Topics

61

General Mach Discussion / anilam 1100 retrofit

« on: January 12, 2008, 02:47:36 PM »

Guys,
  just bought a large turretmill (5hp) that is equiped with an anilam 1100m controll
and servo,s. its a 1996 machine.
  althought the anilam works perfectly and the drives are good ect, I am used to using mach3
so I would like to link mach3 to the drives and remove the anilam controll do I need those pixies?
  Any advice positive or negative would be appreciated.
      Tony

62

General Mach Discussion / HP ENCODER QEDS-7148

« on: December 04, 2007, 04:53:14 PM »

Hi,
 I have just bought 3 HP ENCODER QEDS-7148  encoders
off ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150177860536

there are only three wires coming from them,does anyone know how to wire them for
quadralature? I have tried getting info from the vendor but they appear to be
ignoring my emails!
  regards
      Tony

63

General Mach Discussion / high count servo encoders

« on: October 28, 2007, 02:26:51 AM »

Guys,
  for my next project I want to retrofit a bridgeport mill,max feedrates on rapid will be about 3-4mpm
I am using 500 watt servo's with 2048 count encoders ( 8193 pulses to deal with)
I would like to use gecko 340's with 10 x dividers. My problem is going to be lost steps on direction
changes.I figure if I use exact stop rather than CV that will go some way to helping.
  I appreciate that I could use a higher kernal speed,but for the sake of reliability with the computer I'm
using I dont want to go above 45khz.
  What I really need to do is make mach3 pause for 1/4  second between direction changes especially rapids
Is this possible? I have bought Mach so can I get into the code somehow and do this?
I really dont want to have to put a G4 between every move,as a toolmaker I do alot of programing
and that would be very tiring!
  cheers
      Tony

64

General Mach Discussion / glass scales and servo's

« on: October 13, 2007, 12:02:58 PM »

hi,
  I would like to fit linear encoders onto my smalll ballscrewed servoed
miller. I have already got motor encoders and gecko 340's.
I was wondering could a piece of electronics be designed that would instantly sence
a movement pulse streem and switch from the rotary encoders to linear for positional accuracy?
then once the pulse stream stops switches (maybe 1/4 sec pause)back to the rotary motor mounted encoders
to stop them from hunting.Even though I only have .002" backlash I think the machine
will burn its servo's out sharpish without this type of system. I would think it might be possible to do this
in hardware rather than delving into Mach.
  Any thoughts?
   Tony

65

Mach Screens / try this screen set

« on: September 22, 2007, 07:56:03 AM »

Guys,
  I have been working on this screenset for a couple of months now,its for a four axis mill
and gives you everything you need on the mainscreen.
try it out and let me know what you think.
  Tony

66

General Mach Discussion / gecko g340

« on: August 30, 2007, 05:50:06 PM »

Hi,
  can anyone tell me, when using a seperate psu for the power feed to an encoder, atatched to a
gecko g340, do you need to common up the 0 volts if so which 0volts,othewise it seems to me that there is no continuity.
  on the a & b encoder lines back to its psu.
    I dont want to risk blowing a drive and I have had no reply from gecko on the matter.
    cheers
    Tony

67

General Mach Discussion / XP

« on: August 27, 2007, 10:33:24 AM »

Hi,
  can anybody say if there is any advantage in using XP Pro over XP Home for our
application. I would like to try Vista but I am not in a position to up date all of my software,and
replace hardware that is incompatable!
    Cheers
   Tony

68

General Mach Discussion / ports

« on: August 05, 2007, 03:42:41 PM »

Hi,
  I noticed that you can have ECP, EP, SPP and BPP Modes with the
parallel port.Which is best for us and why?
   Tony

69

General Mach Discussion / onboard graphics

« on: July 22, 2007, 05:28:31 AM »

Hi,
  I am using a NEC powermate 2.8 pentium to contriol my mill
running XP pro and the latest version of mach3 using a netmos pci parallel card.
  The problem I have got is it wont run mach reliably above 25hz.
It does have on board graphics which according to the bios you can disable, but it dosent work ,there are no mobo jumpers.
it does say in bios that you can initiate on pci or onboard.
   But when you get into windows both graphics cards are there.
So my question is if I set to initiate on pci and the main screen to be Pci, although running extend to the onboard will the onboard
graphics still hog memory 512mb (reading 504) and could this be the reason for the frequency unreliability?

70

General Mach Discussion / auto changer

« on: June 22, 2007, 06:32:00 AM »

Hi,
  I am having a look at making a auto tool changer along the lines
of the simple Router type i.e. the head moves to a number of places on the
table where tools are located and picks them up.
I really need the coordinates for this process to be done in the machine coord system.
otherwise its a bit of a nightmare setting up.
 How can i change the machine to work in these coord.s during my tool change,
and then come back out to fixture coordinates to machine?
    Tony