Messages

1

General Mach Discussion / Re: Link OEM LED to output pin

« on: June 26, 2009, 05:07:41 AM »

Yes, works fine with passthrough.
Thanks for the sample. I need to do some experimenting and looking at other brains I assume are posted.
I appreciate the help.

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General Mach Discussion / Re: Link OEM LED to output pin

« on: June 26, 2009, 03:49:41 AM »

Thanks. I watched the video and have it working per your instructions.

Initially I tried to do a comparison on the LED and that does not seem to work. In the Brain View the LED value toggles 0/1 for off/on but a comparison to either 0 or 1 does not yield any result. The terminator is always zero. I even tried a Greater Than Zero and the terminator was still 0 when the LED was 1. This would seem to be a problem if I want to test for a particular combination of LEDS on and off.  Am I missing something?

3

General Mach Discussion / Re: Link OEM LED to output pin

« on: June 26, 2009, 02:17:31 AM »

Thanks - however I know nothing about Brain. Where / how do I learn how to do this?

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General Mach Discussion / Link OEM LED to output pin

« on: June 26, 2009, 12:18:53 AM »

I would like to connect an OEM LED to an output pin. For example, I would like to turn on lights on a status board when certain LEDs are on. Any guidance would be appreciated.

Thanks

5

General Mach Discussion / Re: Losing steps on reversal

« on: May 23, 2009, 10:07:36 PM »

Thanks. That seems to imply that the max value I can set for pulse length on the motor tuning panel is 5. Even though it allows me to enter and save larger numbers. One suggestion I tried a few days ago was to enter a "15" for the pulse lengths. Of course it did not solve my problem which is no surprise if it maxed out at 5.

So, does the Sherline setting add or multiply by a certain amount?

I can look at the spec sheets to see how motor driver chips work. It would be nice to have a better understanding of what signals result from the settings on the Mach3 configuration panels so I can make a correlation. Is such information available?

6

General Mach Discussion / Re: Losing steps on reversal

« on: May 23, 2009, 05:04:04 PM »

Thanks, Chip, for your continued interest.

My original xml file from Zenbot had DirLowActive checked and StepLowActive X'd. That is why I thought there were 4 possibilites. So is it correct that they should be the same? Either both checked or unchecked?

  Anyway, turning on the Sherline 1/2 pulse seems to have fixed the drift I was experiencing in my little test.  Active high or low did not matter once I checked this. Actuall cutting will be the final confirmation. 

Would be interesting to know what that actually does to the signals. The manual does not give any insight into why this might or might not be checked. The tutorials just say that beginners show ignore these settings!

Unfortunately all this testing seems to have fried one of my channels. I can test the reversals on one axis but can't do any cuts until I get some replacement ICs. I can at least test with one axis on the other systems and see if they fare better as well.

Is it possible to fry a driver board with badly chosen parmeters in Mach3?


Thanks again.

7

General Mach Discussion / Re: Losing steps on reversal

« on: May 23, 2009, 10:42:28 AM »

Chip - I tried all four combinations of active low/high. Had high hopes but it did not make a difference.

All - Here is the link to the Mechatronics board information and manual: http://www.easy-cnc.com/3axisdriver.html

8

General Mach Discussion / Re: Losing steps on reversal

« on: May 23, 2009, 09:58:21 AM »

Thanks for the replies...

Chip - these suggestions I had not seen before and will try out. This is the kind of information I am looking for. Thanks.

Rich - All good observations, however, I have tried the "generic" configuration with three sets of hardware so far. Yes, Mach3 has many configuration options, I've tried the ones from the vendor and the ones in the video tutorials and Mach3 manual. That's why I was asking for the specifics of working configurations.

Back to the shop...

9

General Mach Discussion / Losing steps on reversal

« on: May 23, 2009, 12:16:15 AM »

I'm using the latest version (3.042.020) with a Mechatronics driver board and a Zenbot tool. I am loosing a step at each direction reversal. The test is to home on a dial indicator, run 10 iterations of X3 Y3, X0 Y0. (Distance does not matter) DROs end at zero but the indicator shows .015" drift. I have tried three different computer systems, each with a minimal WinXP, 2-3Ghz processors, and at least 2GB ram.

Before anyone chimes in with useless suggestions such as belt tension, loose cables, etc... I have read many posts here and on Yahoo about this. I know that the Mechatronics and Zenbot are not at fault because I can run the same test with TurboCNC and all the same motor parameters and the carriage returns home, dead on.

So, is Mach3 really so sensitive to the PC setup that it has to be just right? I know others have felt this pain, how did you resolve it? Most posts I have read did not have a successful resolution. Some of the solutions resulted in blue screens or an unbootable PC for me, or were things I had already done. I know at least one poster here has switched to other software because this could not be resolved.

For those of you who are lucky enough to have a machine working with precision: Has anyone documented their PC hardware setup (Motherboard, BIOS, CPU, video card, memory, peripherals) and a step-by-step installation and stripping of winXP (which version and which service pack, did you get all the latest updates from Microsoft, etc. What additional drivers got loaded?) I know about systems that don't work and would like to know something about the systems that do work.

I have spent a week on this, hijacking servers, buying a new motherboard, re-installing XP for the nth time, etc.  I have to start cutting so I am stuck with TurboCNC for now, doing the diskette shuffle from the design system to the workshop. Had to install a diskette drive on the design system.

I'd appreciate hearing about your successes.

Jurgen

10

General Mach Discussion / Re: Cut2D and Z-Axis

« on: May 17, 2009, 09:16:20 PM »

Thanks for your input.

I'm making progress with the recommendation from Ger21.

Ideally I'd like to have the Vectric post processor make adjustments to the Z-axis numbers but I don't know if that is possible. I can do it manually for simple files so I know it would work. I'm still waiting on my acceptance to the Vectric forum so I can ask that question