Messages

61

General Mach Discussion / Re: home and limit setup questions

« on: April 18, 2011, 10:20:30 PM »

As far as a manual goes, I never recieved one with this machine when I bought it.

Lemic,
As far as I know, bound copies of the Mach manuals aren’t (were never) supplied with the purchase of Mach3 but they are available on line.  I would urge every Mach3 user to download as a minimum the first two of the following manuals.  Kinko’s, Office Depot, etc. will bind them into a nice spiral binder for a very nominal fee. Best money you can spend, (IMO).

Mach3Mill user’s guide:
http://www.machsupport.com/docs/Mach3Mill_1.84.pdf

Software Installation and Configuration
http://www.machsupport.com/docs/Mach3Mill_Install_Config.pdf

And another one that’s nice to have:

Customizing Mach2
http://www.machsupport.com/docs/Mach2_6.11_Custom.pdf

Don’t be put off by the revision dates. The info is basic and the more recent changes to Mach will in most cases be apparent and easily understood.  If not, check with this forum, (That’s why we are here.)
HTH, Al

62

General Mach Discussion / Re: Z limit Switch with a touch pad

« on: March 26, 2011, 04:28:35 PM »

Dave,

Art has an excellent tutorial video on Screen4. Go to the top of this screen, (or http://www.machsupport.com/  if you aren’t viewing on line), select Support > Tutorial Videos > Artsoft Video Tutorial and then Screen4 which is at the very bottom of the left hand column.

For DRO listing, go to the above mentioned screen, select Support > Mach Wiki then scroll down to the table of contents and the DRO listing is in section 9.

This should get you going for a while <grin>.

Al

63

General Mach Discussion / Re: Auto-height-compensation possible?

« on: March 06, 2011, 07:23:49 PM »

Here is a fellow who did just that.

http://phk.freebsd.dk/CncPcb/

He even posts the code with a beer license.
Al

64

General Mach Discussion / Re: Neuractor and Mach 3. Will it work?

« on: February 22, 2011, 01:21:53 AM »

Great!   

65

General Mach Discussion / Re: Neuractor and Mach 3. Will it work?

« on: February 19, 2011, 11:16:03 PM »

My thought was that the pulses to the motor are coming too fast for the motor to interpret.  Is that a logical or even possible probability?  If so, is there a way to slow the signal to the motor down a bit?

You have identified the most likely cause. Try going to Config>Motor Tuning and lower the Velocity and Acceleration settings

66

General Mach Discussion / Re: Weird problem with Mach3 and tool paths

« on: February 12, 2011, 06:05:33 AM »

My take is a bit different. Your code runs just fine here without the G42 cutter comp. No extraneous circles. Only the lead in and lead out arcs which are correct.
But it seems to me that Mach’s cutter comp is broken. It doesn’t allow for sharp corners. On the sharp points, it goes from the last offset X to the next X cross country as the crow flies rather than properly arcing about the point and resuming the offset. I offset in CAD and don’t use G41/G42 so this was news to me. (There may be a Mach setting that I'm not aware of that affects this?)
Sorry, can’t help more.
Al

67

General Mach Discussion / Re: Macro Help

« on: February 11, 2011, 03:32:51 AM »

Thank you, Thank You Ray.
That's what I was looking for but for some reason couldn't find it.
Al

68

General Mach Discussion / Re: Macro Help

« on: February 11, 2011, 12:27:57 AM »

Thank you Hood, have it working now.
It did require two while - wends tho.

'Back off hard stops
Code "G91 G00 X0.015 Y0.015 Z-0.015"
Code "G90"
While IsMoving()
Wend

'Ref All Home
DoButton(22)
DoButton(23)
DoButton(24)
While IsMoving()
Wend

'Zero work coords
DoOEMButton(1008)
DoOEMButton(1009)
DoOEMButton(1010)
End

69

General Mach Discussion / Macro Help

« on: February 10, 2011, 03:54:55 AM »

A recent post, re. 'soft limits' (thanks kolias),  prompted me to write a macro to assist in setting my own soft limits.

 I would jog the X, Y and Z against their hard stops (that's acceptable/harmless with a Sherline mill).  Then the macro would back off all axes by 0.10, Ref All Home and zero the X, Y and Z work coords. Needless to say it didn't work.

So I have three questions:
1. What is the better/correct way to go about this?
2. What/where is the preferred Macro reference document? I go to the WIKI but didn't someone on the forum write  a  better document? I can't seem to find it.
3. And last, just for my own info, why doesn't my dumb macro work?

Here is the macro:
'Zero work coords
SetOEMDRO(800, 0.0)
SetOEMDRO(801, 0.0)
SetOEMDRO(802, 0.0)

'Then back off 0.10
Code "G00 X0.1 Y0.1 Z-0.1"

'Ref All Home
DoButton(22)
DoButton(23)
DoButton(24)
DoButton(25)

'Zero work coords
SetOEMDRO(800, 0.0)
SetOEMDRO(801, 0.0)
SetOEMDRO(802, 0.0)

Thanks,
Al

70

General Mach Discussion / Re: Need some help, using a digitizing probe to find the center of a bore

« on: February 06, 2011, 05:16:36 PM »

Its as shown in his example.

'Your Mach3 Button Code might look like this for "X-"  M1200 P6'

The button will call Macro M1200.m1s and the P-parameter will tell the macro which button was pressed. The P will be Param1 (), (a Q and R would be Param2 () and Param3 () respectively).

JHChoppers added a screen4 screenshot showing a sample entry in a later post.
HTH,
al