Messages

311

General Mach Discussion / Mach3 running on Networked PCs

« on: December 17, 2009, 11:32:32 AM »

Does anyone run Mach3 on a PC that is connected to a network or the internet?

Our current machines are not networked together and I was considering doing this but was concerned about the performance.  I was thinking about setting up a small shop network just to share files among 2 CNC Mills running Mach3 and 1 PC were program files are generated.  Do you see any potential issues with Mach3 and performance?

Thanks,
JH

312

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Y Axis Backlash Issue

« on: December 14, 2009, 03:03:00 PM »

The previous owner indicated an issue with the Y Axis but did not go into details.  I didn’t know if it was a servo driver problem, servo motor, encoder, broken/intermediate wire, ball screw or thrust bearing.  After removing the Y Axis covers, we noticed a bunch of fresh grease by the thrust bearing.  The grease was pumped into a setscrew hole used to connect the Y Axis lead screw end cover.  The grease was doing nothing here as far as I could tell?  

When the pulley was rotated back and forth, I could tell that backlash was the issue and it looked like they attempted to fix it.  After further investigation, the Y Axis thrust bearing was shot.  If this is the only real issue with the machine, I will be very happy.  I found a NEW replacement on eBay for $550.00, after the install, the Y Axis appears to have little to no backlash just like X Axis.  

I need to get those servos up and running…

313

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / X Y Axis helper tool

« on: December 14, 2009, 02:46:53 PM »

We needed a way to move the X and Y axis easily to test limit switches, home switches, and to help determine the total travel of the table.  After moving the X and Y pulleys by hand for while, I though it would be easier to make a simple tool to mount into a drill to connect onto the end of the lead screws.  This is not rocket science, but it was and is very helpful so I thought it was important to post.  Helpfully it might help someone else out….

314

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Re: Christmas present

« on: December 14, 2009, 12:37:03 PM »

I am not a wood guy, but that is realy nice !

JH

315

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / ATC Tool Carousel Issue

« on: December 14, 2009, 12:31:52 PM »

When we purchased this machine, it was none functional.  The ATC was not working and the Y Axis had some issues as indicated by the owner.  The ATC Tool Carousel had a 200VAC Motor used to rotate the carousel and a starting capacitor located in the electronics cabinet.  My guess is, the stock electronics would change the motor poll connected to staring cap to change its direction during startup of the motor (most AC motors can run in both directions depending on how the starter capacitor is connected).  I didn’t fully investigate this as I planned to change out this 200VAC Motor and replace it with a Stepper.  I left the stock gear box on the carousel drive and found a Vexta Stepper motor that would mount up.  I liked the idea of stepper motor as it will be easy to control with Mach3.  The rotation speed of the carousel is not as fast as the original drive, but I will take reliability over performance at this phase of the build.  

There were 2 proximity switches on the ATC, 1 for each tool index and 1 for home (tool position 1).  Both switches were functional, but the wires connecting them were broken inside.  I guess after 20 years of flexing, the copper finally broke.  You can see the wire nuts on the connectors, as if someone tried to fix it before.  The good thing is, all the parts of the ATC are now functional!  One of the videos above shows the ATC Carousel working under Mach3 Control.

316

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: 1987 Bridgeport Production Center Interact 412 to Mach3 Conversion

« on: December 14, 2009, 12:08:28 PM »

John

Thanks for the advice as you raise some good points.  We do have very nice Fanuc hardware here, but 3 phase is not an option for me.  Sure I could get a rotary phase converter that draws 25Amps just sitting on the floor with nothing connected to it (we have one that we use to test 3 phase hardware before its converted to single phase, but we would not use it to run a machine full time, its very inefficient).   3 Phase, Single Phase, DC Bus, … you have think about power, each time you convert it, you lose some.   

The Spindle Motor is AC 3 Phase for speed control only, the power input to the VFD or Fanuc Spindle drive doesn’t really matter it terms of performance as the VFD and Fanuc Spindle Driver convert the input power into a 500 to 800VDC Bus.  Then they pulse width modulate this DC Bus to generate 3 Phase with a frequency range of 0.1Hz to 200.0Hz to control the RPMs of the Spindle while generating a voltage to match the motor voltage of 200VAC.

