Messages

51

General Mach Discussion / Re: Can Mach3 control 3 Relay Switches?

« on: March 31, 2015, 09:48:02 AM »

X2 mini mill.

MAKE Oxy Fuel? Now that's a usage of Mach3 I've never heard of.

This community continues to amaze me!

52

General Mach Discussion / Re: Can Mach3 control 3 Relay Switches?

« on: March 31, 2015, 09:36:56 AM »

Yes, you can control as many relays as you have available outputs. I use the different outputs to control flood coolant, auxiliary spindle cooling fans, etc.

Wire your outputs to the solenoid that switches the 110v on and off and then set the outputs in Mach3 accordingly.

53

General Mach Discussion / Interference from cabling?

« on: March 31, 2015, 09:27:43 AM »

Hi  new here to Mach3 .  I have a cnc router and every now and then, the part is ruined because of an unplanned move while routing, especially aluminum.
Could this be interference from cabling?   I have the inverter separated from the g540 / computer and that helped some, but still have the jumping problem.  Also, is there any way to jog the z axis by .002 or .003 at a time without moving the job tab down to 10 %?  Thanks  adjaguar

@ adjaquar

I realize this was your third post, but it has nothing to do with the topic of this thread. For future reference, I'd encourage you to start a new topic instead; simply for the reason that your question/issue won't be found regarding cabling when buried within a ballnose topic.

Savvy?  <grin>

54

General Mach Discussion / Added Second Parallel Port - Now spindle is no longer smooth

« on: March 31, 2015, 09:16:19 AM »

Finally got Mach3 to recognize the second PP after downloading and installing the correct drivers. Used tests outlined at this and other forums for checking pin voltage.

Now, no matter what speed the spindle is turning at, is it pulsing in at a frequency directly correlated the rpm.

I'll never get a satisfactory finish in the aluminum this way nor could I stand that annoying undulating sound.

Maybe it's a simple setting somewhere that needs tweaked.
Any help would be very much appreciated.

I've already searched (yesterday and this morning) in this forum and the "zone" but haven't found anything to help.


Mach3 v.62, XP Pro SP3, Gecko 540 on PP1, cnc4pc C10 on PP2 (nothing connected on PP2 yet)

55

General Mach Discussion / Re: Need Help! Probe Suddenly Quit Working

« on: March 20, 2015, 10:53:00 AM »

Sorry for the late response. (Dealing with aging mother's health)

 Yep. Simple wiring issue.

56

General Mach Discussion / Re: Need Help! Probe Suddenly Quit Working

« on: March 12, 2015, 08:12:54 PM »

I shut the machine down and used a multimeter to check continuity from the probe tip through to the pin on the Gecko. No problem with that single wiring.

"Two" new wires? I have only checked one wire!

There is another wire that's grounded to the machine itself... maybe just maybe.......

57

General Mach Discussion / Re: Need Help! Probe Suddenly Quit Working

« on: March 12, 2015, 06:55:05 PM »

I thought about noise too but didn't know how to fix that problem. I have shielded wires to the steppers and home/limit switches to help.
Oddly it was working as I said then out of the blue it's stopped.

I get more flickering on PP2 than PP1 with or without the wire attached.

I don't have many caps laying around so where would I safely start on the numbers?
And when you say "across the probe input" are you talking about in series or parallel?

I certainly can't afford to let any magic smoke out.

Vogavt

58

General Mach Discussion / Re: Need Help! Probe Suddenly Quit Working

« on: March 12, 2015, 05:29:31 PM »

Report Back:

I moved the wire to the second parallel port and changed the Ports & Pins to reflect such. (from Port 1, Pin 11 to Port 2 Pin 11).

Now the Probe LED flickers even more but still at random intervals, sometimes fast intervals and sometimes not. What's even worse is it happens regardless of whether the probe is touching the material or not!

I uninstalled Mach3, used a registry cleaner to uninstall any traces in the registry (with the exception of 3 registry keys).
Reinstalled Mach3 v062 and used the plain jane Mach3.xml file and only changed the Pins & Ports for the Probe wire. Also tried both Port 1, Pin 11 & Port 2 Pin 11.

Acts exactly the same.
Changed the debounce to 3000.

I'm at a loss here as I've become very dependent upon the probing functionality and don't know what else to check.

Only thing I could do is reinstall the Windows Operating System but that's a bit drastic just yet.

59

General Mach Discussion / Need Help! Probe Suddenly Quit Working

« on: March 12, 2015, 01:20:16 AM »

Needless to say it was working before.

When I connect the probe wiring to the work piece or the bit in the spindle using an alligator clip I now get a random blink as if the probe has touched the work piece. (Used to stay on during testing until I disconnected it)

I've not made any changes to the system.
I've checked the wiring with a multimeter for continuity from the wiring right up to the Gecko 540's pin 11.
I tried adding a 1k resistor, a 68k resistor, 150 ohm and 220 ohm resistors to no avail.

I even tried to emulate and still got no response in Mach.

I'm wondering if the Gecko's gone bad. Everything else seems to be okay.

I do have another parallel port with a BOB and may trying different Ports & Pins for it tomorrow just to see.

I've loaded other screensets and that didn't work either.

Like I said, I've changed no wiring or settings, just tested it before probing down (as I always do) and discovered that today it didn't want to play ball.

Any insight for other items to check would be appreciated.

60

General Mach Discussion / Re: Control Panel Buttons and Mach 2010 Screenset

« on: March 07, 2015, 12:28:50 PM »

Thanks for the quick response Gerry!

Yes, I can easily assign keyboard commands through Ideazon's  Fang interface software.
I will look at the 2010 Manual for more insight to its specifics for that screenset.