Messages

111

General Mach Discussion / Re: The Craziest thing I've seen thus far...

« on: March 15, 2010, 03:53:14 AM »

Hi,

I had the same problem, driver test very bad and locked up thePC.
Followed hoods suggestion and its been perfect- not a glitch.

Makesure you follow the optimisation VERY steps carefully - I missed a step and it was the one that was causing the problem, so my driver problem only was rectified when I re-checked all theoptimisation steps ;-) ) - measure twice and all that !
ATB
Derek

Hi Hood,

THe Driver Test prepares, starts and locks the pc up.
How ever before I locks up a do see a few seconds of line info.
Lots of high spikes.

How ever I have not tried this as soon as the pc is turned on.
I would bet its nice and clean for the first half minute after windows comes up.

I have not tried the optomisation steps.
I have never had this kind of issue even with my other cnc machine running on a 900mghz laptop.

I will give it a look. Is the info easy to find?
Do you have any other ideas that I can try as I am doing your other sugestions and or why the system locks up during driver test?

Thanks,
Eric

112

General Mach Discussion / Re: Stumped

« on: March 03, 2010, 02:20:46 AM »

Hi Glen,

To "activate" the  tool length calculation in mach you need to put:-

T1 M06
G43 L1

and for tool 2 for example
T2 M06
G43 L2


The G43 L# needs to be on a separate line to the tol number.
I had this all on one line and mach would randomly ignore the tool length.
ATB
Derek

113

General Mach Discussion / Re: Turn + Threading problems

« on: February 12, 2010, 02:54:00 AM »

Hi All,

Just got a sensor fitted to the spindle on my colchester - followed the "Rich guide to threading"
Working spot on - after I set the feed override to 100% !! (for a moment I could not understand why the pitch was way off )

All hail Rich

Derek

114

General Mach Discussion / Re: Bridgeport interackt 412 software?

« on: January 03, 2010, 12:58:26 PM »

hey there.
i have a problem with my bp.
The backup batteries have run flat so that the software is gone...
How can i update the new software ?
Regards
Henrik Sørensen,Denmark.

Hi,
Try the CNC zone here....  http://www.cnczone.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=157

ATB
Derek

115

General Mach Discussion / Re: Lathe tool offsets / strange movement ?

« on: December 29, 2009, 10:18:47 AM »

Hi Hood, 
That's it  
I've deleted all that guff and there's no X movement. But I've got no idea where those commands came from. Weird.
Thank you very much for taking the time to look into this for me.
All the best,
Derek.

Your M6 End macro looks like the culprit at first glance, 
Hood

116

General Mach Discussion / Re: Lathe tool offsets / strange movement ?

« on: December 29, 2009, 06:36:59 AM »

Hi Hood,
Thank you for helping.
The .xml and macro directories are in the attached .zip
I'm not using any Brains but I've included the directory just in case.
Cheers,
Derek.

Zip your xml and the macro folder for your lathes profile and also any Brains you use and attach and I will see if I can replicate here.
Hood

117

General Mach Discussion / Re: Lathe tool offsets / strange movement ?

« on: December 28, 2009, 11:04:21 AM »

Hello,

I hope everyone has had a good Christmas and looking forward to a Happy New Year.

Over the break I've been looking in to why I get an unexpected X movement following a tool change. It's still doing this and I've still not being able to eliminate it.
The program below should not make any X movement  unless I've missed some thing !
Hopefully the following description will give some one a clue to what to look for.

I loaded the following program
%
N10 G00 G18 G21 G40 G50 G64 G80 G90 G94
N20 T0101
N30 G0 Z0
N40 G0 Z10
N50 M30
%

Tool 1 has tool offset of X+2.0 Z+10.0
I initially position the machine to read X0 Z0 with Tool 0 selected.

The following happens when the program is run first time through using single step, clicking on cycle start to execute each line.