The rigid tapping feature is a good point.  The old Fanuc Spindle drive had spindle orientation electronics on it used for the ATC Load/Unload spindle orientation and for rigid tapping.   Mach3 supports rigid tapping as long as the hardware inputs are available, mainly a spindle rotation pulse (many others here on the forum use this feature).  The old sensors are still on the Spindle and generate a quadrature output during rotation and the rotation pulse, so we should be able to use the ATC and rigid tap.  However, I have not tested this feature yet.

JH

317

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: My CNC pressbrake build

« on: December 12, 2009, 05:31:39 PM »

Nice work, please keep posting updates.

JH

318

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / VFD, 10Hp Fanuc Spindle and Modbus

« on: December 11, 2009, 05:44:19 PM »

First off, Modbus in Mach3 ROCKS (they should sell it as an add on for $50.00)  

We are lucky that our BP412 has a 6000 RPM 10Hp Fanuc Spindle Motor.  The down side is it will take a LOT of power to just to run the Spindle and finding a VFD to run a 10Hp motor with single phase input power might be a challenge.  

We ended up using a SpeedStar PC-75 (yes the means 7.5Hp), they make a 10Hp one, but the power input requirements for 10Hp is 220VAC at 72Amps, even the 7.5HP has a max power draw of 54Amps (I only have 50Amps dedicated for the Machine, hoping to keep up under 40Amps).  Also the Spindle Motor is rated at 200VAC, so the VFD Parameters were adjusted to limit the output voltage to 200VDC.  This thing is a monster, as shown in the picture.

The VFD support 485 Modbus, so can set the target frequency and monitor the current speed and power draw of the spindle in real time and display it on our Mach3 Screen!  Getting the Mach3 Modbus working was fairly easy after watching the videos, but getting the VFD Speed integrated into the Mach3 system  was guess work i.e. “M6 T1 S3000” (Note: for now I only running the Spindle at a MAX of 3000 during this testing phase, we’ll crank it up as my confidence grows in the system)  The key things to get it integrated, is to the Max Speed in Pulley to 3000 RPMs and the MAX ADC Count (for our VFD, that means MAX output frequency 100.00Hz = 3000 RPMs)

Here is a test video of Mach3 Controlling the VFD while Monitoring Speed and Motor Amperage:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/QUB8hFWrnfw&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;rel=0&amp;color1=0x006699&amp;color2=0x54abd6&amp;border=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/QUB8hFWrnfw&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;rel=0&amp;color1=0x006699&amp;color2=0x54abd6&amp;border=1</a>

Below are Pictures of the VFD, Motor Plate and Mach3 Config Screens

319

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / ATC Integration with Mach3 and Tool Offsets Support

« on: December 11, 2009, 05:04:59 PM »

The BP412 ATC only holds up to 12 tools.  Mach3 supports up to ~256 tools and offsets.  Most of the programs we write will use less than 12 tools, sometimes more than 12, and from program to program the tool list is not the same 12 tools.

To get around the ATC 12 position limit and utilize the Mach3 Tool Offsets, we created a table to list the tool numbers that are loaded in each ATC position (0 meaning empty).  So the ATC position is not the same as the tool number being used.  During a “M6 Tn” change, our Tool Change Macro looks at this table to see if and where the tool is located in ATC.  If we find the tool, the carousel is moved to that position and the tool is loaded using the Mach3 Tool Offset value.  If the tool is not found, the program will stop and prompt us to load the tool manually in the spindle. 

This allows us to load up the ATC with the tools needed for a particular program, as each  tool is loaded into the ATC, we just update the DROs in the Tool Table.  (This has probably been done before, however I thought it was useful to mention)

Below is the Mach3 Tool Table:

320

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: 1987 Bridgeport Production Center Interact 412 to Mach3 Conversion

« on: December 11, 2009, 05:02:38 PM »

Russ,

The current plan is to use the Stock Servos with new Digital Encoders, the stock encoders are analog.  I have been working on Axis part off and on during the conversion, trying different encoders (400 CPR and 1000 CPR) and Servo Drivers (Gecko, Viper, CNCDrive)  I haven’t come up with the best combination yet in terms of performance (holding force, acceleration, max speed, power supply considerations, tuning and integration into Mach3) still in the evaluation phase….

Here is a picture of the X Servo before I changed out the Encoder: