Messages

71

General Mach Discussion /

« on: February 04, 2015, 01:59:54 PM »

WE HAVE A WINNER!!!

Yeah...I'm shouting!!

 Thank you so much!

I changed it back to 5 and it balked again! Set it to 3000 and am leaving it alone!

72

General Mach Discussion /

« on: February 04, 2015, 01:53:41 PM »

I'll give that a go but seems odd that it would work on only two switches in the same loop as the other two.

Thanks

73

Share Your GCode /

« on: February 04, 2015, 01:09:02 PM »

DoSpinCW()

#1=0
M98 P111 L37
O111
#1=[#1+100]
 S #1
G04 P2

M99
%

I'm tried this as my m3.m1s file too but I'm still getting a "Scripter Compile Error in M3.m1s" message.

Anybody?

74

General Mach Discussion / Re: Homing Switches (2 of 4) won't back off once touching

« on: February 03, 2015, 07:09:11 PM »

Thanks for the response Hood!

I'm just about to give up on this thing. I've been staring at it all day. Yeah, I changed the 0 to 360 & 3600 for the A-Max. I'm clueless as to what it should be. I've also changed every parameter under the A-axis in General Config but "only" because one time it worked for the A-axis and also seemed to have fixed the Z as well. I thought to myself could it really be that simple. Nope! I tried it again and it failed!

I've changed the homing limits and software limits to negative numbers, changed the homing to negative direction in A-axis. Still both the Z & A run up to the triggering of the limit switch and just stop.  They're actually zeroing the number now (which they weren't even doing that before) just I have to manually move them each off their trigger.

Oddly while using the Mach3 2010 screenset and telling the machine to go to the Park position (X4.875, Y1.875 & Z-1.000 on my machine), the spindle traveled up to safe Z of 0.000, triggered the homing switch, then the X & Y moved anyway, then the spindle traveled back down to -1.00!

It appeared to hold the number somewhere and yet allow the other two axes to move and then move off the trigger automatically down to where it was supposed to be.  Did the parking routine again and it failed!

I'm now thinking I may need to reformat the hard disk and seriously start from scratch. Pretty drastic but I'm at a loss.
I keep thinking it has to be something simple, but it's all too flaky with it working then immediately not work.

75

General Mach Discussion / Re: Homing Switches (2 of 4) won't back off once touching

« on: February 03, 2015, 10:18:27 AM »

Okay, everything looked alright to me but it still doesn't work.

I removed the cheap 10-port hub due to it constantly dropping the peripherals and then reconnecting within a couple of seconds. Was just trying to clean up the wiring a little.

So...

I made screenshots of each dialog box that appears from the drop down menus within Mach3 and saved the images in a folder on the desktop.

I backed up the programs salient files (special macros, license, etc.) and did a complete uninstall of Mach3 including deleting the Mach3 Folder and rebooted.

I then re-installed and started the xml from scratch using the information within the screenshots.

Still no dice.

Vanilla Mach3, no Mach3 2010, no Simple Mach, no Big-Tex.... nothing but a fresh clean install.

X & Y are still finding Home and backing off, but the Z & A are just as before.

Now here's what's weird, if i change the Z min in the homing and limits settings I can 'sometimes" get it to work, "but" if I ever try to home the A-axis (which always fails), the Z won't work again.

These are all on the same wiring (in series) so I don't think it's a strange noise issue.

It has to be some incorrect number (negative or positive) that I'm missing in my Homing & Limits settings.

Could someone take a look at my xml?

Oh, one other thing... on the diagnostics tab I see multiple pins showing their green LED lit. I don't recall that before. Could be, though. Wouldn't you know that's the one snapshot that I failed to capture? Dang!!

76

General Mach Discussion / Re: Homing Switches (2 of 4) won't back off once touching

« on: February 02, 2015, 03:47:53 PM »

May be. I have had to manually zero in work coordinates to get them to work. Going to the shop to look at that settings tab.
Don't know what would have made them change though as I haven't been in there in the software in a while.

77

General Mach Discussion / Homing Switches (2 of 4) won't back off once touching

« on: February 02, 2015, 03:34:27 PM »

Mysterious issue. Was working fine before. I am using version R3.043.66.

When I home my mill's X & Y axes, everything is fine but when I home the Z or the A, it just stick's and I get a notification that the soft limits have been reached and it aborts the homing routine.

Tried a reinstall of Mach3 but not any better. I haven't uninstalled and reinstalled yet, just tried to overwrite the original.

I do have the configuration set to auto-zero.

I went back a week to use an older xml file but that didn't work either.

Only thing I've done is change out a USB hub to a 10-port model, but don't see where that would impact anything.

Maybe it's just so obvious I'm overlooking it but I can't seem to figure it out.

I really don't want to do a fresh install unless it's necessary.

78

Share Your GCode / Re: Soft Start for Spindle Motor G Code Routine

« on: February 01, 2015, 05:26:06 PM »

Yeah this is old but I need some help with the syntax.

Code: [Select]

DoSpinCW()


#1=0                     (sets variable "1" to zero, creating it first if it does not already exist)
M98 P111 L37         (calls subroutine "O111", 37 times)


 (place this at the end of the code with other subroutines)

O111
#1=[#1+100]                      (100 is the acceleration increment - this line raises variable 1's value by 100)
 S #1              (starts spindle if not already running, sets spindle speed to the value of variable 1)

G04 P2                 (waits 10ms)

M99                     (exit subroutine and go back to main code)
%

I'm saving this as my m3.m1s file but I'm getting a "Scripter Compile Error in M3.m1s" message.

79

Finished Screens / Re: Mach3 2010 Screenset - Now available

« on: January 11, 2015, 10:38:12 PM »

The plate is 0.358" as described. Software working correctly.

I've worked meticulously through the machine for the past two days and just now getting to post my findings.

Turned out to be a backlash issue. When I would tell it to go to 1", then 2", then 3" (with Dial indicator in place) it was landing at the correct position (dead on) so I'm certain my steps/per is correct. Upon reversing the direction, it oddly landed at the correct positions again so I'd dismissed backlash.

It took a battery of testing to final realize that somehow the backlash was in fact off and it became a hit and miss in that sometimes it was correct and sometimes not. Did some tightening/adjustments to finally reveal the culprit.

So for now it appears that I've gotten it ironed out.  It now is landing sometimes off by a thou and sometimes by a half thou.

I'll take that for the X2.

80

Finished Screens / Re: Mach3 2010 Screenset - Now available

« on: January 08, 2015, 09:55:52 AM »

Yes. The movable plate thickness is 0.358". Is that what you're seeing in my XML?