Messages

161

General Mach Discussion / Re: Non-integrated Video Card with 32MB RAM

« on: August 11, 2010, 02:11:33 AM »

Not necessarily "blaming" the steppers, and I am not even close to over driving them.  I've been fighting this darn thing for close to two years and I have tried everything.  This latest round with setting Mach Priority High under Windows is about the last thing I can think of before I give up and admit I'm just too stupid to make it work reliabley. 

New PC (faster more memory).  New motors.  (bigger).  New controller.  Reinstalled Mach several times.  Uninstalled everything and terminated every process that will terminate and the computer will still run.  Turned off display.  I got a bad cut on my work piece in the last test probably due to a curve relationship issue when doing a feed hold.  Will run a couple long test jobs tommorrow and see if the priority does the trick or not.  Then I start digging through my old boxes of computer parts and see if I have a good video card. 

I started to think maybe it was just because of the size jobs I am doing at as much as 80,000 lines of code, but then I read about guys getting consistent perfeormance running 300,000 lines of code.  Aurgh!

162

General Mach Discussion / Re: Non-integrated Video Card with 32MB RAM

« on: August 10, 2010, 03:26:06 PM »

Darn. I was hoping it would explain why my program goes wonky on almost every big job.  Even with the display turned off.  It just loses its place or misses a move and starts cutting in a totally new place.  I'm frustrated as heck some days.  I've upgrade the PC, controller motors, software, and brain damaged the computer OS and turned off all kinds of processes to the point that almost nothing runs except Mach 3.  I constantly lube and adjust the machine to make sure its not binding.  I just started trying setting Mach 3 as a high priority process to see if that helps.  It just finished its first big job with out a major fubar.  Well sorta.  It was a 4 hour job, but I restarted it this morning aboutan hour and thirty minutes into the job from last night.  I didn't have enough confidence to leave it running when I went to bed.  I've got some 8-10 hour jobs I would sure like to be able to start and then go to work.  

I'ld set it as real time, but I want to make sure I have a way to shut down the machine besides jerking the cord out of the wall.  I think I'm just going to have to go with a servo machine with encoders next time around. 

 

163

General Mach Discussion / Non-integrated Video Card with 32MB RAM

« on: August 10, 2010, 12:37:59 PM »

How critical is this? 
◦Non-integrated Video Card with 32MB RAM

I had not noticed this requirement previously for some reason.

164

General Mach Discussion / Re: Radius to end of Arc Differs From Radius to Startline

« on: August 09, 2010, 09:55:51 PM »

Not caring if I sound stupid, but where do I check/set the IJ mode in the XML or settings of Mach 3?  

Sure glad I didn't delete my old profile when I got the Gecko profile working. 

165

General Mach Discussion / Radius to end of Arc Differs From Radius to Startline

« on: August 09, 2010, 08:59:23 PM »

Radius to end of Arc Differs From Radius to Startline

Ok... Why? I mean I used this G-code file to cut an actual work piece under my previous profile. However under the Gecko XML I get this error.

What setting would be different that the code would be good in one, but not the other?

I reloaded my old profile and loaded the same g-code file just to make sure and it did not stop at this as an error.

Except for having to reverse the X motor direction and increase the kernal to 45000 my XML is exactly the same and the one on the Gecko website. 

166

General Mach Discussion / Re: Lost Keyboard Jog Control

« on: August 09, 2010, 10:37:19 AM »

When I restarted the software the keyboard worked again.  Odd.  

167

General Mach Discussion / Lost Keyboard Jog Control

« on: August 08, 2010, 08:48:54 PM »

I just upgraded to a Gecko G540 and bigger 48VDC steppers on my little machine.  I actually hand modified the setup to get it working, but then I found the XML file from Gecko Drive and installed that.  I had to adjust the kernel rate and steps per inch, but it worked perfectly... Until I tried a keyboard move by using the arrows or shift + arrows.  Somehow I lost the ability to jog control from the keyboard.  Jog control is green and jog still works from the jog control screen reached by hitting tab.  

I went to the hot keys list and everything showed as 999 so I selected each one and hit an arrow key.  It saved a scan code, but it still doesn't work.  Yes, the keyboard is still connected to the computer.  LOL.  

What am I missing.  

168

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Frankenstein Lives

« on: July 31, 2010, 08:38:07 PM »

I just converted my Taig from a single spindle machine to a dual flexshaft machine.  The Taig motor turns the Taig spindle to about 10,000 RPM.  The flex shaft tools I grabbed turn to about 15,000.  In aluminum they cut a heck of a lot better.  Also, getting that big heavy motor off of my Z-axis improved performance 3 fold.  I used to have to leave the Z-axis kinda sloppy on the ways, stay under 4 inchess off the table at all times, and turn the stepper down to 10 IPM.  With this improvement I am moving the z-axis at 30 IPM with no problems at all, and I was able to tighten up all the adjustments on it and eliminate all the slop.  

In addition to the picture here is a short video showing it running at 30IPM on all axis, ramping at 15 IPM and taking off .006 at 30 IPM and 50% stepover.  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfcaT1AB2gM

The second spindle is retracted while I cut a single workpiece, but if you look close I can raise or lower either spindle relative to the other one so I can zero to two seperate work pieces and cut them two at a time.  Yeah it looks kind of Frankenstein, but it works.  The adjsuter clamps are actually modified single spindle clamps that I made a couple days ago for another project.  When I saw how well it worked I decided to setup a dual clamp system and cut pieces two at a time.  

I will be getting a couple other handpieces soon that use collets instead of a chuck and increase the number of end mills I can use.  

169

General Mach Discussion / Re: Maxnc 5

« on: July 08, 2010, 06:37:42 PM »

Excellent.  I will try that as soon as I get it setup. 

170

General Mach Discussion / Re: Maxnc 5

« on: July 08, 2010, 03:52:45 PM »

Didn't know there was a MaxNC mode.  As soon as I get a chance I will check it out.  Where do I set that mode?  

P.S.  Does it support open loop machines?