Messages

4401

General Mach Discussion / Re: frustrated....cannot seem to get a motor stepping

« on: March 23, 2011, 10:29:51 PM »

Yes, even with the PC turned off, when power is supplied to the HobbyCNC, you should not be able to turn the motors.

4402

General Mach Discussion / Re: frustrated....cannot seem to get a motor stepping

« on: March 23, 2011, 10:01:24 PM »

WHen you apply power to the HobbyCNC board, due the motors lock up? If they do, then the board is most likely working correctly. If the motors do NOT lock up, then the board is not working.

The 64bit PC won't work at all, PCI card or onboard port.
Tablet probably won't work either.

It's also possible that the HobbyCNC needs 5v, and the micro atx is only supplying 3.5V.

To get rid of the spikes, try going into the bios, and disabling ACPI. You probably will need to re-install windows after this.

4403

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: Mach 3 - CNC always stopped at the line 500

« on: March 23, 2011, 08:53:47 PM »

If you go to Help > About, is your name in the window that opens? If not, your license is not working.

4404

Machscreen Screen Designer / Re: Disappearing buttons

« on: March 23, 2011, 08:52:42 PM »

It sounds like your trying to put an LED on top of a button. If so, that probably won't work at all, as you've discovered. The only way to get 100% consistent operation is to make the LED look like the button (two state LED) and use the transparent image as the actual button, on top of it.

I've found that any time I've tried to layer bitmaps, it doesn't work as expected, or even the same way every time. And when I've used "send bitmaps to back", I've ended up starting over, as the order seems to never be right again.

I use Screen4, though. Every time I try to use Machscreen, I run into problems. Since I'm more familiar with Screen4 and it's peculiarities, I just find it easier.

Good luck.

4405

General Mach Discussion / Re: Problem with Error Involving Arcs

« on: March 23, 2011, 06:47:21 PM »

I believe if you want Incremental IJ, it would be  Vector from Center to Start.

I'd try changing these:

Helical Interpolation:
[CIR_PLANE]
[G_CODE][NEXT_X][NEXT_Y][NEXT_Z][NEXT_I][NEXT_J]K[HELIX_LEAD]

Circular Interpolation:
[CIR_PLANE]
[G_CODE][NEXT_X][NEXT_Y][NEXT_Z][NEXT_I][NEXT_J]Q[SPIRAL_LEAD]

To these:

Helical Interpolation:
[CIR_PLANE]
[G_CODE][NEXT_X][NEXT_Y][NEXT_Z][NEXT_I][NEXT_J]

Circular Interpolation:
[CIR_PLANE]
[G_CODE][NEXT_X][NEXT_Y][NEXT_Z][NEXT_I][NEXT_J]

And the Helical plane should still be G17.

I've never used RhinoCAM, though.

4406

Machscreen Screen Designer / Re: Disappearing buttons

« on: March 23, 2011, 06:35:10 PM »

The buttons need a transparent image, like this.

Be careful if using Screen4, as once you attach the image to the button, you can no longer see it, except when dragging it.
I always place the LED, then lock it in place, before placing the transparent button over it.

4407

General Mach Discussion / Re: Help with tool changes

« on: March 23, 2011, 06:32:58 PM »

SetCurrentTool (NewTool)
Sleep (250)
Message..................


Sometimes you have to wait for Mach3 to update the DRO. This waits 1/4 second. Sleep(1000) = 1 second
It should only take 1/10 second, but I add a little to be safe.

See if this works for you.

4408

General Mach Discussion / Re: Stepper size and max speed

« on: March 22, 2011, 10:41:19 AM »

Depends.
If the max speed of the machine with the smaller stepper occurs at a low stepper rpm (~300), than the larger motor should be faster.
If the max speed of the machine with the smaller stepper occurs at a high stepper rpm (~1000 or more), than the larger motor might be slower.

4409

General Mach Discussion / Re: Help with tool changes

« on: March 22, 2011, 06:57:59 AM »

1) You can't
2) add a carriage return, don't know it off the top of my head though.
3) You can't, I don't think. You can get different symbols to display. I think the info is in the cypress manual.

4410

General Mach Discussion / Re: Help with tool changes

« on: March 21, 2011, 10:32:10 PM »

In the programmers manual, see the following:
GetCurrentTool
GetSelectedTool
GetToolParam
GetToolDesc

Put the info in a string and display it in a message box.