Messages

611

General Mach Discussion / Re: The discouraging state of DIY CNC

« on: June 22, 2013, 01:58:31 PM »

I decided that I've spent a ton of money building my machine so I've canned the Cnc4pc product and bought a PMDX-126 board instead. So we'll see how that works.

Sad that the issues I've had can be fixed for nearly nothing, but there is no process or feedback to actually make that happen.

612

General Mach Discussion / The discouraging state of DIY CNC

« on: June 21, 2013, 08:50:49 PM »

I just got a ESS Smooth Stepper board and a CNC4PC breakout board to go with it.  The stepper board is nicely made, with large mounting holes that the average home CNC builder should have no problem mounting it.  However the CNC4PC breakout board is a serious disappointment!  NO mounting holes at all!  Connectors for wires all the way around and not a mounting hole anywhere!  Do machines vibrate?  Wiring diagrams?  In their PDF manual page 3-2 was missing completely.  No big deal, that's just the only page that deals with ALL the outputs!

I bought a little stepper pulser card to control a stepper driver for motor testing.  No instructions. A couple of jumpers that aren't marked. Terminals marked +12, Grd, Puls, and Dir. Should be simple to hook up right?  Motor runs smoothly in one direction, chatters like hell in the other.  After screwing around for 1/2 an hour I discover that this card actually implements forward pulses and reverse pulses, NOT pulse and direction as marked!

I bought a heater control board of 3D printing.  No instructions.  Two boards stacked in an offset.  One tiny set of mounting holes through both boards, and they don't line up!  NO marking of the pins except for power plus and minus. Came with a booster card with input and output terminals, not even marked for + and -.

It is unbelievable what people are apparently willing to accept.  I have a friend who just bought a million bucks worth of surface mount assembly machines, and he is the best microprocessor guy I know. He used to build a single board computer for me that went in machines that saw 120 degrees continuously and the failure rate on the hundreds of boards I bought was really low.  In fact hundreds of them are still running 18 years later I'm going to have to ask him what it would cost build some quality stuff here in the US.

Gary H. Lucas

613

General Mach Discussion / Re: Cycle timer

« on: June 18, 2013, 07:46:37 AM »

I'd like to have a second timer as well. The average time from program start to program start. That way you'd get an idea of the total time per part, including you sips of coffee, reloading, browsing forums while the machine sits etc.

614

General Mach Discussion / Re: Modal Subroutines

« on: June 18, 2013, 07:42:00 AM »

Bummer,
I used to use that a lot. I guess I'll add it to the request page.

Which reminds me I don't see a canned mill/bore cycle. That cycle works like a drill routine but plunges an end mill on center, spirals out to the specified diameter and back to center then repeats until the specified depth is reached. The Fadal cycle didn't spiral and was very rough. But the old Bandit controls did this really well. On a knee mill I used it all the time to make round holes of many sizes without tool changes. Took a little longer but I had time to do other work while it ran.

615

General Mach Discussion / Modal Subroutines

« on: June 17, 2013, 10:10:18 PM »

On the fadals I programmed they had a Modal Subroutine.  You write a subroutine, make it modal, then it functions like a canned cycle.  After each move the subroutine executes until you cancel it with a G80.  It was great for making a number of odd shaped pockets, creating a mill/bore type routine, holes with O-ring grooves etc.  Is there any way to do this in Mach3?

Gary H. Lucas

616

Brains Development / Re: Changing milling bits

« on: June 10, 2013, 08:24:55 AM »

Tool changing is pretty complex and ussually done with tool holders not collets as you have on a dremel. Also they mostly work with hollow spindles so that the release mechanism can be mounted on top.

Gary H Lucas

617

Screen designer tips and tutorials / Small changes to jog flyout

« on: June 09, 2013, 03:25:44 PM »

I've simplified the jog screen for my grandson to use. When you bring it up with the Tab key it comes up too far to the right. How can I move it to the right a little and keep it there?

Jog mode is a toggle. Any way to have two buttons, one to select continuous and one to select step?

618

General Mach Discussion / Re: SERIOUS jog problem!

« on: May 31, 2013, 10:15:31 PM »

Brett,
Okay, it's nice to know who is who when you are new.  By the way, I thought the documentation for Mach3 was excellent. I read all of it.

Gary H. Lucas

619

General Mach Discussion / Re: SERIOUS jog problem!

« on: May 31, 2013, 01:48:54 PM »

Yes Gary, it will be the same in the SS for now.  We are weighing our options on how best to address it now.

Brett

Brett,
Are you associated with Mach3 or Warp9?

Gary H. Lucas

620

General Mach Discussion / Re: SERIOUS jog problem!

« on: May 31, 2013, 01:45:55 PM »

Sam,
I don't buy the whole out of date and printing cost argument. I had a product of my own 20 years ago and bought a laser printer back then just to print the manuals from the latest WordPerfect file. Producing a manual forces you to think about how your product actually works and reduces your support costs because you can politely say that is covered in the manual. Please have a look and tell me how we could make it clearer.

Gary H. Lucas