Messages

1

General Mach Discussion / Re: Ordered 3 Dugong drives for my Hurco

« on: September 14, 2011, 12:52:42 PM »

I'm very interested in your approach.  Any updates?

2

General Mach Discussion / Re: Need to Modify Keygrabber

« on: June 07, 2011, 09:48:46 AM »

The Keygrabber author is Les, the author of SheetCAM. You can find him at his SheetCAM forum, or the Mach3 Yahoo group.

Thanks Gary.  I'll try to contact Les there.

3

General Mach Discussion / Need to Modify Keygrabber

« on: June 06, 2011, 12:58:19 PM »

I'm finally getting back to attempting to modify Keygrabber but need some help. 

Just a little history:  I use Keygrabber to interface  a Saitek AV8R-01 joystick to Mach3.  The Joystick provides 5 linear controls, the 5th being the twisting of the joystick handle that I use to control the Z-axis on my mill.  It works great but for some reason the configuration for the 5th axis is not saved - the other 4 axes are saved fine.  This glitch requires that I configure Keygrabber every time I start it up.

I suspect it is a minor glitch in the code itself.  As the original author(s) no longer support the program, I decided to try and fix it myself.  I downloaded the source code and it appears to be written in C++.  I'm attempting to locate a C++ compiler, however, I'm told that I will need the specific C++ compiler , along with the corresponding libraries, that was used in the original development.

The easiest way to get this info would be to ask the author(s).  Can anyone put me in contact with them or knows which C++ compiler and version were used?

4

General Mach Discussion / Re: Exactly how are home switches supposed to work?

« on: September 17, 2010, 10:24:53 AM »

I went back and reread the responses and the key was in Hood's reply.  I went to the General Configuration menu and UNCHECKED the "Home Sw. Safety" box and now the homing works as described in the manual.

So now I have my X home switch set up so that it is active when the table is positioned left of center and inactive when the table is to the right.  When I click "Ref all home" and the table is to the right of center, the table moves to the left until the X home switch becomes active then backs off to the right until the switch becomes inactive.

If I click "Ref all home" when the table is left of center, the table moves to the right until the switch becomes inactive.

PERFECT!

Thanks Hood and Ian!

5

General Mach Discussion / Re: Exactly how are home switches supposed to work?

« on: September 17, 2010, 09:18:42 AM »

I was hoping that the manual was right and that I was doing something wrong however, I can live with moving my X home position to the extreme left of the table.

Thanks for the lightning quick responses.  Sure is a pleasure working with this software 

6

General Mach Discussion / Exactly how are home switches supposed to work?

« on: September 16, 2010, 07:09:29 PM »

I'm in the process of adding home switches to my x and y axes.  I'm trying to decide exactly where my "home" position is going to be.  From a convenience standpoint, I'd like Y home to be close to the Y++ limit and X home to be about in the middle of the X motion.  I have no problem with the Y as it is a safe bet that the homing motion need to be in the Y+ direction.  When I "Ref All Home", and the Y axis motion begins, eventually the Y home switch is set active, Mach backs off a bit and sets the "Home off" value in the Y DR - all as expected.

The X works the same way if I begin the homing operation with the table positioned to the right of home.  If I begin the homing operation with the table to the left of home, I get the message to the effect that the homing switch is active, correct the problem and try again.

According to the manual, Section 5.6.1.1, (I actually read the manual  ) I would expect that when a home switch is active, the initial homing motion would be reversed from that specified in the "Home Neg" check box.

What am I missing here?

7

General Mach Discussion / Re: Possible Bug w/Ver 3.043.010

« on: July 21, 2010, 06:06:53 PM »

Thanks Sam.  The change fixed my problem.  The file loaded OK.  When I tried to run the file, I got a tool path that appeared to be a bunch of concentric circles that had no resemblance to the intended rectangle.  Suspecting that there might be other discrepancies in my configuration between the two versions of Mach3 that I have installed, I copied the XML configuration file from the 3.042.040 (working version) to the new version (3.043.010) and now the new version appears to work.

Thanks for your help and for steering me in the right direction!

8

General Mach Discussion / Possible Bug w/Ver 3.043.010

« on: July 21, 2010, 04:00:28 PM »

Being anxious to try out the new MachStdMill screens, I downloaded the required Ver 3.043.010 of Mach3.  Before installing the new MCM screen set, I decided to try the version with the 1024 screen set first.  I loaded a simple test file that cuts a 2" x 4" profile.  This file loads and runs as expected in Ver R3.042.040 but fails to load in 3.043.010.  On Line 16, I get the following error "Radius to end of arc differs from radius to startLine 16".  I've attached the G-code file.

Is this the best place to report possible bugs?

9

Screen designer tips and tutorials / Re: Screen Designer under WIN2K?

« on: July 13, 2010, 11:38:07 AM »

Hi Klaus,

Thanks for the reply.  It's time that I upgraded anyway to something newer than Win2K.

Andy

10

Screen designer tips and tutorials / Re: Screen Designer under WIN2K?

« on: July 13, 2010, 10:29:34 AM »

Hi Klaus,

Thanks for the speedy response!  I am running Windows 2000 Pro.  I may have miss stated the problem.  The install goes as expected but when I click on the Screen Designer icon on my desktop, I get the message "C:\Program Files\MachScreen\machscreen.exe is not a valid Win32 application".

Thanks - Andy