Topics

1

General Mach Discussion / Has anyone experince running a CO2 laser cutter with an AKZ250 Mot. Cont. board?

« on: October 14, 2018, 10:45:56 PM »

Hello, I'm hoping to use Mach3 to operate my diy 80W laser cutter engraver.  I've purchase the AKZ250 Motion Control board and am looking for any experiences running a laser cutter with this board and Mach3.  I would like some help with how to set up Mach3 to run a laser cutter.  Is PWM the preferred way to go with an 80W laser cutter running Mach3 and an AKZ250?  Are there any detailed procedures out there re laser operation with an AKZ250 and Mach3?  
Any help and experiences with this approach would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance.

Keith

2

General Mach Discussion / Anybody ever seen this???

« on: January 04, 2013, 08:02:19 AM »

Any help on this or ideas would be appreciated! 

I'm running probotix RF board with a licensed Mach3 program, Gecko G212s, and typical 4 wire, bipolar 400in/oz stepper motors.  I am trying to set up my gantry to run with 2 motors in the X direction to support both sides of the gantry and keep in square.   I have the master X axis drive set up and it works fine.  However, when I operate the slave motor, it only turns in one direction on advance and reverse commands from the manual gantry control in Mach3.  Same direction on either command.  I can flip the wires on the driver and it will reverse the rotation, but then it still only turns in the same direction regardless of forward or reverse manual input commands.  Does anyone have an ideas what to do here?   

3

General Mach Discussion / another wierd z problem

« on: June 21, 2012, 07:42:41 PM »

Please let me know if you have any ideas about what's going on here....  I have a home made 3 axis cnc router using probotix and gecko electronics/steppers, etc.  This has worked to some extent although I've had a few electronics problems that have been cured, I think.  Things seem to run ok in manual jog mode but now when I run a g code program Mach 3 will flash the z axis limit switch line on the diagnostics page (just a blip) and tell me I've hit a limit switch.  This happens in random areas, usually once per program.  And during the time that the machine is waiting to be reset and the program restarted, it jumps code (a varying number of lines), so I can't finish a program unless I reset the line pointer.  Here's the kicker, it does this even when it's in demo mode and the electronics are shut off....  What th'??

thanks for any help,
k

4

General Mach Discussion / the devil is in the details --or welcome to my nightmare.....

« on: April 16, 2012, 08:09:55 PM »

I just finished reconfiguring all my control wiring/circuit boards in a nice cabinet on the side of my diy 3 axis cnc router (34" x 46").  I went through and did all the shorted-path testing like a good service tech and found everything in fine shape.  So, I held my breath and plugged it in and switched the 24v DC to the control circuitry-- and fireworks.  Come to find out my DC switch had reversed leads on the down stream side so all my control circuits were back driven.  Called the folks at probotix and they gave me their condolences but all of the boards were probably junk...., BOB, stepper drivers, and relay dirvers, all toast.  The only saving grace was I had the sense not to connect my parallel port to the computer during this test.  Whew.  So when you're like me and sweating over the possiblity of ground loops or a short hidden in all the wiring, don't forget to check the polarity!  I blew a 5 amp main fuse and all the 3 amp board fuses during this debacle , but not soon enough, apparently.  Drat (not what I actually said when it happened).

 But this is not why I've started this thread.  In the meantime while building my new control box, I installed a new used computer and loaded Mach 3, etc.  I was ready to go, I thought.  Setting up with the previous computer was a piece of cake and everything was running great with the electronics in a jumble on the bench, cutting carving, etc. So after frying all my installed boards, I pulled from my spares and tried to just turn a stepper motor with the new computer but Mach 3 comes up in this "simulation" mode and I can't for the life of me get around it or get it to see the auxillary BOB and stepper.  Can anyone give me a quick explanation of what "simulation" is and how do I get rid of iit?  Thanks in advance. 

still banging my head against the wall...

Keith

5

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / g73 peck drill cycle

« on: March 24, 2012, 03:50:13 PM »

Hi, I'm new to gcode and have a question about the peck drilling routine, G73.  I'd like to be able to adjust the retract distance and it seems that I can't--unless I'm missing something.  i've got the z depth to .8, R (the start depth) at 0.0 (Z), L (num of cycles ) set at 1, Q(depth of peck) is set at 20.  I'd like to be able to pull the drill clear of the material after each peck.  Can any one tell me how to do that other than programming manually with G1?

Thanks  in advance for any help

Keith

6

VB and the development of wizards / wizard tutorial

« on: March 15, 2012, 08:51:45 PM »

I am new to Mach 3 and learning g code finally.  I see a lot of advantages in the wizard utilities and I wonder if there's a tutorial or an into site that tells you how to get started writing wizards for a 3 axis cnc machine.  Thanks in advance for any and all help.

keith