Messages

161

General Mach Discussion / Re: Using Mach3 fot cnc cutter

« on: May 07, 2014, 09:01:41 AM »

It may be simpler to re-engineer your knife than to compensate for the offset,
Regards,
Nick

162

General Mach Discussion / Re: Parallel Port Tester. (Software)You can use to trouble your parallel port

« on: May 07, 2014, 08:50:08 AM »

In recent times device manager has always given me enough info to sort out parallel ports along with my old break-out box, it was a different matter back in the day when your IO was generally a separate card and you had to manually jumper everything to avoid conflicts with any fixed address hardware ;-)

 - Nick

163

General Mach Discussion / Re: ToolChange offsets

« on: May 07, 2014, 08:02:09 AM »

Mach Turn gives you X & Z Tool offsets but for Mill the centre of your mill spindle is the centre of any rotating tool and so no X or Y offset is required.

If you describe exactly what you're doing and why there's more chance of an answer that's useful to you,

- Nick

164

General Mach Discussion / Re: No machine movement after resetting limits

« on: May 04, 2014, 06:37:47 PM »

Set Mach3 back to how it was before you decided to use limits, this will answer some of your questions.
Disconnecting all your limit wiring from your BOB will then leave your system working as before unless there's damage,
Regards,
Nick

165

General Mach Discussion / Re: Router spindle runs independent from Mach3

« on: April 28, 2014, 02:53:17 AM »

Thanks for the info Tweakie - sounds a bit advanced for me. I hoped I just needed to change speed control settings in Mach somewhere. Everything else works fine.

If you find out what signals your inverter acceps it shouldn't be an impossible task to find a board to take signals form Mach3 and provide what's required to the inverter, most inverter drives will have internal settings (Parameters) that tell the unit whether to take control from the front panel or wired connections,
Regards,
Nick

166

General Mach Discussion / Re: how to run drive test exe with out admin password ?

« on: April 27, 2014, 05:58:23 PM »

I was going to download the linex thing and run that to get around the password

The bootable CD job?
That is the solution.

167

General Mach Discussion / Re: how to run drive test exe with out admin password ?

« on: April 27, 2014, 02:53:01 PM »

What OS is the computer for which you don't have the password running?

168

General Mach Discussion / Re: Tips for Homing/Alignment Recovery after Mach3 Errors

« on: April 20, 2014, 04:17:08 AM »

My home switches are repeatable to around a thousandth, I got bored after 10 cycles of full travel testing but my experience is of no discernable error when returning to a job the next day after shutting down.
I'm not using microswitches or other re-purposed switches, they're job specific limit switches with a straight roller-end plunger input and internally have a flat, spring mounted contact bar across the contacts, no boingy-clicky action, silent and very smooth.
Z Home is also my Z limit but I'm using lever arm units as limit switches on X & Y, they're loud & clicky and nothing like as repeatable as the limit switches but they stop the axes hitting the ends if I drop the ball or lose the plot ;-)
Regards,
Nick

169

General Mach Discussion / Re: Tips for Homing/Alignment Recovery after Mach3 Errors

« on: April 19, 2014, 02:44:43 PM »

My machine came with Home Switches, after setting Home Offsets to Table Centre Surface using my edge finder I can now set and save one of the many available Work Offsets to my current Work Zero, do some work and then shut down Mach3, the PC and my machine. I can then come back the next day, start everything up, do a Ref All Home, select my saved Work Offset and carry on where I left off.
I think this may be a good direction to go, Mach3 isn't funny, finnicky or otherwise wierd though so your OS or PC may be the root of your issues,
ATB,
Nick

170

General Mach Discussion / Re: System with only X and C axis and fixed tool point

« on: April 15, 2014, 03:55:52 PM »

what you are talking about is what lathes with milling do when they do not have a Y axis, most lathe CAM can do XC or polar milling so lathe may be the place to look for code creation.

Would a CAM package have to support live lathe tooling for polar milling to be likely to be supported?