Messages

961

General Mach Discussion / Re: Spindle Speeds x3cnc

« on: October 10, 2009, 10:17:11 AM »

Hi Ray,
As I am not conversant with electronics's will you please explane to me what marginal hardware Is ?
It has been suggested to me at our model club that I fit a smooth stepper willthis help or cure the problem ?,
If you have any suggestions (not rude) I will listen and absorb your comments.
My B est Regards,
Melv.

There is no reason to believe a SmoothStepper would do anything at all to address your spindle speed problem.  Somewhere in there you have a board or some logic that takes the STEP/DIR or PWM output generated by Mach3, and converts it to an analog speed control voltage to the motor speed controller.  It is that circuit that is not operating as it should.

Regards,
Ray L.

962

General Mach Discussion / Re: Spindle Speeds x3cnc

« on: October 09, 2009, 07:32:49 PM »

Hi this is my first question on the forum,
When I put 700rpm spindle speed into Mach3 the machine only returns 400rpm at the spindle,
At 3,000rpm + the spindle speeds are o.k.
The motor does not start untill you have put 700rpm in to Mach3,
Machine is a KX3 CNC MILL
ANY INFORMATION WILL HELP PLEASE.
Melv.

Mach3 assumes the spindle speed interface has a linear response.  Clearly, yours is anything but....  You need to talk to Sieg, or whoever you bought the machine from as it sounds like you have pretty marginal hardware.  It is NOT a Mach3 problem.

Regards,
Ray L.

963

General Mach Discussion / Re: G4 versus Sleep

« on: October 08, 2009, 05:19:38 PM »

OK..hopefuly I am about finished asking questions on this. The original code had a G4 P0.5 command after any DRO update. Given all I have learned from that thread, it sounds like that command could not be doing as intended. But then again, I am not sure what the problem was that casued the need for this to be added. Perhaps this is code developed long ago that no longer applies.  It sounds like I should actually use a Sleep 100 (or perhaps add some, say Sleep 120) to make ure that Mach has made it through its 100 msec loop). Do people normaly add a sleep command after any DRO update?

CAN'T WAIT FOR VERSION 4...just hope it plays well with a SmootStepper!

You only need to put a delay after a DRO access if you're reading the DRO, and want the modified value.  For example, if you do this:

Code "G0 X0"
SetDRO(123, 456)
Code "G1 X1"
X = GetSRO(123)

You should be fine.  But, if you do:

Code "G0 X0"
SetDRO(123, 456)
X = GetSRO(123)

You will likely find X gets set to the old value of the DRO, unless you insert the delay.  This is something I've never understood, but I've seen it enough times to just be careful.

Regards,
Ray L.

964

General Mach Discussion / Re: G4 versus Sleep

« on: October 08, 2009, 05:01:53 PM »

Can you use IsMoving to see that a DRO has finished updating. I wouldn't call a SetEOMDRO command G-code, so I am wonderig if IsMoving will be a good way to detect that the DRO has finished being upadted.

No.  The DROs update when Mach does its ~10X/second update loop.  There is no way to "wait" for that other than with a Sleep.  In Mach3 v4, most of these issues, and many others, will be handled in a FAR more deterministic and regular manner, and it will rarely be necessary to add delays or While loops to your VB code.

Regards,
Ray L.

965

General Mach Discussion / Re: G4 versus Sleep

« on: October 08, 2009, 02:58:51 PM »

I nkow this sounds like I am asking the same queston, but it is a little different. The zero touch plate probing routine I was modifyig was originally written by someone else. In that code, anytime a DRO was changed they added G4 P0.5 with a comment that said "pause for the DRO to update." Based on the feedback from this thread, I don't think the G4 command was the appropriate one to use, but rather a sleep command should have been used to pause on the VB side. However, rather than have a fixed pause, I'd like to add this code after a DRO is updated:

While IsMoving ()
  sleep 10
Wend

My question is: does "IsMoving" apply to a DRO update? If so, I would think I could add the While IsMoving loop and do things fatser than having a fixed pause.

