Messages

221

General Mach Discussion / Re: Get a pierce but no axis move

« on: September 17, 2012, 12:08:53 AM »

This is a good reference....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G-code

You're using G28 to reference.  I've always used G31.  Never had much luck with G28.

222

General Mach Discussion / Re: Z raising in the middle of a cut.

« on: September 16, 2012, 11:49:10 PM »

Raising up in the middle of a cut is probably a tip voltage issue.  Are you using the voltage divider in the A40 or are you bringing raw tip voltage into the Texas Micro board?  Have you asked the people you bought the machine from?  They should off some sort of support.

223

General Mach Discussion / Re: Disable jog on only 1 axis.

« on: September 16, 2012, 11:35:20 PM »

Can't do that because it disables the axis for feedrate moves as well.  That was my first thought also.

We do some fixtured jobs where X zero and Z zero may need a slight adjustment prior to running the job, but Y zero should never be adjusted.  I'm trying to prevent the operator from accidentally jogging Y out of position, but I can't inhibit Y.

224

General Mach Discussion / Disable jog on only 1 axis.

« on: September 16, 2012, 06:31:49 PM »

Currently I have a button the turns jog on and off with a LED beside it.  What I'd like to do is have three buttons with LED's.  Each button would turn on/off jog for one axis.  Is that possible?

Another less attractive approach would be to set the jog hotkeys using VB code...If that's possible.  To turn job off, just set the hotkey to 0.

What do y'all think?

225

General Mach Discussion / Re: Get a pierce but no axis move

« on: September 16, 2012, 06:18:28 PM »

What are you using for a THC?  Did you build the machine.  If not, who did?  Who set up the post in BobCAD for your machine?

Post the first 25 lines or so of a program.  That will tell us how it's referencing.

The A series machines work very well.  We've been using them for 12 years and selling them for 4 years with no issues.

226

General Mach Discussion / Re: Get a pierce but no axis move

« on: September 16, 2012, 09:25:41 AM »

I rarely ever use a pierce delay, although .01 seconds wouldn't have any effect either way. Might as well be 0.  Make sure your pierce height is calibrated.  If you use a G31 or G28 to set pierce height, make sure when you set it at .25 it is actually .25.  

What plasma are you using and what thickness material are you cutting.

227

General Mach Discussion / Re: Get a pierce but no axis move

« on: September 16, 2012, 12:07:32 AM »

Three things can cause that.  This assumes you are running a THC with Arc OK signal into Mach3.

(1) Consumables need replacing.  A worn electrode will cause poor arc transfer and with THC mode on, mach3 won't move unless it has an arc OK signal.

(2)  You are trying to pierce too far from the plate.

(3) You have too much pierce delay dialed in.  With too much pierce delay, you can blow a hole before the machine moves large enough that you lose arc transfer.

228

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 ignoring safe Z

« on: September 04, 2012, 02:34:23 PM »

Do you have a rapid move to safe Z programmed in the code?  Something like "G00 Z1".  If I remove them from my code, it will do exactly as you describe.

229

General Mach Discussion / Re: Code execution and input signals question

« on: September 01, 2012, 07:09:54 PM »

Put your code in macros then from a macropump, look at the inputs and execute the macros accordingly.

230

General Mach Discussion / Re: Code execution and input signals question

« on: August 31, 2012, 08:17:12 AM »

Put each block of code behind it's own button and use the input to trigger the button.  You can put any code you want behind the buttons, including code to increment a count.  Put a DRO on the screen to display the count.  Doesn't sound like it would be too hard to just automate the whole thing using a single script.