Messages

481

General Mach Discussion / Re: Newbie here asking about why need REV on my mill

« on: January 21, 2019, 04:41:32 AM »

I also regularly use reverse on my manual mill when machine tapping (which I do all the time).  Also there is a Hemingway design for a spindle speed increaser using an epicyclic gearbox which reverses so you need to run the mill in reverse to get correct spindle direction.  If you're using a VFD it's a simple low voltage control option, why not do it?

482

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3turn tool table is making me crazy

« on: January 21, 2019, 04:37:01 AM »

How are you sensing the tool position?  I have a tool setter which is a bar with an accurately known diameter that is mounted in the lathe taper.  I have a touch sensor that detects when the tool touches this, controlled by a macro run from an "offsets" screen.  The macro can move the tool in both X and Z.  Tool 1 is in effect a master tool but can also be a real turning tool.  To use the macro, I just enter the tool number in a DRO, job the tool to within 2 mm of the X or Z position, and click on a button.  The macro moves the tool slowly until it touches, takes 3 touch measurements, calculates the offset, and writes it to the tool table.  IIRC one button for the X offset and one for the Z, as the start positions are slightly different.  You also have to enter the setter diameter, which you make negative for boring tools and put the tool behind the setter.  Happy to let you have a copy of the macros and screen (if I knew how to do that!).  Also I home the X axis at the start of every turning session to a known machine zero - that's why I can use tool 1 as a real tool.

483

General Mach Discussion / Re: Laser limit switch

« on: December 16, 2018, 04:48:58 AM »

Try looking for www.vinland.com/Opto-Interrupter.html for details of how to use opto-interrupters (a standard component) as limit switches and what repeatability can be achieved.

484

General Mach Discussion / Re: Help Needed : Newbie : Auto Tool Z Height issue

« on: December 16, 2018, 04:45:57 AM »

It depends on the script attached to the set height button.  The G31 probe command moves the tool at the current feed rate - usually the macro reads what that is set to, stores it away, sets the feed rate to a new low value such as 5mm/min, does the probing and referencing, then resets the feed rate to the previous value.  Try an "F5" command in the MDI before you set the tool height to check.  There are a load of tool height macros posted here.

485

General Mach Discussion / Re: Understanding Backlash Compensation

« on: December 16, 2018, 04:38:41 AM »

I can confirm Rich's words, BC does work at least for small backlash.  I haven't got it to work on a lathe without ballnut on the leadscrew where the backlash is much greater, but one gets used to only cutting in one direction on the lathe anyway.

486

General Mach Discussion / Re: UC 100

« on: December 06, 2018, 07:26:53 AM »

Excellent, thanks Craig!

487

General Mach Discussion / UC 100

« on: December 06, 2018, 06:58:06 AM »

Hello all, I'm sure that this question has been asked and answered but with the Search function b*****d there's no easy way to find it!!

So, I'm finally upgrading my workhorse office laptop and will have an old but functional Dell Latitude Win 7 machine spare as a result.  In the workshop the CNC machines are controlled by an even more venerable Dell WinXP desktop through the parallel port, and I'm wondering about moving the laptop to the workshop and replacing the XP machine, controlling the machines using a USB motion controller.  I aim to stick with Mach 3 because it works, I understand it reasonably well, and I've written some useful extra macros for tool setting.  I'm interested in people's experience to help with this decision.  Another option, though more expensive, would be an Ethernet controller.

1.  Will the UC100 work OK with a Win 7 laptop (obviously I'm no longer using a parallel port and would need the appropriate plugins)?

2.  Does the UC100 support the probing input properly?  That's very important for me for tool setting, for both mill and lathe.

3.  If I decide to ditch Mach 3 at some stage, has anyone experience of the UC100 with other CNC packages such as Mach 4?

Yes, I will ask the UC100 supplier the same questions but interested in customers' experience in the real world.

Thanks in advance for any help.

488

General Mach Discussion / Re: Probing speed

« on: November 15, 2018, 12:21:42 PM »

To clarify, I would like to know what speeds people expect to use with their current probing methods so I can set a performance objective for the new approach.

489

General Mach Discussion / Re: Probing speed

« on: November 15, 2018, 04:33:00 AM »

Thanks Craig, good to have measurement results on the response time.  For Mach3 my understanding is that the processor is in a very tight loop while probing, of course Mach3 displaces Windows and even MS-DOS and effectively runs bare-metal, so I guess the probe input may raise a hardware interrupt so response time could be pretty quick.  Your measurements suggest a way I could evaluate this.

490

General Mach Discussion / Re: Probing speed

« on: November 14, 2018, 04:27:49 PM »

Thanks Rich.  At the moment I probe at ~5 mm/min so considerably slower than you, hopefully we can increase that considerably.