Messages

1061

LazyTurn / Re: LazyTurn

« on: March 27, 2009, 03:02:04 PM »

Thanks Rich:

  Ive already noted the tool change when simulating is wrong, Ill check the undercut status as well on the additional paths.
Lots of small bugs to deal with , the display jumps a bit in sim of additional paths as well, so Ill hopefully have a new version in
a few days to correct these smaller items. Good news is it appears to work pretty well.
  Glad to hear you guys seem to find it lazy, its my main thrust, though I know it causes limitations in its usage in some situations.

Have fun, keep posting the weirdies..

Art

1062

LazyTurn / Re: LazyTurn - New Version

« on: March 27, 2009, 11:05:27 AM »

Hi Guys:

  Well, this version is a display of whats coming and to give you a chance to play with the added interface items. The post processor will only put out the
first toolpath though, it needs to be modified for the additional paths. Hopefully next version.

Changes:

    This version implement mutiple tools, or multiple depths. The Cut Button is now functional for all types of cuts. If you cut , for example, a profile
with 6mm depth per pass as the first cut, this will quickly pare down the stock. You may now either select a new tool, or cut again using a different
depth per cut, so as per example, we now cut at 1mm depth, only the areas uncut are now processed, so you quickly pare the stock down
further to 1mm tolerances without all the air-time losses. You may use multiple tools or multiple depths in any order. However, since all cuts are
predicated on the previous cut, the delete toolpath button ( !)  will only remove the final cut, which you can then recut, or delete upwards on the tree
one by one.

   TO Simulate the cut in realtime ( showing true feedrate of the tool ), make sure the paths are expanded in the tree ( collapsing a path de-selects it ),
and hit the SIM button, it will show you what the path is calling for and gives a more visual clue about the path to be cut. The speed of the display is the
feedrate you commanded in the tool selection, so its a bit of a visual clue about if you screwed up the feedrate, I will add a way to change that quickly soon.
Clicking the right mouse button will cancel a simulation display. All expanded paths are simulated one by one when SIM is selected. Rapid speed is loosely defined
as 10 times the feedrate, ( just so you dont have to watch all the rapids in slow motion. )


No Profile is yet done, but I suspect you can see its close to being the next job, once the current changes are debugged. The architecture has been modified quite a bit
for multipass-multitool, so play with it, have fun, and let me know what you think. The plan for fiinish hprofile is to have the CUT button do a finish ONLY if the previous CUT
took no material at all, meaning the roughing is now done. Cant get any lazier than that.

Have fun,
Art

 

1063

LazyTurn / Re: LazyTurn

« on: March 27, 2009, 10:54:26 AM »

Hi Dennis:

  No worries on licensing, anyone currently licensed to LazyCam PRO will automatically be licensed for LT.

Thx
Art

1064

Finished Plugins for Download / Re: 3d Video Probe

« on: March 24, 2009, 08:50:44 AM »

Hi Tom:

  Sounds interesting.. nice to se emy old toy getting some life. , I hope to get to a point I can experiment son.

Thx
Art

1065

General Mach Discussion / Re: Problems threading on the lathe

« on: March 24, 2009, 08:34:53 AM »

Rich:

  Index debounce will affect the sensitivity of the index signal. IT basically is how many interrupt periods the signal must be present, or not present before a change is actually sensed in that line. SO if set to 2 for example, when the index appears it will be ignored for 2 periods to make sure it isnt noise. Same with when it disappears. Setting debounce too high will make the index go away altogether.

  Since the length of the index is dependent on spindle speed, minimum length is variable, but the time must be at least 1 period at a debounce of zero. SO in 25000, thats 40us. The variation of 5RPM or so is really due to the CPU clock base changing, Im still looking into ways to stop that, but a 5RPM over 300RPM would be .6% of actual rpm being in error at maximum, so you may get a pitch variation of .6% , probably not noticable on the thread. For now, I wouldnt worry about rpm fluctuations if they are less than 2% of total. They should be mathmatically insignifigant.
   If a person notices a dropoff in RPM at a certain speed, they need usually a lower index debounce OR a wider tag. Index inputs from an encoder are usually pretty short and will limit speed readings at some point as you go higher.

  Im seeing quite a few computers that vary CPU clock rate these days, but most seem less than 2% , most less than 1%, so except in long threads this effect should be mimimal. My plan is to continue to work on that as we see what the effect is, so Id like some PP thread results before I jump into further strategies to make things tighter. The changes to MAch3 and the driver over the last few months introduced many errors that we're finally geting rid of, so Id like to see more empiracal results before moving deeper. It loosk like the SS can be considered working fine now, so as results come in on PP threading , we'll discuss the ramifications to the code and the varying CPU clocks happeing in the more modern CPU's.


Thx
Art
 

1066

General Mach Discussion / Re: Problems threading on the lathe

« on: March 23, 2009, 10:55:22 PM »

Rich:

 Excellent. Thanks for the photo's ..nuthin says "thread" like a nice photo.

Art

1067

General Mach Discussion / Re: Problems threading on the lathe

« on: March 22, 2009, 10:31:00 PM »

Hi Rich:

 YEah, sorry about that, that was from when I was pretty sure the driver was bugged. On the bright side it did fix a nasty driver bug, just not in threading is all.

 That version I just linked to should have the required fixes in it. But it may still bug out, who knows, its an iterative process, but at least we know my code base works, so we shoudl be able to fix it up pretty quick IF it is bugged.

Thx
Art

1068

General Mach Discussion / Re: Problems threading on the lathe

« on: March 22, 2009, 08:30:18 PM »

Hi Rich:

  This version shoudl work..

http://www.artsoftcontrols.com/downloads/Mach3Version3.042.024.exe

Thx
Art

1069

General Mach Discussion / Re: Problems threading on the lathe

« on: March 22, 2009, 06:44:29 PM »

Rich:

>>Dear Brian and ART,
>>I just tried out threading with the updated ver 3.042.023 with the SS using G32 or G76.

  Sorry, my bad, Brian tells me the fix isnt yet released on the web, so this test doesnt mean much.

Thx
Art

1070

General Mach Discussion / Re: Problems threading on the lathe

« on: March 22, 2009, 02:50:33 PM »

Rich:

 Ahh, OK, so I take it the encoder index is just too short for the PP to read, so yours is only usable on the SS..
Did any PP version work on that machine?


Art