Messages

51

CVI MachStdMill (MSM) / Re: TLO Woes

« on: August 12, 2010, 05:02:36 PM »

Hi Dave

After further testing I'm more confused than before. TLO light was on and I zeroed Tool 1 and Tool 2 to top of part. Both had different offset numbers which is what I expected to see. Tool 1 is longer than Tool 2. I ran the following code.
%
M6T1
G0 Z.1
G0 X0
G0 Z0
G1 X3 F10
G0 Z5
M6T2  
G0 Z.1
G0 X0
G0 Z0
G1 X3 F10
G0 Z5
M30
Mach and MSM ran the whole program at the Tool 2 height because Tool 2 was the last one I set. When Tool 1 ran it was below the top of the part. Still the TLO light is on the whole time program ran. Now look at the next code I tested.
%
M6T1 G43
G0 Z.1
G0 X0
G0 Z0
G1 X3 F10
G0 Z5
M6T2 G43
G0 Z.1
G0 X0
G0 Z0
G1 X3 F10
G0 Z
M30
With G43 after every two change the offsets were correct. Tool 1 ran at the top of the part and Tool 2 ran at the top of the part. Is this supposed to be this way or is this a bug? My CAM software doesn't post a G43 after every tool change. Is it something I'm doing wrong or did I miss something? I can go back and edit every posted code but seems  tedious to me. Thanks for any insight.

Eric

52

CVI MachStdMill (MSM) / Re: TLO Woes

« on: August 12, 2010, 11:31:14 AM »

Hi Dave

I did some playing around and found out I didn't have the G43 button pressed on the WC page. By pressing G43 and then G49 I am seeing part 0 in Z and TLO for tool change. That is what I expected see. Going to do some more testing as soon as I change the blown fuse on my Z axis. Don't ask what happened

Eric

53

CVI MachStdMill (MSM) / TLO Woes

« on: August 11, 2010, 11:48:22 AM »

Hi Dave,

Ran a simple program to see if two tools of different lengths will return to the Z 0 of the part. I used a touch plate and the TLO was saved in the tool table. When I ran program Tool #1 was above  part Z 0. When program called for Tool #2 it was at part Z 0. I put Tool #1 back in and switched to machine cord. and ran tool down to the TLO numbers in the tool table Tool 1 was at the top of the part. Did the same for Tool 2 same results. It seems that Mach 3 remembers the last tool Z zero. So if Tool #1 is 1.0 inches shorter than Tool #2 Tool #1 is 1.0 inches above the part. In MC go to tool offset length and both tool are on top of the part.  I've operared CNC equipment at my work and by changing from one tool to the other you can see the Z DRO going up or down according to the tool number and physical length of the tool .Is this a bug in Mach3 of am I doing something wrong? Using MSM Beta 4 and Mach3 R043.010
Thanks.

Eric

54

CVI MachStdMill (MSM) / Made my first chips today with MSM

« on: August 07, 2010, 03:10:41 PM »

Hi all.
I commend Dave for all the help he gave me resolving several issues I've had with MSM. Well I'm happy to report that everything is working and I made my first chips with MSM today. WHAT A RUSH!!!! I just did some simple passes at .100 per pass at 3.5ipm in some 6160 aluminum with a 5/8 rougher end mill. Didn't make anything useful yet that's for a latter date. Been spending way too much time in the shop testing MSM. Wife said that it was time to put my toys away and pay some attention to her can you imagine that. LOL Can't wait for Mach V4 to be done.

Eric

55

CVI MachStdMill (MSM) / Re: Homing and Limit Switch Probblems.

« on: August 07, 2010, 11:29:32 AM »

Since I can home now, I decided to jump into my probing issue that I mentioned in my first post. I have never probed before so I thought I would try and get it to work. Before I had all incoming power cords grounded to the mill frame. I was getting feed back voltage to my BOB and it was sending the 5vdc for my BOB to ground every time the probe light came on. I disconnected the grounds that ran to the frame and they are not attached to anything. My star ground for limits and metal controller box go to another earth ground separate from house ground. I set everything up and got my probe to light up Mach3 probe light using the MSM profile. I was getting false probe touches indicating signal noise i guess when i wasn't probing so I installed a 1uf capacitor across pin input and 5vdc out on board which I have going to mill frame. I use a 1uf cap. on all my encoder read heads for signal noise suppression. The probe light stopped twitching and finally was stable. I tried probing again and it worked. Today has been a day of surceases so thank you Dave and all others for inspiration. It took a long time to get to this point and lots of mistakes and lots of fried hardware. It was fun and rewarding but also very expensive. This thread can now be put to bed problem fixed. So again thanks to all.

