Topics

1

General Mach Discussion / milling text

« on: July 19, 2008, 11:12:02 AM »

   To cut to the chase: what's the fastest, cheapest, quickest way to get to where I can mill text letters...NOTHING FANCY required!
  I know I've already done what I want to with a trial Mach (I think I did it with a wizard...maybe 2.6?) & it worked great for what I want to do.
  Now I've since bought a license for 3.0 and find a write wizard that seems to only do one single line of text....to slow
  Then I buy (maybe even re bought) a license from newfangled, expecting a text wizard &...no dice, even though I know I saw it promised somewhere.
  Can anybody offer some info on this?.....thanks, in advance, GPDC

2

General Mach Discussion / G Code for Lighthouse

« on: May 13, 2008, 08:10:07 AM »

  Anybody have any ideas as to where I might get the G code for a lighthouse?.....maybe this should be in the Gcode sction, but I wanted maximum exposure to the knowledgeable wise ones!...thnaks, GPDC

3

General Mach Discussion / MaxCNC (or was it CNCMax?)

« on: April 03, 2008, 10:56:14 PM »

   This is for either poppabear or his buddy hillbilly to comment on, if either of you guys would care to enlighten me a bit on this subject....here goes....late Sunday afternoon @ the Mach Convention, hillbilly had set up a 'lil blue cnc machine & it was chugging right along cutting a 3D Torus on a block of machinable wax...remember?....poppabear did the program & hillbilly did the mechanical setup & ran the job....what I'm real curious about was the exact setup/configuration/etc. it took to get Mach to run that particular machine, seeing as how I now know that it comes from the maker with another software loaded (or is it Mach, maybe under Artsoft license...with another name?.....I'm told it's near identical to Mach)....next question is how does Mach receive the position signal from that machines' resolvers and what can it do with it?....if my memory serves, did we not learn that weekend that Mach will shut down a servo driven machines' movement if a max position error is met or exceeded, but cannot "reposition" an axis?....bottom line is that I'm about to be asked to do some R&R mechanical work to an identical mill & the customer wants it to run under Mach, so he can have commonality of this great software with another of his machines.
 Thanks, George P

4

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Machine #2

« on: February 21, 2008, 10:39:08 PM »

  This one I get to keep....will add the guarding/chip trap and other goodies next week after return from Knoxville...
It cut the Carve3D leaf bowl beautifully for me...now I'm entering the Solids learning curve....GPDC

5

General Mach Discussion / Knoxville

« on: February 03, 2008, 11:09:58 PM »

  Anyboby from (roughly) central New York going to Knoxville?
 I'm registered, so I'm going & looking for a co-pilot/shotgun rider...
 Mapquest has it @ about 13 hours driving, which I'm planning to do alone (wifey not interested in this trip) at this point,as I really want to go & see stuff...and my air miles need 30 days prior to be useable, so that's out.
 So, if you're interested in being a passenger, or want a passenger, or want a co-pilot or any combination of the above, please get back to me so we can discuss this.
                                            GPDC

6

General Mach Discussion / Success!

« on: January 19, 2008, 11:51:23 AM »

  Just now I'm seeing (3) little black motors  all doing just what their supposed to.....MANY THANK TO ALL!...especially HOOD for the help...pics will follow...
                                                                                           GPDC

7

General Mach Discussion / Logic Probe

« on: January 13, 2008, 10:49:50 PM »

  This may be a little off topic, if it is , ignore me & I'll go away
Long story short: I've aquired a BK logic probe (with pulse sensing) to help me troubleshoot start up problems with a HobbyCNC 4AUPC R2 board...this probe has black & red power leads, and then the actual probe tip....must I get onto my computers' 5 vdc logic power supply to use this device to "see" the pulse train @ the respective LPT1 pin?....I figure I need this to determine the pulse train to the board is valid, the Dir hi or lo I can see using a VOM between Pin 25 (gnd) & the respective pin I've got set  for that in Mach....two days of silence over @ the hobby forum tells me nobody's got any info for me, but maybe oneof you wizzards amongst the guru's here can give me a little guidence?...I'd sure be appreciative!.....thanks,GPDC

8

General Mach Discussion / step & dir pulses

« on: January 12, 2008, 12:40:19 AM »

  what time length should I have set for the step & dir pulses to a Hobby 4AUPC R2 board?.....same question for the newer Pro board...anybody?

9

General Mach Discussion / HotKeys....

« on: July 24, 2007, 06:42:53 PM »

      I'm trying,(most of today) but I'm getting nowhere fast it seems...information overload I guess....I need to assign a HotKey (the character H, would be my # choice) to the Ref All Home command...can anybody please give me a detailed account of how to go about this?....ultimately, I'll map that character to my IPAC inputs & momentarily close the switch, so to speak, with a relay output from the PLC.....I'd really appreciate any info & thnks much in advance...George P.

10

General Mach Discussion / Keyboard/keystroke emulators...revisited

« on: July 24, 2007, 11:58:07 AM »

HELP!
  somewhere exists a chart of all the mouse pointer inputs (Mach commands) and the keystrokes I need to use to simulate those inputs...but I can't find it.
  Probably the simplest of which is "ALT-R" for "start" & "tab" gets me the jog screen....
 I need to tie the "Ref All Home" command into my PLC control circuit (and the IPAC) to prevent further crashes.
         many thanks in advance for your help.....George P.