Topics

51

General Mach Discussion / All settings gone awol

« on: June 27, 2007, 02:14:57 PM »

To my regret I've just installed Mach3VersionR2.00.065.

So has anyone else done this to find that just about every setting has gone.  Motor tuning, ports n pins, homing and limits, spindle.  Everything.

Please tell me that all my old settings are stored away somewhere nice for me.

52

General Mach Discussion / CV mode tuning

« on: June 22, 2007, 08:07:42 AM »

Hi all

I'd be grateful for any comments re: the fine tuning of CV mode. I've had a few issues of CV rounding too much and would like to understand setting it up better. I understand what CV is, I'm just not sure how to take full advantage of it's settings.

As I understand it CV will more accurately follow the required curves if feed rate is slower and acceleration capability is greater. Is that right?

Also am I right in thinking that the UG is a little behind the latest lockdown of Mach3? e.g. Chapter 10 - "No Angular Discrimination" - I can't find this on Mach3 but am assuming it's been replaced by "Stop CV on angles >". I understand generally what the idea of stopping CV over some angle is about but some advice with how I configure this with relation to G02 and 3 would be useful. Finally there's two buttons and DROs on the Settings screen labelled CV Distance and CV Feedrate which don't appear to be documented.
If all these questions are answered somwhere I havn't looked then apologies. I know there are lots of threads about CV but trying to wade through them all to see if my questions are answered is making me cross-eyed. - is that lazy? sorry.

Many thanks

53

General Mach Discussion / cutters

« on: June 19, 2007, 04:15:07 PM »

Hi - anyone know of a decent supplier of cutters in the UK for hardwood. I'm looking for 6mm - 8mm shaft. (for a Kress spindle) straight, ballnose etc. any advice on what to look for and where would be appreciated. Thanks

54

General Mach Discussion / magnetic home switches

« on: June 12, 2007, 04:28:52 AM »

anyone use these? I'm having intermittent problems. Sometimes homing works fine but sometimes the first axis homes and then everything stops with the error message "home switch active". It seems that even after the "backoff" the switch hasn't opened again. Is there a way to increase the backoff distance or should I switch to mechanical switches?

55

General Mach Discussion / grex comp

« on: May 25, 2007, 06:43:20 PM »

so how do I edit my first guess now that I know the real answer ??

56

General Mach Discussion / home and limits question

« on: May 23, 2007, 04:25:05 AM »

Hi all

When axis go home they hit the switch, decelerate then back off (as of course they should).
When an axis hits limit it stops instantly (which I think is normal) but... can Mach3 be configured so that they decelerate? (like home but obviously with no back off).

It just seems that if there's room for a decelerate after home switch hit, then why not after limit switch hit? I'm thinking it would be kinder to the machine.

Cheers

57

General Mach Discussion / arcs gone wild

« on: May 12, 2007, 03:55:11 AM »

Hi all

Has anyone come accross the problem of Mach3 getting the centre of G02 G03 arcs a country mile out? I have a simple toolpath to cut out a rectangular profile. Each corner (of the toolpath) is an arc which should have a radius of around 7mm according to the g-code. However Mach3 interprets the radius to be massive so I end up with a toolpath resembling a rectangle with huge "micky mouse" ears!!!

Sorry - can't seem to figure out how to attach images code etc...

Any comments, advice would be welcome.

Cheers

58

General Mach Discussion / general wizard problem

« on: December 05, 2006, 08:21:07 AM »

Hi all

I'm new to Mach3 (and this forum) but seem to be getting the hang of things - apart that is - from the wizards. It seems that whichever one I try they just won't let me set any of the values in the dro's. Soon as I defocus any dro the values return to their originals. I'm guessing I've missed some vital instruction somewhere but I've RTM and searched the forum with no luck. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks