Messages

31

General Mach Discussion / Re: Help controlling a stepper motor as a lowRPM spindle

« on: August 27, 2012, 03:20:15 PM »

Works nicely, thanks Hood

32

General Mach Discussion / Re: Help controlling a stepper motor as a lowRPM spindle

« on: August 27, 2012, 02:24:59 PM »

I used my hotkeys to jog, fine in both directions. It's when I send the axis to zero I hit the problems, from a minus position it goes to zero fine. From a plus position it wants to run away at speed to plus 360 

Barry.

33

General Mach Discussion / Re: Help controlling a stepper motor as a lowRPM spindle

« on: August 27, 2012, 10:46:38 AM »

Trying again with the right xml file.

34

General Mach Discussion / Re: Help controlling a stepper motor as a lowRPM spindle

« on: August 27, 2012, 09:47:45 AM »

After a little playing around (still not right) I found the following.

When I am using axis A as linear:
Plus and minus positions are displayed when I jog plus and minus (correct).
From a minus position it moves positive to 0 when I send it to zero (correct).
From a positive position, it moves positive, gaining speed, and stops at +360 (not correct)

When I am using axis A as Angular:
From 0 position the count goes positive when I jog plus (correct).
From 0 position the count starts from positive 360 counting down.

Something I notice on the screen is that the box to the right of the position display never moves from 'RADIUS CORRECT'. Should it change to 'SCALE +1.000' like the other axis XYZ?

35

General Mach Discussion / Re: Help controlling a stepper motor as a lowRPM spindle

« on: August 27, 2012, 07:45:01 AM »

Hi Hood, thanks for that macro. I have attached the xml file for my laser.
Barry.

36

General Mach Discussion / Re: Help controlling a stepper motor as a lowRPM spindle

« on: August 25, 2012, 11:34:21 AM »

Yes it is the A axis.
Not sure how to get the xml file, I will have to do it on Monday as I am only working until 11:30 (16:30 your time). I will grab what I can and send it then.

Thanks Hood, Barry.

37

General Mach Discussion / Re: Help controlling a stepper motor as a lowRPM spindle

« on: August 25, 2012, 11:14:59 AM »

Thanks Hood, I guess I should have looked closer. I can jog it +/- of '0', but when I go to zero from a minus position it goes to zero, and if I am in a plus position and go to zero, it moves in plus and the speed increases to maximum. Any ideas? If you were located closer, I'd buy you a pint for all your help

Barry.

38

General Mach Discussion / Re: Help controlling a stepper motor as a lowRPM spindle

« on: August 25, 2012, 09:48:28 AM »

Thanks Hood, I did know about the M numbering, I am using M101 - M106 to turn on outputs 1 thru 6, and M201 - M 206 to turn them off. I also use M200 to turn all outputs off together.
I hope you don't mind me picking your brain about all this, but I have had this unit for a month or so now and realising what a clever/powerful system this is. I have another question.

We want to have an additional axis (A), a future axis (B). I set up a motor/drive I had to axis A. I want it to act like one of my linear slides (inches), but when I jog it, the readout gives the position in degrees. Is there a way I can change it to a linear reading?

Barry.

39

General Mach Discussion / Re: Help controlling a stepper motor as a lowRPM spindle

« on: August 24, 2012, 02:14:15 PM »

Hi Hood,
I want to add an axis to position a rotary table, where a robot starts to laser harden a part. When the robot gives a 'Laser Complete' Input to the Mach 3, the table will rotate 60 degrees from '0', send a 'Table In Position' Output to the robot, and waits to rotate to the next position (120 degrees from '0') until the robot 'Laser Complete' input is given. Is there a macro that can have the program wait for the input? I have read up on some websites that say M66 is a macro to do this. My Mach 3 has a macro M66, but when I looked at it it has something to do with axis. Is there some code I can write for this?

Barry.

40

General Mach Discussion / Re: Help controlling a stepper motor as a lowRPM spindle

« on: August 15, 2012, 08:10:12 AM »

Thanks Hood.
I am used to programming articulated arm industrial robots (ABB, Fanuc, Kawasaki), and when each point is taught, you get the option of how accurate you want to be at that point before moving to the next point. This can vary from exact position to up to 10mm, exact point is usually when the robot needs to do something (pick up a part, start a weld, etc.). You can open the accuracy of a position to allow continuous flow in the path moving from one position to another. I was writing some G code to give me a decreasing spiral path (0.25 per rotation) using the following lines (X starting at 0).

G2 X2 R1 F2
G2 X0.25 R0.75
G2 X1.75 R0.75
G2 X0.5 R0.5
G2 X1.5 R0.5
G2 X.75 R0.25

I'll stop here as you know I had a wierd looking spiral, but I can work on the positions. When I ran my wierd path, I noticed that it stopped at the end of every line, not for long, but as I am lasing a part, I do not want the laser to stop at one point for even that short time. Is there a function that allows the path to flow from one line to the next without a pause?

Barry.