Messages

11

General Mach Discussion / Re: Connecting an MPG to Mach3

« on: December 21, 2008, 06:57:34 PM »

Hood,
thanks for your fast reply,

I measured the voltage from the BOB  13 & 15 pin connection screws. Perhaps I should try two other pins??
Thanks

rogerbsstt.

12

General Mach Discussion / Connecting an MPG to Mach3

« on: December 21, 2008, 05:18:25 PM »

Gentlemen,
I have recently obtained an MPG that I have been trying to connect to my Mach3 / mill. The unit is a HEDS-5700 C10 optical encoder. with 100CPR and 5v input.I have wired the unit up as per the tech data for the unit, and have tested the wiring to show that A & B outputs indicate 5v pulses when the wheel is turned.
I have connected the input wiring 5V and grd to the power connections on my CNC4PC  C10 breakout board (as per their wiring diagram), and have connected the output A & B wires to pin nos 13 and 15 on the board. In Mach 3 I have enabled MPG#1, selected port no 1, pin no 13, then port #1, pin no 15, I have left the steps set at 2 (as indicated for 100CPR in the Mach3 manual), and the velocity to 100.  I have used the Tab key to bring up the jog/mpg screen, set jog to MPG,
 selected Step/velocity for jog type, and axis 1 to X.  When I turn the wheel I get no response. When I go to the diag screen and move the wheel no leds light up in the pin status. When I checked the voltage on the pins 13 & 15 while they where disconnected from the breakout board I got 4.86 volt signals from the A & B wires, but when they were connected to the breakout board the max signal was .8 volts. After stumbling across the calibration screen for MPGs in Mach3, when I run through the process, all the settings came back 0. I assume it is because Mach3 is not getting a reading from the MPG, but as I can get a 5v signal out of the unit, I cant see what is wrong, and as I'm not exactly an electrical genius, cant figure out what I have missed. Please can you offer some help as I really want to use this unit on my mill.  THANKS for any assistance.  

A SAFE and happy holiday to all.
 rogerbsstt

13

General Mach Discussion / Re: New people welcome !! Come in here and introduce your self!

« on: October 07, 2008, 06:04:16 PM »

Hi,

I have participated in this forum before. I have converted a Bridgeport Eztrak mill from its old controls to Mach3 with excellent results. I can even use it
The main change was to use the knee as the Z axis, this took some doing as the stepper motors dont like to be to be overloaded. I used counter weights and gas struts to balance out the knees weight. So far I can get 30 Inches per minute rapid on the knee (Z) which is good enough for the work I do.
I live in Adelaide, South Australia and am a Toolmaker by trade, working as a Projects Coordinator in a toolroom. My hobbies include Drag Racing, RC model Planes, and designing stuff to make on my mill.

14

General Mach Discussion / Post Processor for an FP4 Deckel CNC Mill to suit Visualm 5 or Mach3 or lazy cam

« on: September 02, 2008, 06:19:12 AM »

Hello to you all, bin a while,

but has anyone a postprocessor for an FP4 Deckel CNC Mill, I believe it runs the Fanuc system. I need it to work in Mach3, LazyCam or VisualMill 5.
Or does someone know which Fanuc Postprocessor would do the job.

Hope you can help me


Thanks

Rogerbsstt.

15

General Mach Discussion / Re: Stepper motor Encoders

« on: June 10, 2008, 10:11:19 PM »

Brett,

thanks for your info,
I think for now I can live with my machine as it is,
just looking for maybe a better mousetrap, (not a solution to a real problem in my case)

again Thanks
rogerbsstt

16

General Mach Discussion / Re: Stepper motor Encoders

« on: June 10, 2008, 01:40:00 AM »

Chip,

Thanks for the reply.
I havent had a lot of trouble with lost steps, but thought if I could use encoders or linear scales to control the movement it would be a failsafe, however, if it is too hard then what I have works just fine.
again thanks

rogerbsstt

17

General Mach Discussion / Stepper motor Encoders

« on: June 07, 2008, 12:04:21 AM »

Does anyone know where I can get some rotary encoders to fit on the back of my stepper motors. If I fit them to the steppers, will that stop the motors missing positions, or are the DROs (including the encoders) just for reference and have no control over the actual motor movement.  What Im trying to do is have the motors move until they reach an actual table movement point, (as indicated by glass scales or the encoders) so that they if they miss any steps they will still complete the distance as in the program.
Have used Mach3 for 12 mths now and it works my machine great. NB: Hood, I am using my counter weighted knee system and have had no problems if I limit the rapid speed to 30" per min.(not fast, but good enough for my use)

thanks

18

General Mach Discussion / Re: Bridgeport extrak retrofit

« on: December 20, 2006, 08:08:35 PM »

Hi
just a note to say my Z (knee axis) conversion seems to work OK. The two 100 kg force gas struts plus a counterweight of 80 kgs allows the knee to move at 30" per min, as displayed in the Mach3 window.Im more than happy with that speed.
Here is a generic torque chart for a 1200 oz/in motor. this will give some idea as to the rev/ torque ratios.

Cheers,  rogerbsstt

19

General Mach Discussion / Parrallel Port configaration

« on: December 17, 2006, 01:11:19 AM »

Art,

I have just set up mach3 to my machine but the axis's only travel in one direction no matter what i tell them to do.I checked the system with another user and it ran his machine perfect, He told me he had to install a second Parrallel port card to get his to work.
I have seen that in the bios the parrallel port can be set up as an ECP, EPP< etc.
Is this the problem, does the Mach3 need one of these to run properly.
Secondly, I down loaded the latest Mach3 version 2, and could not get the dros to show a movement when i programed a MDI.
Is there something I ve missed, or is this a bug. 

Please Help


rogerbsstt.

20

General Mach Discussion / Re: Bridgeport extrak retrofit

« on: December 03, 2006, 09:21:38 PM »

Just a note to say I have installed two gas struts ( like that which holds up the boot ar bonnet of your car) at 220 lbs force each, on to the knee. I found the force required to raise the knee screw shaft dropped by about half, but, I got an increase in the force needed to lower the knee. As I reasoned this was due to friction, not weight, I adjusted the knee gib to be loose and lubricated the slide. The force needed to raise the knee dropped by heaps and that needed to drop the knee was only slighlty less than the up. As I havent got the motors wired up, I cant judge the effect on the motor drive on the knee, but a 1700oz/in stepper at 2 to 1 should put 3400oz/in force on the knee screw shaft, as my rough testing indicates a force of approx 220 to 350oz/in is needed I would think the motor should have heaps. The only down side is that stepper motors loose torque with revs, and maybe at high rapid rates the motor does not generate enough torque ??
I will inform you of any other prgress made as I complete the conversion.
rogerbsstt