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Messages - martin

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General Mach Discussion / Re: Axis direction doesn't always change
« on: November 09, 2017, 09:18:59 AM »
Hi Martin,

You need to leave the voltmeter connected to the axis direction pin. Make a note of the voltage for each direction of the axis movement when jogging. When it goes in the wrong direction is the voltage correct for that axis direction ?

Tweakie.

I did check the voltages with the axis moving for both X & Y axis but it was just a quick check & I honestly don't know if the axis was moving the right or the wrong way so will check that again but be a bit more thorough lol, what would cause the voltage to change & what would the fix be if I found there was a difference ?
Would like to go back & be able to sort this rather than keep having to make trips out to see him.


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General Mach Discussion / Re: Axis direction doesn't always change
« on: November 09, 2017, 04:34:58 AM »
Will give that a try Craig & report back, the machine has shielded cables, is correctly earthed & was running fine prior to the old compute melt down but anything is worth trying lol
It is just the one axis as well, what I haven't done which might be worth trying is switching the cables for X & Y axis to see if the problem moves.

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General Mach Discussion / Re: Axis direction doesn't always change
« on: November 08, 2017, 08:05:21 PM »
I forgot I had asked this question lol, the guy had an accident (welding) & hadn't been near the machine since I asked this question the first time round. He now wants to try & get things moving so he can use it again. voltage on that particular pin seems to be fine.
Tried several keyboards just in case it was a keyboard error & still the same problem, sometimes it jogs the right way & sometimes it doesn't. There doesn't seem to be any consistency to it. Even if you just keep jogging in the same direction at some point it starts to travel the other way.
Ran a gcode file that I knew was good & he had cut before with the old computer & it does exactly the same thing so not just a problem with jogging from the keyboard.
Sure someone must have experienced this problem in the past lol

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General Mach Discussion / Re: Axis direction doesn't always change
« on: May 12, 2017, 06:00:20 AM »
OK I can check that thanks ger21 but what would cause the voltage to be different on just one pin & is there anything that could have caused it to change, I never had a problem like this when I was using the computer with my machine. Only reason I changed my computer was because I had a spare one & set that up to work with an ethernet motion controller. Using a different comtuter meant that if I hit a problem I knew I could always switch back if I had a problem  :)
His cnc electronics are different to mine, BOB, drivers & power supply but I wouldn't have thought that would make a difference.

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General Mach Discussion / Axis direction doesn't always change
« on: May 11, 2017, 03:21:02 PM »
Friend of mine's computer died & I had one that I had been using before making some upgrades, machine is running windows 7 32bit via the parallel port & has been optimised to run mach3. This computer had been running my CNC for a couple of years without any problems. I removed myself as a user & deleted all my files, removed my licence file for mach3 & installed my friends licence code & the profile that he had been using with his old computer. Those were the only changes to the computer.

Now it is hooked up to his cnc machine the Y & Z axis seem to be working as normal but there seems to be a random problem with the X axis. If you press the left arrow key the machine moves to the left as it should or if you press the right arrow key it moves to the right as it should. The problem is that on occasions if you move to either the right or left (doesn't seem to matter) then move in the opposite direction the machine carries on moving the way it had previously been moving rather than changing direction  :)
I thought this may be a keyboard problem but I have now tried 3 different keyboards & same thing happens with them all, every now & again the axis doesn't change direction when it should. Haven't tried cutting anything to see if it does the same thing when cutting just in case there was a problem  

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General Mach Discussion / Re: mach3 or computer problem
« on: November 12, 2016, 07:36:04 AM »
Bob, not had a chance to look at it further yet, pesky work keeps getting in the way, my computer doesn't shut down though, mach3 freezes or seems slow to respond.
If your computer is shutting down then that could well be an overheating problem, first thing to do is take the side panel off & give the inside of the case a good clean, you would be surprised just how much dirt & dust they suck in over time. Make sure you also clean between the fins of any heatsinks. Leave the side panel off & start it up, check all the fans are running. Is this a new set up or a problem that has started on a machine that was previously been running OK Bob ?

