Messages

31

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 for embroidery machine

« on: October 27, 2010, 05:10:28 AM »

Hi Tweakie

I have an off the wall question for you.  Here goes, I am in the process of automating the upper takeup roller of my CNC Quilter, and I am running into a programming issue.  I have constructed a moving plate to carry the upper roller and roll it up as it travels forward, and unroll it when it reverses.  That all works fine.  The question is regarding synchronizing the movement of the upper roller with the movement of the Y-axis along the same longitudinal axis.  This motion only needs to move about two inches when the center of the throat of the sewing machine is not in place over the takeup roller, but when the throat moves either forward or reverse over the roller, the direction of the movement of the takeup roller must be the same as the carriage with the Y-axis.  I hope that makes sense.  I have placed a drawing of the roller and the sewing machine carriage as an attachment.  You will see that the roller is centered in the throat of the sewing machine.  As the sewing machine moves forward, the takeup roller needs to move to stay centered in the throat, same with the reverse movement.

Any thoughts?

Larry

32

General Mach Discussion / Re: Is this possible?

« on: October 18, 2010, 12:09:57 PM »

Hi Tweakie,

I am thinking about using an external switch, a magnetic sensor switch, to control a takeup roller on my CNC Quilter with a value assigned to it to trigger the hotkey combination that would activate the roller motor.

Larry 

33

General Mach Discussion / Re: Is this possible?

« on: October 18, 2010, 11:41:04 AM »

Hey Tweakie,

Got a question for you!  Is it possible to assign a hotkey value to an external switch?

Larry

34

Feature Requests / Re: Parametric Programming

« on: September 28, 2010, 04:32:10 AM »

Hi guys,

I am new to this particular forum, being the developer of the CNC Quilting Machine.  I am looking for some code that will assist me in determining the number of repetitions that I can sew into a given area.  Given, only two axis are used, x=length and y=width.  where y will be constant at approx. 6-8 inches, x can be as short as 10 inches or as long as 70 inches.  What I would like to do is be able to input the size of the pattern, i.e., 8"x7" and return the number of repititions that will fit in the x length.  Simple division, but I am not a whiz with math.  Help!!!!

Larry

35

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: G code

« on: September 23, 2010, 01:48:36 PM »

Graham,

Dude you nailed it.  I had to put it in the subfolder called cnc_quilter, then it started working perfectly, you are truly the man.  Go have pint on me!

Larry

36

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: G code

« on: September 23, 2010, 01:35:13 PM »

Graham,

Well, I guess I'm the one having a bad day.  There must be something that I am doing wrong.  I put the M at the #3 place, and I have a DRO on the screen with the 1001 in the OEM Code function window. 

Larry

37

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: G code

« on: September 23, 2010, 01:10:26 PM »

Ok thanks Graham, just recall that King Henry had a worse day!

Larry

38

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: G code

« on: September 23, 2010, 12:31:55 PM »

Graham,

Using your example of the Datum shift macro that your provided, please place the M1001 in the proper place, here is the code for the Datum Shift macro:

%
O0001 (MAIN PROGRAM)

#1=0      (COUNTER MUST BE ZERO )
#2=50.0 (PITCH OF PATTERN)
#3=3      (NUMBER OF REPEATS) ( I tried inserting the M1001 here but no joy)

G21 G40
T1 M6

G52 X0 Y0
G00 G90 X0 Y0
M98 P0002 L[#3] (ENTER L TIMES)
G00 Z25.
M30

O0002(SUB 1)
G52 X[#1*#2]
(stitch code goes below this line)

G01 X50. F100. (STITCH 50MM)

(lines below this one must NOT be removed)
G52 X0
#1=[#1+1]
M99
%

Larry

39

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: New people welcome !! Come in here and introduce your self!

« on: September 17, 2010, 05:48:28 AM »

Hi all,

My name is Larry Lamb, AKA LarryL. I am a bit of a noob, I am a government employee of the US Army, and I am a bit of a dabbler in all things mechanical and electronic, especially computer related.  I have nearly 15 years experience in computer building, maintenance, repairing, and network admin as well as electronics.  My main interest is in the computerization of my wife's quilting machine.  I have designed and built a cnc operated, computer controlled quilting machine.  My wife has turned out about a dozen quilts using the CNC Quilter, as I call it, and she is absolutely facinated by the ability of the system.  I have to give credit where credit is due, without the folks at Mach3, the CNCZone, and Rockcliff machine Co., as well Graham Waterworth here at the Artsoft forum, I would not be nearly as successful as I have been at this.  I am totally dedicated now to the programming of the Mach3 screen that I have developed for the system, and the development of an add on system that will automatically roll the take up roller to give more sewing/quilting space, up to about 16 inches instead of the 9 inches of the throat of the sewing machine.

Larry

40

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: G code

« on: September 15, 2010, 03:15:00 PM »

Hi Graham,

I am still playing around with the repeat patterns routine that you so graciously provided, and, I must say, it is working perfectly.  My wife and I have completed 4 quilts using your code with no problems.

Now, to the meat and potatoes, is it possible to input the number of repeats into a dro that can pass the number to the Gcode as a variable?

Say for instance, I have a dro that is blank on the MachMill screen, and when I input a number into it it would pass the number to the #3 variable for execution?


Does that make sense?


Larry