Messages

11

Third party software and hardware support forums. / Re: Longs Motors CNC kit: need help getting motion

« on: July 06, 2017, 08:57:25 PM »

Cool, just finished supper & was about to post a suggestion or two.

Also the general section gets more traffic & your post would have been fine there.

12

Third party software and hardware support forums. / Re: Longs Motors CNC kit: need help getting motion

« on: July 06, 2017, 06:11:24 PM »

No problem; I'm definitely no expert but seem to muddle my way through most simple things with Mach (with a lot of help from the gurus here.)  I get out in the shop around 7:00 PM.  You may get an expert response before then as the Longs kit is pretty standard.

Are you using an XP PC, not a laptop?  Mach doesn't play nice with a laptop 3.3v PP.

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Third party software and hardware support forums. / Re: Longs Motors CNC kit: need help getting motion

« on: July 06, 2017, 05:59:18 PM »

Hiya, I have the exact Longs Motor kit that you have.  I had a few (self induced) problems myself but finally got it going OK.  I'm at work right now but will look at my settings to see if we can get it going.  What time zone are you in.  US I assume?  It's 5:00 PM where I am.

14

General Mach Discussion / Re: Can't get MDI to work in the standard mill screen.

« on: June 25, 2017, 06:18:22 PM »

Computers are so strange.  I connected my back-up CNC PC, copied over the .xml  & it works fine now.  Day of the week ends in Y I guess.

15

General Mach Discussion / Can't get MDI to work in the standard mill screen.

« on: June 25, 2017, 01:41:50 PM »

I'm one of those rare birds that uses Turn most of the time & am comfortable with it.  (XP w/parallel port.)

The few times I use Mill (standard screenset) something almost always goes wrong; usually self-inflicted.  This time it's the MDI line.  I press alt+2 & the line pops up as normal but when I type in a command, I get a beep as soon as I press enter & no movement from the motor.  Even something simple like "G00 Y2."  Jog works OK; just no MDI.

This is a new build & I only have the Y-axis hooked up & enabled for testing/alignment.  Any guesses to what I'm forgetting?

16

General Mach Discussion / Re: Z probe using a 3D printer bed levelling sensor?

« on: May 05, 2017, 02:49:56 PM »

The intended purpose of the sensor is not to compensate for an out of level table or z-axis.  It would be used as a simple z-axis probe input to accurately locate the work surface or the tool tip for cheap.  Taking advantage of cheap as chips Chinese 3D printer technology.  

Me being me, I will need help making it play nice with Mach if I decide to try one.  I guess it will require a macro or the like?

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General Mach Discussion / Z probe using a 3D printer bed levelling sensor?

« on: May 04, 2017, 10:41:14 AM »

I haven't jumped into 3D printing yet but keep running into inexpensive cool items like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Geeetech-3D-Touch-Auto-Bed-Leveling-Sensor-for-Prusa-3D-Printer-/322501978412?hash=item4b169da92c:g:0nMAAOSwGtRXw~nk

Wouldn't one of those things be useful for setting tools on a mill or router with existing Mach3 software? 

18

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Re: Current-Loop pickup.

« on: April 12, 2017, 04:24:17 PM »

Interesting stuff Tweakie; you are into a bit of everything!  I haven't played for years but really miss it at times.

Dummy me had never heard of that type of pickup but Mr. Google soon educated me.  Cool stuff!  If I get a pickup like that will it make me play like Tommy Emmanuel?

19

General Mach Discussion / Re: starting a lubrication pump

« on: March 14, 2017, 01:42:03 PM »

My P/Port machine uses a low current 5v relay controlled by a couple output pins on the CNC4PC C-11 B.O.B.  The 5V relay is switched on & off via M8/M9 commands from Mach.  That relay switches on/off a larger, higher current relay that switches the 12VDC power for the lube pump.  Simple, crude, cheap but it works.  I would think you can buy a cheap relay board to do the same thing.  I think they're all over ebay.

20

General Mach Discussion / Re: starting a lubrication pump

« on: March 13, 2017, 08:02:08 PM »

Sorry nobody's answered yet.  I use the parallel port to run my machines which is  different.   I think the signal output has to come from your ESS.  Have you poked around in the ESS instructions?  I think your answer will be there.