Thanks for the replies people, don't think it's processor problem but will check the HDD, will also run a memory test to make sure its not caused by failing memory, computer has a dedicated graphics card & everything has been fine for a couple of years but will turn off display just as a quick check.

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General Mach Discussion / mach3 or computer problem
« on: November 08, 2016, 11:10:30 AM »
Hoping an expert can help with this problem that seems to have developed, been running mach3 on a windows 7 32bit computer using a parallel port connection for a couple of years now without any issues, the computer has been optimised from info I have read on forum, not connected to internet, no other programs other than mach3 installed, never shuts down or sleeps & doesn't run background tasks to the best of my knowledge. I have ran jobs lasting up to 7 or 8 hours without problem on the machine & its been fine with every job I have cut.
Over the last week or so i seem to have developed a problem I haven't been able to identify.

Mach3 seems slow to respond when I do anything like try to change speed or feed rates & it seems to freeze/stop for no apparent reason, today while cutting some moulding all 3 axis stopped moving, the code wouldn't advance but the spindle didn't stop & it didn't cause an emergency stop to the program.

I have checked the computer & can't find anything wrong with it, it is also clean inside. I haven't made any changes to the machine or the mach3 program that I am aware of so at a bit of a lose just now, am going to try uninstalling mach3 & installing again but work just now isn't giving me much time to investigate further

Any help or advice would be much appreciated   

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Thanks for the reply Gerry, I was actually assuming that this was using the correct current settings for the selected wiring configuration, they show wiring configurations for 4, 6 & 8 wire motors & give examples of voltage & current settings for some leadshine motors.
It was the mention of low & high speed movements that had me wondering, my machine runs really slowly compared with some that I have seen. That is possibly me being way to cautious with it, it runs that slowly that I have fitted a zimmer frame lol.
Motor temperature was actually something that had me checking the set up initially, the motors don't seem to run very warm at all & should be running much warmer than they are.

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Question for the machine building experts if you don't mind please.
I've got an old Gerber system 48 which has been updated with new steppers & runs under mach3, It runs via a parallel port bob using Leadshine Am882 drivers & 3.1Nm stepper motors that are wired in Parallel configuration.

The AM882 set up instructions are pretty good & I had no problem setting the machine up & getting it running properly, recently I had to go back to the set up guide & while reading about seting up motors in different configurations I started to think that maybe I would be better with the motors wired is series rather than parallel.

The guide briefly describes each set up & what caught my eye was the part that said that with series low speed torque was better but when operating at high speed torque was reduced & with parallel high speed torque was good but low speed torque wasn't so good.

So the question is what would be classed as high speed & what would be classed as low speed ? The machine is quite old & is belt driven so I don't tend to run it that fast, well I don't think I do but not being sure what is classed as fast & slow speed I;m not really sure, just wondering if I would be better with the motors set up to run series rather than parallel

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Hello People, my name is Martin I live in Scotland in the UK. I am completely new to cnc machines. Spent 20 years in the RN as an engineer so trained to use all sorts of manual machinery but cnc machines didn't really start appearing in workshops until after I had been medically discharged.
I work part time as a signmaker & a while ago picked up an old Gerber System 48 that was sold spares or repair because of a motherboard fault. Original plan was to try & repair it but due to a total lack of available technical info on such an old machine all the original electronics were removed & replaced with modern replacements. That meant it would no longer run the gerber software so having looked round for something else I settled on mach3.
Haven't actually done anything with the machine yet as I have had a couple of problems setting mach3 up to run it. Managed to sort most of the problems but still having trouble trying to get the table to display in the table display screen. Hope to be able to find an answer here to that problem or ask a question if I can't find a post.
No doubt I will need lots of other help as time goes on & I actually start using the machine.

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