Messages

31

General Mach Discussion / Re: Controller for New Hermes Vanguard 3000 Engraver

« on: November 13, 2006, 03:45:18 PM »

UPDATE: My project is finished!  Please refer to the three photos shown below. MACH3 resides on an older ThinkPad laptop, and connects via the Parallel Port to my 3-Axis Xylotex stepper controller which I mounted on the rear portion of the Engraver chassis. The cooling fan is held in place by a couple of springy metal clamps that I glued to the fan and they grip the controller heatsinks without glue or fasteners (which would void the manufacturer's warranty).  I mounted the 24 volt power supply underneath the Engraver chassis. I also added a solid-state relay (you can see it mounted in the bottom photo between the 24 volt power supply and the rotory motor capacitor) which is used to control the rotory motor.

I'm very happy the way this project turned out, and I would be happy to answer questions from anyone else who may be working on a similar type of project.

32

General Mach Discussion / Re: Homing sequence and Z-Axis Home Offset?

« on: October 31, 2006, 03:50:04 PM »

Thanks Hood!  Yes, I will continue to keep tabs on the updates. I can only imagine how many great new features we will see in the coming years!

33

General Mach Discussion / Re: Homing sequence and Z-Axis Home Offset?

« on: October 31, 2006, 03:44:24 PM »

Actually, my homing sequence is correct. First the Z moves, which makes good sense because you don't want the Z axis to crash into any tooling or work pieces that happen to be in the way when the X/Y begin to move toward Home.

As for the Safe_Z function, I figured out how to enable it and set the offset, but the function works only for "Go To Zero". It does not work for Home. So, I think I'm simply going to reconfigure my Z Home switch to a higher position that would clear anything on the table. That should resolve my problem and it's probably the BEST solution.

Thanks again for everyone's input!

BTW - The MACH3 is an incredible piece of software. I've used very expensive GE/Fanuc CNC controllers over the years and I must say that MACH can do just about everything the Fanuc controller can do at a tiny fraction of the cost. I am totally blown away by its capabilities!  I'm a very happy and satisfied customer.  

Mike

34

General Mach Discussion / Re: Homing sequence and Z-Axis Home Offset?

« on: October 31, 2006, 02:20:28 PM »

Thanks for your reply!.

In my version of MACH3 (R1.84.001) there is a check box in "Config, Logic" tab, labeled "Use Safe_Z" but I do not see any way to enter specific parameters that define Safe_Z.  I also can not find the screen that you show in your post. It must be in a different version of MACH3.  Also, it seems that the "Home Off" settings in the Home/Limits tab only affect the DRO value during Homing, but does not change the actual position of the axes. For example, if I put the value 5.00 for the X Home Offset, the axis will stop on the Home switch as usual, but the DRO will indicate a position of +5.00.

I think the Safe_Z function will do what I need but I may have to switch to a different version of the program. Any further assistence would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again!

35

General Mach Discussion / Homing sequence and Z-Axis Home Offset?

« on: October 31, 2006, 11:33:00 AM »

Hi Guys -- I am just finishing up converting a New Hermes engraver to CNC with the MACH3 controller. I have all my limits and home switches adjusted and working properly but I am having a problem with homing the Z axis (engraver tool bit). I would like to be able to make the Z axis move to a specific position away from the Z Home switch, rather than to have it stop immediately upon actuation of the Home switch. Is that possible in MACH3? Also, could the SEQUENCE of Axes be changed? In other words can I make the system Home first the Z, then the X, then the Y?

Thanks!

Mike

36

General Mach Discussion / Re: Limit Switch Request

« on: October 31, 2006, 11:23:09 AM »

Hi wvancura....  I had a similar problem that you are having, and  I placed .047uF caps across all my limit switch inputs to eliminate noise from the steppers. This worked just fine for me.

How were you able to change the debounce delay? Is that function in MACH?

Thanks!

37

General Mach Discussion / Re: Controller for New Hermes Vanguard 3000 Engraver

« on: October 30, 2006, 05:41:35 PM »

Update: I completely removed the dedicated Vanguard controller and replaced it with a 3-axis Xylotex drive. I am currently in the process of defining all the I/O and setting up the axes parameters. One problem that I ran into was that the Mach3 was seeing Limit Switches made when there were none. I traced the problem to noise from the steppers getting into the limit switch wires. I solved the problem by placing a .047 uF capacitor on each limit switch input to the Xylotex drive board. I mounted the Xylotex drive and the 24V power supply right on the engraver unit frame.

As soon as I have the entire system tuned and working properly, I'll snap a few photos and post them here.

38

General Mach Discussion / Re: Controller for New Hermes Vanguard 3000 Engraver

« on: October 23, 2006, 10:38:07 PM »

I contacted Xylotex Support via Email and he (Jeff) told me that my Engraver steppers will work with their 3-axis controller, so I went ahead and purchased the controller and a 24V power supply. After I receive the controller I'll have a ton of work wiring up the 3 steppers and 5 limit switches. I'll also need to define an M-code for spindle on/off and wire in a relay.  I'll post more comments here as I get more into the project.

If anyone else reading this has experience using MACH with a New Hermes engraver that you converted to CNC from the original dedicated controller, please tell me about it. I'd like to learn from your mistakes and successes! 

Thanks!

39

General Mach Discussion / Re: Controller for New Hermes Vanguard 3000 Engraver

« on: October 20, 2006, 05:29:01 PM »

Okay, will do.  Thanks again!

40

General Mach Discussion / Re: Controller for New Hermes Vanguard 3000 Engraver

« on: October 20, 2006, 05:05:26 PM »

Hey Hood --- That's PERFECT!  THANKS!!!!!!!!