Messages

31

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 Major Bug?

« on: June 22, 2015, 08:15:08 PM »

Yes, I have had a look at it. Some of the information and design features are brilliant, however not having tried the cutting function I would be remiss in passing judgement.
I would think it would be great for small RC gear cutting and GoKart gear boxes and such, and certainly for low production 1 off assemblies that don't require low noise gears.
And as you can see, I am only looking at it from my background in engineering.

As to Mach3/4 being DIY, I believe those days are gone, as I am seeing more and more Taiwanese, Chinese, American, and Australian products brought of the shelf incorporating Mach3 as the Control software. Even a lot of the questions on these forums relate back to store bought Mach3 configurations. It is a problem with Good after market software, eventually it gets used in commercial stuff, and the robust nature of its design come to the fore. From that stems the inevitable intellectual/legal lock down of the software.

Also TP, I put up a macro used while trialling the Number features of Mach Cypress Basic. It becomes quite interesting when you put in large decimal place numbers.
I.E. what rounds up and down and where the cutoff point is.

Wes

32

General Mach Discussion / Little Number Macro

« on: June 22, 2015, 04:03:38 AM »

Hi Guys and Girls,

Just a little number Macro that I used to find an error that was creeping into my Maths while using Mach3.
It shows the difference between different types of Numbers.
To view some of the more exotic things try numbers like 35649879.654987243553


Macro - Just cut and paste the below code into the VB editor in Mach3 and save as Maths.m1s or whatever you like ;-)

Sub Main
Dim Msg, X, Y

X = InputBox("Enter a Number")

Y = Abs(X)
Msg = "The Absolute Value[Abs(X)] is " & Y
MsgBox Msg,64,"The Absolute Value of " & X  'Display Message

Y = Round(X,2)
Msg = "The Rounded Value[2 decimal places] is " & Y
MsgBox Msg,64,"The Rounding Value of " & X  'Display Message

Y = Format(X,"00##.###000000")
Msg = "The Format Value[00##.###00000] is " & Y
MsgBox Msg,64,"How to Format the Value of " & X  'Display Message

Y = Format(X,"Fixed")
Msg = "The Format Value[Fixed] is " & Y
MsgBox Msg,64,"The Formatted Fixed Value of " & X  'Display Message

Y = Format(X,"General Number")
Msg = "The Format Value[General Number] is " & Y
MsgBox Msg, 64,"The General Number Value of " & X  'Display Message

Y = Format(X,"Standard")
Msg = "The Format Value[Standard] is " & Y
MsgBox Msg,64,"The Standard Value of " & X  'Display Message

Y = Format(X,"Percent")
Msg = "The Format Value[Percent] is " & Y
MsgBox Msg,64,"The Percentage Value of " & X  'Display Message

Y = Fix(X)
Msg = "The Fixed Value[Fix(X)] is " & Y
MsgBox Msg,64,"The Fixed Value of " & X  'Display Message

Y = Hex(X)
Msg = "The Hexidecimal Value[Hex(X)] is " & Y
MsgBox Msg,64,"The Hexidecimal Value of " & X  'Display Message

Y = Oct(X)
Msg = "The Octagonal Value[Oct(X)] is " & Y
MsgBox Msg,64,"The Octagonal Value of " & X  'Display Message

Y = Int(X)
Msg = "The Interger Value[Int(X)] is " & Y
MsgBox Msg, 64,"The Integer of " & X  'Display Message

Y = Log(X)
Msg = "The Natural Log Value[Log(X)] is " & Y
MsgBox Msg,64,"The Log of " & X  'Display Message

Y = Sqr(X)
Msg = "The Square Root Value[Sqr(X)] is " & Y
MsgBox Msg,64,"The Square Root of " & X  'Display Message

Y = Val(X)
Msg = "The Numeric Value[Val(X)] is " & Y
MsgBox Msg,64,"The Value of " & X  'Display Message

End Sub


Wes

33

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 Major Bug?

« on: June 22, 2015, 01:03:16 AM »

Ok Final Test.
Changed the 1024.set A Axis DRO to 6 decimal points and the Round function in the Macro to Match.
on a 705 mm Dia Gear with Mod 3 gear cutter at 2214.822821 mm Circumference, each tooth is accurate to .012 mm max( In theory)

I believe the rounding is the way to go on this one, and i will leave the 1024 A Axis set to this so i can verify as i cut
on the smaller 1-300 mm gears.

Thanks for the inspiration TP, sometimes we just need to step away from these things for awhile and the answer will be there when we get back.

Wes

34

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 Major Bug?

