Messages

401

General Mach Discussion / Re: CamBam to Mach3

« on: July 21, 2015, 07:52:02 PM »

Ice,
Be sure to join the CamBam forum. Lots of really helpful people there, just like here.

402

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: High feed speed on router results in rounded edges

« on: July 20, 2015, 08:00:03 PM »

I think you should start cutting and see what happens. No one runs a machine empty and the force needed to move the tool through the material also has a damping effect of its own. I suspect you will run in to limits on how fast the tool can cut most of the time.  However your machine may not be very stiff. For instance what are the legs like under the machine?  Are they vertical legs with horizontal cross members only or are they braced with diagonals to make them stiff? If the table moves it will accentuate the motion of the gantry.  What does the table weigh? If is light weight it won't properly absorb the acceleration forces.  Lots of stuff to think about here.

403

Machscreen Screen Designer / Re: Pdf image

« on: July 20, 2015, 07:47:08 PM »

I like Mach 3 but for a single axis task like this you'd be much better off with a PLC and an HMI with a recipe function.  PLCs get up in the morning and go to work every day for years without complaining about the need to reboot, update the firmware, software whatever. They are made for this task and you'll have your saw cutting with a PLC before you even figure out how to configure Mach 3 for this task.

404

General Mach Discussion / Re: IF you had a NEW controller whta would it do/not do ?

« on: July 20, 2015, 07:42:52 PM »

Just to put in my 2 cents.  We recently bought a Servo 5000 mill vintage 1987.  The owner never used it because manual G-code programming was too hard for them.  So the machine sat until 2008 when they were offered a Windows 'upgrade' which they bought, thinking it would be easier.  They couldn't even get the Windows computer to talk to the drive boards so the machine sat again. So we picked it up a couple of months ago expecting that while it had maybe 100 hrs of spindle time it might need a new CNC. However when we plugged everything in it ran perfectly. It is 20x40x21.5 travels includes a 10" fourth axis with an 8" 6 jaw chuck and 21 Cat40 tool holders with 7 Jacobs Super Chucks, for $6500!

Of course programming it manually hasn't gotten any easier.  However its a Windows machine and for $150 we installed CamBam right on it. So all the BS you needed to do to program manually is mostly gone, and we make parts after a couple on minutes of programming.  So the reality is that the CNC itself can be really really dumb, while the CAM program with however much horsepower you need can now be very smart. So the need for canned cycles, and lots of other stuff moves off the CNC and onto the CAM computer. To me that means that the motion controller boards like smoothstepper become the CNC, and I am not really sure that Mach 3 or Mach 4 needs to be much more than the HMI for the iron, which is probably a better task for my cell phone or an Ipad.

405

General Mach Discussion / Re: How to fight noise

« on: July 15, 2015, 11:31:49 PM »

When I hear about all these different grounds my first thought is ground loops. The NEC actually required ground loops for safety in power grounding.  For signal grounding you want just one ground point for everything so noise can only go one way, to the one ground point. If the driven ground helped you can be sure you don't have the grounding done right. You need to check all of your cable ground wires and shield grounding wires to make sure they only connect to ground at one end. Any ground wire that is connected to ground at both ends is a ground loop. Lift every ground wire from the ground point and measure between the wire you just lifted and the ground point. If you get a reading you have found a ground loop. Check every ground wire and shield this way.  sensor manufacturers often connect the cable shield to the case and when you mount them you have a ground loop. Pcs often carry a ground through Usb cables too.

What does your wiring job look like? Neat bundled wires with signal cables not running parallel to power conductors and as far apart as possible? Single conductors twisted together to provide cancellation?  All this stuff matters when you introduce a really noisy device like a plasma torch to a machine.

406

General Mach Discussion / Re: Arrow keys don't work

« on: July 14, 2015, 07:36:17 PM »

You also need to have a feed speed entered or the jog will be really really slow. On MDI enter F20 for a feed rate of 20 mm or inches.

407

Mach3 under Vista / Re: Minimum PC requirements vs real life (Newbie)

« on: June 21, 2015, 12:19:04 PM »

When you say the PC doesn't need to be close to the table, you do realize that CNC involves a LOT of personal interaction between the operator, the PC and the machine.  This is like sitting in your office and sending a report to the networked printer down the hall.  The operator has to fixture parts, pick up the origin, install and/or change tools, check clearances at holding points, sometimes halt the program and move the holding devices, on an on.

408

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 for press brake controller?

« on: June 02, 2015, 08:14:14 AM »

Another consideration is the long term operation.  I have lots of PLC controlled equipment out there that has been running for 15 to 20 years without a control system failure.  We once tried a PC based controller to get a more friendly user interface. Just couldn't keep it running. A touch screen controller failed, the new part needed an updated BIOS the PC board manufacturer hadn't updated the BIOS yet so we were stuck.  It was always something. On that job I pulled the PC out and used an off the shelf PLC which is still running 18 years later.  Parts for that PLC are still available and work with it too. I am guessing the goal here is to make money not work for yourself.

409

General Mach Discussion / Re: Hello, can I have suggestions for implemantation ..

« on: June 01, 2015, 07:41:53 PM »

You are probably going to want to watch reruns of the A-Team for ideas on this project.

410

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 for press brake controller?

« on: June 01, 2015, 07:40:20 PM »

Not to burst anyone's bubble about legal stuff but it doesn't quite work the way most people think.  I had an iron worker and every time I walked out in the shop the guard was off. I would jump on the guys for working unsafely, then they would show me how the machine could not do the job it was designed to do with the guard in place.  So I redesigned the guard so that it would work properly for the work we did.  People said "Now you will be liable if someone gets hurt!"  At the time I said "So I am supposed to stand by and watch someone get hurt, and somehow feel better because while I did nothing they can't sue me?"

A few years later I was involved in a personal injury lawsuit over a machine I had allegedly built. Turns out it was a copy built by some else. However I learned that the guy couldn't sue his employer because of the changes they had made because the workman's comp law made them immune from being sued. My own dirtbag lawyer was proud of getting a settlement from a company that cleaned the floors at GM around a huge press when a lazy employee fell off a ladder he hadn't properly tied down.  GM wasn't sued because they had actually built this press for their own use and were protected by workman's comp law.  So installing a control on a press brake for your own use won't get you sued even if someone gets hurt.  However do NOT ever sell it to someone else, as that makes you a manufacturer and then anyone else can sue you. Since you'll probably use this press, it would be good to remember it might be your fingers, hand, arm, or body that gets mangled and proceed accordingly.