Messages

41

General Mach Discussion / Re: Best way to make & route text.

« on: July 29, 2009, 10:10:02 PM »

I'm even having a tough time replying on here, maybe I should just give up for tonight.
Anyway here is what I get while following your procedure. I did the clean up in AutoCAD.
or I get just the last word "EQUIPMENT" and part of the word above.
Very strange.

42

General Mach Discussion / Re: Best way to make & route text.

« on: July 29, 2009, 09:12:12 PM »

very frustrating, the words look fine in lazyCAM but when running AutoClean and exporting to Mach3 it gets messed up.

43

General Mach Discussion / Re: Best way to make & route text.

« on: July 29, 2009, 07:13:51 PM »

Yep I got it working that far but it looks like there are 2 layers and only one layer shows up in Mach3 control screen.
Is that normal?

44

General Mach Discussion / Best way to make & route text.

« on: July 29, 2009, 12:30:29 PM »

I just finished my router build and I would like to test it out with some easy text, a couple of 9x12 signs for work. Nothing too stressful on the machine.
What I can say is this process has been stressful for me! I have AutoCAD 2008 and I have done the text there and saved it as a dxf. Then I tried to open it with lazyCAM, well the resulting gcode was nothing more than 2 squares on the screen.
I downloaded inkscape and did the same thing however LazyCAM did not display anything and I received a OpenGL error from LazyCAM.
I tried several other apps some worked but only to produce the word "DEMOVERSION" and other software just did not produce gcode Mach3 liked.
Is there an easy way to do this?

Thanks

45

General Mach Discussion / Re: Limit switches on modbus/TCPIP

« on: July 16, 2009, 12:30:30 PM »

Well that is a downer. I did notice there was some latency when reading the switches. I have been able to get the second parallel port working with Mach3 so the Adam-6051 is more of a toy anyway.
That leads me to another question, why 25ms?

46

General Mach Discussion / Limit switches on modbus/TCPIP

« on: July 16, 2009, 11:33:37 AM »

I had an Adam-6061 sitting unused so I decided to try and get Mach3 to find it and read the some of the inputs.
******************************************************************************************
The ADAM-6051 provides 12 digital inputs, 2 digital outputs, and 2 counters with 2000VRMS isolation protection.
This mixed-function module built-in Ethernet port and web page.
******************************************************************************************
I have been able to get Mach3 to see and read the Digital inputs through the testing screen under modbus config but I'm lost at how to tell Mach3 that the home and limit switches are on modbus. I'm also looking at a way to use the 2 counters on my router, there must be something a counter will be useful for
I hope to use one of the Digital Outputs to control my spindle on/off function.

Thanks

47

General Mach Discussion / Re: Steps per in Motor tuning

« on: July 07, 2009, 09:34:27 AM »

I will have a look at that setting tonight.
In my motor tuning section I have the following:
Each Axis is the same.
Steps per: 20000
Velocity: 60
Acceleration : 1
SP: 5
DP: 5

thanks again for the help.

48

General Mach Discussion / Re: Steps per in Motor tuning

« on: July 06, 2009, 08:56:10 PM »

I do believe that has done the trick Jeff, thank you very much.
One more question, is the feed rate set in g-code or is it a value set and saved on the computer's profile?

49

General Mach Discussion / Re: Steps per in Motor tuning

« on: July 05, 2009, 09:52:58 PM »

Thank you for confirming my math.
I have been testing my motors and drivers by just having them turning on the bench. I loaded up the scorpion G-code and it seems that the X-axis and Y-axis are turning but they will sometimes stop turning however I know they should be turning because I'm following the tool path on screen. When I hold the motor in my hand I can feel it vibrate like it wants to move. Now this only happens if I let the PC and drivers sit for about 1/2 and hour. If I restart the PC and power cycle the drivers the motors seem to turn properly.
I'm wondering if I have the "Step Pulse" & "Direction Pulse" set correctly. I have the SP set at 5 while the DP at default 0.
I forget where I read about setting the SP to 5 I think it was PmInmo site. Maybe I should set the DP to 5 as well? The motor does seem to stall when a direction change is sent...
My PC is a AMD 2000+ (1.6Ghz) with 1GB ram, the OS is stripped down to the bare bones. I have the Kernal Speed is the default 25K. How does increasing the Kernal Speed effect the performance of the motors?

Thanks again for the help.

50

General Mach Discussion / Steps per in Motor tuning

« on: July 05, 2009, 09:03:20 PM »

I'm sorry if this has been covered before, I did do a search but what I found still made me question my setup.
I have 1/2-10 single start Lead Screws, STMD Drivers set to 1/10 micro-stepping and finally Tormach 280oz steppers 1.8.
If I figure this correctly my "steps per" should be:
tpi * 200 * micro-stepping = steps per
10 * 200 * 10 = 20000
Is 20,000 a little high?

thanks for the help.