Messages

91

General Mach Discussion / Re: Contouring

« on: August 09, 2008, 12:17:34 PM »

Vetric has a 2d & 3d program with a free demo download.
http://vectric.com

Tom

92

General Mach Discussion / Re: Almost there, But

« on: August 08, 2008, 06:44:20 PM »

Yes, that is about the same thing that my mach setup is doing. If you can remember what you did to fix it that would be great. The only difference is this mine does not go back in line and continue, it continues in the offset position.

Thanks,
Tom

93

General Mach Discussion / Re: Almost there, But

« on: August 07, 2008, 09:40:15 PM »

Yes, I have optimized the system.  I have tried detuning to lower rates, but I will give it another shot tomorrow.

Thanks,
Tom

94

General Mach Discussion / Almost there, But

« on: August 07, 2008, 09:10:21 PM »

I have finally worked out most of the bugs in my v90 mill.  I can get my rapids without binding and all seems to be running well.  Until about 45min to 1 hr in on a carving file  the machining will shift over anywhere from .25 to .5 but not miss a lick, the finished part just looks as if it was just shifted over part way through the cutting. Z depth seems OK, just in the x and or y. I have run the same file 7 to 8 times and at different feeds and velocity settings. It does not happen in the same place it is different everytime so I'm sure that it is not the code.  I am thinking that somehow Mach just hickups part way through. I am using CV mode and the part is coming out very good except for the shifting.  I am thinking of buying a smooth stepper hoping that it will fix this glitch.
  Does anyone have any ideas on what could be going on, and what I might try to fix this? I am running mach from my laptop but have also tried a desktop PC and the same thing happens.

Thanks,
Tom

95

General Mach Discussion / Re: More motor trouble

« on: August 02, 2008, 08:56:27 PM »

Yes, The drives get hot.  I was told that is ok if they get hot.

Tom

96

General Mach Discussion / More motor trouble

« on: August 02, 2008, 06:46:16 PM »

I thought that I had things set up fairly well, but when I am running a part after about 45 min in the motors will begin binding and missing steps. I have the probotix bob, drivers and motors. I am running Mach on my laptop and have optimized it and set it to standard pc mode. The driver test gives me excellent report.  I do notice that the problem seems to get worse as the motors heat up.  I am running the motors in 1/4 step mode unipolar, my feed rate is 70 ipm.  I even tried slowing down the axis's and the motors will start binding even at the slower rate 30ipm.  I can even get the motors to bind by putting squeeze pressure on the motor coupling while the machine is homing at 10 ipm.  I have checked my wiring and voltages all seem fine.  I am at a loss to figure out what is wrong.  I have read alot of the posts here and tried all of the suggestions, I don't think that this is a problem with Mach. I am thinking of getting new motor drivers and bob from another source if someone thinks that it will work.  Any suggestions that anyone has will be greatly appreciated.  By the way my setting on the motor tuning and X & Y= 80 velocity, 8 on acceleration Z=  30 vel 3 acc, debounce set to 1500, cv .20, look ahead 150.

Thanks, Tom

97

General Mach Discussion / Re: Motor tuning while rapiding

« on: July 25, 2008, 06:51:17 PM »

Thanks, I will keep plugging away at it. Next questions is to add the g28 to the button of ref all home do I simply put the g28 at the end of the button code already there, or is there a special way it need to be formatted.  It would be great if someone could post an example or even a screen shot othe the button editor text.

Tom

98

General Mach Discussion / Re: Motor tuning while rapiding

« on: July 25, 2008, 05:54:09 PM »

What about the step and direction pulse settings what effect will they have?

Tom

99

General Mach Discussion / Motor tuning while rapiding

« on: July 25, 2008, 05:28:39 PM »

I need help with my motor tuning while.  I have a fireball v90 with the probostep breakout board and drivers from probotix.com.  When the motors are running at normal speed 70ipm they run fine I can try to hold on the the axis and the motors will not miss a beat, but when I am rapiding and 150ipm I just barely touch the axis the motors will bind(make the loud whining sound). I have tried tuning different settings but I think that I am beginning to chase my tail.  I have checked the axis's after removing the motors and the move fine. What am I missing here will the motors always have that much less torque and rapid speeds?  I have tried all of the different step modes on the motors from 16th to full, but the problem always seems to be there. 
   Does anyone feel that if i add a smooth stepper to the setup that it will help?  If anyone has any other things that I can change in the setup please let me know.

I have read the Manuel still not 100% sure on what changing the step and direction pluse does, or if that will even help

Thanks in advance for any advice,
Tom

100

General Mach Discussion / Z axis home/limit problem

« on: July 22, 2008, 08:45:34 PM »

Hi, I am setting up my Fireball v90 using Mach3 I have 5 limit switches. 1- X home- / limit x--, 2-Y home- / limit y-- 3- Z home+ /Limit Z++, The final 2 I am using the Y-,and the x- in seires as the limit switches. None on the z- Axis Yet.  The problem that I am having is with the z axis switch when I have it set as the home switch alone it all works great, but if I activate the z-limit++ then when I home all ref the z axis moves up hits the switch and activates the limit.  I check the diagnostic and the light is on for the home and the limit, when I try to restart it wont come out of e-stop unless I turn off the z limit.  I have the z axis on its own pin input as well as the X & Y home/limit. Does anyone have an idea as to what I am doing wrong?

Thanks, Tom