Messages

1

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: I am missing a simple g-code for an engraving program.

« on: February 20, 2012, 12:46:19 PM »

Sorry, I'm new here and didnt realize there was an area specifically for g-code related questions.

2

General Mach Discussion / Re: Gcode doesnt translate exactly from engraving software to mach3

« on: February 19, 2012, 04:46:06 PM »

Thanks, thats easier than placing G91.1 on each program.

3

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: I am missing a simple g-code for an engraving program.

« on: February 19, 2012, 03:25:24 PM »

BAM! figured it out, mach3 needed G91.1 at the beginning.

4

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / I am missing a simple g-code for an engraving program.

« on: February 19, 2012, 03:12:43 PM »

Hi, I'm trying to engrave "DaddyD" to test this software but I'm a lathe guy and dont know much about mill specific gcodes (just setup my mill), and on the backplot in the engrave software it looks fine but when I load the program into mach3 there are these giant loops between characters.  WHen I find the lines pertaining to these loops and delete them, they are replaced by a single large loop.  The for example:

N78 G03 X0.232390157133184 Y0.181771015013733 I0.0198090342058773 J-0.0594887306766814
N79 G03 X0.224534946722052 Y0.177307206068268 I0.0332373241062225 J-0.0676330771540921
N80 G03 X0.218140936447834 Y0.171956497717594 I0.0482173340150926 J-0.0641146611298763
N81 G03 X0.21258046857091 Y0.166181790922051 I0.0487392252170336 J-0.0524954647380381
N82 G03 X0.207853543091278 Y0.159983085681641 I0.0492459239742893 J-0.0424549463426944
N83 G03 X0.20396016000894 Y0.153360381996363 I0.0531928355585103 J-0.0357270104890069
N84 G03 X0.200900319323895 Y0.146313679866218 I0.0571397471427121 J-0.0289990746353085
N85 G03 X0.198674021036143 Y0.138842979291204 I0.0610866587269363 J-0.0222711387816181
N86 G03 X0.197281265145685 Y0.130948280271323 I0.0697367432676982 J-0.0163729206692287
N87 G03 X0.196722051652519 Y0.122629582806574 I0.0796537973424777 J-0.00953276666356791
N88 G03 X0.197374839256297 Y0.114451656425016 I0.07890714479538 J0.00218359757227423
N89 G03 X0.198834433797193 Y0.106691371281607 I0.0699637354834531 J0.00914173438165065
N90 G03 X0.201100835275207 Y0.0993487273763447 I0.0643786209264165 J0.0158501904126425
N91 G03 X0.20417404369034 Y0.0924237247092304 I0.0591930222468443 J0.0221245197294302
N92 G03 X0.20805405904259 Y0.0859163632802638 I0.0561192143734632 J0.0290506804391297
N93 G03 X0.212740881331959 Y0.079826643089445 I0.0547968485251841 J0.0373248008685833
N94 G03 X0.218234510558446 Y0.0741545641367738 I0.053350672138005 J0.0461757660698653
N95 G03 X0.224534946722052 Y0.0689001264222503 I0.0536395037993813 J0.0579129452654158
N96 G03 X0.233599209956552 Y0.0641930043092161 I0.0412688661484263 J0.0683884813571421
N97 G03 X0.242568265599039 Y0.0609888020413725 I0.0267070946386357 J0.0606022859936755
N98 G03 X0.251442113649512 Y0.0592875196187194 I0.0150529263425917 J0.0545221706236249
N99 G03 X0.260220754107971 Y0.0590891570412569 I0.00554045863072276 J0.050845055642965
N100 G03 X0.268904186974417 Y0.0603937143089849 I-0.00322889485363744 J0.0510440065354658
N101 G03 X0.277492412248849 Y0.0632011914219034 I-0.0132245445473956 J0.0549942642689134
N102 G03 X0.285985429931268 Y0.0675115883800126 I-0.0256480097952602 J0.0610580507811533
N103 G03 X0.294383240021672 Y0.0733249051833123 I-0.0411711259461568 J0.0684473672522249

THis was produced by the software, up to line 82 all is good then each line up to line 99 are these circles.  What am I missing??
While the engraving software backplot looks good, if I select absolute coordinates for arc centers i,j,k- I get the same funnylooking swirls as in mach3.

Dave

5

General Mach Discussion / Gcode doesnt translate exactly from engraving software to mach3

« on: February 19, 2012, 02:49:53 PM »

Hi, I'm trying to engrave "DaddyD" to test this software but I'm a lathe guy and dont know much about mill specific gcodes (just setup my mill), and on the backplot in the engrave software it looks fine but when I load the program into mach3 there are these giant loops between characters.  WHen I find the lines pertaining to these loops and delete them, they are replaced by a single large loop.  The for example:

