Messages

1601

General Mach Discussion / Re: Lazy cam problems

« on: September 12, 2008, 02:15:07 PM »

That, IMHO is in extremely poor taste, and totally uncalled for.  Can't we at least remain a bit more polite and respectful?

Regards,
Ray L.

1602

General Mach Discussion / Re: Open door as pause

« on: September 12, 2008, 02:13:18 PM »

You could easily create an interlock to do what you want, using just a relay with it's contacts in series with the spindle start output in Mach   Coil to be operated by the door switch.

Same relay with enough poles could put mach into Feedhold.

Probably better to do that than rely on software alone.


Wayne....

I'm not sure that will do what he wants.  When you press FeedHold, it will still take a second or two for the machine to stop.  If you simply shut off the spindle while the machine is still moving, you stand a good chance of losing position and/or breaking a tool and/or damaging the work.  I don't think you can turn off the spindle until you're sure movement has stopped.

Regards,
Ray L.

1603

General Mach Discussion / Re: Kernell Speed

« on: September 09, 2008, 06:13:56 PM »

Run DriverTest.exe

1604

SmoothStepper USB / Re: HELP! - Mach3 Starts Up With Axes Moving!!

« on: September 09, 2008, 06:13:15 PM »

Hood,

    Odd, I can download it just fine....

Regards,
Ray L.

1605

SmoothStepper USB / Re: HELP! - Mach3 Starts Up With Axes Moving!!

« on: September 09, 2008, 05:51:59 PM »

Hood,

    Pendant brains attached.

Regards,
Ray L.

1606

SmoothStepper USB / Re: HELP! - Mach3 Starts Up With Axes Moving!!

« on: September 09, 2008, 04:43:18 PM »

Hood,

OK, I think I have *part* of an answer. I believe the problem with the pendant has to do with the order in which the brain lobes are executed. I did one funky thing in there - I have one lobe whose only function is to assert a PP output. That PP output is used to power the pullup resistors for all the switches. I believe what's happening is the inputs are being read before that output is set, so Mach3 sees all, or at least some, of the inputs as asserted. What's it's doing on start-up is a GoTo Zero on all axes, which is one of the pendant buttons.

However, this still does not explain *how* it's able to come up and immediately start moving, since Mach3 is supposed to come up in E-Stop, and while the pendant can assert* an E-stop, it cannot *clear* one. So, that's still a mystery.

As for the jog resolution, further tinkering has determined that to be mostly a function of the increased jog speed and accleration the SS enabled. If I set the jog speed and acceleration back where they were with the PP configuration, then it seems to work much better. That I should be able to fix in the pendant brain functions if I can ever figure out the right combination of magic incantations....

Regards,
Ray L.

1607

SmoothStepper USB / Re: HELP! - Mach3 Starts Up With Axes Moving!!

« on: September 09, 2008, 03:12:24 PM »

Hood,

    My Geckos, BOB, power supplies, etc. are mounted in an enclosure behind the mill - basically inaccessible, and a fair distance away.  The PC is right next to the mill, a few feet from where I sit.  So, the pendant is more logically connected directly to the PC, rather than to the BOB.  So, a PC PP connection makes more sense.  As for the performance aspects, as I reported in the original post, my pendant, connected through SS, is virtually useless for other than very coarse jogging.  The shortest button press I can manage moves on the order of 0.100" or more.  Sometimes much more.  With the pendant on the PP, I could easily jog about 0.010".  The length of the button presses on the pendant are obviously being affected by the latency of communications with the SS.  I'm using the latest SS plug-in, just downloaded last night.
    Here's another "anomoly" I discovered in my first attempt to do some real work with SS today - I normally do 2.5D milling, with manual Z moves, as I haven't yet had time to mount the servo to the Z axis.  Each time a Z move is required, an M00 is inserted, telling me where to move it to.  Trouble is, the G-code display in Mach is no longer synchronized correctly, so the M00 lines are a few lines above or below the highlight in the G-code display.  This sometimes leaves me having to flgure out which of the potential Z moves is the one I should be doing right now.  Not good....

Regards,
Ray L.

1608

SmoothStepper USB / Re: HELP! - Mach3 Starts Up With Axes Moving!!

« on: September 09, 2008, 01:13:46 PM »

Disable your Brain and see if Mach still comes up with axis moving, also might be worth making up a new profile from scratch as some people have had issues if the use the parallel port profile.
Homing problem is likely noise, add some digital filtering, I had slight problems with my MPG on the mill as it was directly connected rather than through a breakout, setting the filtering for MPG to the lowest (1.43) solved all of my problems.
Hood

Hood,

    Unfortunately, my brain is disabled most of the time....  However, I assume you meant to disable my Mach3 "brains"?  I did that, and it did seem to cure the axes running on startup.  But why??  That seems a serious bug to me.  Anyway, so now my pendant is completely useless - not good.  Also, I notice Mach now *always* comes up with the DROs set to some bizarre offsets - -5900" for A, 20" more or less for X and Y.  These appear to be the machine offsets.  Why??

Regards,
Ray L.

1609

General Mach Discussion / Re: Move X axis on "# of steps" or degrees (?)

« on: September 09, 2008, 12:37:54 PM »

Charlie,
    Set steps/unit to 0.9, and you can work directly in degrees.

Regards,
Ray L.

1610

SmoothStepper USB / Re: HELP! - Mach3 Starts Up With Axes Moving!!

« on: September 09, 2008, 11:08:54 AM »

Oh should have said, debounce in Mach is not used by the SS, its done via digital filtering in the plugin as mentioned above, if you dont have the digital filtering in the plugin config then grab the latest plugin version.
Hood

Hood,

   So, are you saying the Mach3 debounce is literally not used if SS is installed (i.e. - the setting will not affect operation, whether set to 0 or 10,000), or that it should be NOP-ed by setting to 0?
   I do think there would be a great deal to be said for a configuration that used SS and one PP.  For example, my Bob would prefer to be connected to the PP, both for the quicker response, and because the cabling works out better - the PP is closer to where the Bob wants to be than the SS will be.

Regards,
Ray L.