Messages

101

General Mach Discussion / Re: How do you Connect the Metal Braiding of a Cable?

« on: November 29, 2013, 11:06:06 AM »

Solder a short piece of stranded wire to the copper braid only.  The foil can be trimmed out of the way.
John Champlain

102

General Mach Discussion / Re: I Need one more pin in Mach3 for zero touch plate - how?

« on: November 25, 2013, 05:23:22 PM »

Many of Mach3 users use only 1 pin for home and limits, leaving the other pins free for other inputs.  You also have the option of adding a 2nd parallel port.
John Champlain

103

General Mach Discussion / Re: I Need one more pin in Mach3 for zero touch plate - how?

« on: November 25, 2013, 05:13:17 PM »

Input pins on Port 1 are: 10, 11, 12, 13, and 15.  Any of these that are unused will work for a touch plate input.   The pins used for X,Y,Z, and A are all outputs.

John Champlain 

104

General Mach Discussion / Re: Feedrate overide for each axis independently

« on: November 21, 2013, 05:40:08 PM »

Put X, Y, and Z gcodes all on separate lines, and you can set each for a different feed rate.  Code may (will) run "choppy" if you do, however.
John Champlain

105

General Mach Discussion / Re: Controlling 4W IR TTL laser

« on: November 21, 2013, 12:54:51 PM »

Jay,
Here's a couple of items that make it easy to split out pins.  Found on eBay.  I have a setup for my experimentations.
John

106

General Mach Discussion / Re: Controlling 4W IR TTL laser

« on: November 20, 2013, 08:00:38 PM »

Jay,
If you connect your TTL laser driver input to your Z axis DIRECTION pin, you can trigger the laser on with a Z-0.x (negative direction) move in your gcode, and turn the laser off with a Z0.x (positive direction) move.  This may be the simplest setup to get you going.  You could also use the 4th axis if the G540 has one free (I don't use the G540, so not sure).  In this case you would set up the 4th axis as a 'C' axis, and use its direction pin instead of the Z axis direction pin.  This would leave your Z axis available for raising and lowering the laser to adjust focus.  This will work with the UC100 as I am using one in a similar setup with a laser diode.

John Champlain

107

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: The Laser Project.

« on: November 18, 2013, 08:09:22 AM »

Thanks Tweakie.  Very informative and understandable (even to me  ).
John Champlain

108

General Mach Discussion / Re: Drill Mill Hole Primer- Suggestions?

« on: November 16, 2013, 10:33:59 PM »

Joe,
That doesn't sound like a Mach3 problem, more likely Ace Converter.  I've drilled lots of holes with Mach3, and all were as they were supposed to be.  It's been a long time since I used Ace converter, but I don't remember it having a drill function.  So it is probably treating holes in your DXF drawing as circles to be milled on the line, making your 1/8" holes 1/4" diameter.  Yes?  Give the hole wizard in Mach3 a try.
John Champlain

109

General Mach Discussion / Re: Drill Mill Hole Primer- Suggestions?

« on: November 16, 2013, 08:23:45 PM »

I suppose it matters as to what you are using for a bit.  Drill bits are shaped as they are for a specific reason - they work.  Few, if any, router bits (end mills?) are suitable for deep drilling of holes.
John Champlain

110

General Mach Discussion / Re: Drill Mill Hole Primer- Suggestions?

« on: November 16, 2013, 04:51:58 PM »

Adding to Terry's advice, you might look at using one of the hole wizards supplied with Mach3.
John Champlain