Messages

5001

General Mach Discussion / Re: Configuring Mach 3 on new PC

« on: October 12, 2011, 10:04:11 PM »

NOPE just print the manual a few pages at a time . EVERY day print a few more. That will fool you  into thinking you saved ink
(;-) and SPREAD OUT the reading time to make it last.

Ya got it bad, (;-) TP

5002

General Mach Discussion / Re: Another 2nd parallel port question

« on: October 12, 2011, 03:59:13 PM »

Jackel you need to speak with the manf of the 126 board, in expanded mode(mux) it has some VERY special features. That may interfere with your pendant useage of the port you installed.

Mach3 can ONLY use 2 lpt port addresses. IF the 126 somehow uses UP those adresses then you may have NONE left to work with for the pendant.

CAll them and explain the problem they are great to work with.

Just a thought(;-) TP

5003

General Mach Discussion / Re: gecko540 problem under mach3

« on: October 12, 2011, 03:44:52 PM »

OK , IF the machine will repeat itself exactly each test I can NOT see where it is a PC or drive problem or noise problem.

IF all the data is correct AND it shows a progressive error with distance travelled  that ONLY leaves one area that can be wrong.

Ray had the idea early on with the distance testing.

(;-) TP

5004

General Mach Discussion / Re: z not raising enough after cutting

« on: October 12, 2011, 01:04:58 PM »

Depends on HOW you specified the safez to be in Mach3. Work height, Machine value or incremental move

But from here looking at your moves the safe Z is LOWER than the cut height.

Just a thought, (;-) TP

5005

General Mach Discussion / Re: gecko540 problem under mach3

« on: October 12, 2011, 12:56:55 PM »

OK have you double checked the Pulse wideth and Polarity settings, the G540 HAS a spec on that as well.

NOW back to the real question. IF you repeat the test move 10  times in a row will it repeat itself EACH time without error ( move the same exact distance)

(;-) TP

5006

General Mach Discussion / Re: Stepper motors seem a LITTLE slow

« on: October 12, 2011, 11:16:42 AM »

With an accel rate set to .6 /sec/sec it would take forever to get up to speed with a max vel of 200in/min. with short moves involved you have to accell up to speed then slow down to a stop in the givin move. You may NEVER get any speed with some code.

Just a thought,

5007

General Mach Discussion / Re: Erratic Z-axis

« on: October 12, 2011, 09:54:20 AM »

YOU need to move over to the Mp3000 CCC yahoo site TOM is the expert on CCC plasma CNC.

Being that the DRO shows the movement as well I would rule out noise. Sounds like something is not configed right on the MP3000 setup and is cause erratic behaviour.

You do realize that the Z is suppose to do that with the thc on and cutting right? OR is it that teh Z motor is not responding and not moving to correct?

(;-) TP

5008

General Mach Discussion / Re: homed axis (XYZ) DRO does not read zero

« on: October 12, 2011, 09:46:23 AM »

There is also a gcode reference manual and a sorted OEM functions manual out there if youdon't have it yet

5009

General Mach Discussion / Re: homed axis (XYZ) DRO does not read zero

« on: October 12, 2011, 09:44:53 AM »

http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,19464.0.html

5010

PoKeys / Re: M code Pauses Machine while running G-code

« on: October 11, 2011, 10:51:34 PM »

OK thinky aboput this some more here is what you face. Mach is a CNC machine controller. IT is also a buffered system as the gcode is preplanned and stacked up in the que to run. MACH cannot prep the macro to load into the buffere because the CB subsystem is a seperate function so it has to run the buffer empty then call the macro function and then load the buffer again.

Once the buffer is full and running you also cannot just interject something into the que at random for MACH to process

I don't think this can be made seemless as you would need to be able to include as many outputs as you need. Perhaps a high speed PLC running under MACH3 would be the answer it would be plenty fast enough to handle the ouput functions based on mach3 instructions.

BUT you would have to develope a plugin to allow mach3 to talk directly to the PLC without the need of a macro. THE gcode/macro function is the problem. It has always been there.BUT that is not really a problem in NORMAL CNC machining.

What you really need is a high speed motion controller like galil that can handle all the high speed I/O on ITS side.

Good Luck, (;-) TP