Messages

21

General Mach Discussion / Laser cut stencil on Aluminum panels.

« on: March 22, 2011, 10:41:27 AM »

Yesterday I machine a front and rear panel
for a custom  combination VFD and G540 system. After machining I wanted to label the various switches. The problem was that machine engraving is slow. I have a laser but lasers don't engrave unanodized aluminum. It would have cost $105 for a lot charge to anodize 4 panel. That was too much .
 There is a marking fluid for aluminum that lasers do work with but again they are only good on series 5,6 and 7000 aluminum. The aluminum on my front panel is pretty soft and probably only a 2000 series so that was not an option.
 So what I did was to leave the protective film on the aluminum panels and then I laser cut/engaved the letters into the protective film after machining to serve as masking tape. Now all I have to do is peal away the protective film where the letters are and spray paint the panel. Last remove the protective film. I tested this method on a test panel and it worked great. 
 I know not every one has a 30 watt laser but for those that do this tip may be helpful
Dan Mauch
www.camtronics-cnc

22

Mach SDK plugin questions and answers. / Re: Impact engraving plugin

« on: December 02, 2010, 10:27:51 AM »

Yes that is what I did. I used the embossing picture because I didn't know enough about the impact plugin. My bad.
Dan[

quote author=robotmar link=topic=16446.msg113125#msg113125 date=1291276771]
Hi Dan

I think you're confusing engraving with embossing.

The photo of the message is created with embossing (spindle) you can try this zip attached (45 x 65 mm).
Pay attention the zip photo is negative.

Thanks,
Andrea

--  I am sorry for my bad English, I hope I never say the wrong things  --

[/quote]

23

Mach SDK plugin questions and answers. / Re: Impact engraving plugin

« on: December 01, 2010, 10:06:09 PM »

 I had figured that out as the  file I was using was the one that robomar posted. I didn't realize that it didn't have enough definition which casued the scope to not  to display any signals because the plugin couldn't see it any differences . The problem was all in my poor choice of jpeg to use. Earlier today I copied some other pictures and ran them through the plugion and walla I could see pulses on the scope.
Sorry for the wild goose chase.
Dan

24

Mach SDK plugin questions and answers. / Re: Impact engraving plugin

« on: December 01, 2010, 04:02:19 PM »

 I think I am making prgress but am wondering why your screen looks different than mine?

25

Mach SDK plugin questions and answers. / Re: Impact engraving plugin

« on: November 30, 2010, 07:19:41 PM »

Setting up impact engraving shouldn't be this hard.
The only documentation that I have seen is that from robomar.
I have followed his instructions.
I have loaded the plugin
I have enabled the plug in
I have enabled the digit trig and set the port to 1 and the pin to 8
I have verified there are no other pins set to pin 8 that are enabled.
I have loaded the plugin and loaded a jpg picture.
I have set the plugin length and width to 3 and the stepover to .1, feed rate 30
The plugin calcualates the image pixels and the other data.
I press start scanning
In the diagnostic screen I can see that the X is moving and then the y moves the step over amount.
There is no indication that there is any other activity such as pin 8 being pulsed.
Again with a scope on pin 8 and ground while the scanning is running their is no activity shown on the scope but the pulse stream is seen on the X and Y pins
When any of the other pins are selected for the digit trig there is no pulse stream
When I load the program onto another PC and run the same plug in I get no reading on which ever pin I selected as the output for digit trig.
There must be something else that causes pin 8 to pulse or the plugin for whatever reason isn't sending the pulse stream for pin 8 or any other pin set up in the config file.
What am I missing?
This shouldn't be that difficult.
Dan

Hi Dan:

  Not sure what could stop it.. hmm. Make sure no other signal is set to that pin, that could kill it..
I cant think of the top of head anythign else that woudl stop it, must work I see too many examples..

Art

26

Mach SDK plugin questions and answers. / Re: Impact engraving plugin

« on: November 30, 2010, 02:14:25 PM »

  I can I ask you to email me a copy of your xml file to see if that will solve the problem?

dmauch@camtronics-cnc.com

Hi Dan,

I had a quick look at your xml.

You have the output configured to pin 8 OK but I also notice that motor3 step pin and motor6 step pin are also shown as configured to pin 8 - perhaps something to check.

Now this is a stupid question but you are running the full licensed version and not a demo ?  licensed to Abdul Mahman ?

Tweakie.

27

Mach SDK plugin questions and answers. / Re: Impact engraving plugin

« on: November 30, 2010, 11:34:59 AM »

  But it should also show that the A axis motor (3) is not enabled. But I think I will delete that anyway.
Yes I got sloppy. I have a legal license but when my old PC died  and I installed mach3 on my new  bench PC I loaded it from a CD that happened not to have my license on it. I;ll change that today.

28

Mach SDK plugin questions and answers. / Re: Impact engraving plugin

« on: November 29, 2010, 04:32:46 PM »

 I have triple checked everything. Yes I do have the plug in ver 2.00.075 enabled. I have pin 8 selected and enabled on port 1 for the digit/engrav
I have tried using different pins for the output but no joy. I can get the XY to move with no problems . The plug in seems to work fine except no output on the pin checked with both a driver wired to pin 8 and using a scope. On that or any other pin.
Here is my xml.
 Dan

29

Mach SDK plugin questions and answers. / Re: Impact engraving plugin

« on: November 28, 2010, 07:13:18 PM »

The X and the Y axis move fine . But I am geettting no signal on pin 8 with the Digit trig set to port 1 pin 8

30

Mach SDK plugin questions and answers. / Re: Impact engraving plugin

« on: November 28, 2010, 02:12:21 PM »

I d/led the impact solenoid plugin from the web site and installed it. I could not get any output from pin 8 with the config output set for digit titg enable port 1 and pin 8 as output pin. I then copied the eengraving .dll ver 1.1 from your post to the plugionn directory. I still did not get any output from pin 8. So i hooked up my scope and sure enough there was no signal on pin8. So I changed the digit trig to pin 6 and reran the engrave ver 1.1 with still no output shown on the scope. I know my PP is fine.
Any ideas why I am not getting any output. using the plugin?
Dioes the plugin in the downloard section have the ver 1.1 dll? added?


Art

[/quote]