Messages

21

General Mach Discussion / Re: New PlugIn just about done..

« on: July 23, 2009, 08:14:28 AM »

I am using this great plugin with success. The only thing I would love is the option to reverse the axis movement. The Y axis is not running in the expected direction of my shuttle jog wheel. I have to be very careful moving that axis as I often mix up the direction. However, it seems that this plugin has sort of been abandoned after an initial creative phase and the developer has found some more interesting things to focus on... sighhhh. There is a benefit of open source in that respect. People interested in more functionality can actually pick up semi abandoned items and spruce them up. I second the friendly request for a compilable package. Whining and lamenting would end as well lol.
Lemo

22

General Mach Discussion / Re: new computer >> strange noise from steppenmotors

« on: July 03, 2009, 11:11:04 AM »

It's most likely (pretty much guaranteed) the service interrupt of the mainboard. It's higher than the NMI and cannot be affected by regular code. Also NVidia cards are known to insert milisecond long interrupts which creates pulses inthe pulse train.  Nothing you can do about. My parallel port driven taig mill does it, my servo driven smooth stepper router does not. My EMC controlled ill does not because the Linux OS allows a real time core which the amateur OS from Microsoft cannot provide. The problem with a windows based machine is that you cannot possibly achieve real time behavior regardless how hard you try. Only the isolation of the critical timing into external hardware (smooth stepper and alike) provides relieve. Anyone who claims otherwise is into cnc vodoo and might try to sprinkle chicken liver onto his stepper drives to persuade the G-Code Deamons.... haha

Rainer
 

23

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 4.0 Rev Update

« on: June 26, 2009, 12:26:57 PM »

Till then I made some Mach 4 Fan Art to look at in the meantime . Hope you like it...



Or as alternative:

http://www.onesmall.com./stuff/mach4_plan.jpg

24

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 4.0 Rev Update

« on: June 25, 2009, 05:18:27 PM »

He probably needs more of this stuff:

25

General Mach Discussion / Re: Problems threading on the lathe

« on: May 26, 2009, 10:27:14 AM »

I thought the profiles are calculated on the fly. If they are not, then that explains everything. I understand that it will make the gantry fly of the table if someone would enter 1000% .
Also the use of different feed speeds for approach and things alike makes it even worse. The approach speeds are low already and setting things to 50% is making that a crawl and hot running tools. If the 50% rule should be used, then there would have to be several F1, F2,F3 etc.... which then would need weighted factors. of course that would now make a complete mess out of the problem lol.
Rainer

26

General Mach Discussion / Re: Problems threading on the lathe

« on: May 26, 2009, 07:18:33 AM »

I have no problems whatsoever and the machine I build runs several hours every day. It's a Servo machine. We have another stepper based machine in production which caused the mentioned problems and they are mostly related to a long USB cable, and significantly related to the NOISE from the stepper's which telegraphs into the rest of the system. It is crucial to shield the heck out of a stepper based system to eliminate interference. SS might have issues but there are no catastrophic outages or failures. Several million lines if g-code have been processed here with speeds between 10ips and 1200ips on systems requiring high step frequencies to achieve that. Any problem related to communication loss or other significant events alike must be related to the setup in our experience. Two issues which bug us a lot are the fact that increasing the feed speed above 100% is not possible and that the CV mode has major issues. We are looking forward to the next version and some Mach3 CV enhancements.
Rainer

27

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 4.0 Rev Update

« on: May 20, 2009, 09:28:58 AM »

I second the shuttle pro plugin requirement! And if possible.... there should be an option to reverse the shuttle pro direction per axis. Maybe I have missed it, but I have to be very carful what U do with my y-axis
R

28

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: New Build 6 axis CNC first timer

« on: May 11, 2009, 02:32:05 PM »

If you drive two steppers for a X-axis then build a torque dependent e-stop in case one goes limp. You do not want to destroy your setup while one stepper is locked for some odd reason (pick one of 10,000) and the other one is happily pulling things apart. With a setup like the machine pointed out but more robust you will be in servo territory. Expect to switch form steppers to servos at one stage. I know... this is just what you want to read lol.
Rainer
 

29

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: New Build 6 axis CNC first timer

« on: May 11, 2009, 11:56:28 AM »

Also consider mounting the heatsink outside of the box to prevent heat build up in the box. Or push filtered air through the box to vent it.
R


PS:Just curious... not counting labor or software, what's your estimate on how much the system will cost you?

30

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: New Build 6 axis CNC first timer

« on: May 11, 2009, 11:26:33 AM »

Yes, you need a heat sink.

Mach3 is the trajectory planer not the path generator. All Mach3 does is translate movement Commands into step pulses. You need so called CAM software to create the movement commands from a drawing or 3d model.
And you need modeling software (CAD) like Rhino3D or similar to create the model or drawing.

5Axis indexed means that your work piece is rotated in 5 axis into place and then machined in three axis. Imagine a cube with an engraving on each side. The machine would rotate a cube face into position and then the machining will take place in 3 axis. 5Axis continuous is when all axis are moving at the same time and describe a rather complex path.

5Axis Cam Software is at least as expensive as the hardware you are building. MasterCam or Mecsoft's RhinoCam (I use the later one with good success) are the only ones I know which allow 5axis generation
Both charge extra for custom post processor development for a 5 axis machine. Add another bundle...

There is a highly experimental set of routines out there which utilize 3d animation packages to generate a 5 axis toolpath. But that requires that animation package which is not cheap and probably a year to get familiar with that...

Nothing is ever easy! Best of luck and keep the cutters sharp

Cheers
Rainer

PS:Here's a simple example of a 5 axis system using a trunion table as an alternative to 5 axis router heads.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0-tXDEvAqg