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Messages - rkowash

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1
General Mach Discussion / Turning off outputs
« on: February 26, 2009, 04:14:54 PM »
I am running Mach3 with a PLC06 as a modbus slave.  I need to put some sort of monitor on the outputs of the PLC.  When I shut down mach, the PLC does not release the outputs for up to 1 minute.  Is there a simple piece of code I can add into the PLC to see if there is communication with mach and if not shut down the outputs?

Thanks

2
General Mach Discussion / Re: My Machine
« on: November 26, 2008, 10:58:49 AM »
Thanks for looking.  No, I haven't seem anything similar to this.  This project is right out of my head (somedays good, others not so much).  Hence the copywrite and patent searches and all that stuff.

I know the grinder motor looks kind of strange, but the HP/weight is really high.  It is something like 4.6hp in 5 pounds.  I was going to go with an air motor, but since this was lighter, what the heck.  Also, since it is only cutting 1" of wood, the rest is just pulling the foam out.  That calls for a unique chain.

The friction drive (medusa as it has been named) has 8 air cylinders, each putting about 350 pounds of force on the panel, and they are all driven together through the central shaft, so I haven't seen any slip yet.  I went with the 8 arms to accommodate the bar passing by.  The arm which is closest releases to home so it doesn't get cut off, leaving the other 7 to continue driving the panel.

All in all I am pretty happy with it, now I just need to get the dxf into G code in a manner that works.

Roger

3
General Mach Discussion / Re: My Machine
« on: November 26, 2008, 10:21:52 AM »
I changed the axes to XY, and the tangent works.  Here are the pictures.

4
General Mach Discussion / My Machine
« on: November 25, 2008, 01:15:03 PM »
I am near completion of my machine which has been in progress for 3 years.  It is a CNC chansaw.  Our company manufactures Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs) for the construction industry.  It is a plywood-foam-plywood sandwich which replaces stick built walls and roofs.  

The machine moves the 24' long panel across the saw, while the saw carraige goes up & down and the blade plunges (pneumatic), rotates (A axis) and tilts (Y axis).  I have been intending to use the knife function with the tangent callout to guide the chain bar.  I am now to the point of turning it on, but it isn't working.  One concern is that I designated the vertical axis as the Z axis, but I am wondering if I should change that to the Y axis so the cutting plane is XY.

So, does the tangent control care if the cutting plane is XY or XZ?  I set it to XZ in the General config but it didn't get me anywhere and it seems to revert back to XY on a shut down.

I will post some pictures tomorrow.

5
Mach Screens / Screen Help
« on: November 05, 2008, 07:26:48 PM »
Hopefully somebody can give me some guidance.  I was building screens (1024x768) in Screen 4.  I had been testing it in Mach every hour or so to make sure everything was there and functioning.  Then I opened my screen set with 1280 x1024 (which is the final goal) in screen 4 and saved it, then went to Mach to load it, and all of the images, buttons, LEDs were shifted down 280 pixels.  I had read in previous posts that there have been difficulties when using a screen resolution that you can't see, so I went back into Screen4, opened it at 1024x768, and now it comes up with an error box: "Unexpected file format". 

Is there anyway to recover the lost screens?

6
Mach Screens / Re: Rapid move
« on: October 29, 2008, 10:46:56 AM »
Yeah, I have the button in screen designer, but the 309 OEM code seems tied to the pendant for the step count, velocity, and jog mode.  I can duplicate the buttons for those, but then I basically have a custom pendant which is ok, but I really would like the joystick control.  That one is nice in the fact that you can vary the velocity at the same time as calling for a move.

I searched for sliders, but those seem to be specific to DRO's, and just change the setting.  Any idea on a joystick?  I guess I could skin a 3 sided button over the top?

7
Mach Screens / Rapid move
« on: October 29, 2008, 09:50:53 AM »
I am finally into the screen design for my machine, and I understand the idea and the basics.  I am trying to make a button that will jog an axis.  I found the OEM 309, ect codes, but that just gives me an incremental jog depending on what was set earlier.  I am looking for something similar to the joystick in ScreenDesign 3, just one direction at a time.  Is there an easy way to do that, or do I need to write a VB script?

8
Modbus / Re: Inputs
« on: October 24, 2008, 11:51:04 AM »
Thanks for the input Scott.  For the protocol and the brains with the digits, I was debugging trying to figure out where the inputs went.  I put in just about every configuration for X0 so if I had something setup incorrectly it would show up.

Once the inputs started working, I figured out the invert lobe (also it was in your how-to).

Good tip on the modbus watchdog.  I will put that in, but I am working on straight serial.

Roger

9
Modbus / Re: Inputs
« on: October 23, 2008, 06:21:37 PM »
I found the problem...  There was a strand of a wire in the connector for the serial bus.  I assume it was sending errant signals, and just happened to be on the input side. 

10
Modbus / Re: Inputs
« on: October 23, 2008, 01:47:06 PM »
OK, I have gone through your "brain how to" over and over.  I understand it, and it helped,but I believe my configuration is correct and I still can't read my inputs.  I attached screenshots of the modbus config and the brain that I am using to check the status of those inputs.  Hopefully somebody can see something wrong and point me in the right direction.  Again, all of the outputs work correctly (with a different brain), I just can't read the change in the inputs.

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