Thanks for all the help!
Kent

Oddly enough, that should work fine.  IsMoving(), rather than indicating that an axis is moving, I believe actually indicates there are remaining commands in the G-code queue.  So, IsMoving() will return 1 any time there is *any* G-code waiting to be executed.  This can be confirmed by running the following as a button script, as I just did:

Message "Startin delay..."
Code "G4 P5000"
While IsMoving()
   Sleep 100
Wend
Message "Delay Done"

You'll see the first message displayed for 5 seconds (more or less...), before the second message is displayed.

Regards,
Ray L.

966

General Mach Discussion / Re: Is G84 supported in Mach3?

« on: October 07, 2009, 07:30:49 PM »

Yes I have used the search function and read all of the posts I found and I have searched the MachMill manual and noticed the G84 section is greyed out.  So my question is Mach capable of rigid tapping if the mill is capable?
Thanks
Steve

I'm pretty sure Mach does NOT do rigid tapping.  It's one of the things pretty high up on the ToDo list for v4.

Regards,
Ray L.

967

General Mach Discussion / Re: Nothing to Feedhold Error Message

« on: October 06, 2009, 09:19:20 PM »

It's not a "condition".  It happens, the message is displayed, and that's the end of it.  The message will remain until something else is displayed on the status line.  It does not disable anything, or prevent you from proceeding with whatever you want to do.  If you want the message to go away, hit Reset twice to clear the status line.

Regards,
Ray L.

968

General Mach Discussion / Re: Nothing to Feedhold Error Message

« on: October 06, 2009, 08:46:18 PM »

I've just started to try learn how to use a Tormach PCNC 1100 mill.  It uses Mach3 as the control software.  I stumbled upon an error message "Nothing to Feedhold" which means nothing to me.  I've searched the forums and could not find anything that really explained it to me.  It is probably something really stupid, but I'm stumped.  I can move the table around with the jog commands, but it will not run my CNC code.  Any insight would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks in advance.

You get that message when you try to do a FeedHold and there is no move in progress.  Hence, nothing to FeedHold, since nothing is moving.

Regards,
Ray L.

969

General Mach Discussion / Re: tool change problem - what have I missed?

« on: October 06, 2009, 07:48:41 PM »

First, if you're trying to use tool length offsets, you need to enter the tool lengths into the tool table - simply zeroing the tool does not do this.  You can manually enter the tool offsets by entering data directly into the table at Config->ToolTable.  Once that's done, you have to apply the offsets, using G43.  So, if your tool 2 is 1" longer than your Tool1, enter 0 for the tool 1 length, and 1" for the tool 2 length in the tool table.  When you do a toolchange, use "M6 Tn G43 Hn" where n is the tool number.  This will both do the toolchange, and apply the correct offset.  You can set the Z axis fixture offset by loading any tool, applying its correct length offset with G43, then moving Z to the zero position, and zeroing the Z DRO.

Regards,
Ray L.

970

General Mach Discussion / Re: G4 versus Sleep

« on: October 06, 2009, 12:12:32 PM »

Here is a script of code that raises the question of when to use G4 versus sleep.
This code works:
   
   Code "G90"                 ' Set absolute mode
   DoOEMButton (180)     ' Set work coordinate mode on
   Sleep 100   
   New_Z = GetDRO(2) + 0.2
   Code "G0 Z" & New_Z

This code does not work regardless of the specified dwell time:

   Code "G90"
   DoOEMButton (180)
   Code "G4 P0.1"   
   New_Z = GetDRO(2) + 0.2
   Code "G0 Z" & New_Z

I have seen the dwell command (Code "G4 P0.1") used many times to delay movement of an axis  immediately after a DRO is changed by code. Should the dwell command (G4) be used or should an equivalent sleep command be used? I am running a SmoothStepper which may be complicating this.

The "Code" function does *not* complete execution of the G-code before returning, so doing a Code "G4 Px" will return immediately, regardless of the dwell time given by the P argument.  The dwell *will* execute correctly between successive lines of G-code.  So, for example:

    Code "G0 X0 Y0"
    Code "G4 P1000"
    Code "G0 X1"

will correctly insert a one second delay between the two rapid moves.  If you want VB to dwell, you must use Sleep.

Regards,
Ray L.