Messages

1

General Mach Discussion / Re: XBOX Controller not working

« on: February 16, 2013, 12:14:56 PM »

It's "ok"..I have to play with it a little more to really get comfortable with it...For now I have both connected.
It seems right now that I have better "fine" control with the keyboard.

2

General Mach Discussion / Re: XBOX Controller not working

« on: February 02, 2013, 07:43:58 AM »

AAAHHHHHHHH!!!   I was wondering why it wasn't a dll flie...Now it works perfectly!!!
THANK YOU!!!

3

General Mach Discussion / XBOX Controller not working

« on: February 01, 2013, 06:20:23 PM »

Hello,
Just purchased an official Microsoft wired xbox contoller. Installed the drivers and directx and Windows XP sees the contoller
and says all is working properly. Downloaded the plugin from the Downloads portion of this site and installed in the Mach plugins folder.
Mach does not see the plugin and does not have any error messages. I removed all but the downloaded file from the folder and
Mach still cannot see the plugin...
Any help would be appreciated.
Thank you
Art

Attached is the file I downloaded...Is it correct???

4

General Mach Discussion / Re: z axis reverses direction

« on: January 30, 2013, 09:58:52 PM »

OK...After checking everything in Mach and reloading the software, it performed exactly the same.
I traced all the wires and found 1 connection for the z-axis motor that was loose. I repaired it and ran it through its paces.......All is well with the world....SO FAR!!
Thank to all

5

General Mach Discussion / z axis reverses direction

« on: January 30, 2013, 08:19:41 PM »

Just finished reworking my machine to use ball screws on the x axis. Y and Z stayed the same and worked fine prior.
Also hooked up x and y limit switches which were inactive before.
Now here is the problem.
Page up raises the Z. Release Page up and Push again....Z axis goes down. Wait about 3 seconds and press the page up and the z goes up.
Same thing happens on the Page down. If I wait in between key strokes for about 3 seconds each direction works fine.
I did not rewire the z on the rework and the router is not on.
What is really strange is that everything worked yesterday before hooking up the limit switches.
There was a similar post in 09 but there was no "answer" and I do not know how to bring that thread back to the top.
Thank you for any help or suggestions.
Art

6

General Mach Discussion / 1605 Ball Screw settings

« on: January 27, 2013, 08:28:44 PM »

Hello All,
I replaced a 1 motor chain drive on the x-axis with 1605 ball screws on each side of the gantry. Mach is set up in inches so I did the math and came up with 2013.597 steps
on the x and A(slave) motors. I think I did the math right starting with a 5mm pitch on the screws. My problem is that when I tell Mach to move 5 inches in the x , it
measures short. In order to solve the problem I increased the steps to 2050.
My question is if this is a viable way to correct the error or is there something else I should be doing?
I also set the velocity to 30 and the acceleration to 2 which seems to be accurate with a stop watch.
My problem with the velocity is now none of the axis controls react to the "shift" key and "arrow' key to go "faster".
Thank you for any guidance.
Art

425 oz motors
200 steps/rev
driver set to 1:2

7

General Mach Discussion / Re: Problem with pocket holes and z axis

« on: January 13, 2013, 03:26:11 PM »

OK, After taking a closer look at everything, here is what I did. I took apart the ball screw assembly for the z-axis and redid the upper bearing(felt like it was binding). Ground a flat on the ball screw shaft and
put another set screw in the coupling. I have a Lovejoy coupling now, but I'm going to install a more robust coupling just to be sure I'm not getting any slippage.
I also ran a test with a higher quality router bit and that also helped. Maybe I'm loosing some steps with too much force on a lower quality bit.
Before doing all the mechanical changes I took your advise and changed the Mach settings, and that did help but I think most of the issues are mechanical.
I also come to find out the table is not parallel with the gantry so I'm loosing about .03" as it traverses the y-axis.
The whole purpose for this part is new uprights for the gantry and new ballscrews on the x-axis. It looks like now I can make these parts before disassembling the whole machine to rework it....
Thanks to everyone for your help..
Art

8

General Mach Discussion / Re: Problem with pocket holes and z axis

« on: January 12, 2013, 09:20:40 AM »

Thanks, I'll give those things a try and post the results

9

General Mach Discussion / Re: Problem with pocket holes and z axis

« on: January 12, 2013, 09:00:58 AM »

Yes, the first hole seems to be correct....

Hood... if you meant the backup xml from Mach... Its attached

10

General Mach Discussion / Re: Problem with pocket holes and z axis

« on: January 12, 2013, 08:33:55 AM »

Hi,
The Mach display is showing the correct numbers and the x and y axis are correct physically, but the z axis is always physically HIGHER than it should be.
Am I correct in assuming that if it was missing steps in should be lower?
Thanks

The g-code is attached to the first post.