Messages

121

General Mach Discussion / Re: Fanuc brushless Ac, dspmc, Mach3, and I have motion, but?

« on: September 09, 2009, 07:25:41 PM »

I see Ray..are you running them straight from the printer port or using a motion card..?

I presume the drive is a A06B-6058-####  Are you routing the encoders to the drive and running open loop step and direction or closed loop with a motion card..?

John

122

General Mach Discussion / Re: Fanuc brushless Ac, dspmc, Mach3, and I have motion, but?

« on: September 09, 2009, 11:52:34 AM »

Hi Ray

Just wondering what drives you are using and do you have the model numbers and specs for the motors.
Some have 1million pulse per rev encoders and you will need a good set up to run them at normal speeds with such a high encoder count!

John.

123

General Mach Discussion / Re: Hoping to retrofit a CNC mill with Mach3. Where do I start?

« on: September 08, 2009, 02:36:36 PM »

No problem I'm no expert but just speaking from experience!

The step and direction signal Mach puts out is really for controlling steppers but some "intelligent" digital drives will accept this signal too but with a Galil card the benefit is you can run any type of drive and motor..so if you decided to stick with your old drives to save on cost you would still get good performance well fast enough for the type of machine you have.

Just a point on the old drives..set up won't be an issue as they are already tuned to the motors..nothing against the Granite drives though as they should be easy to set up too. 

With the Galil you would need the break out board they supply (ICM 2900 I think) to wire your encoders into and the analogue command signals too.

Other break out boards that you have seen for Mach 3 do the same thing and also have connections for i/o such as controlling solenoids and rotary feed switches etc.

John.

124

General Mach Discussion / Re: Hoping to retrofit a CNC mill with Mach3. Where do I start?

« on: September 08, 2009, 03:10:53 AM »

No problem just glad to help..

The spindle drive will run as is if attached to something like the Galil board..there are other versions available with less axis but the one on Ebay is well priced. Plus if you want to add a 4th axis indexer at a later date you will still have axis left to play with.
You could  add an encoder to the spindle motor and wire this to the Galil board to get position feedback from the motor for tapping cycles.
Best to wire everything back to the spindle drive as it was then wire the analogue 10v control signal from a Galil board to the drive.
Don't forget that drive should still be tuned into that motor so it would save you setting the motor up again!

As far as I know the VFD will not work as precisely as the Fanuc unit but I'm no expert on these...my philosophy is to use the drive that was built for the motor being as it is of high quality..the VFD would normally be a cheaper alternative to the full servo spindle drive  you have now.

Also you can buy expensive motors  and control them from a low end motion card but you will get better results from using your old servos with a high end card like the Galil.

Mach puts out step and direction from the printer port, the idea with the galil is it gives you much more control over the analogue drives and because it runs from a pci slot on your pc motherboard you can get up to 12mhz pulse rate..far faster than the pulse rate from the printer port so faster rapids and smoother motion  can be achieved from older  analogue drives.

 http://www.galilmc.com/products/dmc-18x0.php
 
John.

125

General Mach Discussion / Re: Hoping to retrofit a CNC mill with Mach3. Where do I start?

« on: September 07, 2009, 02:27:28 PM »

Hi Ions,

Just a note on the Fanuc Model 3 spindle motor...keep the drive for it if you can as it's a servo drive and should give you excellent controll of that motor. Those Fanuc spindle drives are super reliable and have good safety devices inbuilt in them to stop any major damage if something goes wrong. The drive will do orientation for tapping and tool changing.

I have two machines with the Fanuc model 3 motor on and they will tap holes no problem with a tension compression tap holder.
Is the drive an A06B-6044-H07 ..?

http://www.dnc-electronics.co.uk/fanuc-drives/6044_fanuc_spindle_drives.htm

The Fanuc stuff  might be old but it's damn good quality!!

By the way there is a nice 8 axis Galil motion card on ebay at the moment that would control your  servos and drives..would also control your spindle drive too! It will do analogue 10V or torque mode or even steppers...
The Galil section has all the info!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230366526511&_trkparms=tab%3DWatching


John.

