Messages

11

Mach SDK plugin questions and answers. / Mach iOS Pendant, finally

« on: April 26, 2013, 06:52:05 PM »

I bought my copy about 12 seconds after it hit iTunes! 

Installation on a win7 and an XP machine was easy, and done in under a minute.

Works great!  And it's a 1.00 release - just think where it could lead!





(The preceding was not a paid endorsement)

12

General Mach Discussion / RPM feedback with a CNC4PC C3 board

« on: April 26, 2013, 12:59:20 AM »

I searched through all the threads I could find....  couldn't see what I'm looking for.
Maybe I'm looking for the wrong answer?

I have a G0704 mill.  It's got a factory installed tach. It uses a 16 slot timing wheel that has an opto that would normally feed the tach.
I stole the signal from that, and fed it to my C3 board. Output of the C3 goes into pin 11 and ground.  So far so good!
I've got mach configured to see that via the Index under ports&pins.

Combo problem, part of which has nothing to do with mach, but I'll tell you anyways because my wife just sighs and rolls her eyes when I tell her. 

I tell mach to run the spindle at 300rpm (M3 S300).  Spins up. Hook my scope to the output of the C3, and I'm getting about 144hz.
And unless I'm doing it wrong...  144hz / 16(slots) * 60 = 540 actual RPM.  Ok, I can adjust my C6 board to fix that.
Big problem is, Mach thinks it's turning about 2900 or something!  The indicated speed flops around a lot.
I *did have* closed loop turned on. Boy did that confuse mach when it couldn't pull the speed down low enough!  I shut it off.

Isn't there a spot I can tell Mach that I have 16 pulses per rev?  I hope I don't have to block off 15 of the holes.

Ideas?

Thanks!

13

General Mach Discussion / Re: Y axis moving in the wrong direction

« on: April 26, 2013, 12:48:56 AM »

Go to ports & pins.  Click on motor outputs tab. Check or uncheck the DirLowActive to whatever it isn't now for that particular axis.

14

General Mach Discussion / Re: CNC4PC C6 board on a G0704

« on: April 15, 2013, 11:30:31 PM »

Well, finally got in touch with Arturo (not Art!).

In a nutshell, the most important part of his reply was:
[Arturo E. Duncan] Please note the C6 does not work with the chineese boards as they deform the waveform.

Guess that's probably my answer!  My BOB came with my motors. And they all came out of....  you guessed it...  China.

I'd already ordered up one of his C10 BOB's a week or two ago, so it's already on it's way here anyhow.  Hopefully that will cure the issue.  
Then I'll relegate my current BOB to extra I/O (as I was going to do with the C10).

Would be nice if that little fact had been mentioned somewhere though.  Like, in any of his documentation.  Anywhere?!

/rant.  

15

Tangent Corner / CNC Warehouse

« on: April 12, 2013, 08:28:17 PM »

It was only 7 years...  You think the original guy was still waiting? 

16

General Mach Discussion / Re: CNC4PC C6 board on a G0704

« on: April 10, 2013, 11:57:30 PM »

* Followed Art's ummmm...  somewhat questionable directions/instruction sheet.   <<-----   ARTURO!   Not Art 

17

General Mach Discussion / Re: CNC4PC C6 board on a G0704

« on: April 10, 2013, 11:19:43 PM »

OOPS!!    Arturo.  Ok! 

I was close with Art anyhow - at least I didn't call him Jane. 

18

General Mach Discussion / Re: CNC4PC C6 board on a G0704

« on: April 10, 2013, 10:58:03 PM »

Well - minor follow up (after an 11hr Nyquil induced coma!).

I unhooked my Z, and hooked the C6 up in it's place.
Now, when I jog (the Z) forward, I get the relay coming on. A slight reverse jog turns the relay off.  Still nothing out the X4 though. 

Also hooked the Z up to pins 8&9 and jogged it up/down no problem. So the pins physically work.

Guess it's looking more like a board issue, so I'll contact (it is Art right?!) at CNC4PC.

19

General Mach Discussion / CNC4PC C6 board on a G0704

« on: April 10, 2013, 12:53:18 AM »

I seriously hate to post this, as the whole subject seems to have been asked to death....
But I'm going to anyway! 

* Followed Art's ummmm...  somewhat questionable directions/instruction sheet.
* I've {bench} hooked everything up from the C6 to the BOB.
* Using a stand alone wall wart for power to the C6.
* I'm getting only about 17mv output from the C6 on X4.
* BOB pin 9 to C6 step
* BOB pin 14 to C6 dir
* ground to...  well, ground!

Clicking spindle on will 'usually' turn on the C6 relay LED. Once. Then it will never turn off until power cycled, or I flip the active hi/low in pins setting.
Thing that looks really odd though, is the output from gnd to pin 9 on the BOB.
I looked at the output on my scope from one of the step pins (2) going to my X while I jogged, then compared it to the step output for comparison.
Pin 2 is +5 and pulsing, but pin 9 is about +1.3 more or less solid. Looked at Mach's diag page, and the row of "LEDs" doesn't have 9 or 14 on. Should it?

I'm ill right now (flu?) - I know there's something simple here.  What have I overlooked?

20

Newfangled Solutions Mach3 Wizards / Re: I broke it??

« on: September 21, 2012, 08:01:05 PM »

That's what it looks like.  

I can only assume that as I was stripping the machine down to it's skivvies, one of those programs must have de-registered (but not deleted) the DLL.
And since I'd taken SO many thing off at once, I had no idea which one was the culprit!

So, I started googling various phrases of the error message.  Came up with a common theme amongst all of them and tried it.

-poof- fixed!