Messages

131

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 running on Windows 8/Microsoft Surface Pro tablet

« on: October 30, 2013, 09:26:17 PM »

Loaded Mach and I am having issues with tool paths created under windows 8. However, if I run a saved project that was created before the crash on windows 7 now on the computer with windows 8 I have no issues. Have any thoughts?

That sounds like a CAM issue not a Mach3 issue. How are you creating your GCode? What post processor are you using?

132

General Mach Discussion / Re: CandCnc 5 axis (really a 4 axis) system problem

« on: October 28, 2013, 04:41:39 PM »

Back in the day when all servo drives were analog if you had a large gantry machine with a servo motor on each side you would have one side slaved to the other. The slaved side would follow the master by means of a signal between the two servo drives that kept them in sync. With more modern controls, stepper motors, or digital servo drives you can sync the master and slave in different ways. With a large gantry the ability to auto-square is handy as things do happen that can knock the gantry out of square.

Twenty years ago when all most PCs had was a parallel port and serial port a lot of schemes were used to provide more I/O for hombres projects. One of these schemes was multiplexing the parallel port pins (using them for more than one thing) and a few places still do this as they are clinging tooth and nail to the crusty old parallel port. If you have five separate stepper drives than there is no reason at all you can't use all five of them fully unless a manufacturer is hobbling them with 20 year old technology.

It may take some rewiring but you could use a SmoothStepper (or similar external motion controller) to get the I/O you need to run everything properly.

133

General Mach Discussion / Re: Help for a new user - circles are not circles and its not backlash....

« on: October 15, 2013, 03:09:35 PM »

Ballscrews do not mean you have no backlash.

Cutting something and measuring it is not a good method for deterring backlash or steps/unit. There are far too may factors at play.

To get the correct steps unit the best way is to calculate it based on your screw pitch, any other gear/belt reduction, stepper motor step angle and the stepper drive's microstep level. If you don't know these things then you have to measure it. Tell the machine to move a short distance, like 1" if it is close then move on, if it is too long/short adjust the steps/unit. Once you are close then set up a dial indicator and jog to preload it a small amount and take up any backlash. Now tell the machine to move a short distance the same direction you were jogging in, say 0.5", check your indicator to see how far you moved and adjust the steps/unit. There is a built in utility to make this easier on the Settings screen (as I recall).
 
To measure backlash you need to use a test indicator, jog the machine to preload the indicator 0.010" or so one direction and jog in 0.001" increments in the other direction. When the needle moves stop jogging. If you jogged three times and the needle moved 0.0005" then you have 0.0025" of backlash or slop in the system. Your motor mounts, stepper couplers, etc could all come into plate here.

134

General Mach Discussion / Re: Activation file?

« on: October 07, 2013, 11:37:25 AM »

ArtSoft should have emailed you the license file then. The license file may also have a number after the .dat, i.e. Mach1Lic.dat.######. You can strip the number off or leave it, Mach will recognize it either way.

135

General Mach Discussion / Re: Activation file?

« on: October 07, 2013, 11:11:59 AM »

If you got a legit license there should be a Mach1Lic.dat file. Copy that to C:\mach3. If you got your copy of Mcah3 as part of a machine package imported from the far East then you might have a pirated copy. Go to Help->About and see what Mach tells you about the license. If you got the license from a legit OEM you might see OEM_Name######, where the numbers are a serial number.

136

General Mach Discussion / Re: Ball Screen Setting Motor tunning for Taig

« on: October 04, 2013, 10:10:33 AM »

Since no one else has modified their machine the way you have how would they know what motor tuning values you should use?

What is the pitch of your screw?
What stepper motor and driver are you using?

137

General Mach Discussion / Re: PCB Milling advice and help

« on: October 03, 2013, 04:57:19 PM »

Shipping to the UK is no problem, I can ship anywhere it is legal to ship things to. The best value in international shipping is USPS Priority flat rate boxes.

138

General Mach Discussion / Re: PCB Milling advice and help

« on: October 03, 2013, 11:50:37 AM »

As has already been mentioned PCB2GCode does a decent job of taking your Eagle board layout and generating GCode form it. Its positives are that it is free and pretty easy to use. Its downside is that it does not generate very efficient GCode, not does it let you do the isolation milling and rub out milling easily.

I have been mostly using CamBam for PCBs for the past year or more. You can download a demo of it form my website: http://www.soigeneris.com/documentation-content.aspx#CamBam and you will likely want the Excellon (drill file) plug in as well: http://www.cambam.info/ref/plugin.excellonio , I posted a modified version of the plug-in that adds the Excellon file extension that Eagle likes to use here: http://www.cambam.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=2935.0 . When using CamBam for PCB making you export your Gerbers from Eagle and import them into CamBam.  CamBam produces very efficient toolpaths but it is not free (but a darn good value if I might say.)
 
The real key to milling out good PCBs is using a good fixture to hold the board and using good bits. I like to take a piece of 1/2" cast acrylic as a fixture and fly cut it on the mill. This way I have a piece of stock whose surface is square with the spindle (you have to tram your machine first of course). Then I use carpet tape (a type of double sided tape) cut into 1/2" squares to hold the PCB stock to my fixture, it holds well but is easy to get the board back up. Don't use the typical double sided tape that is like foam in the middle. Next use good bits, take a look at: http://www.soigeneris.com/pcb_making_bits-list.aspx (my website). Look at the starter and prototyping kits as they get you what you need to get started out. I also posted an Excel file in the 'Soigeneris' section of my documentation page (first link above) that will let you calculate the width of cut vs. depth of cut for various 'V' bits.

139

General Mach Discussion / Re: Smooth Stepper questions

« on: October 03, 2013, 08:27:29 AM »

Glad to hear you got it sorted Jim. We all kind of g3t myopic from string t a problem too long, I would be embarrassed to tell you how many hours I spent one day trying to get a network attached device to talk to the server; after breaking down and running Wireshark on both the server and device ends I realized I had transposed two numbers when I typed the IP address into the device. D'oh!

140

General Mach Discussion / Re: Smooth Stepper questions

« on: October 01, 2013, 09:51:25 AM »

Part of the problem is that you can't write a 20 page manual that will turn a machinist into a computer geek any more than you can write a 20 page manual that will turn a computer geek into a machinist. Each has years of experience to draw on.

Configuring things to work with Mach3 requires a breadth of knowledge you have to know some about machining, electronics, computers, software etc., etc., and you can't distill all of this into a small manual and cover every situation. Just getting an Ethernet device to work can be a challenge as there are so many variables: does your companies PC policy prevent you from making the needed changes on the PC, is the firewall or AV program your using going to interfere, does your network adapter require a cross over cable or not, does your PC have some sort of other software on it that will cause problems? Not to mention that folks start this journey at all different places, some folks struggle to turn the PC or unzip a file and others are a whiz.

I know it is frustrating when your just trying to make something work and I'm certain there are things that can be done to improve manuals and set up procedures. I'm also certain that no matter what sort of manual gets written it will never cover every scenario or makes sense to every reader.