Messages

41

General Mach Discussion / Re: FEED HOLD

« on: January 10, 2016, 12:39:15 PM »

I had to do the same as Tweakie:

FEED HOLD - STOP - CYCLE START to resume.

I've heard that feed hold retains the contents of the run buffer and stops motion in a controlled way, whereas STOP is just bang and doesn't care.

Last time I did FEED HOLD - CYCLE START Mach3 went nuts on me (something I live in constant fear of with Mach3).

Keith.

42

General Mach Discussion / Understanding Mach3 Plasma, ARC OK, halting motion

« on: January 10, 2016, 03:29:37 AM »

I've read somewhere that Mach3 Plasma requires the switching on and off of a plasma torch with:

DoSpinCW()

and

DoSpinStop()

It was said that if you turn on the plasma without these commands, such as:

ActivateSignal(OUTPUT1)

then the behaviour of the machine will be incorrect ?? (did not say in what way it will be incorrect).

I know that Mach3 plasma will release motion if the THC is not switched on, but when THC is switched on it will not release motion until it gets an ARC OK signal. So assuming THC is switched ON:

Does anyone know if the DoSpinCW() command is tied to Mach3 releasing motion ONLY when it gets the ARC OK signal.

Put another way, if ActivateSignal(OUTPUT1) was used instead, would Mach3 release motion immediately at the first XY move regardless of whether the ARC OK signal is present.

Or is that last sentence untrue, and Mach3 Plasma will not release motion until it gets ARC OK, regardless of what command fired the torch.

Cheers,

Keith

43

General Mach Discussion / Re: Long motion pause after M3 - Candcnc plasma system

« on: January 10, 2016, 12:08:07 AM »

I've found that thread I mentioned:

http://candcnc.com/supportforum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=311

Time to get rid of this system.

Keith

44

General Mach Discussion / Re: Long motion pause after M3 - Candcnc plasma system

« on: January 09, 2016, 11:35:22 PM »

Thanks Terry,

this is a quite fresh install since I went through all my spare PCs. I just set them all at 35000 for kernel speed. No G04 after the M03 Terry, just move to cut height and commence XY moves.

I'm starting to remember some years ago I mentioned this problem on the Candcnc forum and after a bit of push push I got a reply of something along the lines of there's a fault in the plugin !!!!!!! I'll have to try and find that one.

This is the interesting thing. I increased the THC DELAY to 5 seconds and the Fault Delay in the cut profiles to 5 seconds also, and what happened ??  The pause in motion increased to 5 seconds also !!!!!! That says to me there's something in the Candcnc plugin causing this.

I've had enough of this old Candcnc system and I want nothing more to do with it. The PN200 I bought always had those rogue steps as did many others. I'm going to move to a basic system with breakout boards and an external THC. I don't want any more of this old plugin stuff and proprietary electronics. The new Candcnc stuff might be better but I never seem to have had a trouble free run with this old MP3000.

Keith.

45

General Mach Discussion / Long motion pause after M3 - Candcnc plasma system

« on: January 09, 2016, 08:53:41 PM »

I have an MP3000 - DTHC system from Candcnc, based on Mach3 with a custom plugin.

M3 is used to fire the torch. The problem I am having is there is a pause of about 3 seconds after the torch fires before motion starts.

I recieve the ARC OK signal immediately (ARC OK led lights on the screen) after the torch fires.

The spindle delay settings are also at zero.

Anyone know where this pause could be coming from. I'm hoping it's not the Candcnc plugin that's the problem.

This isn't just causing a big hole at the pierce point, it's also causing the system to shut down due to overvoltage. The Candcnc plugin has a tick box "SHUT DOWN ON FAULT" yet despite that NOT being ticked the system still shuts down on volts out of range.

Keith.

46

General Mach Discussion / Re: Kernel speed change

« on: January 01, 2016, 03:56:29 PM »

My experience has been the power of the PC is very often NOT related to the stability of Mach3. I've found the model of PC (motherboard) is more the determining factor.

The 500 series of Dells are known to be a death sentence for Mach3. I've heard the GX620 is great as are some of the 700 series. Overall, I seem to have had good success with a lot of Intel motherboards, and have got quite a few flat line driver tests at 100,000 kernel speed.

I always install XP in "standard PC mode", go through the XP optimisation, and disable ANY service I think is not needed in XP to run Mach3.

I once turned down a job because I got spooked by Mach3 (oh that's unusual). In the middle of a cut everything just stopped, no error messages, nothing. And it wasn not a command in the gcode either. All I can put it down to is something interrupted Mach3 and then Mach3 just downed tools. It's reasons like this I go overboard when installing XP and finding PCs that seem to "get on well" with Mach3.

Keith

47

General Mach Discussion / Re: Kernel speed change

« on: December 31, 2015, 04:29:14 PM »

Dave,

this is what I heard about kernel speed. I always thought faster was better then I got told use the minimum kernel speed that is fast enough to run your motors.

I used to have mine set at least 45,000 then reduced it to 25,000. Sometimes it was OK but other times, Mach3 would give me a message saying my kernel  speed is too low, so I settled on 35,000

A faster kernel speed is supposed to put extra load on the computer whether the motors are running or not, so the theory was the lower your kernel speed the better the system stability.

As far as I am aware, changing the kernel speed does not affect anything, it simply allows faster tighter timing (if it's needed). Maybe someone with more knowledge than me can add to this.

Keith.

48

General Mach Discussion / Re: Motor tuning 166 Oz steppers motors

« on: December 30, 2015, 05:31:47 PM »

Kenny,

have you also checked your gibs to see how much resistance there is to the sliding motion. Can you disconnect the leadscrew nut and slide them by hand to ensure they are not binding.

Keith

49

General Mach Discussion / Re: More inputs and outputs needed in Mach3

« on: December 25, 2015, 05:15:03 PM »

It is funny that some OEMs constantly have Com problems with USB and some NEVER have com problems with USB (;-) 

(;-) TP

I think the USB Smoothstepper has created this impression that USB is automatically prone to problems with noise, etc, and ethernet is the fix. However I've came across a few threads in the past where people have had plasma machines (and other types) using USB motion controller cards and they've never had any such issues, and everything has been rock steady.

So it seems the individual designs of the USB determine whether it functions perfectly or not, and USB itself is not the root of the problem.

Keith.

50

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach 3 vs Mach 4

« on: December 21, 2015, 04:00:15 AM »

The only computer I have that is NOT XP is my laptop (Win7).

Everything else is XP:

Kids computer
All my cnc computers (using parallel ports both integrated and PCI)
Office computer
Workshop computer

I've noticed these updates periodically popping up when they're not supposed to be happening anymore LOL

Keith