Topics

1

General Mach Discussion / Standalone THC for plasma configuration

« on: November 27, 2019, 09:34:06 AM »

Hi All

I am brand new to plasma and i have put my whole machine together from all kinds of parts. The x,y and z axis all work correctly when i do a normal axis tests. Directions all running correctly. My problem is configuring the standalone THC .

I have read quite a few forums by now, and cannot figure out how a standalone THC is configured to work with mach3.
A while back i bought a THC from Robot3t . The configuration documentation dont explain all i need to know.

The controller seem to be running the initial steps any THC standalone takes before it starts the cut.... touch off, pierce height, cutting height etc.

What i dont understand is how one need to configure the post processor to work in conjuction with the THC unit.

If i take the normal plasma PP from Cambam, it puts in its own touch off sequence and follows it like it would follow the Gcode in any case.
I am at the point where i can see that it mixes the postprocessor Gcode and the standalone THC touch off sequence all mixes up.
So it would for instance run a cut and while it is doing the x and y moves , i can see it does the standalone THC sequence for the z-axis as well inbetween. Obviously i need to configure my Cambam PP to work in conjunction with the THC.

The THC unit is a THC3T-04 unit from Robot3T. If someone has some experience on this unit , it would be even greater . 

So my questions are:
1. How does the Standalone THC unit know to follow its own sequence ?
2. What do i need/not need in my postprocessor  so it follows the THC sequence and NOT Cambams touch off sequence ?
3. What role does the M3.M1S macro play ? I have done some changes to this file as instructed by the documentation in order to get my input and output pins to work, which seem to be correct if i look at my touch off sequence running its course on a test , but NOT running actual
gcode.

If someone can just explain to me how all fits together i would be normal and happy again.

Thank you
Regards
Andre


 

2

VB and the development of wizards / Mach3 machine material surface ZERO script

« on: January 31, 2013, 02:50:24 AM »

Hi All

The script below must have been seen by a lot of users using cnc machines and mach3. A lot of the lines are self explained, but this is the problem i had trying to make this script work for me.
The whole procedure woks fine, and the toolbit moves down , touches the touchplate that is 2mm thick and moves back up. Mach3 tells that machine Z is now ZERO-ed.

The problem i had was this. I had to tell mach3 that my plate was 2.7mm thick and not 2mm in order to get the toolbit to be exactly on the workpiece surface.
Before  the toolbit was always like 1 mm , sometimes 2mm and other times .5 mm above the workpiece surface.
Now i realized that all machines and hardware are different in setup than just inserting the script and expect it to work will not be as easy.

I want to know now, what setting is causing this . My machine is calibrated on the z-axis , so 15mm is 15mm when i use the motor calibration option. Below is the script.

Thanx in advance everyone.
Andre

PlateThickness = 2.0 'Z-plate thickness DRO ' This option i had to change to 2.7mm in order to get it to work properly.

If GetOemLed (825)=0 Then 'Check to see if the probe is already grounded or faulty
DoOEMButton (1010) 'zero the Z axis so the probe move will start from here
Code "G4 P5" ' this delay gives me time to get from computer to hold probe in place
Code "G31 Z-0.5 F5" 'probing move, can set the feed rate here as well as how far to move
While IsMoving() 'wait while it happens
Wend
ZProbePos = GetVar(2002) 'get the axact point the probe was hit
Code "G0 Z" &ZProbePos 'go back to that point, always a very small amount of overrun
While IsMoving ()
Wend
Call SetDro (2, PlateThickness) 'set the Z axis DRO to whatever is set as plate thickness
Code "G4 P0.25" 'Pause for Dro to update.
Code "G0 Z 20.0" 'put the Z retract height you want here
Code "(Z axis is now zeroed)" 'puts this message in the status bar
Else
Code "(Z-Plate is grounded, check connection and try again)" 'this goes in the status bar if aplicable
Exit Sub
End If

3

General Mach Discussion / Mach3 loses home settings

« on: September 27, 2012, 08:26:32 AM »

I have done the home settings on my machine a few times now. Problem is that the settings get lost as soon as i close mach3 or switches the pc off.
When i restart my machine or re-opens mach3, the home settings are gone. The machine takes the current position of the cutting head as the new home position. then i cannot jog past zero in the middle of the table. I was not sure in the beginning, but now i`m sure. What do i need to do to save the home settings position?

I followed the tutorial on the video section on setting up the home position, and all is working great, but beware on exiting mach3 or switching off the pc.
The other thing that confuses me : my table is 1480(x-axis)x890(y-azis) big. Do i set the softmin to "0" and the soft max to "1480" & "890" ? These settings are when the machine hits the switch and it opens up to stop the machine from moving past this point.

At this point my biggest concern is the machine losing its home position.

THX
Andre

4

General Mach Discussion / laser pulsing instead of cutting a solid line

« on: September 21, 2012, 09:41:05 AM »

Hi All

Just a quick question.
I have my laser  running now, but the beam pulses instead of running constantly. The laser meter and tube confirm the pulsing. Its like switching on and off all the time. The test cut now show the dots and not a solid cut.
Anyone have any ideas ?

Thanx
Andre

5

General Mach Discussion / Mach3 Default Screen

« on: September 18, 2012, 03:31:53 AM »

Hi All

My question is relative simple. When i launch mach3 mill, i get a screen with the Spindle block at the far right hand side.
When i launch mach3 laser, i get a screen with a Fixture block at the far right hand side.

Screenshots attatched and area circled.

I dont have much use for the fixture block, and would like to replace it with the spindle block.
Where/how do i do this ?

