Messages

891

General Mach Discussion / Re: Getting My Machine to Move

« on: November 21, 2009, 11:38:51 AM »

You have the STEP and DIR pin assignments reversed.

892

General Mach Discussion / Re: creating small circles

« on: November 20, 2009, 03:49:11 PM »

In Config->GeneralConfig, do you have I,J set to incremental?

Regards,
Ray L.

893

General Mach Discussion / Re: Z late getting to final depth

« on: November 20, 2009, 01:12:37 PM »

Pretty much has to be the way the g-code is written.

G1 X1 Y2 Z-0.5  - will move all three axes at once, so the tool ends up at X1, Y2, Z0.5 at the end of the move

G1 Z-0.5
G1 X1 Y2  - will move Z to -0.5, *then* move X/Y

Regards,
Ray L.

894

General Mach Discussion / Re: What motor size and driver should I use

« on: November 19, 2009, 03:51:15 PM »

Thanks for the replys so far.
I was planning to avoid the knee and have Z on the Quill.

I have already got on order 5mm pitch ballscrews which is 0.2 inch

If I were to go servo instead what size and type of motor would work

I did my BP clone with 850oz-in peak/170 oz-in continuous, 72V,  4200RPM NENA 34 servos from www.homeshopcnc.com, and Gecko G320s.  The X/Y drives go through 2.5:2 GT2 belt reducers to 4-pitch 1" Nook XPR ballscrews.  The knee goes through a 4.8:1 XL belt reducer to the stock bevel gears and leadscrew.  I'll have a quill drive on it in a few days, at which point the knee will be used only for tool length compensation.  X/Y will do at least 350IPM (I don't have the nerve to go faster than that, but the hardware does....), the knee does 75 IPM.  All three axes are almost unstoppable - they'll snap off a 1/2" tool without losing position.

If you go with steppers, something in the 1000-1200 oz-in range (NEMA34) should be plenty, especially with 5-pitch screws, and direct drive will be fine, making the hardware a bit simpler.

Regards,
Ray L.

895

General Mach Discussion / Re: Source for servo motors

« on: November 17, 2009, 08:25:51 PM »

Does anyone have a good source for servo motors and encoders?  Looking for something that would be compatible with the Gecko servo drives, so less than 80V, 20A.  Thanks

www.homeshopcnc.com
www.kelinginc.com

Regards,
Ray L.

896

General Mach Discussion / Re: Stupid Questions re: Touch Probe Alignment

« on: November 17, 2009, 01:23:33 AM »

Arnies probe is a fine tool. I could see a few things I would change but I dont know if it would be more accurate. Nice piece though and you can use it for a tool setter.

I've ordered one, should be here shortly....

Regards,
Ray L.

897

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach crashes, machine still moving!

« on: November 15, 2009, 07:07:07 PM »

I have been using MACH3 with the router that I built and everything has been trouble free for about 15 months.  Recently, things have been getting a little glitchy:
-If I minimize the MACH3 window while the machine is running, the feedrate goes to about 1% and the DRO looses the 0,0,0 origin position.
-The occasional strange move: a random 3/4" plunge after an e-stop.

So I figured the driver was corrupted, and while I was at it, I installed the latest version.  Things have gotten worse.  After the update:
-when jogging, MACH3 froze, but the machine continued to move untill I pressed the estop switch!

I think a full reinstall is in my future, anyone have any better ideas?
-JEB

It's really not a good idea to resize/minimize/maximize windows while Mach3 is running.  Best to just leave it alone as much as possible.  V4 will be MUCH better in this regard, as the display will be running in a separate, lower priority, thread.

Regards,
Ray L.

898

General Mach Discussion / Re: Stupid Questions re: Touch Probe Alignment

« on: November 15, 2009, 01:51:19 PM »

Heres a few more pics for you to see how I did it. The battery is there for the LED, I use that all the time and have never wired it into Mach but I do have a small jack plug socket there if I ever decide that I need to.

Hood

Hood,

Very nice!  Thanks!

Regards,
Ray L.

899

General Mach Discussion / Re: Stupid Questions re: Touch Probe Alignment

« on: November 15, 2009, 01:50:03 PM »

Hood,

Thought I'd confuse things by posting to the correct thread....   

Do you have drawings of your probe?  I have no desire to re-invent the wheel....

Regards,
Ray L.

Have you seen Arnies probe?  At $100+, it makes buy vs make a difficult decision.

http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,5004.0.html

Mike

Mike,

That could be just the ticket!  Thanks!  I've long since passed the point where I'd rather buy than make, if the cost isn't too high.  $100 is more than reasonable.

Regards,
Ray L.

900

General Mach Discussion / Re: Stupid Questions re: Touch Probe Alignment

« on: November 15, 2009, 01:46:48 PM »

And here is one that's similar, although he doesn't show the spring that keeps the probe tensioned.  http://www.indoor.flyer.co.uk/probe.htm

If your spindle is locked, why would it matter if the probe isn't centered with the centerline of the spindle?  Once you set the axis's to zero, as long as the spindle doesn't rotate, all should be good.

If you're using it for probing a surface to collect a point-cloud file, it doesn't matter.  If you're using it to set the work offsets, as I need to do, you need to know *exactly* what the offset of the probe trigger point is relative to the exact centerline of the spindle.

Regards,
Ray L.