At line N20 the DRO changes from X0 Z0 to X-4.0 Z-10.0 at the T0101 command  - OK
At line N30 the X axis moves to X0 when clicking cycle start and then the Z moves to Z0 on a second click on the same line N30.  (Why does the X move on this line?)
The remaining lines moves Z to zero and Z back to +10 as expected.
The program stops with the DRO X0,Z+10

However when the program is run again from this finishing position the X axis moves to X+2.0 at line N20
and the program finishes with the DRO shows X2.0 Z10

Subsequent runs through the program move the X axis in smaller + steps with the DRO displaying the following coordinates when the program finishes.
X2.99 Z+10
X3.49 Z+10
X3.74 Z+10
X3.87 Z+10
X3.92 Z+10
X3.95 Z+10
X3.97 Z+10
X3.99 Z+10

When X reaches 3.99 no further X movement is seen when the program is run.


If I change the tool offset for tool 1 to X+5.0 Z+10 a similar thing happens but the X axis finishes at X+9.99 after 10 or so runs of the program.

If the tool offset is negative, say X-5.0 the same movements happen just in the opposite direction.

And finally if I switch to radius mode in Config>Ports & Pins>TurnOptions
the X movement continues in steps of the same size and direction as the X tool offset value, until a end limit would be hit.

If any one can offer any suggestions or tests I should make I would be very gratefull.

All the best
Derek. 

118

General Mach Discussion / Re: Lathe tool offsets / strange movement ?

« on: December 08, 2009, 02:35:51 PM »

Hi Graham,

No homing switches are fitted to the machine.
The offset table for Tool 3 is  X-3.9697  Z12.1729   Post is set to front.  All other settings are Zero.
I'm set to run in diameter mode.
X=0 on the centre line of the lathe and Z=0 on the face of the work.

Cheers,
Derek.

Has your machine got homing switches fitted?
If you have homing, what are the figures in the x and z dro after homing?
What figures do you have in your tool offset table for tool 3?
Are you working diameter or radius?
Is X zero on the centre line of the spindle and Z zero on the front face of the work?
Graham

119

General Mach Discussion / Re: Lathe tool offsets / strange movement ?

« on: December 07, 2009, 03:20:54 PM »

Hi Graham,

Thanks for your reply.

Now when I run the program with your  mods it does the following.
Initial set up with tool 0 and x set to 0.

Cycle Start to run program -
'Press cycle start after tool change' line 20 - DRO X=0
'Press cycle start after tool change' line 40 - X moves to X=7.95   DRO X=+7.95
Once cycle start is pressed X axis moves to X=0 and X=0 shown on DRO
Z moves to Z=0
Spindle stops
Z moves to Z=15
At T0300  X DRO = -7.933
Press cycle start X moves, X DRO = -3.96

Second time and subsequent runs of the program the X readings are slightly different.
Cycle Start to run program -
DRO X=-3.96
'Press cycle start after tool change' line 20 - X moves to X=-1.98 DRO X=-1.98
'Press cycle start after tool change' line 40 -Xmoves to X7.95  DRO X=7.94
Once cycle start is pressed  X axis moves to X=0
Z moves to Z=0
Spindle stops
Z moves to Z=15
At T0300  X DRO = -7.933
Press cycle start X moves, X DRO = -3.96


I hope you can help !  I'm lost with this one.



Hi Hood, 

The M6Start.m1s macro has this -

tool = GetSelectedTool()
SetCurrentTool( tool )


Cheers,
Derek.

what happens if you change your code to this :-
Graham

120

General Mach Discussion / Lathe tool offsets / strange movement ?

« on: December 06, 2009, 04:33:38 PM »

Hello,
 
I'm running Mach3 version R3.42.32 and I am having difficulty with tool changes.
The issue is I'm seeing a 'spurious' motion in the X axis following a tool change command, say T0303 ( Other tool number selection do similar things)
 
For example -
The starting position for the tool is X0 Z15.
When the program is run the X axis moves 3.96mm towards in a minus direction ( the tool3 offset is x-3.96  Z 12.17)
 
If the X tool offset is positive the tool moves out in the positive direction. 
 
If I remove the G00 X0 command at line N40, so there is no reference to any X move in the program at all, the X axis still moves following the T0303 at line 20. And because there's now no X move, each time the program is run the X moves progressively in the same direction.
I would appreciate any insight as to what I'm doing wrong.
 
Cheers Derek,
 
 
%
N10 G00 G18 G21 G40 G50 G64 G80 G90 G94
N20 T0303
N30 M3 S750
N40 G00 X0
N50 G00 Z0
N60 M5
N70 G00 Z15
N80 M30
%
 

(Tool 3 x offset -3.96  Z 12.17 )