Messages

3581

FAQs / Re: Altium 9 to Mach3

« on: November 13, 2012, 06:46:21 PM »

SheetCam is a VERY useful product in MANY ways and LES (Author) is VERY VERY helpful. 

(;-) TP

3582

VB and the development of wizards / Re: SystemWaitFor(INDEX) ...will it work?

« on: November 13, 2012, 06:00:53 PM »

YOU would USE the Dir PIN to switch the relay it is 5v or 3v. When the Refhome is called the axis is sent in a specific direction to the home switch. SO it has to set the DIR pin one way or the other.  Once it trips then the DIR pin reverses.

I am working on a CB version as well and may even try a brain version   HOPEFULLY somewhere we find the secret handshake to make it work for you.

Question for tomorrow WHat drives your spindle drive  PWM, +10v,step dir,

There is always tomorrow, (;-) TP

3583

VB and the development of wizards / Re: SystemWaitFor(INDEX) ...will it work?

« on: November 13, 2012, 05:33:30 PM »

well at a perfect 10 hz that is .1 sec detection time. I think it best to IF isactive then SetUserLed(on) so once it gets seen and it sets the led on you no longer rely on the sensor to drive the function. It only has to be seen one time out of many.



After that I would add a safety line that IF the index is not seen in say 2 sec then assume the spindle has stopped and good  to go.

Just remember somewhere along the line as the TC function ends to turn OFF the LED(;-)

3584

General Mach Discussion / Re: How to set table size and limit home switches

« on: November 13, 2012, 05:05:08 PM »

COnfig, homing/limits.


(;-) TP

3585

VB and the development of wizards / Re: SystemWaitFor(INDEX) ...will it work?

« on: November 13, 2012, 04:46:01 PM »

SO thinking about this you need to get to the driver level operations to control the stopping of the spindle. The driver ops operate at kernal freq and are very fast to react.

SO if you use a phantom axis say C and set up the home with your output from the sensor.

WHen you need to TC stop spindle

Refhome C it rotates until it sees the trip then stops. You will have to adjust the trip position so it stops where you want.


 Use the DIR pins to run a relay(DPDT) to turn ON the motor to home then as the sensor trips it reverses the dir pin (turns off ) the motor and resets the HOME switch so that C axis Rehome is completed and it clears the function.  Feed the relay(motorside) through a resistor to set the voltage level for the spindle to get 50 rpm or so. The slower you can run the better and more accurate the stop point.  I would also set the stop side ramp to be more agressive. TO help stop the spindle.



That would be one way to garranty that the sensor is seen and the operation be an auto function.

Just a thought, (;-) TP

3586

VB and the development of wizards / Re: SystemWaitFor(INDEX) ...will it work?

« on: November 13, 2012, 03:08:52 PM »

With you line of thinking there are several things working against you .

1 CB is incredibly slow reacting to inputs it can ONLY read the line 10 times per sec in a perfect world. Could be that Mach3 never sees the input before the event is over. Depends on the dwell of the event at 60rpm(;-).

2 you are assuming that mach3 KNOWs when the spindle has stopped and can proceeed. ARE you looking for rpms of the spindle to determine that?

Has the light come on yet?

(;-) TP

3587

General Mach Discussion / Re: Exporting tool offset tables?

« on: November 13, 2012, 12:16:26 PM »

This CB code is from " HENRIK "over at the machYahoo site. It should do as you need. The is also another version in the MACH Tool Box on this site.



Option Explicit
Dim Response As Integer
Dim Path As String
Dim ToolNumber As Integer
Dim ToolDiameter As Double
Dim ToolLength As Double
Dim ToolDescription As String
Dim i As Integer
Path = GetMainFolder & "myTools.txt"
Open Path For Output As #1
Print #1, "Mach3 Tooltable printout" & Date() & " " & Time(Now)
Print #1, ""
Print #1, "Tool:" & Chr(9) & "Diam:" & Chr(9) & "Length:" & Chr(9) & "Description:"
For ToolNumber = 1 To 250
ToolDiameter = GetToolParam(ToolNumber, 1)
ToolLength = GetToolParam(ToolNumber, 2)
ToolDescription = GetToolDesc(ToolNumber)
Print #1, ToolNumber & Chr(9) & ToolDiameter & Chr(9) & ToolLength & Chr(9) & ToolDescription
Next
Response = MsgBox("Your file is at the following location: " & Path, 0)
Close #1
END

3588

VB and the development of wizards / Re: SystemWaitFor(INDEX) ...will it work?

« on: November 13, 2012, 11:54:14 AM »

It appears that the OLD machine ramped the spindle down to a stop. The Drive has a setting for ramp up/down values. Have you tried adjusting the stop side to ramp down faster.

Modern machine bring the spindle to dead stop THEN creep the spindle over to the index point and CAN provide an offset to align the dawgs. 

IF you ramp the spindle to a stop  what is the slowest you can reliably move(creep) the spindle from a dead stop? 

(;-) TP

3589

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: The Laser Project.

« on: November 13, 2012, 11:14:34 AM »

HEY Tweaks, Can you track and shoot down ICBM's yet ?

You are having WAY too much fun.

(;-)TP

3590

General Mach Discussion / Re: The PC is stuck after running few thousands lines of Code

« on: November 13, 2012, 10:59:14 AM »

May want to have someone check the XML ? (;-)

Just a thought, (;-) TP