Messages

1771

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: MACH 4 bugs when cutting?

« on: January 20, 2020, 02:44:18 PM »

Hi,
this post belongs on the Mach4 General Discussion board, no doubt Tweakie will shift it.

I suspect from your description that the Gcode is being corrupted in the transfer. Does the toolpath show an errant move?
It may be appropriate to install a Gcode simulator or viewer on your cutting PC to view the tool path BEFORE you start cutting.

Craig

1772

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: How do I make the Extents mode visible

« on: January 20, 2020, 12:40:52 AM »

Hi,
you can change the path width, axis width, and soft limit widths, is that not enough?

Mach4 is a CNC software solution not a graphics application!!

Craig

1773

General Mach Discussion / Re: Elapsed time stops counting

« on: January 17, 2020, 01:56:35 PM »

Hi,
is your copy of mach3 licensed? I'm wondering if it has a 500 line limit like that of Mach3 Demo.

Craig

1774

General Mach Discussion / Re: New burning machine idea

« on: January 16, 2020, 09:05:54 PM »

Hi,

if I wanted to cut a hole from 3" to 6" could a macro be written in Mach to do the trig to figure out the angular movements, and  maintain a constant surface feed of the torch as it moved from the small diameter to the larger diameter?
wow I can see a lot of math !

There is indeed some mathmatics....but you don't have to do it.
In Gcode there is a movement called G02 which does a circular move of programmable radius about a programmable centre
at a programmable rate, so easy!.

In addition to cutting circles you could program it to cut a mixture of straight lines and circles to any required shape you want.
Have a look at the 'Road Runner' example that ships with Mach3. The two axis machine I've described could cut the Road Runner
shape just as easily as a circle.

Craig

1775

General Mach Discussion / Re: New burning machine idea

« on: January 16, 2020, 08:06:35 PM »

Hi,
yes that would work but there is an easier solution.

If the plate sits still and a two axis machine (X and Y axes) moves the torch in a circle over the top of the plate.

Amongst the many things that CNC can do for you is move two axes (at right angles to each other) in a coordinated way to
describe a circle with very good accuracy.

Craig

1776

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Homing doesn't set DRO's to zero

« on: January 16, 2020, 05:28:24 PM »

Hi,
I don't think there is a Machine Diagnostics tab in Mach4 Lathe.

I have had 'difficulties', if that is a fair description, where when I zero the Z axis as I have to do several times throughout
a circuit board job and the G92 offset has mysteriously grown from zero to 0.16mm or -0.045mm or some other random number.
When making a circuit board I need to control cutting depth to 0.005mm or better and so having what appears to be a random
G92 offset confuses the issue. Its no problem to reset the G92 but I am still bemused as to why it happens. I am making circuit
boards 'flat stick' for work and so have not really taken the time to work out why this happens.

As is often the case with Mach4 its not a fault or bug but a process or feature that I do not fully understand. Once the process is explained
then its no longer a problem. I'm hoping this is an example of the same thing.

Craig

1777

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mechanical speed ranges in Mach4

« on: January 15, 2020, 06:51:53 PM »

Hi,
you've seen Smurph's recommendation about using lowercase in Gcode......is there any reason you ignore his advice?

Craig

1778

General Mach Discussion / Re: .tap code cant be found

« on: January 15, 2020, 05:11:01 PM »

Hi,
most likely the files have the wrong extension, they may be being generated and saved as .nc or .txt files. There is a setting,
can't quite remember where, in Mach3 that allows Mach to 'see' files with extensions like .nc and .txt.

Craig

1779

General Mach Discussion / Re: Tired of old ebay Dells, need to build a computer that will work and LAST

« on: January 14, 2020, 04:46:21 PM »

Hi,
either the ESS or the UC300 would be an extra link in the chain, you would (probably) retain the existing breakout board
and certainly the drivers.

Either of the devices I've suggested will be less than $200USD....is that not cheaper than a new PC?

Craig

1780

General Mach Discussion / Re: Tired of old ebay Dells, need to build a computer that will work and LAST

« on: January 14, 2020, 01:17:11 PM »

Hi,
why not get an external motion controller like an Ethernet SmoothStepper or UC300? Then you could use just about
any PC you like including the kids cast off Windows10 laptop.

What you are doing is like going out to buy a new or at least a modern car second hand but insisting that it have 'trembler'
ignition because Model T Fords had 'trembler' ignition.

If you really want to stick with a parallel port then buy a PCI to parallel card from PMDX then all you need is a PCI slot
on the motherboard, even PCI slots are going away and are replaced by PCIe. Of course you'll have to stick with Windows 7 32 bit or
earlier if you want to run a parallel port.

Craig