Messages

391

General Mach Discussion / Re: ATC Macro Help

« on: September 12, 2014, 10:09:45 AM »

OK - looks like you may have a G91 in effect?

please start again but make sure G90 is in effect before testing.

392

Modbus / Re: How to Address Modbus Outputs if you have more than 20

« on: September 12, 2014, 04:31:21 AM »

Never tried using a laptop for Mach3 - officially, use of the parallel port driver with laptops is not supported. You may want to do a search of the forum - it's been discussed many times. Here's one example. http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php?topic=5981.0

393

General Mach Discussion / Re: ATC Macro Help

« on: September 12, 2014, 03:55:59 AM »

Ok, so is there a command i'm missing to rotate A until it reaches the the required inputs?

Not readily.

could this be achieved by doing a do-loop of 8 degrees (G91 G0 A-8) until the required inputs are met or is there a better method?

You have a stepper system - i.e. a precise open loop positioning system - my suggestion would be to use that to your advantage rather than trying to beat it into a pseudo servo system. YMMV but if you want to give it a shot...

1) set your steps/per in motor tuning so that a command of 360 turns it exactly 1 rotation.
2) Manually set your turret so that it's positioned on tool 1 (we'll come back to this later)
3) Stick the code below in your M6Start macro
4) Make sure you have 360 rollover selected (I think you said you have already).
5) In your code you were using negative rotation values - you may want to swap your DIR pin for A in ports and pins so that you can use positive numbers.

Code: [Select]

selectedTool = getSelectedTool()
currentTool = getCurrentTool()

code "G1 A" & (selectedTool - 1) * 45
While isMoving()
  sleep 10
Wend

SetCurrentTool selectedTool
This should select the appropriate tool after an M6T..... command.

It will rotate at whatever the current feedrate is and is NOT finished yet - I just want to know if I'm on the right track (I'm working blind here remember).

If this does more or less what you want we can ook at locking, auto homing and error handling next.

394

Brains Development / Re: testing the water, so to speak

« on: September 11, 2014, 09:38:08 AM »

Hi again LGF - you may want to read the manual about soft and hard limits - you don't need Brains for either - all functionality is ready to go out of the box. (Hint: you can get away with 1 pin for ALL the hardware limits AND homing).

395

General Mach Discussion / Re: ATC Macro Help

« on: September 11, 2014, 08:25:40 AM »

the turret will rotate under tool call (m6t101) ect but does not stop on the input pin configurations.

Because you've told the stepper to move 64 degrees - and that's what it will do. You're effectively trying to use a closed loop servo system to control an open loop stepper with incidental and "after the fact" positional feedback.

396

General Mach Discussion / Re: 1st pierce is longer...

« on: September 10, 2014, 09:21:00 AM »

So progress...<phew>

If it's all working as you'd like then great - however, instead of your LED monitoring etc. maybe you could have just put a block delete on your M3 calls? Then just turn block delete on when you want to dry run?

397

General Mach Discussion / Re: 1st pierce is longer...

« on: September 10, 2014, 04:58:33 AM »

Going back a few posts, there was mention of a small bug in Mach that made waiting for arcok difficult, if this is the point I am missing then I get it - it does not wait as it should.

hallelujah - (actually no one said difficult - you made that up).

So now go back and READ this thread again - or at least posts #31 to #39. Notice post #37 ?

Then this time, read ALL (not just the first page) of the thread YOU linked to in post #13 and maybe look at my first comment about that link in post #17.

398

General Mach Discussion / Re: 1st pierce is longer...

« on: September 09, 2014, 04:42:04 AM »

Now I KNOW you're taking the piss.

399

General Mach Discussion / Re: 1st pierce is longer...

« on: September 09, 2014, 04:17:40 AM »

Yes possibly but what if the arcok is delayed on the first pierce but arrives faster when the post-flow air is on?

Surely the result would be as it is now - were waiting for a signal that arrives at varying time periods??

AAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!!!!  

Maybe I'm just crap at getting my point over but here's one last shot then I'll get back in my box.

It's the LENGTH of time the cutting arc is ON that matters NOT when it STARTS. arcok signals the time cutting STARTS. It matters not one jot If it takes one second or half a second to establish arcok. It's ONLY when you get arcok that metal is starting to melt.

400

General Mach Discussion / Re: 1st pierce is longer...

« on: September 08, 2014, 11:35:57 AM »

None of this would matter if you base your timings on arcok. I know I'm sounding like a scratched record but there it is.