Messages

5081

General Mach Discussion / Re: THC Settings in Mach

« on: September 26, 2011, 04:52:53 PM »

OK here is a thought, Take a Zservo drive setup that allows slaving the servo to an outside encoder as a follower( electronic geared). Then when you need to follow switch over from Mach inputs to slaved inputs and then the z will follow the surface encoder up and down.

I have seen that part work Saved to an encoder and use electronic gearing to drive the servomotor. From Mach you could diasble the Zdrive outputs and enable the Slave drive just before a cutting move .

Just a thought, A weird one but one just the same(;-)TP

5082

General Mach Discussion / Re: hopefully getting this worked out

« on: September 26, 2011, 03:41:12 PM »

SEE YA, (;-) TP

5083

General Mach Discussion / Re: hopefully getting this worked out

« on: September 26, 2011, 02:43:56 PM »

RAY, Here's how this works, The perp has a pirated license.  THIS pretty much sets the stage for the scam

" I can't justify buying a license after I was fortunate to receive this one. "


What he does NOT have is the knowledge to get his machine running. What he is stalling for is he hopes that someone will break down and tell him how to fix his machine. Stall ,stall, wait, wait, promise to buy,  promise, stall,

NOW IF someones DOES tell him how to fix the machine THEN he "smiles", installs the pirated license GIVES you the finger and puts the $159 back in his wallet.

Did I mention about the SMILE?

I have heard this same thing 100s of time over the last 40years of shop work.

(;-) TP

5084

General Mach Discussion / Re: THC Settings in Mach

« on: September 26, 2011, 02:05:00 PM »

IF I rememeber correctly the thcfunction runs at kernal speed just like the axis do.The reason they did NOT use the accel curve was because it slowed the move process down to much. They wanted it as fast as possible.

TomC over at CandCNC worked with Art to develope the function.You may want to hop over there and ASK him directly > Tom probably knows more about the function than anyone other than Art.

(;-) TP

5085

General Mach Discussion / Re: THC Settings in Mach

« on: September 25, 2011, 10:47:28 PM »

WELL you may need to know that MACH is a buffered system. Mach does all the planning and then Stacks up the moves in the Buffer then it controls the buffer real time. BUT the only way I know of that you can overide the buffer is with the THC function(Art Magic).

Being that what you require has to be in real time  the thc function seems to be the only way . SO IF you cannot get teh THC to act like a servo I am not sure it can be done.

BUT I am thinking more and more it can be done(;-)  BUT that is just my thinking Your mileage may vary due to local conditions.

Time and testing will tell the REST of the STORY(;-) Keep us up to date on how it goes.

(;-) TP

5086

General Mach Discussion / Re: THC Settings in Mach

« on: September 25, 2011, 03:13:00 PM »

OK lets think WAY outside the box for a minute.

A simple servo drive IF you do not give it any input to move and you slightly rotate the shaft WILL return back to the position it was at(Up to the fault point). WHen it sees the encoder move it sends the move signal to the Motor to move back in the opposite direction to the setpoint. It knows where it was and how to get back there QUICKLY.

SO could we do the same thing with the THCfunction???   The linear encoder hooks to the drive as normal and the motor outputs go to a set of relays to run the THCup(forward)  and THCdown( reverse) . AS it will never get an input to move the drive it should try to auto correct the error it sees. We just tell it to move backwards to correct the height change.

Remember it is NOT like we are moving INCHES at a time just a few thousandths at a time???

Just a note we are running the THC% at 50%(;-) It does move fast.

  , (;-) TP

5087

General Mach Discussion / Re: importing coordinate list

« on: September 25, 2011, 12:02:30 PM »

OH boy another one HOOKED on Machcrack, the lastest designer drug.

LOLOLOLOLOL go for it, (;-) TP

5088

General Mach Discussion / Re: THC Settings in Mach

« on: September 25, 2011, 11:45:53 AM »

Yes tested with encoder setup useing the thc up/down function. BUT at the time there was NO brains and I was not smart enought to do a plugin.

THERE is potential to your application. The one main problem is being able to control the Z correction(thc)  You will have to create a simple servo type loop and use the encoder as the feedback. (;-) I threw in that hint a while back. It will ACT just like a normal servo in it gives the motor a command to move and then watches the encoder to see when it gets there and stops. IT just does not have any idea WHEN it will get to location so the monitor side will HAVE to be extremely fast

OR (;-) you will have to create the logic to LOOK ahead and see how far it is to the setpoint and PREPARE to stop at that point. The motor WILL have a known curve to start stop. Nothing is instant. You just have to LEARN what you motors natural inertia curve is and apply it

A lot will depend on the accuracy you can acheive with the basic corretion move and stop.

Note: If I remember right a plugin operates at Kernal speed with all things. If not it could not do motion control functions.

(;-) It may be as simple as taking a small servo drive and using the motor side to drive relays to jog the thc up/down and use the feedback loop to auto correct back to the setpoint???

Just a thought, (;-) TP

5089

General Mach Discussion / Re: importing coordinate list

« on: September 25, 2011, 12:53:55 AM »

You need to unzip the copycat and make sure it goes into the right directory. normally c:\mach3\addons\copycat  Then start go to mach3 and select "Select wizards" then select copycat.

There are 2 screens one manual copy and the other Probe copy.

NOW IF the copingkatting does not suit you there MAY be another way Using a new page program that does some magic with the encoder. But that is a last resort,(lot of work)

(;-) TP

5090

General Mach Discussion / Re: importing coordinate list

« on: September 25, 2011, 12:28:54 AM »

CopyCat is here

http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,10536.0.html