Messages

1581

General Mach Discussion / Re: Struggling to achieve 4 Decimal Positioning Accuracy for Mach3

« on: June 11, 2010, 02:08:48 PM »

I just re-read this

and I'm running the program in single block mode. So it saves during idle.

So why even have a *recording* macro? - just look at the DROs.

1582

General Mach Discussion / Re: Struggling to achieve 4 Decimal Positioning Accuracy for Mach3

« on: June 11, 2010, 09:22:52 AM »

Hmmmm - I don't think this looks like a non-denominator steps/per issue because the distance travelled in all but the first move is bang on at 100.0000. Looks more like an offset is set whilst looking at machine coords. Probably completely wrong but if steps/per WERE non-denominational (or whatever the word is) then wouldn't we expect the *error* to wander around a bit?

1583

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

« on: June 09, 2010, 01:20:25 PM »

Thanks both - I'll take a look asap - I'm a bit otherwise involved for the next couple of days.

Cheers

Ian

1584

General Mach Discussion / Re: Reading IO issues

« on: June 09, 2010, 05:40:05 AM »

One thing I notice is you appear to be calling a macro from a macro which is generally a no no in Mach, so maybe that's been tightened up on as versions have progressed and that's why it used to work but now doesn't.
Not only that but you also appear to be calling M3000 from M1000 and then calling M1000 from M3000 i.e. indirect recursion. This is probably best avoided even if you intended it and understand recursion as CVB is broken and doesn't handle it properly at all.
Anyway - here's my shot at what you describe.

 DeActivateSignal (output4)
 ActivateSignal (output9)
 While Not IsActive(Input2)
    Message ("Switch is Inactive")  
    Sleep 10
    'Something must cause the switch to make at some point, otherwise this is an infinite loop
 Wend
 Message ("Switch is Active")

Ian

EDIT: Not sure of course on the whole picture - but you do know about G31?

1585

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

« on: June 09, 2010, 05:01:30 AM »

Hi Terry, yes after thinking a bit more I can see the advantages of G28.1 over G31 and visa virsa. However neither actually do a complete job. G28.1 has the particular advantage that the switch can be both home and limit, wheras if you use G31 the switch can't afterwards take over as a limit (well AFAIK anyway). Then as you say G28.1 screws homing north, wheras G31 doesn't. Seems to me we could do with a bespoke floating head command that allows everything to work - i.e. IHS, *normal* homing and limits. Don't suppose there's a way to toggle homing direction at run time is there?

1586

General Mach Discussion / Re: X axis moving in only one direction?

« on: June 08, 2010, 07:23:02 AM »

I switched drives and it does the same thing

So the X (hot) motor now works fine and doesn't overheat on the "Y" drive but the Y motor overheats and doesn't reverse on the "X" drive?

1587

General Mach Discussion / Re: X axis moving in only one direction?

« on: June 08, 2010, 07:08:44 AM »

when you say overheated - how hot? - steppers can get hot. If you'd have burned your fingers - that's overheated. Overheating won't do a motor any good at all but AFAIK won't cause the problem you describe.
If it did indeed overheat - why? - are your drive dips set according to your motor specs and how you have it wired.
Unlikely to be the motor that is causing the one-way-only problem - steppers (all motors?) work both ways or not at all.
Have you inadvertantly flipped from step/dir to CW/CCW setting on your drive?
Is your dir wire still connected?

1588

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

« on: June 08, 2010, 03:52:54 AM »

Thanks Terry I'll give it a whirl. Must admit I've never really got why you would use G28.1 when G31 seems taylor made for the job. The only reason I was using it was because the "default" thc300 post is that way. Another look at the posts available and I found thc300-g31. Job done as long as G31 doesn't play up :-)

Cheers

Ian

1589

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

« on: June 07, 2010, 06:30:21 AM »

Floating head.
G28.1 method OR G31 method?
Pro's vs Con's
Reason for asking is that G28.1 effectively prohibits using Ref All Axis to drive Z UP for homing so would seem a "strange" choice. My POST uses G28.1 and I'm thinking of changing it to G31. Or am I missing something?

Cheers

Ian

1590

Forum suggestions and report forum problems. / Connection Problems

« on: June 04, 2010, 06:09:58 AM »

I seem to be getting this a lot over the last couple of weeks when I try to connect to the forum - any thoughts?

Connection Problems
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