Messages

241

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Re: Isolation Routing PCB's and Local System Rotate.

« on: November 24, 2012, 04:37:53 PM »

Well done, Tweakie.

What web cam did you use?  I will add one to my laser diode machine to locate the edges of material and establish center points for image burning.  No more pencil and scale 

Thanks much,
John Champlain
www.picengrave.com 

242

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Re: First Litho LED Frame

« on: November 19, 2012, 06:45:09 PM »

Extremely well done, Dave.  Very professional.

Regards,
John Champlain
www.picengrave.com

243

General Mach Discussion / Re: What would cause my limit switches to trip?

« on: November 18, 2012, 06:59:37 AM »

Dan,
Try placing a 0.1 ceramic cap between the limit switch input and ground connections.  This works very well to filter noise triggering the limits, and better than Mach's debounce setting in my opinion.

Regards,
John Champlain
www.picengrave.com

244

General Mach Discussion / Re: I'm unable to edit my G-codes from Mach3

« on: November 16, 2012, 02:42:28 PM »

Dan,
Are your gcode files somehow being marked "Read Only"?

Regards,
John Champlain
www.picengrave.com

245

General Mach Discussion / Re: The PC is stuck after running few thousands lines of Code

« on: November 13, 2012, 11:37:01 PM »

Post the line that is causing the freeze up.  Perhaps it's not coded properly.

John Champlain
www.picengrave.com

246

General Mach Discussion / Re: Winter MACH3 get together in FLORIDA ???

« on: November 08, 2012, 02:40:40 PM »

Terry,

I'm interested.  I am back and forth most weeks between Floral City and Bradenton.  What sort of event/program are you thinking about.

Regards,
John Champlain
www.picengrave.com 

247

General Mach Discussion / Re: Stepper Motor Cables - Shielded or Not?

« on: October 30, 2012, 12:06:16 PM »

Ian,
Capacitors are not needed on motor wiring (outputs).  They do help on controller inputs such as limit/home switches.  Place a 0.1 ceramic capacitor between each used input connection and a ground connection on your controller/breakout board.

Capacitors on inputs will not resolve a ground loop problem.  It is also possible to get noise into your system through the power mains connections.  An AC input filter device, and/or a UPS system may help if this is an issue.  AC filters are available from Jeff Birt at Soigeneris (www.soigeneris.com).

Regards,
John Champlain
www.picengrave.com

248

General Mach Discussion / Re: Stepper Motor Cables - Shielded or Not?

« on: October 30, 2012, 08:04:53 AM »

Ian,
I use unshielded and twisted wiring, with no problems.  I always use 0.1 ceramic caps on all inputs (switches, zero plates) to my controllers, and never have false triggering.

 Maybe I'm just a lucky exception .

Regards,
John Champlain
www.picengrave.com

249

General Mach Discussion / Re: New computer problem

« on: October 28, 2012, 08:57:23 AM »

German,
I have three of the Dell GX270s, and all perform rock-solid with three of my single-board controllers, but very rough with a Sound Logic breakout board and Gecko 201s.  I thought it was a problem with the 3.3 V output level of the Dell pport and the SL card.  I switched to a SmoothStepper to resolve the issue with the Geckos.  I'm still using two of the GX270s with HobbyCNC and Xylotex drivers.  What breakout board/controllers are you using?

Regards,
John Champlain
www.picengrave.com

250

General Mach Discussion / Re: Z Axis height limit.

« on: October 09, 2012, 06:24:25 AM »

Paul,
In Vectric Cud2d, this is set up on the right side pull out under Toolpath Operations > Setup Material and Rapid Gaps.  This is the first icon before the toolpath options icons.

Regards,
John Champlain
www.picengrave.com