Topics

21

General Mach Discussion / pass 1 of however many....

« on: December 22, 2010, 07:09:57 PM »

I am trying to understand what I am looking at on mach3. Because it is easier on the eyes, I usually use the tool path view.

I export my gcode from VCarve and then copy it to the computer that controls the cnc machine and import it into mach3. It usually takes a few passes to cut anything out - How do I know which pass of how many it is currently on when looking at the mach3 screen?

Thanks

22

General Mach Discussion / somethings keeps getting reversed

« on: December 21, 2010, 04:03:37 PM »

I am using smoothstepper with Mach3.
When things work it is working PERFECTLY!!!!
 But when it messes up it messes up big. The people that make and support smoothstepper are convinced it is not smoothstepper.

As a job is cutting for no reason and with no warning - It just reverses the signal going to the motors somehow. All the sudden it will just complete cut out a mirror opposite of the path it is cutting.

Any ideas what I need to do to fix this?
Thanks

23

General Mach Discussion / Help needed

« on: December 18, 2010, 04:24:18 PM »

Hi -

I am not new to CNC but I am new to setting up some of these settings in Mach3. How do I calculate steps per inch in Mach3? I am not getting accurate when I use the setup wizard thing.

I have a DIY cnc machine

My board is set to FULL step

1/2" 10 tpi ACME screw rods.
Direct drive
Kelling KL23H276 bipolar stepper motor
NEMA 23
Dual Shaft  Front shaft=1/4" x 7/8"  Back shaft= 1/4" x 5/8"
200 steps per revolution
1.8 degrees per step
No. of wires=8
Bipolar series Volts=3.86,  Amps=2.1, Ohms=1.84, Holding torque=2.0 Nm. 0r 282 oz-in
Bipolar parallel Volts=1.93, Amps=4.2, Ohms=.0.46 Holding torque= 2.0 Nm. or 282 oz-in


THANKS

24

General Mach Discussion / laser engraving/cutting help

« on: December 11, 2010, 04:36:33 PM »

What do I need to get in order to control when the laser is on or off and how much power etc - In order to control a laser with Mach3?

Links to what I need to purchase and to descriptions to settings and configuration would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

25

SmoothStepper USB / Configuration Help (New installation)

« on: December 05, 2010, 12:10:41 PM »

My old PC was stolen and did not have a backup of my configuration.

I bought a new Netbook and SmoothStepper since new PC's do not have parallel ports. I installed the drivers and all went well and I can see/configure the plugin settings in Mach3. The SmoothStepper manual is very outdated and missing a lot of information that would be helpful.

I have no clue what to do in order to make Mach3 and SmoothStepper talk to one another and run the motors. Is there a link showing what to configure to Mach3 that someone can point me to. It would be greatly appreciated.

Running -
Windows 7 32 bit
Mach3 R3.042.040
SmoothStepper Beta2 Ver 0.015ogx

26

General Mach Discussion / new computer question

« on: November 21, 2010, 05:08:17 PM »

Hi -

I have been a long time user of Mach 3 and now need to replace the computer I have been using for many years. I had a break in and all my computers were stolen.

I go to best buy and couple of other places and find that most of the computers these days do not have parallel ports on them and only offer USB. Has anyone gotten Mach 3 to work with USB? What do I need to do to get it working with USB?
Can I use a USB top parallel converter?

Thanks -
Keith

27

General Mach Discussion / Help setting up Mach3 on a Sieg Micro Mill

« on: May 03, 2009, 12:40:39 PM »

Hi -

Attached are two pictures of what I have. I have a SIEG Micro Mill with a Xylotex 3 axis controller XS-3525/8S-3. I am also using Mach3 CNC software to controller the mill.

I always have problems setting everything up.
Which should I set the card to; 1/8, 1/2 or Full step?
In Mach 3 no matter how I do the settings I have to set the accel and velovity very low. I have seen post and the documentation where the numbers are very high in comparison. I am unsure where is a good starting point for these numbers.

In the motor tuning settings;
I get where I am happy with the travel of the X/Y axis by pressing the arrow keys with my fingers. I go into the setup tab and click on the set axis button. Tell it to move an inch or two (small mill) and measure. Enter in the actual movement and it calculates and number and I choose to save.
After that - Anytime I try to do something with that axis - it just sits and screaches and hardly moves at all.

I am sure other people have ran into this before.


Thanks for any and all help. It is greatly appreciated.
Keith

28

General Mach Discussion / PNP LPT Port

« on: December 28, 2007, 07:30:50 PM »

Today I purchased a 2nd LPT port for my computer. It does not use standard LPT port addresses. I want to add a second set of motor controllers to my computer and need to use a 2nd port to do that.

Has anyone here tried to use a PNP LPT Port w/ Mach3 and gotten it to work? If so please post here how you did it.

Many thanks -SS