Messages

1721

General Mach Discussion / Re: probing with sound logic PC-2-Route Model M2

« on: January 07, 2010, 11:53:52 AM »

see config / ports n pins / input signals /probe and 10.7.12 Straight Probe – G31 in the manual

cheers

Ian

1722

VB and the development of wizards / Re: The equal sign in VB

« on: January 07, 2010, 07:41:16 AM »

dim is short for dimension. Originally it was only used to specify arrays and later became used for scalar values as well. Its just BASICs syntax for defining a variable.

so DIM x as integer tells the basic interpreter to:

allocate (dimension) the required number of bytes on the stack to be used as storage for an integer value and point the symbol table entry for the name x in the current stack frame at it. (well you did ask) 

Ian

1723

General Mach Discussion / Re: Lockdown Mach3

« on: December 22, 2009, 12:19:47 PM »

James - please don't double post - (Feature requests)

1724

General Mach Discussion / Re: New system set-up help

« on: December 22, 2009, 12:08:21 PM »

Tweakies last comment (not the bit about the beaver - arf) is well worth thinking about. Art and Marris both (escapes me where and when) discussed at some length the specific problems of big motors. Big is not allways better (specially in a beaver).

specifically to your question - I have no idea. Their comment makes no sense to me at all.

Cheers

Ian

1725

Feature Requests / Re: Lockdown Mach3

« on: December 22, 2009, 11:56:45 AM »

on the general config screen there's an option about half way down the 3rd column to turn off the system menu. Don't worry about the warning re: having a button to turn it back on - just edit the xml, tag <MenuOff> from 1 to 0 to get it back.

Cheers

Ian

1726

General Mach Discussion / Re: help...cutting text (letter) on plasma cutter

« on: December 22, 2009, 11:14:36 AM »

I'm thinking Hood's right on the button re: CV being the issue but with regards to

the letters have an extreme amount of points.

if you're using RhinoCAM on your Rhino there's an option under preferences/machining preferences to switch arc gen between line segments and true arcs.

Cheers

Ian

1727

General Mach Discussion / Re: New system set-up help

« on: December 22, 2009, 11:02:13 AM »

Please keep in mind that my motors are Nema 42's and will be drawing a max of 65dc and 7.9amps per motor.

The specs on ebay for this board say its 12-36Vdc and Max 3.5A / motor so I'm thinking it's not for your motors. Also there's an intriguing comment on the ad.

"*Important note: If you use  power supply 12-36V with lower current than 8 amps such as 12-36V 4 amps, the driver may be broken !"

Huh?

Cheers

Ian

1728

General Mach Discussion / Re: 2 mill profiles - swaped Y and A axis - share offsets etc.

« on: December 22, 2009, 08:35:06 AM »

Then again maybe paying the $20 for the wrap software would be even easier

He's a card that Hood ain't he 

Well as I seem to have got you into this against better advice  I'll risk showing my head above the parapet...

wack these 3 lines into your macro after the axis switch

L=?? 'set to the lead for one rev of your X motor to nominally set aspect 1:1 between A and X
D=Question ("What diameter tube")
SetOEMDRO (60, L / (3.1415926535897932384626433832795 * D) ) 'probably a better way of doing PI

(OEM DRO 60 is the Y axis scale)

This assumes your microsteps per rev are the same for the X and the "rotary" motor. Adjust to taste if not.

If this doesn't do it - I'd suggest getting that wrap software

Cheers

Ian

1729

General Mach Discussion / Re: Engraving around outside of a tube

« on: December 21, 2009, 11:39:07 AM »

Fair comment Gerry but its hardly hours is it? modifying your Y axis steps per and step and dir pin numbers should take about a minute at a push. You then save as a separate profile. One for linear Y one for rotary Y - job done and down the bar with your $20.

Now I'm out of here - I (now) know when its time to stop flogging a dead horse. 

Cheers

Ian

1730

General Mach Discussion / Re: Engraving around outside of a tube

« on: December 21, 2009, 11:13:19 AM »

Hi Graham - whilst I appreciate what you're saying and would generally agree when you say - "do things right". It seems to me that software that "wraps" an image over a cylinder is just money for old rope. What does it do? It "rolls" the image and then your CAM generates gcode that effectively "unrols it" again. So we invest in CAD that can project round a cylinder and CAM that can generate 4th axis code and what do we end up with? same old code we could have created far simpler and at a fraction of the cost. Even "ace converter" could handle this one - well actually it would probably crash but...

Cheers

Ian