Messages

111

General Mach Discussion / Re: Flatten my G-code

« on: July 09, 2013, 02:30:17 AM »

In a word: "No".

What you suggest is not even possible, in a general sense, as variables and value derived from them can, and often do, change value as a program runs.

Regards,
Ray L.

112

General Mach Discussion / Re: Brains and MPG from CNC4pc.

« on: July 02, 2013, 08:35:49 PM »

Not sure why you're using brains at all to make an MPG work - wire it directly to two input pins, and configure those pins as MPG inputs, and Mach3 will take care of the rest.

Regards,
Ray L.

113

General Mach Discussion / Re: BT30 spindle from scratch - with power drawbar and ATC of course

« on: June 18, 2013, 10:49:44 AM »

Steve,

Impressive, as usual.  Funny how 500IPM doesn't *look* as fast as it sounds.  Though it certainly seems fast when you realize your expensive new endmill is heading straight for that fixture bolt....

I hope to finally be starting on my new ATC build in the next few weeks.  It's been designed since about January, but I just haven't had the time to actually build it.

Regards,
Ray L.

114

General Mach Discussion / Re: BT30 spindle from scratch - with power drawbar and ATC of course

« on: June 17, 2013, 10:41:54 PM »

Sure has been quiet here for a long time....

Not sure if you guts are up to speed on what I've been doing.  I bought a Novakon Torus Pro mill a few months back, and LOVE it!  And, I'm designing a PDB and ATC to fit all the Novakon machines.  The PDB is a few weeks from beta test, and I hope to get the ATC there by end of the year.  The PDB is a vastly improved version of my motorized drawbar, with a dedicated microcontroller to control the (rather complex) sequencing.  Everything fits very nicely inside the sheet-metal cover on the head, with the Grab/Release buttons and an LCD display mounted to the door.  This version has sensors so the firmware can verify nearly all operations, and it displays an error message on the LCD if anything goes wrong.  Like my other PDBs, this one also works equally well with TTS or straighy R8 tools.  Average time to grab or release a TTS tool is under two seconds.  It torques the drawbar to a very consistent 30 ft-lbs, so TTS pull-out is a thing of the past

Below is the final "production prototype" mounted on my machine.

Regards,
Ray L.

115

General Mach Discussion / Re: motor tuning - pulse setting relation to kernel speed

« on: June 16, 2013, 03:05:28 PM »

With Geckos, you do want to set the Step Pulse Polarity to Active Low.  That could be a large part of your problem.  Pulse width should not be an issue with Geckos and a PMDX BOB - the default setting should work fine, IF set to Active Low.

Regards,
Ray L.

116

General Mach Discussion / Re: motor tuning - pulse setting relation to kernel speed

« on: June 16, 2013, 12:59:09 PM »

The pulse width has nothing to do with velocity or acceleration - it's a matter of ensuring the minimum pulse width is enough for your motor drivers to reliably detect the pulse, and it can be, sometimes very significantly, affected by your BOB.  I've seen several, usually CNC4PC brand, BOBs that SERIOUSLY mangle the signal.  What you really need to do is get an oscillocscope and see what the step pulses look like AT the motor driver pins.  You'll likely find they look VERY different from what they look like at the BOB output pins.  In any case, at 25MHz kernel speed, a setting of 6 has absolutely no down-side whatsoever.

Regards,
Ray L.

117

General Mach Discussion / Re: Check this out, I am about to be published in Digital Machinist!!!

« on: June 13, 2013, 09:41:27 PM »

Congrats, Scott!  I hope when you're a rich and famous machinist/writer, you'll remember us little people....  :-)

Regards,
Ray L.

118

General Mach Discussion / Re: Maxi Torque-Rite power drawbar

« on: June 06, 2013, 02:33:47 PM »

That's a simple impact-wrench power drawbar.  It can easily be controlled by Mach3 using relays and solenoid valves.

Regards,
Ray L.

119

General Mach Discussion / Re: Best Pendant/MPG

« on: June 04, 2013, 07:17:39 PM »

Take a look at the VistaCNC pendants (vistacnc.com).  I've got them on both of my machines (though I completely re-wrote the firmware, and re-defined the functionality).  But, the out-of-the-box functionality is very good, they're very nicely made, and very well supported.

Regards,
Ray L.

120

General Mach Discussion / Re: hot environment

« on: June 04, 2013, 11:08:28 AM »

Your problem isn't heat, it cr@ppy components on that motherboard.  It's not uncommon problem on low-end motherboards.  There were also a large number of motherboards, of all brands, built a number of years ago with caps that were poorly manufactured.  Good quality caps will have no problem at all with any reasonable ambient temp.

Regards,
Ray L.