Messages

101

General Mach Discussion / Re: Physical buttons for plasma

« on: April 26, 2016, 06:01:28 AM »

Hey Hood - why not take advantage of the fact it's in a container. Stick a camera in there and have the controls remotely back in your workshop. Load the stock and retire. Maybe a fan on the wall to get rid of the smoke before you go back in.

Bit like my router when I cut MDF - I set it going and get the hell out of there until it's all over and the dust has settled.

Ian

102

General Mach Discussion / Re: Possible to send pulses directly to stepper driver while connected to a BOB

« on: March 05, 2016, 07:02:27 AM »

I suppose so yes - but don't be tempted to just to add a button in parallel with your current step/dir lines - you'll short your outputs.

Off the top of my head (i.e. not tested) you could do it with a couple of XOR gates but you'll need to deal with switch bounce as well. Maybe use a couple more outputs and screen buttons instead of real buttons to avoid the bounce issue.

103

General Mach Discussion / Re: Some starting advice for two steppers on one axis

« on: March 05, 2016, 04:57:51 AM »

My apologies for winding you up. That was definitely not my intention. Believe it or not - I was trying to clarify something.

I've attached a (crude) schematic of one of my routers. To give an idea of scale/size, the gantry is approximately 4 feet long.

Now this MAY be an unsuitable design for your purposes for details yet to be disclosed - but what I was trying to clarify/get across is that this does not have two TABLES - it simply has a master and a slave axis. As you can see the gantry is fully supported and hence there is no sag.

Anyway - as sometimes happens when conversing with text - what should have been a small point to try to clarify, has taken on a life of it's own beyond its usefulness - so I'll back off and leave you to it.

Again - My apologies for winding you up.

104

General Mach Discussion / Re: Can’t get Probe to Work

« on: March 03, 2016, 11:38:16 AM »

Then you've done it wrong. Go back to post #55 above and repeat.

if this worked - which you say it did

pin15 ------------ wire --------------- GND

then

pin15 ------------ wire --------- plate touching clip -------- wire ---------- GND

has to work also - THINK about it - don't just follow along blindly - ALL you're doing is making a circuit between pin15 and GROUND.

touch clip to plate - LED lights

remove clip from plate - LED goes out.

PLEASE TELL ME YOUR PLATE IS INSULATED FROM GROUND IN SOME WAY. IF NOT STICK A PIECE OF WOOD UNDER IT.

105

General Mach Discussion / Re: Can’t get Probe to Work

« on: March 03, 2016, 11:04:49 AM »

1) remove the wire from pin15
2) connect the wire attached to your touch plate to pin15
3) connect the wire attached to your clip to GND on the power connector.
4) touch the clip to the plate. again the LED should light.

In use, you're going to need to clip the clip to THE TOOL - NOT a BOLT - NOT ANYWHERE BUT THE TOOL. Get a bigger clip if needs be.

106

General Mach Discussion / Re: Can’t get Probe to Work

« on: March 03, 2016, 10:49:24 AM »

1) go to ports n pins/inputs and set probe to 15 active low (green tick)
2) go to diagnostics - the digitize LED should be UN-lit.
3) connect a wire to pin15
4) touch the other end to GND on the power connector. The digitize LED should light.

107

General Mach Discussion / Re: Can’t get Probe to Work

« on: March 03, 2016, 10:10:44 AM »

1) reset that jumper onto pins 2-3 pullUp.
2) disconnect your probe red and black wires and disconnect that resistor.
3) disconnect your e-stop wire from pin 10
4) go to ports n pins and disable all your limits
5) test to see you can jog the motors.

108

General Mach Discussion / Re: Can’t get Probe to Work

« on: March 03, 2016, 09:32:18 AM »

OK - I'm probably crackers but I hate to be beaten. 

After having a bit of a look around I see that these C10 boards have been a lot of trouble in the past. However it also turns out that there have been several revisions of the design. Unfortunately there are also several versions of the user manuals but I've yet to find one with a photo that matches the board you have.

However - I have found a schematic which does seem to match your board layout.

So I'll give it a couple more shots.

So Kolias - put your best concentration hat on please.

First question: See the attached image: Does the marked (in red) area on your board have a jumper marked INPUTS - 1-2 Pull Down 2-3 PullUp.

Second question: If it does - what's it currently set to i.e. is the jumper on 1-2 or 2-3?

109

General Mach Discussion / Re: Can’t get Probe to Work

« on: March 03, 2016, 06:08:15 AM »

I'm sure plenty will disagree and I know it's not for everyone but why buy a BOB in the first place?

1) a packet of resistors will cost you less than a penny - that's pullups sorted.
2) a DB25 will cost you less than a quid - you've built everything else - how hard can it be to learn to solder? or even easieer get an IDC DB25
3) You don't need optos - any driver worth buying will already have them. In fact a BOB with optos is usually a PITA - you don't want to be driving optos (in the drive) with optos (on the BOB).

110

General Mach Discussion / Re: Can’t get Probe to Work

« on: March 03, 2016, 05:01:02 AM »

LOL - I wasn't aware this had cropped up before. (you held that one back Tweakie - you #@%$£)  

You're thinking along the same lines as me re: the active approach. However, for the life of me I can't see why the 120 isn't pulling it up.

Also - if it were me I'd do exactly what you suggest - i.e. attack that useless piece of junk with a soldering iron and remove the pull downs.

Might be more fun though for Kolias to soak it in lighter fuel and torch it on youtube - I for one would hit that.