« on: June 22, 2015, 12:11:54 AM »

Thanks TP.
I did try the format function first, however the results were unpredictable. May have been the Format is was using (I think ##,##00).
I will try the 5 digit and see if it makes any appreciable difference. I initially used 4 as that was all the DRO's show.

And yes I can appreciate the $5 dollar caliper standard. I actually had a customer complain about a job i had done for him because his Calipers(yes they were Chinese plastic ones) indicated I had machined a part over 2mm Larger then he wanted. Stupid me, i should have used his calipers to make it ;-).

Wes

35

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 Major Bug?

« on: June 21, 2015, 10:55:00 PM »

I think I may have found a work around.

At this point in the Macro

Dim Gear1 As Double
Dim AxisCut As String
Teeth = Question ("How Many Teeth on the Gear?")
Gear1=Val(Teeth)
SetVar(6,Gear1)
Gear1 = 360/Gear1
Print Gear1
SetVar(1, Gear1)

I changed it to this

Dim Gear1 As Double
Dim AxisCut As String
Teeth = Question ("How Many Teeth on the Gear?")
Gear1=Val(Teeth)
SetVar(6,Gear1)
Gear1 = 360/Gear1
Gear1= Round(Gear1,4)
Print Gear1
SetVar(1,Gear1)

Basically rounding the value down to 4 Decimal places gives me 0.003 of a degree maximum variation. Im thinking it might be a rounding issue or not being able to handle large value decimals in the Variable.
Your Thoughts?

Wes

36

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 Major Bug?

« on: June 21, 2015, 09:12:52 PM »

Hi TP,
Not trying to be nasty, just asking for an answer to a basic flow process of Mach3.
The GCode and Script can be found here - http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,29895.0.html.
The measurement of 13.84615 or 13.8462 is actually degrees, and as I indicated it actually goes to 13.8467(hence the steps per degree is 355.5555555556). That in itself is not the issue. the issue is the accumulated effect of adding this value around the circumference of a Circle. This value is for a 26 Tooth gear, when you process this to a 233 tooth gear the amount in accumulation is quit high for practical use. When you pass the 13.84615 value around it remains within tolerance.

Wes

37

General Mach Discussion / Mach3 Major Bug?

« on: June 21, 2015, 08:30:31 PM »

Hello all,
I am trying to pass a value from a script to Mach3. The Value is 13.846153846154. However, instead of passing this value it passes 13.8567. The value is the actual position that Mach will go to based on the Steps per Unit defined in the Motor tuning section. Now the issue is, this would be fine if it was a one off amount and wasn't used in additive functions or for that matter any arithmetic based function in your program. I use these passed values in a number of intense mathematical on the run equations that are duplicated upwards of 3-400 times per program.
The error that is generated due to this incorrect passing of value gets to the point that Mach3 is becoming useless as a program in any real accurate program cutting of parts.

My Question is.... Is this the correct way Mach3 passes values? or Am I missing something in the setup or the script writing in passing Values.

I use a few of the included Wizards to generate internal Polygon Shapes and have found that theses also generate the error in accumulated movements.
And No backlash has long since been eliminated ;-)

Wes

38

Mach3 under Vista / Re: Minimum PC requirements vs real life (Newbie)

« on: June 09, 2015, 08:51:49 PM »

Just a small note on ROI
If they have 1 person operating the CAD/CAM system and another operating the Mach3 system there gross production will more than Quadruple! You can run a Demo version of Mach3 on the CAD/CAM system to verify toolpaths(upto max Lines) and tooling etc, all the while your production doesn't stop except for tool changes and initial tooling setup of a new job. Your Labour hire cost is high on the CAD/CAM side and can even be part time or outsourced, however the production operator is usually lowered skilled and lower cost.

Just a thought

Wes

39

Mach3 under Vista / Re: Minimum PC requirements vs real life (Newbie)

« on: June 09, 2015, 08:45:19 PM »

Bruce, I have quite a few HP IPS systems in use ATM and they are excellent. The Graphics side of things is once again purely dependant on what other Cad/Cam system they are going to use. If it in any way uses 3D rendering you will have major issues with onboard Video. And 1024x768 is all that is required for Mach3 use. The CPU choice is purely for the CAD/CAM system you will use as Mach3 will work quite happily on an i3 with 2GB of shared memory.

Hope this helps

Wes

40

General Mach Discussion / Re: Changing computer

« on: June 09, 2015, 08:36:23 PM »

Hi Colin,
if your chasing Windows 7 32 bit and cant find any, try asking the computer companies(HP,Acer etc) for Windows 7 Commercial systems with parallel ports. Much better quality however most only have std video and turn of UAC otherwise you will have all sorts of bother.

Wes