N78 G03 X0.232390157133184 Y0.181771015013733 I0.0198090342058773 J-0.0594887306766814
N79 G03 X0.224534946722052 Y0.177307206068268 I0.0332373241062225 J-0.0676330771540921
N80 G03 X0.218140936447834 Y0.171956497717594 I0.0482173340150926 J-0.0641146611298763
N81 G03 X0.21258046857091 Y0.166181790922051 I0.0487392252170336 J-0.0524954647380381
N82 G03 X0.207853543091278 Y0.159983085681641 I0.0492459239742893 J-0.0424549463426944
N83 G03 X0.20396016000894 Y0.153360381996363 I0.0531928355585103 J-0.0357270104890069
N84 G03 X0.200900319323895 Y0.146313679866218 I0.0571397471427121 J-0.0289990746353085
N85 G03 X0.198674021036143 Y0.138842979291204 I0.0610866587269363 J-0.0222711387816181
N86 G03 X0.197281265145685 Y0.130948280271323 I0.0697367432676982 J-0.0163729206692287
N87 G03 X0.196722051652519 Y0.122629582806574 I0.0796537973424777 J-0.00953276666356791
N88 G03 X0.197374839256297 Y0.114451656425016 I0.07890714479538 J0.00218359757227423
N89 G03 X0.198834433797193 Y0.106691371281607 I0.0699637354834531 J0.00914173438165065
N90 G03 X0.201100835275207 Y0.0993487273763447 I0.0643786209264165 J0.0158501904126425
N91 G03 X0.20417404369034 Y0.0924237247092304 I0.0591930222468443 J0.0221245197294302
N92 G03 X0.20805405904259 Y0.0859163632802638 I0.0561192143734632 J0.0290506804391297
N93 G03 X0.212740881331959 Y0.079826643089445 I0.0547968485251841 J0.0373248008685833
N94 G03 X0.218234510558446 Y0.0741545641367738 I0.053350672138005 J0.0461757660698653
N95 G03 X0.224534946722052 Y0.0689001264222503 I0.0536395037993813 J0.0579129452654158
N96 G03 X0.233599209956552 Y0.0641930043092161 I0.0412688661484263 J0.0683884813571421
N97 G03 X0.242568265599039 Y0.0609888020413725 I0.0267070946386357 J0.0606022859936755
N98 G03 X0.251442113649512 Y0.0592875196187194 I0.0150529263425917 J0.0545221706236249
N99 G03 X0.260220754107971 Y0.0590891570412569 I0.00554045863072276 J0.050845055642965
N100 G03 X0.268904186974417 Y0.0603937143089849 I-0.00322889485363744 J0.0510440065354658
N101 G03 X0.277492412248849 Y0.0632011914219034 I-0.0132245445473956 J0.0549942642689134
N102 G03 X0.285985429931268 Y0.0675115883800126 I-0.0256480097952602 J0.0610580507811533
N103 G03 X0.294383240021672 Y0.0733249051833123 I-0.0411711259461568 J0.0684473672522249

THis was produced by the software, up to line 82 all is good then each line up to line 99 are these circles.  What am I missing??

Dave

6

General Mach Discussion / Cant get motors to calibrate

« on: February 18, 2012, 08:35:59 PM »

Motors turning, yay.  I went through the procedure to calibrate the motors and its not working.  I'm using the sherline driver setup with motors  800 steps per revolution (microstepping), equates to 16,000 steps/inch.  I setup the machine in inches but it seems its moving in metric, how can I tell what units the dro is showing?  When I auto set the axes, the steps per are huge sometimes 30,000 and when I restart mach3 I get a warning that the kernel speed is too low for the setting. 

7

General Mach Discussion / Re: Sherline driver acting wierd

« on: February 18, 2012, 06:41:31 PM »

I just looked it up and found that my pins were in fact reversed because they are not listed in the same order as shown on the mach3 output page.  It works now!  I'd buy you a beer if I could!  Thanks!

Dave

8

General Mach Discussion / Re: Sherline driver acting wierd

« on: February 18, 2012, 06:28:10 PM »

Wow.  This was a complete cnc upgrade kit from sherline.  It was working yesterday and the only things I disconnected and reconnected were the motor plugs which are definitely in the correct plugs the whole time.  I literally didnt change anything.  One thing that comes to mind is that when I had evertything working yesterday, I guess the setting for the pins were not saved because when I started up mach3 this morning, I noticed all pins were 0's, so I thought- oh, i didnt save the settings somehow- I'll just reset them to what they were yesterday.  I wonder if I need to reinstall mach3 and start from scratch...

9

General Mach Discussion / Re: Sherline driver acting wierd

« on: February 18, 2012, 06:14:18 PM »

Hi, thank you!  Yes I just chacked again and the pins are 3-4, 5-6, 7-8.  yesterday they were 2-3, 4-5, 6-7 but if I try those, nothing happens but a low hum.

10

General Mach Discussion / Sherline driver acting wierd

« on: February 18, 2012, 05:58:35 PM »

First post.  The problem is the motors are spinning in only one direction regardless of the + or - in the mpg I use in mach3 for all of the 3 axes.  But it wasnt always like this..

Yesterday I set everything up but did not attach the motors to my mill yet.  I set the pins as x-2-3, y-4-5, z-6-7 , and 1's for the end columns for all 3 axes  as well and all worked well. 

This morning I proceded to install the motors.  on one of them I rotated the handwheel and realized that I may have screwed something because you are not supposed to do that with the motors connected to the driver unit.  After trying to run the motors again, nothing happened except humming from all of them.  I tried playing with the pinouts and found that they have changed to x-3-4, y-5-6, and z-7-8.  The only problem is that they now only move in one direction, and when I play with the activehigh and direction checkboxes, it doesnt affect anything.  Also, if i try to fiddle with the pinouts, the direction of sole movement may change, now moving only in the other direction.

Did I kill the driver by moving the handwheel?