Messages

1551

General Mach Discussion / Re: Closed loop system, encoder connected to mach3

« on: June 26, 2010, 04:17:20 AM »

Hi Robin

Mach doesn't close the loop. In a servo system for example - the loop is closed at the driver. That said, just give me a minute - I'm going to get on my soapbox.

Correctly specified and correctly driven stepper motors DO NOT loose steps and even if they did you can't correct something that's already happened.

Cheers

Ian

1552

General Mach Discussion / Re: running unipolar stepper motor with TIP120

« on: June 26, 2010, 04:09:35 AM »

but how is more batter to use diodes?

It's not better - it's neccessary - both your circuits use diodes but as KTM has already said - the TIP122 has them built in to the package. They're not shown on the diagram because that is just the schematic of a darlington pair.

how the motor coil's conman wire and the four diodes wires will be used.

The motor's common (centre tap) wire connects to your supply +ve as do your 4 diodes.

1553

General Mach Discussion / Re: Setting machine Coordinates

« on: June 26, 2010, 01:02:32 AM »

from what you've said you seem to be wired and configured right so I'm guessing noise - experiment with a bit of debounce on the config/general config page (top right).

You can't disable e-stop - not allowed - but you can de-activate it!

early in the day here but isn't 0.5" lead, 2 turns/in not 5?

Cheers

Ian

1554

VB and the development of wizards / Re: Y, U, V Change X DRO

« on: June 25, 2010, 11:09:13 AM »

Csaba

I'm with Tweakie on this. Why are you generating code that is unsuitable for your machine? This just doesn't seem the right way to go about things and it sounds potentially dangerous too.

sometimes it's better to ask for solutions to the actual problem rather than asking how to implement your solution to a problem you havn't told us about.

Ian

1555

General Mach Discussion / Re: Relationship of Velocity/Accel to G0...

« on: June 24, 2010, 12:36:33 PM »

Thanks Gerry - never knew that - learn something new every day - that's Mach for you...

Ian

1556

General Mach Discussion / Re: Relationship of Velocity/Accel to G0...

« on: June 24, 2010, 09:07:53 AM »

Can I just check on a couple of things because there's something not sounding quite right here...

Although the motor tuning dialog runs the motors smoothly and quietly to 1377 ipm

How do you mean? AFAIK you can't RUN the motors from the tuning dialog.

It doesn't appear to be the drive system (runs at 1377 ipm or about 1800 rpm)

Have I misunderstood or are you saying that you can ACTUALLY get your MOTORS to spin at 1800rpm?

Because if so, OK it's not a world record but it's certainly worthy of the group stages.

1557

VB and the development of wizards / RefAllHome with G28.1 for plasma IHS

« on: June 23, 2010, 06:02:15 AM »

Here's my attempt at making RefAllHome work "conventionally" i.e. home Z north and then home X and Y whilst still being able to use G28.1 to home south for IHS. This is as discussed in http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,15058.0.html

It works for me but as we've seen elsewhere, that doesn't guarantee it'll work for you - VB - what can I say?

Code: [Select]

'This macro should replace the standard script in the refAllHome
'button. It homes Z north whilst allowing G28.1 To be used
'to home south for plasma IHS. It should ONLY be used if
'the A and B axis are NOT used in your setup.
'To use it, the A axis should be set identically to Z in
'ports n pins and motor tuning. A should also be setup as you
'want Z to behave in Config/Homing Limits. The B axis should be
'disabled in ports n pins. A and B should also be "non angular"
'in Config/General Config.
'CAUTION: If this macro is interrupted for any reason, you
'should check your ports n pins setup.

'home A
doButton(25)
While isMoving()
  sleep 100
Wend

'select machine coords
doOEMButton(179)
While isMoving()
  sleep 10
Wend

'set Z work offset to machine coord
setOEMDRO(802, getOEMDRO(802))

'dummy move Z to A
swapAxis(2,4)
While isMoving()
  sleep 10
Wend
Code "G0 Z" & getOEMDRO(803)
While isMoving()
  sleep 100
Wend
resetAxisSwap()

'home X and Y
doButton(23)
doButton(22)

Cheers

Ian

1558

General Mach Discussion / Re: Plasma Initial Height sensing - perceived wisdom?

« on: June 23, 2010, 06:02:05 AM »

Hi Scott - sorry it's taken a while to get back. I now have a macro that I THINK does what's needed - we'll see. I've posted it over in the VB forum. http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,15182.0.html

Cheers

Ian

1559

General Mach Discussion / Re: Plasma , new macro code

« on: June 23, 2010, 03:20:01 AM »

Dave - as Terry says, now you've taken out the toolpath generation it should work fine. That kind of takes away the point of it though really. BUT as it's proving a bit of a mare that's probably the way to go. Interesting you can get it to run from the VB code window but not the button. In my case it's the exact opposite. If I run it from the VB code window all hell breaks loose and it then completely hangs, I have to power cycle the PC to get it back. Your zero code is fine - not sure where it went from mine - it was in there at some point! Sorry the dialog threw you - just me playing about.

Terry - again I see parallels with your approach and what I had to do in my probing routines. Initially I did everything in VB but then as I said had to do most of it in a .DLL - BUT I also had to write the main loop in gcode to get it to work. I think we may just have to accept that Mach's relationship with VB is about as flaky as a box of kellogs

Ian

1560

General Mach Discussion / Re: Plasma , new macro code

« on: June 22, 2010, 04:30:24 PM »

well - not being able to leave things alone  I've come up with a version that SEEMS stable at my end. Note the comment at the top of the file - It MUST be run from a button.

Ian

Code: [Select]

'This macro MUST be run from a button
'running it from the MDI for example is not recommended

Begin Dialog Dialog1 60, 60, 104, 70, "Auto Extents"
Text 10, 10, 30, 12, "Feedrate:"
TextBox 44, 10, 50, 12, .feedrate
Text 10, 24, 30, 12, "Dwell:"
TextBox 44, 24, 50, 12, .dwell
Text 10, 38, 30, 12, "Z height:"
TextBox 44, 38, 50, 12, .zHeight

OKButton 10, 54, 40, 12
CancelButton 54,54,40,12
End Dialog

Dim Dlg1 As Dialog1

Dlg1.feedrate=getOEMDRO(818)
Dlg1.dwell=1
Dlg1.zHeight=getOEMDRO(802)

button=Dialog(Dlg1)

If button <> -1 Then
  Exit Sub
End If

DoButton(8)      'ZeroX
DoButton(9)      'ZeroY
While isMoving()
Wend

DoOemButton(160) 'Regen ToolPath
While isLoading()
  sleep 100
Wend

doOEMButton(1002) 'Rewind
While isMoving()
  sleep 100
Wend

xmin = minX()
xmax = maxX()
ymin = minY()
ymax = maxY()

dwell=Dlg1.dwell * 1000

Code "F" & Dlg1.feedRate & " G1 Z" & Dlg1.zHeight
While Ismoving()
  sleep 100
Wend

Code "G1 X" & xmin & " Y" & ymin
While Ismoving()
  sleep 100
Wend

sleep dwell

Code "G1 Y" & ymax
While Ismoving()
  sleep 100
Wend

sleep dwell

Code "G1 X" & xmax
While Ismoving()
  sleep 100
Wend

sleep dwell

Code "G1 Y" & ymin
While Ismoving()
  sleep 100
Wend

sleep dwell

Code "G1 X" & xmin   
While Ismoving()
  sleep 100
Wend

MsgBox "Finished",0,"Auto Extents"