Eric

56

CVI MachStdMill (MSM) / Re: Homing and Limit Switch Probblems.

« on: August 07, 2010, 08:04:26 AM »

Hey guys thanks for all the help. Daves post  about the debounce setting in general config being set at 0 was the correct fix. i set it to 2000 and closed MSM down and then reopened and now i can home in MSM just like in 1024. Ok this raises my last and final question on this issue. What is an exceptable debounce level and how high is too high? Right now I have it set at 4000. I've had signal noise issues in the past and had it so high that none of my inputs worked at all. which I assumed Mach was looking for an input signal but since the debounce was set so high it was taking too long for the signal to keep up with the CPU clock. I think I read on the Mach3 form that 4000 to 8000 was good. Thanks.

Eric

57

CVI MachStdMill (MSM) / Re: Homing and Limit Switch Probblems.

« on: August 06, 2010, 03:33:41 PM »

Hi Dave. I tried what you suggested. Z still stays stuck on the limit I used .1 and -.1 and still stays stuck no back off. All the home off did was offset the Z axis DRO .1 or -.1.

Eric

58

CVI MachStdMill (MSM) / Re: Homing and Limit Switch Probblems.

« on: August 06, 2010, 05:46:42 AM »

Z axis is wired to its own pin. I start homing by pressing the ref z button. Even when i push Ref All button the same thing occurs. Each axis is wired to its oun pin. Each limit take Z for example is wired to use the one limit switch for Z++ and home. X uses one limit for X-- and home the other switch for X++ wired to it own pin. Y is wired the same way. All axis use a seprate pin for limits the two switches that are on X use the same pin. Same for Y. Even when I disable the Z++ limit and still have Z home enabled. Z will home and zero DRO but Z won't come off the limit like it does on 1024 set. Hope this helps. it got me confused.

Eric

59

CVI MachStdMill (MSM) / Re: Homing and Limit Switch Probblems.

« on: August 05, 2010, 03:44:24 PM »

 Dave just to rule out hardware issues or software issues I uninstalled everything associated with Mach 3 and MSM and uninstalled the PP driver. I installed an older lockdown version of Mach 3 Version 3.042.029. The Z homed and then came off the limit and Zeroed out the Z DRO. I uninstalled .029 and installed 043.010 and started with MSM Beta 2. Z homed and stayed on the limit and forced an Estop. Unistalled MSM Beta and installed MSM Beta 3. Homed Z and stayed on the Z limit. I ran Mach3mill in Ver. 3.043.010 Z homed and came off the limit. I don't know what is different in MSM and I wouldn't know where to look but it seems it is MSM related. Again Mach3mill will home and come off the limit. MSM won't. I still like MSM and will continue to test it. Thanks

 Eric

60

CVI MachStdMill (MSM) / Homing and Limit Switch Probblems.

« on: August 04, 2010, 06:21:40 PM »

I just installed Beta 3. I was able to probe and home now I can't do either. I have all other axis disabled and am only using Z until I can get this figured out. Every thing worked pretty good in Beta 2. One thing that I found curious is Z will move in plus direction when the ref button is pressed but it gets stuck on the limit and won't back off. I had to disable the Z++ in the config pins box. The Z axis shows 0.0000 in the DRO. When the Z++ is enabled the axis stays stuck on the switch. The signal screen show that Z home and Z++ both light when the limit switch is activated. Another curious thing is when i shut everything off for lunch and went back and turned everything back on I had no power to my BOB. I did some investigating and my PP cable was grounding out the 5 vdc input voltage to the BOB. I disconnected the earth ground wire and everything started working again except limits and probing. It's been really hot and dry here in Missouri and very humid. Can heat and humidity play havoc with grounding? A long time ago when i started my mill conversion i read somewhere that there should be another earth ground besides house ground and both grounds had to be connected together to bring them to the same ground potential so there would be no resistance between them. All AC grounds went to machine base and all shielded grounds went to the other earth ground. Worked pretty well until today. I think i might have done some damage to some of the IC chips on my BOB. Z axis and Z limit still function though. I'm going to uninstall Mach and MSM and delete everything associated with it and uninstall the PP driver and do a fresh install of Mach .010 and MSM Beta 2 and see if that helps. If everything works like it should I'll go to Beta 3. Sorry for the long ramble but what I've seen of MSM I really like. The screens are fresh and clean and make sense how they are laid out. Probing is really cool. I haven't ever really use it before. It will be great for part setup. Again sorry for rambling on. Thanks in advance.

Eric