Messages

101

General Mach Discussion / Re: Jog rate, feed rate and abnormal condition

« on: April 11, 2009, 10:21:32 PM »

I gave up and installed Mach3 over again. I created a new mill profile. The new profile works fine. The jog speed in the old profile seems to be OK now after the new installation. But the abnormal button blinks. The only way I can get that fixed is to set the inch/metric in the "Setting Alt-6" tab to inch. The units in the "Config>Native units" is still set to metric. Don't understand that. If I change between inch and mm in the "Setting Alt-6" tab in the new profile nothing happens seemingly. Looks like a bug maybe. Anyway I deleted the original Mill profile.

What is the XML? I have much to learn from you experts here 

In Alt-6 tab set to metric. In Alt-1 tab Double click abnormal button, click YES. Button should be solid green.

102

General Mach Discussion / Re: MACH3 MOTOR TUNING

« on: April 11, 2009, 12:20:03 PM »

Do you have Home Switches installed? I have noticed that if an external E Stop is triggered that Jog speed is slow until I Home the machine.
If there are no Home switches, try double clicking the "Normal Condition" bar just above the feed rate box.

103

General Mach Discussion / Re: help with tool length offsets

« on: April 10, 2009, 04:10:46 PM »

On a knee mill setting tool length is easy. Select your longest tool and call it 1 inch.
Put it in the quill and run the quill down one inch.
Crank the table up to touch the tool. Put each remaining tool in the quill, run it down to touch and record the length.
Now when setting up a job, take any tool that you will be using, put it in the quill, run it down what ever its length is,
crank the table up to touch. All of the rest of the tools are also set now. If you put a new tool in a holder you just
use one of the other tools to set the table position and then touch off the new tool and record its length.
You don't have to change anything except the new tool.
Setting up this way, Z zero is Machine zero and the tool length offsets the tool down. That means you can't have a Z+
move without a tool length in effect that is longer than the Z+ move.

104

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: Need help with marco??????

« on: April 05, 2009, 09:10:57 PM »

You can read the machine coords but I don't think you can set them other than to zero.

105

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: Need help with marco??????

« on: April 05, 2009, 06:35:59 PM »

SetMachZero(0)
SetMachZero(1)
SetMachZero(2)

In a macro will set X, Y and Z machine DROs to zero. The same as if they had just been homed.
I have that code in a macro called M900.m1s to zero Mach 3 when I have my Bridgeport mechanical counters at zero.

106

General Mach Discussion / Re: step motor runs rough in one direction only

« on: April 02, 2009, 09:44:21 PM »

You did good diagnostic testing. You have a bad driver.

107

General Mach Discussion / Re: OEM codes for buttons, DRO's and LED's

« on: April 02, 2009, 07:19:01 PM »

Brian just posted at

http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,11068.0.html

That the OEM codes are going to be changed in the next Mach revision.

108

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: G73?????

« on: April 02, 2009, 02:27:56 AM »

Are you running G90 or G91 mode? Is it possible that your system is experiencing rounding errors? In G91 if your code has X.0015 and your machine only moves .001 this could add up.

109

General Mach Discussion / Re: mach3 mill with BP Series-1

« on: April 01, 2009, 02:24:45 PM »

I tried the "Run From Here" button with no luck.
What did work is the "Set next line" button. Scroll through the Gcode until you are at the point you want to restart from.
Leave a little of the code that has already run as a starting buffer. Jog the tool into position (Very Important) then click
the "Set Next Line" button. Click cycle start and the program will start from that point.
I still think the best way is editing the Gcode because then you will have all of the start up code and tool call and positioning will be automatic.

110

General Mach Discussion / Re: mach3 mill with BP Series-1

« on: April 01, 2009, 02:02:25 PM »

There is a "Run From Here" button near the bottom left of the screen.
You could also use the "Edit Gcode" button. Delete the code that has already run and then do "Save As" and save to a new name.
That way you don't lose your original file.