Topics

1

General Mach Discussion / Strange Dropping of Z

« on: May 04, 2008, 06:40:43 PM »

Hi everyone,

The problem, when im cutting the Z keeps dropping down a bit at a time....We are cutting only .200 into the MDF so thats like nothing for the 10hp motor...as far as pull goes....I have figured out when it's happening, I'am running a  3/8ths bit (ball nose) and when it gets into a corner it causes a vibration or chatter which makes the Z drop by 3-5 thousands. So each time the bit hits the corners it drops another 3-5 thou...and by the time it's finished the part .....it may have dropped an inch.

The Z DRO does not show the dropping which is strange i had to manually attach a digital readout to the Z to see where the drops occurred and i could see the drops showing on the digital scale i attached, but the Mach Dros did not show it dropping at all.

I have changed my Encoder with a new one and it still does it, we have also set the stiffness in the skyco controller card to the max as we thought it may have been the problem...but it seems not to be.

So now im totaly lost as how to fix this crazy problem.

Someone told me mach does not handle large files well...could this be the problem as the CPU is not keeping up the file is about 10 megs.

Someone must know the secret.....thanks in advance

Jmaxy

2

General Mach Discussion / Will the shuttle Pro work with Mach2 ???

« on: February 29, 2008, 12:46:41 AM »

Will the shuttle Pro work with Mach2

thanks Jmaxy

3

General Mach Discussion / 2D cutting travel not smooth Jerky movements ???

« on: February 27, 2008, 03:43:35 PM »

Hi Everyone,

Finally have the CNC machine running on Mach3, what i cant seem to understand is the machine is a servo system, and with the old controller it ran finishing passes super smooth in the movement of the gantry. Now what i have noticed is that it's movement are very choppy ?? and the machine runs a WHOLE lot slower ??

Why is that

I have the configuration set to look ahead 20 lines, i tried running it looking ahead 1 line but that made no difference.

Thank you
Jmaxy

4

General Mach Discussion / Need Z to lift out of part when we pause or stop machine How ????

« on: February 05, 2008, 08:05:41 PM »

Hi ....when we are running a job we would like to maybe stop the cutting routine to look at what is being machined and would like the Z to lift out of the material...but keep the spindle running, and then hit resume and the z would go back into the material and continue it's cut.

We have set the Safe Z height, and when we hit stop it works they way we want except the motor stops, z lifts up, but the program rewinds itself and you have to start the job over again.....

Any hints

Thank you to everyone for the Great help sofar....we have our machine working to a point...

Maxy

5

General Mach Discussion / Origin position -x keeps creeping when returning back to Zero----HELP !!!

« on: February 01, 2008, 12:15:12 AM »

 :(I did several tests and the machine will not return to it's origin....I have cadded out a 5x5 square and turned it on a 45 degree angle flat on the table, I mark Z position by touching down on my surface. Then the bit starts it's cutting on the middle line which is what im looking for is alignment when the bit completes it's cutting, but what im getting is the alignment is not lineing back up to it's starting cut, and it's off in the -x position by about 1/16th and when it returns to it's zero position it's also off by 1/16 in the -x.

Each time i run the program it creeps another 1/16th in the -X.....and the DRO reads x-0 y-0....My y position is perfect. When i run a circle it seems all proper except when it returns back to origin....

We know it's not mechanical....we have checked all our setting that we know, we ran the program on our other CNC's and it works 100% on them...So is it MACH3...something weve missed....

As A NOTE: if we touch down and set x0 y0 and make a program to move 12" in the positive x and return back to it's origin it's out by maybe 1/64 without any real cutting at all, and if we keep running this program it just keeps adding up the negative error an moving a 64th back more each time.

thanks Jeff

6

General Mach Discussion / Error when machine goes back to part origin after job

« on: January 27, 2008, 11:13:42 PM »

We have our system finally setup with Mach3 and when doing test cuts as the machine finishes and moves back to it's part origin it is not going to the exact starting point.

The bit always ends up 1/8 past it's original x position...the Y looks correct...We know it's not hardware...we have calibrated the software and now we are lost on this strange problem.

The DRO's are reading 0,0,0 x y z, but the bit is ending up at approx  -.120 past our original starting point. We are not on the limit switches as the test are in the centre of the table.

P.S.  I went back and wrote G code for a 5x5 square, and ran it...when i ran that code it was also was not in the correct origin when it finishes, each time it runs it adds just a little more error it seems in the -X direction only.....

This is a servo system, we have checked for back lash and thats not the problem...


Thanks

7

General Mach Discussion / I purchased the AlphaGraphicDesigns screens but not showing in Mach3

« on: January 07, 2008, 04:18:50 PM »

When i load the screens from AlphaGraphicDesigns.com not everything is displaying like 50% of the items are just blank...My systme is set to 32bit colors...
Anyone know what im missing...something that should be so simple is not that simple it seems.

Maxy

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General Mach Discussion / Z sees home switch but not backing off ..New setup X & Y working HELP!!

« on: January 04, 2008, 12:47:25 AM »

The subject says it all...what am i missing ?? setting etc..........Thanks

9

General Mach Discussion / Testing Y Axis Mach3 not homing or seeing limit switch

« on: January 01, 2008, 11:11:49 AM »

We are testing the (Y) axis only and move onto the limit switch which is indicating in mach3's screen.
We then move off the switch and press Ref (y) to zero our position.

Next we manually move the (Y) away from the switch about a foot or so.

Then we tell mach to go back to our Ref position....by selecting ref all it shows on the screen counting back to our position
but the (y) axis is not moving back at all. We can move it using only the keyboard arrows or MDI commands.

If i goto MDI and type in G0 Y0 mach then works correctly by going back to it's home position.....

we have traced all the cables and the pins which are working.

When we manually hit the limit switch the indicator on machs screen is working.

What is seems like is that Mach3 is not seeing the values that we have set in the software settings...

Does mach need to have a Z home first before the others work ?  (this is a 3 axis machine but we have only setup the Y axis for
testing.

So what am i missing

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General Mach Discussion / Mach is not seeing the limit/home switchs keeps travelling HELP PLEASE !!

« on: December 31, 2007, 05:21:01 PM »

Just set up a new machine Mach 3.0, we are testing the setup using one switch at the moment (eventually all 3). When we ref all home the machine moves correctly but the software is not recognizing the switch when it is triggered. ??

Maxy