Messages

651

General Mach Discussion / Re: Huge Threading Problem Help

« on: October 23, 2010, 12:03:45 PM »

Am I missing something here?  Stainless steel, 4.5" diameter, and *1000* RPM??  That is WAAAAAAAY too fast, like by 10X or more!

Regards,
Ray L.

652

General Mach Discussion / Re: Step / Velocity mode

« on: October 22, 2010, 09:44:09 AM »

Thanks Hood,
Your axis are definitely a fair bit smoother than mine. I think I'll try your suggestion and hook the mpg up to port 3 on the SS. I appreciate you going to the trouble.
I am still mulling over the step jog thing, I would have dropped it if Ray hadn't said he had it working.
Ray, if you read this, what version of Mach are you running?
Cheers
Dave

Dave,

I'm using 3.042.020, with a SmoothStepper. 

Regards,
Ray L.

653

General Mach Discussion / Re: Step / Velocity mode

« on: October 20, 2010, 09:24:49 AM »

I am not sure how the plugin actually works but I think I remember Peter saying that the MPG with Modbus via Plugin is not as good as  Modbus via the old serial interface.
My MPG is not via Modbus at all so cant say one way or the other for sure.
Hood

Hood,

I run my VistaCNC through a ModIO, and it works fine....

Regards,
Ray L.

654

General Mach Discussion / Re: Step / Velocity mode

« on: October 20, 2010, 09:23:33 AM »

Thanks Ray and Hood,
Ray when you say that is the way it does work, is it working that way for you?
If it is just one of those things that should work but doesn't I'll drop it, but  if you have it working, I'd really like to know what might be wrong.
Cheers
Dave

Yes, that is how it works for me, with a VistaCNC pendant.  Should work that way with any MPG.

Regards,
Ray L.

655

General Mach Discussion / Re: Need info: Mach3 line count

« on: October 19, 2010, 10:10:02 PM »

I'm not actually familier with the macropump programming. It will be great if someone guides. :-)

So far I understand Mach3 is executing line by line and I just need the line number (for what it's going to execute).

thanks

If you create a VB file named "macropump.m1s" in the Mach3/macros directory, Mach3 will run it periodically (10X/second, more or less).  You can write a macro that reads the line number DRO, and writes that value out to a file.  Since they are invoked often, it is very important that macropump macros execute *quickly*, or they can degrade system performance.

An updated version of my VB Macro Programmers Reference Manual is posted on the ArtSoft documentation site, which explains much of what you'll need to know to actually do this.  The rest you can get by asking specific questions here.

Regards,
Ray L.

656

General Mach Discussion / Re: Step / Velocity mode

« on: October 19, 2010, 10:05:59 PM »

What you describe is exactly the way it does work.

Regards,
Ray L.

657

General Mach Discussion / Re: Required spindle power

« on: October 18, 2010, 10:22:35 PM »

Spindle power can be estimated as follows:

Power = MRR * PowerFactor

where:
    MRR = Material Removal Rate in cu. in./minute -> calculate as CutWidth * CutDepth * FeedRate
    PowerFactor = 0.2 for Aluminum, 0.9 for mild steel

Regards,
Ray L.

658

General Mach Discussion / Re: Need info: Mach3 line count

« on: October 18, 2010, 10:13:06 PM »

Not that I know of and as the xml is written to when you close Mach it couldnt be done in that by saving a DRO. You may however be able to do it via a macropump and some VB and write the DRO value to a text file. Afraid I am not good enough at VB but maybe Ray L (HimyKabibble) or others will be able to give you a few pointers.
Hood

The line number is available through a DRO, so that's not a problem.  But I suspect writing to a file on a regular basis might slow down overall operation.  But you could give it a try and see.  Just use standard VBasic file I/O operations to write the file from a macropump.

Regards,
Ray L.

659

General Mach Discussion / Re: Is this possible?

« on: October 18, 2010, 09:58:04 AM »

I have 2 inputs for 2 probes that do different things based on some conditional logic.  My initial thought was to just switch the pin assignment for the probe function.  I could write a probe macro and instead of using G31, just use "G01 Z-1" and in the While isMoving loop, look for a low input.  In other words, if condition 1 is met, check input 1 for low.  If condition 2 is met, check input 2.  When the input goes low, stop motion and exit while loop.

How would I check an input from a VB script?

Thanks

Get ready to break a lot of probes.  You have NO guarantee your VB code will be running nearly often enough to sense when the probe makes contact with any reliability at all.

Regards,
Ray L.

660

General Mach Discussion / Re: Is this possible?

« on: October 17, 2010, 10:47:20 PM »

No, there is no way to do that.

Regards,
Ray L.