Messages

1681

General Mach Discussion / Re: When Is A Circle Not A Circle?

« on: August 14, 2008, 08:51:56 PM »

XML attached.  I didn't look at the toolpath in any detail, but, as I said, we're talking about a single G02 command here.  I could load it up again and see what it looks like, but what should I be looking for?

Regards,
Ray L.

1682

General Mach Discussion / When Is A Circle Not A Circle?

« on: August 14, 2008, 02:25:59 PM »

Answer - When it's a polygon!  Today I made a couple of donut-shaped pieces of aluminum.  The center holes came out perfectly smooth and round.  The outsides, however, came out as ~32-sided polygons, the segments all appearing to be a very consistent size!  These circular paths were programmed as a single G02 command to make the entire 360 degree cut.  This has never happened to me before, and I haven't changed *anything*.  Is there some way to tell Mach3 what precision to use in calculating the segments of an arc?  Resetting and re-booting the PC appears to have perhaps made it better, but still not good.

Regards,
Ray L.

1683

General Mach Discussion / Re: Where is rapit move speed set ?

« on: August 13, 2008, 09:45:16 PM »

When my gantry does a rapid move, where is that speed setting coming from ?  I'm using sheetcam, I can set the cutting speed there.  There must be a default setting for rapid move speed - where ?

Thx

Rapid speed is the max speed you define in the motor tuning dialog.

Regards,
Ray L.

1684

SmoothStepper USB / Re: Is SmoothStepper Ready For The Masses?

« on: August 10, 2008, 09:26:30 PM »

BTW - I assume SmoothStepper requires USB 1.1, not 2.0?

1685

SmoothStepper USB / Is SmoothStepper Ready For The Masses?

« on: August 10, 2008, 09:08:51 PM »

I just LOVE the idea of SmoothStepper, but am always leery of something that's "brand new".  So, howzabout those of you who have one letting the rest of us know if you're happy with it, and if you'd buy one now, or better to wait a few months to get a few more kinks out.  Any bugs/quirks/limitations I should be aware of?
This will be going on a BP-clone knee mill.
Thanks!

Regards,
Ray L.

1686

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 Doesn't See Parallel Port Inputs

« on: August 10, 2008, 05:46:48 PM »

D'oh!  I'm a moron!  I work so much with computers, where the first of anything is "0", the next "1", etc.  I had the E-Stop configured for Port "0", which, of course, means it's disabled.  As soon as I configured it for Port "1", it worked first try.

Regards,
Ray L.

1687

General Mach Discussion / Mach3 Doesn't See Parallel Port Inputs

« on: August 10, 2008, 12:15:45 AM »

I now have three parallel ports in my PC.  All output signals work just fine, but Mach3 does not seem to "see" input signals on *any* of the cards!  I have enabled E-Stop on several different pins, and verified that a good signal is getting to the proper pin on the connector on the PC, but Mach3 does not acknowledge that the signal is present, regardless of whether it's configured active high or low, or which port or pin it is configured for.  The diagnostic screen also shows no activity on any inputs.
Is there some configuration step I've missed?  How can three separate parallel ports behave so strangely?

Regards,
Ray L.