Messages

411

General Mach Discussion / Re: Tool hight measuring after tool change - macro ?

« on: January 29, 2012, 02:38:09 AM »

There are as many different ways of measuring and managing tool length as Carter's has little liver pills.  And you'll find a lot of people who are ab*********ely adamant that their way is the only "right" way to do it.  It ain't so.  You need to figure out what works best for you.   For me, if doing one-off work, tool length comp isn't even work bothering with.  Just touch off after mounting each tool, using a small piece of PCB material wired to your probe input.  But for production work, where you're running the same program over and over, using the tool table can save a lot of time.

Regards,
Ray L.

412

General Mach Discussion / Re: Speed & feed calculator

« on: January 26, 2012, 09:04:48 PM »

Wow!  That's a handy tool for the money, but their feed/speed calculations are crazy conservative!  They give numbers for carbide endmills that are less aggressive than what I normally use for HSS!  I would take the feed rates it calculates and multiply by at least 2 or 3!

Regards,
Ray L.

413

General Mach Discussion / Re: I WANT TO KNOW SATISIFIED USERS

« on: January 17, 2012, 02:49:36 PM »

Mach3 works just fine for the overwhelming majority of its users.  There are some of us who are, arguably, going a bit outside the normal bounds, and running into trouble.  You can try it for free, so your best bet by far is to just download, it, try it out.  If it works for you, great.  If not, you've lost nothing but a small amount of time.  I think you'll find it works just fine.

Regards,
Ray L.

414

General Mach Discussion / Re: Getting Disillusioned with Mach3.

« on: January 16, 2012, 07:08:44 PM »

Just to backup what Brian said, his support has been truly outstanding, and not just for me, but for many others as well.  He put a huge  amount of time and effort into working on the issues I raised, and quite a few were fixed along the way.  But, for the reasons he described, fixing one bug sometimes uncovered, or created, a different one.  That is why it is so important to get Mach4 finished - Mach3 will NEVER be as stable as it needs to be, because of its legacy.  This is the way of software - it always needs a major re-write after a certain period of time, and Mach3s time came some time ago.  It was ALWAYS a real pleasure working with Brian, and Greg, and I will really miss that.  I have no doubt when Mach4 finally arrives, it will be a HUGE improvement over Mach3!  And when it's ready, I'll be eager to give it a test-drive!

Regards,
Ray L.

415

General Mach Discussion / Re: Sometimes Mach just 'goes away'?

« on: January 16, 2012, 08:54:44 AM »

Hi Ray

You can always re-boot the USB or Ethernet SmoothStepper by unplugging the power cable....

Well, yes, but the installation does not have a power switch on the ESS! Very few rigs would I think. So I have to cycle the CNC power, with the possible loss of registration.

Unplug the power cable FROM the ESS, or the USB cable from the USS.  Both have connectors, so are easy to disconnect.

Regards,
Ray L.

416

General Mach Discussion / Re: Sometimes Mach just 'goes away'?

« on: January 15, 2012, 11:43:26 PM »

You can always re-boot the USB or Ethernet SmoothStepper by unplugging the power cable....  I've probably had Mach3 crash and/or wierd out more times than most people, but I've never seen it in a state where it couldn't be killed by selecting it in the task list (NOT the applications list) in Task Manager.

Regards,
Ray L.

417

General Mach Discussion / Re: What's your fastest feed rate for your mill/parallel port.

« on: January 13, 2012, 09:20:22 AM »

And high speed, without high acceleration, is kinda pointless....

418

General Mach Discussion / Re: What's your fastest feed rate for your mill/parallel port.

« on: January 12, 2012, 11:57:58 AM »

Ray, he's using servos

Gerry,

Well, then, what I said goes double.  He should be able to set accel MUCH higher with servos.  Either they're not tuned right, or they're gorssly under-
sized for the machine.

Regards,
Ray L.

419

General Mach Discussion / Re: Getting Disillusioned with Mach3.

« on: January 12, 2012, 11:26:25 AM »

Tweakie,

I'd be very happy to forward your message direct to Brian if you like.

I share your pain.  I just completed switching over to a KFlop, using their KMotionCNC application instead of Mach3, while I finish writing my CNC controller app (which is currently about 70% done).  There are many reasons I would've much preferred to get my issues with Mach3/SS sorted out, but it was just taking too long.

I feel bad, because Brian and Greg have provided great support and I really enjoyed working with them both, but, end of the day, I have to be able to get my work done, and I simply could not do it with Mach3.  I'm sure Brian will get it worked out eventually.

420

General Mach Discussion / Re: What's your fastest feed rate for your mill/parallel port.

« on: January 12, 2012, 11:22:45 AM »

And if you can't set accel over 2 without losing steps, you have some pretty seriously under-powered motors.  I run accel of 25, which is not particularly high, but going higher just makes for more shaking when the big machine changes direction.  Steppers lose torque rapidly as speed goes up.  If you can't handle high accel, even at low speeds, then you simply don't have a lot of torque to work with, and you won't be able to reach high rapid speeds.  LOTs of people have hit 200IPM, and well beyond, with Mach3.  Your problem is your hardware.

Regards,
Ray L.