126

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 4.0 Rev Update

« on: September 06, 2009, 11:16:44 AM »

Sounds great  To have something on a par with Fanuc or Heidenhain etc that is open source is just amazing

John

127

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 4.0 Rev Update

« on: September 06, 2009, 10:29:35 AM »

You're welcome Brian any time. Just looking forward too the new release, it will be great to have the  cutter comp    

128

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 4.0 Rev Update

« on: September 06, 2009, 10:23:07 AM »

Just looked at the Fanuc 16MB manual and it also has three dimensional cutter comp (hope i'm not opening a can of worms here!!)

I'll quote from the manual:

"Three Dimensional Tool Compensation (G40,G41)

In cutter comp C, two-dimensional offsetting is performed for a selected plane.In three-dimensional tool compensation, the tool can be shifted three-dimensionally when a three dimensional offset direction is programmed.

Start 3d cut comp:

When the following command is executed in cutter comp cancel mode, 3D tool comp is set:

G41 Xp_Yp_Zp_I_J_K_D

Xp: X axis or a parallel axis
Yp: Y axis or a parallel axis
Zp: Z axis or a parallel axis

When cancelling 3D tool comp mode and tool movement at the  same time:

G40 Xp_Yp_Zp_;
or
Xp_Yp_Zp_D00;

When only cancelling the vector

G40;
or
D00 "

John

129

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 4.0 Rev Update

« on: September 06, 2009, 09:58:29 AM »

Brian here is some of my code with the G41 and the  D23 which is the radius offset I put in my Fanuc tool offset menu in slot 23.
It looks like it is doing the offset on X,Y before doing the radius as you thought

The cadcam only does cutter comp on finish passes. It produces the finish path on the centre line of the tool and lets the Fanuc move the tool over as is the norm.

For the rough path it offsets the tool by using the tool radius set in the cadcam tool library and also leaves the correct ammount which I have chosen for the finish pass ie. 0.1mm.

For me the rough pass doesn't have to be spot on so if my tool is set a bit big or small in the cadcam it won't matter.

Fanuc 6MB11

N1695G1X-40.483Y-16.697F400.
N1700G3X-31.563Y-18.01I6.758J14.954F293.
N1705G2X9.197Y-19.243I16.617J-124.99F400.
N1710G1G41D23X7.68Y-25.077
N1715G3X8.774Y-25.367I2.929J8.811F200.
N1720G2X40.497Y-36.576I-23.719J-117.633F400.
N1725G3X48.404Y-26.545I3.003J5.765F200.
N1730X38.917Y-20.391I-15.466J-13.455F283.
N1735G2X38.917Y6.391I4.083J13.391F400.
N1740G3X48.404Y12.545I-5.979J19.609F283.
N1745X40.497Y22.576I-4.904J4.266F200.
N1750G2X8.109Y11.236I-55.442J106.424F400.
N1755X6.298Y11.446I-0.576J2.944
N1760G1X-37.499Y31.237
N1765G3X-42.852Y19.391I-2.677J-5.923F200.
N1770G2X-53.148Y-3.391I-5.148J-11.391F400.
N1775G3X-58.501Y-15.237I-2.677J-5.923F200.
N1780G1X-42.991Y-22.247F400.
N1785G3X-30.76Y-24.047I9.266J20.504F294.
N1790G2X11.258Y-25.896I15.814J-118.953F400.
N1795G3X12.375Y-26.075I2.027J9.06F200.
N1800G1G40X13.363Y-20.129F400.
N1805G0Z5.0
N1810G28G91Z0M19
N1815G30G91X0Y0T7M6
N1820G0G90X-8.767Y-7.322S3800M3
N1825G43Z5.0H7M8
N1830Z-4.5
N1835G1Z-5.633F29.

The reason for the slow feeds before the D23 is that it is finishing the bottom of the feature  without cutter comp before the G41  D23 is called to do the wall pass.



John.

130

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 4.0 Rev Update

« on: September 06, 2009, 06:23:28 AM »

Yes I think you are right Brian now I come to think of it..I will have a look through my Fanuc manuals and put some of my code up later..
Beacause I always put arc lead in/out on my Cadcam I was presuming thats where it puts the G41/ G42  but I will check for sure..

John.