gcode. Mach accomplishes this by swapping the pin outs of those axes.

There is more to this just swapping the axes and the proper scripting in a macro / macro's can take care of homing etc or whatever else needs to be done.Additionaly gcode can command the spindle speed.

I am not the sharpest tack / just a novice at programming and have never had a need to use swapping. So that said, unless someone chimes in on more specifics. There are some limitations ie; can only have one axis swap / same axis  active at a time, I think?
"YOU" will need to read the thread and associated threads you find by searching swap axis to see what is required.

The above is jest of it all as I remember.

RICH