Messages

1551

General Mach Discussion / Re: Limit switch issues

« on: December 28, 2015, 11:41:42 AM »

Enabled the limits, after I asked and he told me that they were, even though they were not.

1552

General Mach Discussion / Re: Limit switch issues

« on: December 27, 2015, 05:42:04 PM »

I'd be interested to know how you can set the machine coordinates manually

You don't. Machine coordinates can only be zeroed by homing the axis.
Homing direction is defined in Config > Homing/Limits with the Home Negative option. When checked, it homes in the negative direction. When unchecked, it homes in the positive direction.
Mach3 travels until it hits a switch, and has no idea where that switch may be.

1553

General Mach Discussion / Re: Limit switch issues

« on: December 27, 2015, 12:29:17 PM »

Now, here is another design flaw in my CNC....the builder, in his infinite wisdom, designed it so that under NO circumstances would you break a tool. He has built into the machine flexibility so that the machine will kick off axis etc instead of damaging a tool

A more flexible machine can break tools easier than a rigid machine, by allowing a tool to pull itself into the workpiece until it snaps.

1554

General Mach Discussion / Re: Limit switch issues

« on: December 27, 2015, 12:27:35 PM »

1)that doesn't explain why a user would want to move one or more of their axis past the limit switch where by doing so, they will damage their machine.

The answer is it would require a system with a lot more inputs than Mach3 was designed with. If Mach3 was designed to do what you're asking for, it's price would put it out of reach of many of it's users.
It is what it is, let it go.

2)but your "home" should be 0,0,0 on the table, not (in my case) 0,48,0. Once zero'd in, you can move the gantry anywhere you like.

No, Home is where your home switches are. 0,0,0 is your origin. Two different things.

So just to confirm, Mach3, in all it's glory, doesn't allow you to have your home at ACTUALLY 0? That it is factory set at +24 (in my case) which is the far right of the table?

No, Mach3 isn't "Factory set" for anything. The person that sold you the machine configured it that way.
As was already mentioned, Mach3 let's you call "Home" anywhere you want.

My reason for wanting my home at 0,0,0 is because during some 3D long program runs (I have some that take upwards of 12 hours) occasionally a problem will occur and I'll lose "home"....to start machining a 3D items from scratch to reestablish zero is crazy. Re-homing my machine manually (to locate the 3 axis on one spot) more likely than not will result in the 3D item being machined to have parts of it slightly offset than the rest....for eg: if I'm cutting a nose of an animal, if I'm .01 of an inch off, instead of being smooth, the nose bottom and top will be misaligned.

After you set your 0,0,0 position, go to the Offsets screen and Save the offsets.
If your power goes out, home the machine, and your 0,0,0 position should be right where it was before.

1555

General Mach Discussion / Re: Limit switch issues

« on: December 27, 2015, 10:09:16 AM »

d) ftp links do not start with http.

The problem here is that this forums messes up ftp links.

1556

VB and the development of wizards / Re: Z Down Feed Rate DRO

« on: December 27, 2015, 07:32:04 AM »

You could make a custom screen to handle the different tools.
Make 10 User DRO's to hold the actual tool number.
Say you put tools 13-16 in slots 4-7.
In your M6Start macro, read through the 10 DRO's to see if the tool number you're using is in there, and have the ATC load the correct tool.

So, if you have T14 M6, then your macro will read the DRO's, find out that tool 14 is in slot 5, and load tool #5, which will actually be tool 14.

Does this make sense?
It's similar to how our Morbidelli router works. It has a setup screen where  you tell it which tool # is in which slot.

1557

General Mach Discussion / Re: Limit switch issues

« on: December 27, 2015, 07:24:23 AM »

You can't disable the Estop, or Mach3 will not run. Just set it to any unused input pin number, and toggle the active low setting if it doesn't let you reset.

btw: I just enabled my limit switches, and home switches...now my x axis tries to home to the right (+ side) instead of the home switch on the left (- side) and it doesn't trip the limit switch when it does, it just grinds into the rail.....

when I reverse the homing, then when I jog to the plus, (right) it goes left and vice versa....

I get the abnormal condition light flashing and on the DROs it says my "head" is at -51 inches on a 24" table

This is what happens when you change too many things at one time.

First, you get the machine to move in the correct direction. If you jog to the right, do the DRO's count up (increase). If so, then Mach3 is correct. But if the machine is moving left, go to Config > Homing/Limits and check the reverse box to change direction.
Once it moves in the correct direction, then home the X axis. If it moves the wrong way, toggle the "Home Neg" setting.

Disregard the Abnormal Condition. It's the absolutely worst feature in Mach3.  When everything is working the way you want it to, go to the Operator menu, and click "Set Normal Condition". Even better is to remove it from the screen with a screen editor.

There's nothing wrong with the X home switch at the positive end of travel. I have mine setup that way, so that when the machine homes, the gantry is clear of the table so I can setup my parts.
What you want to do, though, is go to Config > Homing/Limits and enter the actual switch position in the Home Offset box. This value is what mach3 sets the DRO's to when you home. So, if you set it to 45, your X zero will be at the left end of the table. When you home, the X DRO will be set to 45.

1558

VB and the development of wizards / Re: Z Down Feed Rate DRO

« on: December 26, 2015, 05:27:43 PM »

ZDownFeedDRO = 2002                 'Z Down Feed DRO defined as 2002
SetUserDRO(ZDownFeedDRO, 30)      'Setting Z Down DRO to 30
MyDROVal = GetUserDRO(ZDownFeedDRO)   'Get current value of ZDownFeedDRO) 

The result of this will always be MyDROVal = 30. So why not just use the 30 wherever you plan on using it, and skip these 3 lines?

You typically use a DRO to either display values to the user, or get valuers from the user.

I'm not sure I've ever seen anyone set a DRO value, only to read it right back in.

1559

General Mach Discussion / Re: Limit switch issues

« on: December 26, 2015, 10:13:02 AM »

btw, I spend $4000 CDN on my system....so, according to you, I should expect years of headaches with it because I didn't spent what, $20,000?

You got ripped off buy a machine builder, and this has nothing to do with Mach3. You're complaints should be to the person that took your $4000 and sent you a machine not configured properly.

Umm I answered that question in a previous post about the switches being enabled... so here you are giving me flack and I answered the question...

I went back through the thread, and all I see was that the limit LED's light up.

Can you post your .xml file so that we can see how your machine is configured?

1560

General Mach Discussion / Re: Limit switch issues

« on: December 26, 2015, 10:07:31 AM »

We already went over this. The limit switch will stop your machine.
Every hobby control functions in exactly the same way.
If you want a control to do what you want, they are readily available for $10,000 and up.