Messages

231

Modbus / Re: Mach3, Arduino, Modbus and MPG

« on: November 21, 2012, 04:34:32 AM »

Hello Zafar:

Is there any chance you could post the Arduino sketch in a .zip format. I  don't like the .rar type as the programs that upzip it want to  install other stuff on my computer.
I am a sometime user of Arduino, but have never interfaced it with Mach3. My current I/O for my mill is Cubloc.

Regards,
John
 

232

Newfangled Solutions Mach3 Wizards / Re: Newfangled wizards for Mach4

« on: November 14, 2012, 08:06:17 PM »

Hello Ron:

I have a need to use CopyCat to capture the outline of a tiny object, using a Video camera with the crosshairs to trace the outline and save a series of X-Y coordinates.

During a search for "capturing coordinates", I read a post by Greolt, topic 10437.20 HTML, back in 3/11/2009, in which he modified the "CopyCat" screen with the Video screen superimposed to do this very task.
 
Is your current/or future v.4 Wizards program using such a "CopyCat" video type screen?

There are occasions this ability is very useful. My particular application is to get an outline shape of a tiny bronze casting, in order to make a fixture to clamp the object for thread milling.

I am not yet a NF licensee, so have not investigated the latest version.

Thanks,

John
 

233

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 and Tapmatic Tapping Head

« on: October 25, 2012, 06:33:08 PM »

Tapmatic has a demo video on youtube showing many different size heads in action with the tap size and RPM listed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGMC55t-98E

234

dspMC/IP Motion Controller / Re: Read an analog input from DSPMC-V2 with MACH3

« on: October 13, 2012, 08:52:56 PM »

Vasco:
Read up on brains. I don't have the v.2, with the built in analog inputs. My dspmc is the older version, and I use a PLC. The brain in Mach3 reads the "address" of the analog input, and activates the appropriate OEM code for Mach3.

On my mill, the plc address for the Feedrate is 28,682; the OEM code for the brain is 821.

Rapid override address is 28683; OEM code for the brain is 223.

Spindle percent override address is 28684; OEM code for the brain is 74

You must put a formula in the brain, to achieve the correct value.

John

235

Sieg Machines / Re: Sieg SX4 CNC Conversion

« on: July 02, 2012, 12:28:35 AM »

Hi ThomasCB21:

Glad to pass it on.

For a long time I paid little attention to the work of Hoss. I had seen some of his videos on Youtube, and was almost put off by his good ole boy southern drawl.

I have a full on machine shop, with all the goodies. Two CNC mills with 4-axis, a Bridgeport, two lathes, four drill presses, one procunier tapper, two band-saws, horizontal, and vertical, Miller Tig welder, Lincoln Mig welder, Lincoln Arc welder, A gas welding rig, and all the tooling to go with it all.

Then, one day I went to the Little Machine Shop which is about 15 miles north of my shop, and happened to look around at some of the mini-mills. They ran an ad for a Sieg micro mill that was being discontinued, and they were getting the last shipment of them from Sieg in China. I put my name on the list, for one of the little micro mills.

It was then, I began to look up the mods on the Sieg mills, and found that Hoss had done more stuff, plus documentation than any one I had ever seen or heard of!

A couple of months later, the last of the little Micro mills finally came in, and I just picked one up mine last week.

The one thing I am lacking in my shop is a small, high speed type of mill for doing little tiny stuff, like #0 center drills, 1mm drills, and tiny cutters. Running a 7.5hp spindle on a 5ton CNC mill doing holes in a two inch long part just doesn't fly. Besides, we love our toys!

Of all the people I have come across in the Mach type forums, Hoss stands apart from them all. He is also a very clever, and talented engineer.

Regards,
John

236

Sieg Machines / Re: Sieg SX4 CNC Conversion

« on: July 01, 2012, 12:04:48 AM »

The "King" of Sieg mill conversion is Hoss over on CNC Zone. Check out his current build;

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/benchtop_machines/111863-hosss_g0704.html

His zeal for documenting mill CNC conversions, including photo's, CAD drawings, and videos is nothing short of amazing.

237

General Mach Discussion / Re: Rank newbie question

« on: June 30, 2012, 09:23:23 PM »

I also use CamBam, and recommend it. In addition, there is a free CAD design program out there.

DraftSight. It is free, and very powerful. It is produced by Dassault Systemes of France, the parent company of SolidWorks. There are over 40 videos on YouTube, demonstrating various features. It is a 2D CAD program, and can output the correct format for CamBam to read in, and generate Gcode. They would like users to step up to SolidWorks eventually. 

The demo of CutViewer is good for 30 days. Another superb tool. You can watch your finished program machine a virtual solid.

238

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: g-code and .xls

« on: June 27, 2012, 12:10:09 PM »

I believe CamBam can do this for you. I know you can divide a Polyline or line segment into any number of segments,and each intersect point appears in the points list; X,Y,Z. The point list can then be exported as a CSV file, and read into Excel. It sounds like you want to do the reverse. Ask in their forum, and they can explain it better in detail. Great program by the way.   

239

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: converted Sieg SX3 to cnc

« on: June 14, 2012, 04:30:59 PM »

ninoz:

If you do not have a CAD program to play with, may I suggest the program, DraftSight. It is a free 2D CAD program, made by Dassault Systemes of France. They are the parent company of SolidWorks. Do not be put off because it is free. It is one powerful program! The free offer is so more people become introduced to CAD, and hopefully end up buying SolidWorks. You have to register your name etc., but they send regular email notices about amazing    things people have done with SolidWorks.

In addition, they have a huge number of videos for DraftSight (over 40) on Youtube.

240

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: converted Sieg SX3 to cnc

« on: June 14, 2012, 04:18:33 PM »

ninoz:

Another possibility would to do the same thing in CAD. If you can enlarge the drawing section of one half of the star-wheel cutout (the vertical section of the drawing, and the center of rotation at the left side, you could produce an offset line in cad, which would describe the path of the cutter center.
Generate an angular line from the star-wheel center, that intersects the offset cutter/path line. The CAD program should give you the X axis coordinate, and you already know the line angle, which is the rotary axis degree. A series of points will be the tool path you need.

Another method would be to generate the star-wheel cutout shape, and do an offset line as above. Now, instead of drawing a line from the wheel center, just put in a series of points, and save the X,Y coordinate to Excel. You can now write a formula in Excel to give you two columns of numbers. The first column is the X axis coordinate, and the second column is the Rotary angle, which is from the drawing origin to the point. You can add columns for the symbol X, A adjacent to the numbers, and save an output to a text file, which will be the true cutter machining path.

Also, now that the data points are in Excel, you can add or subract a constant in the Rotary degree column, and make the beginning of the cutting path at 0.00 rotation degrees, making the program a little easier visually, with no plus or minus rotary angles.

Excel is a marvelous program, and I did this once to produce a ellipse tool path, wrapped around the outside of a cylinder for about 40 degrees of cylinder rotation, which included a Y axis offset for cutter comp, so this 2D problem is a walk in the park.