Messages

51

General Mach Discussion / Re: Ethernet Smooth Stepper Problems - Stops at the same place EVERY time

« on: May 19, 2015, 01:10:55 PM »

One silly point that I have to ask "your not running the demo of Mach which has a limit of 500 lines?

52

General Mach Discussion / Re: pulley ratio ,feedrate and motor tuning

« on: April 06, 2015, 01:07:38 PM »

Hi Fred, try both however my steps were lost on the acceleration time to get to the G00 rapid feed rate. its something that make little difference to me as I'm not doing production work so time doesn't matter. The motor tries to get to max feed rate instantly so looses step, use the slider in the motor set up to give it more time. We are only talking milli-seconds each time you make a move.
I was asking the machine slides hence the motors  to move quicker than the motors could cope with. Does you manual give a maximum rapid (G00) as MACH will let you put in whatever you like so it could be over the machines recommended limit.
Hope this helps.
Jim

53

General Mach Discussion / Re: pulley ratio ,feedrate and motor tuning

« on: April 04, 2015, 03:45:19 AM »

Hi Fred I had a similar problem a couple of years ago and not being an electronic man I reverted to my old mechanical fitting skills. This was on a CNC mill but the same principal applies.
Replace the tool with a dial indicator, write a program with a several repeatable square loop set of moves and include a rapid move.
Reference a tool with a zero on the dial indicator against a fixed point (the component or any fixed point on the machine) run the program and note the dial indicator reference against the fixed point every time the cycle touches that point. if the figure is the same you are not loosing any steps. If they are not then run the program again with a slower feed rate, keep repeating until the set reference point maintains its zero.
I found I was running my rapid travers to fast so loosing steps, slowed down the rapid and problem solved.
Just for reference one of my slide oil pipes was blocked which made the X axis tight, another way of loosing steps.
I know this is a mechanical engineer method of checking but at least it should rule out missed steps, then its over to the rest of the forum to make suggestions.
Also the load on the tool when cutting could force the program to loose steps, but mainly its the rapid traverse that causes lost steps
Hope this helps
Good luck
Jim

54

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach 3 Freezes in middle on program. How to diagnose?

« on: February 27, 2015, 02:32:38 AM »

Ok. I had a problem a couple of years ago with the machine stopping and the forum sorted it out for me, it was a faulty strip light flashing giving electrical noise confusing the machine. He firstly suggested increasing the de-bounce figure in the config, general config (top right hand corner) to about 200 and un-ticked the watchdog option just below.
However in the end I replace the strip light above the machine and solved the problem.
Hope this helps
Jim

55

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach 3 Freezes in middle on program. How to diagnose?

« on: February 26, 2015, 04:35:19 PM »

Are you running the free demo of Mach, if you are it will only do 500 lines then stop.

56

General Mach Discussion / Re: Three Questions from a Newbie - please help!!

« on: February 22, 2015, 02:34:15 AM »

Firstly moving off stops by jogging activate the icon on the Settings page, enable Auto Limit Override
Second problem could be numerous things, however remember stopping a program half way through means Mach software will remember your program setting unless you have cancelled them so incremental steps could still be active along with several other commands sending the cutter off in unexplained directions.
Finally did you assign hot keys as replacing the battery on your keyboard might have reset the keyboard default, sometimes electronic noise from your machine will interfere with wireless signals. best to use wired keyboard till you are familiar with your system. Hope this helps. Jim

57

General Mach Discussion / Re: I can´t get the table coord´s and "steps per unit" to work...not even close!

« on: February 19, 2015, 02:09:43 AM »

Hi Martin being as you are new to Mach it sounds as if you machine is set to read imperial and you are assuming its metric, so 25.4mm is being read as 25.4inch. have a look at the first line of the program for the G20 and G21 code for the program units and the default setting of the machine!
As far as setting the steps per unit, I used the setting page of Mach and the set steps button just above the reset toggle on the bottom left of the page and used a digital vernier clamped to the table to set the steps per unit and push the sliding anvil with a metal bar in the spindle collet. Be careful if you use a Vernier to set your units as I ruined one by going in the wrong direction first time, luckily it was a £10 cheapo of ebay.
Hope this helps.

58

General Mach Discussion / Re: spindle problem

« on: February 11, 2015, 02:26:51 PM »

Hi Hood, re routed the control wires and shielded them as you suggested. Solved the problem but thinking I will move to smooth stepper control, which is best USB or Earthnet?
Jim

59

General Mach Discussion / Re: spindle problem

« on: February 07, 2015, 10:39:11 AM »

Thanks for the thought geh7552, I have misled you Denford Triac is the machine not the electronic part. I only know this because when looking for parts for my machine I once typed in Triac in ebay and got loads of electronic components. Thank for the thought mate.
Does anyone know where to get a 25 pin to 25 pin optical isolator from, or is it a new optical BOB from diycnc. Jim

60

General Mach Discussion / Re: spindle problem

« on: February 07, 2015, 03:50:31 AM »

Hi Hood, I think so but will check later today, when you say isolated do you mean not in contact with any metal parts connected to the mill or earthed? Sorry mate not very clear on electrical terms. I have noticed the 0v and 10v control wires are close to a doughnut transformer and was wondering if this was the problem as when I turn on the machine the spindle has a surge up to 1000 revs for a split second. The spindle then behaves itself for 10min then starts to slowly rotate at say 100 revs for the rest of the day.

Jim