Messages

531

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach 3 lathe home input

« on: March 04, 2018, 08:49:09 AM »

Thanks Rich!

532

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach 3 lathe home input

« on: March 03, 2018, 07:24:44 AM »

Rich, just looking at the macro, please could you confirm that in Turn, the X and Z values after probing are retrieved by X=GetVar(2000) and Z=GetVar(2002) as they are in Mill?

Thanks, John.

533

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach 3 lathe home input

« on: March 02, 2018, 03:08:09 PM »

Well, have spent the last few days working on my probing method and building an interface to the lathe controller.  All the hardware now working, and using G31 commands via the MDI I can set the tool moving towards a workpiece in the chuck and stopping when it touches.  Next step is to write some button macros to trigger the process from a screen.

534

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach 3 lathe home input

« on: February 26, 2018, 04:50:54 AM »

Thanks Rich, that's got me thinking.  My wish list is...

• Reference a tool to a tool setter (basically a machined blank concentric with the lathe axis) to populate the tool table
• Be able to set any calibrated tool to a known diameter without having to reference it every time

[lj]Locate the Z end of a piece of stock held in the chuck before turning it[/lj]
[lj]Occasionally I suppose, probe a profile of a part in the chuck (e.g. a taper)[/lj]
[/list]

I already have an x-axis home switch but that only does part of the job.

PS - God this BB software is awful!  Why can't it do a bulleted list properly?  I've given up trying so excuse the [lj]s in the list above.

535

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach 3 lathe home input

« on: February 24, 2018, 06:53:20 AM »

Aha!  Thanks Rich, a useful direction.  So does the G31 command work in Turn?  I thought I'd seen somewhere that it didn't.  Can one invoke it using a Code statement in a macro as I do in my Mill probing macros?  Is there any chance you could post some example code to get me started please?

John.

536

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach 3 lathe home input

« on: February 23, 2018, 04:20:16 PM »

Hello Craig - thanks for that.  To be honest I'm not sure what lathe homing does under the hood...AFAIK probing is not supported in M3 Turn.

537

General Mach Discussion / Mach 3 lathe home input

« on: February 23, 2018, 12:58:41 PM »

Wonder if anyone can help please. I'm developing a touch-off system to detect when a tool touches a tool setter and trigger a home input.  Inherent to the system, when it touches it generates a pulse train, where the first rising edge occurs just after touch has occurred.  My question is, does Mach use just the first edge and then ignore subsequent ones, or do I need to use a retriggerable monostable to generate a persistent logic level?

538

General Mach Discussion / Re: Controlling a chip blower

« on: February 07, 2017, 04:00:21 PM »

Thanks Dave, it's beginning to look that way.  There are some cheaper options on ebay too, basically PCBs with a few components, need a bit of protection but only a few quid.  I may use it as an excuse to get an Arduino...

539

General Mach Discussion / Re: Controlling a chip blower

« on: February 07, 2017, 10:51:33 AM »

Can no one help?

540

General Mach Discussion / Controlling a chip blower

« on: February 03, 2017, 08:21:18 AM »

Hi all, having recently spent 8 hours machine minding while my Novamill did some deep engraving in brass, where my only function was to blow the chips away every minute of so, I have finally (a) arranged a guard window on the front of the machine to stop chips flying all over the workshop; and (b) arranged a little jet to blow air at the cutter to clear the chips.  The air is fed from an airbrush compressor, and should do the job fine but I'd like to arrange it so that the air comes on for a few seconds every so often rather than blowing continuously.  I have a small reservoir on the compressor (about a litre) which can be taken up to 40 psi, and if I can arrange for periodic blowing rather than continuous then I hope the compressor will nly have to come on occasionallly rather than say on all the time, generally reducing noise in the workshop and saving the compressor getting too warm.  So to my question...

I have an unused relay on the BoB which I can use to control a solenoid air valve, and one of those is on its way via ebay - is there a way I can control the valve from Mach to come on say every 30 seconds for 3 seconds?  I can see that I can use an M command to turn coolant on or off, but not make it intermittent.  Help and advice much appreciated, thanks!

John.