Messages

161

General Mach Discussion / Re: Reversed machining

« on: March 04, 2013, 10:11:49 AM »

Home direction is completely irrelevent - you can set home wherever you like.  Axis directions cannot be changed.  Per your photo, you still have the X axis motion backwards, which will not work correctly.

Regards,
Ray L.

162

General Mach Discussion / Re: Reversed machining

« on: March 03, 2013, 08:11:15 PM »

My gantry is on the right hand side so X+ moves right to left.  Y+ moves away from me (front to back).

Then that's your problem.  If you insist on operating your machine like that, then everything will come out reversed.  G-code directions are very clearly, and rigidly defined.  You don't get the re-define axis directions.

Regards,
Ray L.

163

General Mach Discussion / Re: Reversed machining

« on: March 03, 2013, 07:51:40 PM »

Directions are all relative to the tool, not the table.  Moving X+ should move the tool to the right, or the table to the left.  Y+ should move the tool towards the back of the machine, or the table towards the front of the machine.  Z+ should move the tool up, or the table down.

Regards,
Ray L.

164

General Mach Discussion / Re: Rotate A Axis via Macro Code

« on: March 03, 2013, 07:48:42 PM »

If you want it to just continue rotating until you stop it, use JogOn() and JogOff().  Download this:

http://www.machsupport.com/docs/Mach3_V3.x_Macro_Prog_Ref.pdf

and it should answer all your questions (I wrote this about 4 years ago...).

Regards,
Ray L.

165

General Mach Discussion / Re: Rotate A Axis via Macro Code

« on: March 03, 2013, 07:27:52 PM »

Assuming A is defined as a rotary axis:

Code "G0 An.nnn"
while IsMoving()
    Sleep(10)

Where n.nnn is the angle to go to should do it.

Regards,
Ray L.

166

General Mach Discussion / Re: Gecko 320 , Servo

« on: March 03, 2013, 11:41:21 AM »

Current limit should  be set based on the motor specs.  If you set it too high above the motors rated current, a stall can permanently damage the motor, by de-magnetizing it.

Best way to set gain and damping is to start with both at a low-ish level (Gecko recommends starting at 10 or 11 o'clock position - about 30% of full scale, then gradually increasing gain to make the servo "stiffer", and adjusting damping to eliminating ringing and overshoot, while maintaining "crisp" response.  Keep in mind, none of these settings have much effect on accuracy, unless really massively mis-adjusted.  What they do is make the servo respond more quickly, allowing you to achieve higher rapid speeds, with higher accelerations.  With G320s, it seems best to adjusting damping so the servo "chirps" about once per second when the motor is not moving.  For G320X, adjust so it is silent, with perhaps a soft chirp every few seconds.

Regards,
Ray L.

167

General Mach Discussion / Re: A Simple Macro

« on: March 02, 2013, 05:16:44 PM »

You should be able to do just:

Message "Press Right Button To Continue"
While (IsActive(INPUT2))
    Sleep 10

Both of your methods will flood the GUI with messages, which is never good.

Regards,
Ray L.

168

General Mach Discussion / Re: Advanced G Code Programming - Advise or Alternatives Needed

« on: March 02, 2013, 02:17:35 PM »

You could assign parameters that specify the depth of each hole.  Since you are doing a single plunge for each hole, if you set the depth using a variable, and set the corresponding variable to the Z clearance height, the machine will rapid to that position, *not* drill the hole, then immediately rapid on to the next position.  There may well be a better solution, but this is simple and will work.

Regards,
Ray L.

169

General Mach Discussion / Re: Linear Scales

« on: February 26, 2013, 08:59:54 PM »

Mach3 is strictly an open-loop controller.  You can use the scales as DROs.  Mach3 will NOT control the machine based on the scales.  You can get that capability with some third-party hardware motion controllers, like KFlop, but Mach3 will be totally unaware of it.

Regards,
Ray L.

170

General Mach Discussion / Re: G31 issue

« on: February 19, 2013, 11:48:45 PM »

I've seen that, and worse, more times than I care to remember....

Regards,
Ray L.