Messages

381

General Mach Discussion / Re: Missing Steps or is it something else? Help!

« on: February 22, 2006, 05:00:10 PM »

Hood- Thanks for the suggestion!  I'll check it out after lunch (right now the only advanced pulsing going on is my heart rate)

Brian- here's a link to the driver board I have ... http://dtllc.com/4xcnc10b.html

382

General Mach Discussion / Re: Missing Steps or is it something else? Help!

« on: February 22, 2006, 04:12:08 PM »

Thanks!  I tried that and things seem better but that could all change in an instant  .  I'm wondering if maybe I have a problem with my Driver Board?  Could a bad driver board cause problems like this?

Sid

383

General Mach Discussion / Re: Missing Steps or is it something else? Help!

« on: February 22, 2006, 02:49:56 PM »

Brian,

As usual, THANK YOU VERY KINDLY for your prompt reply!  I tried changing the motor us setting to 5 but, that didn't really seem to change anything.  So.. I tried lowering my feed rate and that seems to make things better i.e. when my feedrate is high, the cuts are not accurate.

 It's almost as if Mach3 is putting out more pulses than my stepper drive is capable of sending to the motors.  Could this be true?  Is there anything I can do about this.  My feed rate is so painfully slow right now that I can almost take a nap in between cuts.  Would the Sherline mode help me?

Thanks again,
Sid

384

General Mach Discussion / Missing Steps or is it something else? Help!

« on: February 22, 2006, 01:51:25 AM »

I'm (trying) to run a real simple G-Code of a rectangle.  I put my part in the jig, get my work offset and make my first cut- everything seems fine.  I have about 60 of the same parts to cut so, I want to be sure they will all be the same so, I try to run the code again (on the part I just cut) and the X & Y axis have shifted (I would say about .125") to the negative axis.  In other words, I am now cutting too much on 2 sides of the rectangle (and not enough on the other 2 sides (I hope that makes sense).

At first I thought there was something funky with my code- so I checked and rechecked but, I don't think that's it (it's a frigging rectangle, there's not that much I can screw up).  I've tried re-referencing to Mach Coord Zero but, that didn't help.  It's the same story every time.  First cut is OK, then things start shifting. 

The motors don't sound like they are missing steps but, with the router runing I could just not be hearing it?

Anybody have any ideas on what might cause this?  Thanks in advance!

Sid

385

General Mach Discussion / Re: Jogging with a Joystick

« on: February 12, 2006, 05:37:30 AM »

Bump!

386

General Mach Discussion / Re: Jogging with a Joystick

« on: January 21, 2006, 02:31:41 AM »

Cool!  Thanks!

387

General Mach Discussion / The Saga continues...

« on: January 20, 2006, 12:32:54 PM »

Hey Brian,

With the new set I now have the on/off jstick buttons which Does make the LED turn on/off but alas- no response from the program when I move my jstick.

The Jog screen pop-up has a blue area above the X,Y,Z jog buttons that says "Button Jog"  should this change when you engage the jstick mode (or is this just a label).

I', pretty sure my jstick is OK because when I go to Control Panel and check the properties for it, there is a test screen andwhen I move the stick, it moves on the screen.

Do I need a special drive for M3??

Thanks for your continued help/patience!

Sid
 

388

General Mach Discussion / Re: Jogging with a Joystick

« on: January 19, 2006, 12:19:27 PM »

Hey Brian,

Thanks for the set file!  I installed it and somehow it doesn't seem to be working?  I can see on the settings page where there is now a "joystick Jog" button but, the LED next to it is always on (i.e. clicking on the button doesn't turn it off".]

I'm 99% this is an "operator error" issue so .. how about a little help from the "control tower" please   Thanks!

Sid

389

General Mach Discussion / Jogging with a Joystick

« on: January 18, 2006, 08:55:28 PM »

Has this feature been disabled in Mach 3?  I can't seem to find any "Joystick enable" button as the instruction manual indicates.

390

General Mach Discussion / Re: Spindle Speed Control- how do it do dat? (newbie question)

« on: November 25, 2005, 03:44:58 PM »

Well, I'll be the first to admit that I'm not expert on the electronics/electrical aspect of things.  I know just enough to be dangerous.  Here is a link to the device I'm talking about ... http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=43060

Please don't laugh TOO hard  .  The funny thing is.. this little doodad actually works pretty good. 

The real solution would be installing a 3 phase spindle motor, getting an AC inverter drive and controlling it through the device that Brian suggested.  Unfortuneately, it's a heck of a lot more expensive AND I'm not really sure how to adapt a collet (bit holder) to a standard motor shaft.  There is probably some kind of couple out there that will do it.  All of that just sounds like a ton of work when you are already set up with a 115VAC router.  It's like going backwards 3 steps to get ahead 4.

Doesn't anybody manufacture/sell a compact 3 phase router complete with Collet?  THAT would be SWEET!