Thanx
Andre

6

General Mach Discussion / GCODE rendering in mach3 all messed up

« on: September 13, 2012, 01:49:33 PM »

Hi All

I have ran into a strange bug in mach3 GCODE rendering. I have installed the same version (R3.043.022) on a Laptop(win 7) and on a normal desktop(win xp) pc.
When i load the gcode into mach3 on the laptop, the code renders just fine, and one can see all the outlines perfectly.
When i load the same code into mach3 on the desktop, i get the strangest rendering one has ever seen. Its like a small child has taken a pink crayon and made a few hundred circles over the middle of the CGODE outlines.

I have attatched both screenshots of the laptop and the desktop. The problem can be seen miles away. My actual cnc is connected to the Desktop running win xp.

Hopefully someone has dealt with this problem before, and can sort me out . This problem has driven me crazy for weeks now.
If i proceed to run the cgode, the outer two elliptical lines seem to be executed correctly, but after this, the actual writing seem to be confusing mach3. The head then just proceed to run in circles all the times as it is following the strange circles in the middle of the drawing/GCODE. On the laptop, the code executes and follow the lines perfectly as it should.

How can the same GCODE on the same version get rendered so differently/faulty..

Thanx all
Baffled Mach3 user

7

General Mach Discussion / Mach 3 table size and drawing units confusion

« on: September 05, 2012, 04:58:23 AM »

Hi All

I have been thinking and reading bout this for a while now.
I have read the manual on the home position and re-setting the actual home position to where you want ..offsetting is what they call it i think.

I have a test gcode file that is 237mm wide. When i pull the file into mach, it seems that the size of this object is all the way across the table. My table is like 1,5 meters across by 900 mm in the y axis, so its a pretty big working area.
Now my question : If i load this file, why is it so huge and all across the table width of nearly 1.5 meters when its actually only 237mm wide. I`m obviously missing something..

Thanx guys
Andre

8

General Mach Discussion / PWM signal not showing correctly

« on: August 29, 2012, 02:55:18 AM »

Hi All

I have been at this problem for weeks now. My laser switches the beam either on 100% or off , there is no control of the laser intensity when i use S10, S100 , S1000.
The signal coming out of the selected pwm pin (1 in my case) , does not show on my scope as a square wave at all. When the signal switches on to fire the laser, it just show the trace on the scope screen to jump up a few notches ...still as a straight line and the amp meter shows 30MA. That is all that happens. I have played with the base frequency and kernel speed, but the same results keep showing. Basically the GCODE only responds to the on/off code (M11p1 & M10p1)...there is no control by using any 'S' command. My question now :

How difficult is it to see a square wave pwm signal on the scope (My scope is capable of signals up to 20 megaherts)  ? I have played with all the knobs trying to see any signal, but nothing, i mean the square wave should show up quite easily  ..??

The other thing that is worth mentioning is that the printer port cable is about 2 metres long running all across the machine to the other side where i have found a nice place for it to sit inside the machine....can this possiblly cause problems with the pwm signal ?

I know that i should have a clean pwm signal before i look for the problem down further. Why would the trace on the scope only show a shift in the trace line itself instead of a square wave ?? I have played around with the base frequency from 5 all the way up to 9999999 , in which case mach3 make it 41666 or something like that.

Should i be bothered by the pwm signal not showing correctly, or am i totally on the wrong track here ?

Any help would be greatly appreciated as i`m not sure where to go from here.

Andre

9

General Mach Discussion / Laser Focal lens selection method

« on: July 05, 2012, 01:17:14 AM »

When my laser focal assembly fell on the floor and the lens inside broke in small pieces, i was really wondering if it was possible to find a replacement lens. When i got onto Ebay, i  was astound that this little piece was readily available.
My problem is now that there are different lenses with focal sizes and colours.
How do i know what the focal length is. The lens that broke was dark grey in colour. Is there a reason for the lens colours ? I have seen orange one`s and my one that broke is grey in colour. Does the colour mean anything ? What focal size do i go for? I have seen 40mm, 50mm and so on ..i`m confused. How do i make this selection?

The lens size in diameter is 21mm, so i have that one covered, but what about the rest. The method for getting the focal distance correct when the laser was still working was to put a small piece of perspex 2mm thick under the cutting nozzle. The laser has a big tube (1,8 meters long) that has a spec of  100Watts.

I was thinking of measuring the distance between the last mirror that shoots the beam down up to the focal mirror position, and take this as the Focal distance measurement..

Any info will help.

Thanx
Andre

10

General Mach Discussion / Cnc code for laser switching

« on: June 06, 2012, 10:10:31 AM »

I have read hundreds of post bout the M11P1/M10P1 codes. I understand what it is suppose to do, but since i`m a newby, i have difficulty understanding how all this fits into a cnc code file. My previous experience was with a chinese REDSALE laser, which broke down. The machine is nearly on its way back from the scrappile 75% complete with new hard/software. Can someone please explain to me in a very simple way how the commands will look like in a very basic cnc file like this:
I have 2 circles one 100mm and the other 200mm across. So my way of understanding in normal txt is below :

*switch laser on* (M11P1)
*start cutting 100mm circle*
*switch laser off * (M10P1)
*switch laser on and start cutting 200mm circle* (M11P1)
*switch laser off* (M10P1)

I have also read that the movement of the z axis need to play a part here in the switching of the laser. I have many DXF files from my previous projects, so i have the cnc code i need , except i need to edit the files and insert the proper code in the right places.
Thanx
Andre