Topics

1

General Mach Discussion / Pocketing Problem

« on: March 24, 2010, 12:30:40 AM »

I am very new to Mach and have encountered a problem that is probably an easy fix for someone with experience. When I am doing rectangular pocketing the end mill will take a circular detour in two places that extend outside of the rectangle that I am pocketing. This occurs at two adjacent corners. I am designing in Dolphin CADCAM and posting the g code to Mach. What am I doing wrong?I'm sure there must be a simple answer, but I have failed to uncover it in my searches of the forum. The animation looks fine in Dolphin, but the "extra" circles show up in the Mach toolpath. Please help. thanks...

2

General Mach Discussion / HELP...One more driver installation problem

« on: December 30, 2009, 01:13:05 AM »

   I am having one heck of a time getting a computer to work with Mach 3.

First let me give you a little history. I am using Mach3 to control a Gecko G540 mill. I had a couple of CPU's sitting around doing nothing, so I decided to use them. Both are P4 processors @ 3gigs+. Unfortunately, neither has a parallel port on the motherboard. So...I bought my first PCI parallel port card... then my second... finally my third. I installed each card on each PC along with Mach3. Everytime, I was able to get excellent driver test results. The problem was that I never was able to get any output signals thru the parallel ports to the G540. I have addressed the ports properly according to the device manager and was always able to get the estop to function. However, when I tried to configure the charge pump, spindle and coolant outputs, I never could get them to work. A common problem seems to be that these cards cannot function in the EPP mode which is necessary for the G540 to work.

Anyhow, after many hours of frustration, I decided to try another CPU with an on board parallel port. Installed Mach3, configured the port to EPP in the BIOS, then got the dreaded "No Driver sensed installed. Run Driver Test" Tried to uninstall the parallel port driver and install both the original and special drivers, but still continue to get the message. Have uninstalled and reinstalled Mach3 several times with no luck. I am coming to my wits end. Does anyone have a suggestion on more things to try to get any one of these setups to work? I am thinking that installing the driver will be the simpleist, but am open to any and all suggestions. Thanks in advance