Messages

501

SmoothStepper USB / Re: Homing "x" axis not working correctly

« on: July 22, 2009, 03:29:06 PM »

Precisely what I DID.

Sorry for being unclear, but this is a CNC4PC C16 where the switches are hardwired to a board that in turn hooks to the bob. I've tested every other combo of this as mentioned further up the thread, and what I finally DID was physically move the switches, left the wiring the same from the C16 board to the bob, and told Mach3 it was opposite pins, X for Z. The problem moved to the X. So the only thing left for it to be, in my mind and Auturo's, is the C16 setup. It can be a switch, or the little board they all mount to that also contains other stuff, but it needs to be replaced as a unit. At least it does short of desoldering and stuff. As long as Arturo is willing to send me a new one, I'll do that.

502

SmoothStepper USB / Re: Homing "x" axis not working correctly

« on: July 22, 2009, 02:59:32 PM »

Before throwing my hands completely in the air I might try swapping Z and X optical switches but not changing pins where they go on C23 BOB, and changing pins in Mach. If the problem moves to X I have one thing, if it stays on Z, I have another. However, I'm not sure I know what to actually DO in either case!! My uneducated guess would be if it moves to X, it has to be the CNC4PC C16 home/limit board, if it stays on Z it has to be C23 BOB or SS..........or Mach somehow.

So....finally got 'round to swapping physical opto switches, Z for X, X for Z. Switched Ports & Pins to match. The problem went to X. It won't back off the switch on X now and it DOES back off Z just fine. In my mind, this makes the CNC4PC C16 the culprit. I consulted Arturo again and he's looking into it a bit before sending me another board/switches to try.

503

PoKeys / Re: Momentary switches

« on: July 22, 2009, 01:46:45 PM »

Momentary will work fine. I do it and I'm a novice at this stuff.

504

SmoothStepper USB / Re: Homing "x" axis not working correctly

« on: July 15, 2009, 07:48:30 AM »

I just woke up, but I read that several times and can't make sense of it (shakes head\rubs eyes).

I had a low ambience in the babble filtering, I approved a top ambience of 200 this morning and it seemed to accomplish no aberration at all in acclimation the problem. So far the best I could get this morning is .001" at 4khz and .017" at 2 khz and consistently the X arbor which of advance is the endure to home in the sequence.


________________
Thermostat

505

SmoothStepper USB / Re: Homing "x" axis not working correctly

« on: July 10, 2009, 08:45:16 AM »

Just a brief update on my homing issue with Z not backing off the switch. I've been conversing with Arturo Duncan of CNC4PC because most of my hardware came from him. He's mystified also. What I did lately was setup a new PC, XP instead of Vista, install Mach anew, get it configured enough to move/home. I get the exact same behavior. Z hits the switch, stops, homes Mach, sits on the switch (optical) not backing off. X and Y back off as expected.

So....

I've swapped Z Home to a different pin on C23 BOB to no effect.
I've changed Z to home Neg. after moving X/Y out of the way so it'd clear, so it's hitting a different physical switch, no effect!
Installed an entire new computer/Mach3 installation, no effect.

All this besides playing with SS noise settings all the way from 0 to 1000, physically grounding to a separate earth ground rod outside 8' in the ground everything I can think of. I HAVEN'T tried enclosing the machine in lead or wearing a tinfoil hat!!

Machine runs wonderfully for hours with no other sign of noise issues or anything other than this Z home problem!!

Before throwing my hands completely in the air I might try swapping Z and X optical switches but not changing pins where they go on C23 BOB, and changing pins in Mach. If the problem moves to X I have one thing, if it stays on Z, I have another. However, I'm not sure I know what to actually DO in either case!! My uneducated guess would be if it moves to X, it has to be the CNC4PC C16 home/limit board, if it stays on Z it has to be C23 BOB or SS..........or Mach somehow.

506

PoKeys / Re: How I made my pendant.

« on: July 10, 2009, 07:56:57 AM »

OH, maybe that's it. My Mach3Lobe.exe is dated 1/24/2008 and is 464 KB in size. I have Mach3 3.043.027 on all three computers I tried it on. Does this mean that when upgrading Mach that brains might stop working?

It worked out better now that I did it from scratch anyway as I learned a bit and am now more confident editing them!!

BTW, thanks for the inspiration with your pendant writeup. I didn't do a pendant, but pretty much the same thing minus the MPG on a small panel on the machine proper. I'm used to running machines from a panel after years of doing so, and am real used to a feed pot, so now I have one and one that works better than the machines I used to run because of the brains!! Now I need Greg to get SS updated to more than 100% feed rate and I'll be good! Back to fine tuning feed/speed by sound/chip flow!!

507

PoKeys / Re: How I made my pendant.

« on: July 09, 2009, 10:08:30 PM »

I can't seem to get it. I clicked into everything and saved after, reloaded brains in Mach, still get the error. Why do I need to rewrite a brain for it to work? If, for example, CNC4PC can post up a brain that works, why not these? Can someone post up a working version of Hood's brains or at least explain why it won't work without 'rewriting' it?

Edit: OK, I completely did it from scratch and now it loads without the error. And.......I SORT OF learned how to write brains!! Still a mystery why one can't post up a brain and have it work on another system.

508

PoKeys / Re: How I made my pendant.

« on: July 09, 2009, 11:19:15 AM »

hi,

i had the error aswell. i retyped the brain, all works well.

Retyped? How do I retype it? Just go in each thingy and redo it. or what? Sorry, I've never written a brain myself!!

509

PoKeys / Re: How I made my pendant.

« on: July 09, 2009, 09:45:33 AM »

Say, Hood, I tried to enable only your 2FROfeedhold.brn and I get an error in Mach3 that I can only get out of by incessantly clicking OK, or using Task Manager to kill Mach. Next time Mach3 starts it has that brain disabled. What is it I don't understand about this seemingly simple brain, or do I also need the 2SROFRO100.brn enabled for some reason?

510

PoKeys / DoOEMButton(133)

« on: July 07, 2009, 08:41:03 AM »

In the script for the home/ref all button in the pokeys.set screen, there are three lines at the end, DoOEMButton(133), (134), (135). What do these do? Supposedly Zero Encoders, but what does that mean? Like MPG encoders, or what? Sorry for the ignorance!!