Messages

51

General Mach Discussion / Re: quilting or embroidery machine

« on: July 04, 2010, 12:19:05 PM »

Tweakie,

Hey no prob.  No foul.   Don't let it worry you.  I take no offense over anything such as that.  I guess our main mission is to help Mehmet get his rig running, eh?

Larry

52

General Mach Discussion / Re: quilting or embroidery machine

« on: July 04, 2010, 12:15:27 PM »

Mehmet,

Ok, tell me why you can't usethe quilting machine with the full meaning of Mach3.  That is a little bit unclear.  I have built an automated quilter, and so I understand the principles necessary to make it work.

Larry

53

General Mach Discussion / Re: quilting or embroidery machine

« on: July 04, 2010, 07:58:16 AM »

Yep, 1-0 your point!

Thanks,

Larry

54

General Mach Discussion / Re: quilting or embroidery machine

« on: July 04, 2010, 07:15:47 AM »

Tweakie,

You are so right.  There needs to be a safety mechanism in place to prevent the system from starting up when the thread is repaired and the switch reset.  I was thinking that maybe using a "resume from here" feature with a button would help that issue.

Oh, by the way, I have a question of my own.  In the toolpath window at the upper left corner it says "tool-0".  Is there any way to remove that.  I don't need it in my window for the CNC Quilter since there are no tools involved.

Larry

55

General Mach Discussion / Re: quilting or embroidery machine

« on: July 04, 2010, 05:37:14 AM »

Mehmet,

I think I understand what you are asking.  You would like to know if there is a way to set up a switch to detect the breakage of the thread.  Yes, that is possible.  I would recommend using an optical switch that can be held back by the thread, and when the thread breaks the switch will close and stop the machine.  This would be swimilar to an estop switch, and as a matter of fact would be connected to one of the estop connectors on the board.

Good luck with your project.

Larry

56

Screen designer tips and tutorials / Re: Reset Scale DRO to "1" Button

« on: June 16, 2010, 05:51:46 AM »

Gerry,

I see I am not alone in the use of the DRO resets.  I have my CNC Quilter finished now and I'm in the pattern adaptation mode now and setting up the screens for a dedicated quilter interface using MACH3 as the basis.  Your information about the setOEMDRO() led me delve deeply into the designing of patterns for the quilter, and I learned that by using the second line (DEFAULT POST), one can display the information about setup inside the file and display it in the STATUS bar in Mach3.  This allows me to track which files have been adjusted, what the adjusted values are and what settings should be checked before operation.  When I get finished with the screens I'll post it on the forum for everyone to use.

Larry

57

Mach3 and G-Rex / Re: Setting scale to a permanent setting

« on: May 23, 2010, 04:51:00 AM »

Russ, Ger,

Russ, in answer to your inquiry about the type of axis drives that I am using.  This is a very straight forward belt drive that has two motors.  The x-axis is approximately 12 feet long and is a 1/4 inch open ended timing belt with 22 teeth per inch the pully is 9 mm in diameter with a 14mm shoulder and an external locking hub.  The y-axis is the same except for length.  It is 24 inches in length. The axis pulls the carriage for the sewing machine in accordance with the instructions in the gcode file.  The problem that I was having with the scale was very simple, every time I tried to run the system on a file of a given length, i.e. 1 inch, the pattern would sew 13 inches, so basically a 13:1 increase.  The cure was simple, scale it to a setting that would equal 1:1.  The quilter uses basically the same technology as a milling machine, except it doesn't cut a billit or block of wood, it simply pulls the carriage with the sewing machine on it.  The sewing machine is the real work horse.  It has a stitch length control attached at the pedal port which keeps the length of the stitch constant no matter what the speed is.  Now, here is where the problems start.  Most of the patterns that I have were downloaded from a commercial site, they are made, for the most part, for long arm quilting machines, these machines have a working area of anywhere from 8 inches high and 16 inches long to over 24 inches long.  My machine has a working area of approximately 6 x 9 inches, hence, pattern adjustment is necessary to keep the machine from trying to go outside the working area.  Take a look at the photos that I uploaded, and you can see what I mean.  There are no compound pulley systems on the machine.  Each pulley does one thing, it pulls along it's own axis, kind of like a cog-wheel train on a gear track.

Ger,

You mention that all I am doing is adjusting the steps per unit.  Well, I only needed to do just that, but on a permanent basis.  I wanted mach3 to present me with the proper scale that would give me one inch of travel when I told it to.  The macro that Russ gave me works perfectly, the settings are now present when I turn on the system and it works great.

58

Mach3 and G-Rex / Re: Setting scale to a permanent setting

« on: May 20, 2010, 09:20:27 AM »

Russ,

I'll have to get back to you later this evening.  I am at work right now and don't have my notebook in front of me.

59

Mach3 and G-Rex / Re: Setting scale to a permanent setting

« on: May 20, 2010, 02:49:08 AM »

Can't you just change the steps/unit?

Gerry,

While it is possible to set the steps/unit for the quilter, this doesn't take into account the size of the pulley on the motor.  Basically, what I am trying to do is compensate for that issue.  By setting the scale to 0.0478, it calibrates the system so that the output movement is exactly one inch.  My problem is that I am in Germany, and I have difficulty procuring the parts necessary to do the job correctly.  I am forced to use a work around by re-calibrating the system mathmatically.

Like Overloaded said, it is to be permanent.

Regards,

Larry

60

Mach3 and G-Rex / Setting scale to a permanent setting

« on: May 19, 2010, 12:27:09 PM »

Hi all,

Is it possible to set the scale in Mach3 to a permanent setting?  I have found that my CNC quilter using Mach3 is calibrated to 1inch=0.0478 on the DROs.  By manually setting the scale to 0.0478, my files reproduce to exactly 1 inch scale.  Can I make this permanent?

Regards,

Larry