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Messages - joeaverage

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2301
Hi.
apparently VisualMill Standard ($1500) has the ability of the user to define a half profile which is revolved into a custom tool
much like Mastercam.

Craig

2302
General Mach Discussion / Re: Another Newbie Help
« on: July 10, 2019, 02:19:10 PM »
Hi,

Quote
I am not using limit switches at this time, I was planning on using soft limits until I get a little more familiar with things.

Soft Limits are only effective if your machine is 'homed' or 'referenced' to the exact same location at the start of each Mach session.
That usually requires home switches. My experience is that Home switches are extremely useful, even more so than limit
switches. Most people combine limit and home switches which for various reasons I do not like, but as I say most people do exactly that.

My suggestion would be to have three home switches. Its common to put them one at each end of an axis so they can also be used
to indicate one limit for each axis. But if you are using them as home switches alone they don't have to be at the end. They can
be somewhere in the middle and may make mounting and wiring them a lot simpler.

Craig

2303
General Mach Discussion / Re: CNC4PC C11 plugin for Mach3
« on: July 10, 2019, 02:06:39 PM »
Hi,
the C11 is a parallel port breakout board. If you are using Machs parallel port then there is no plugin per se.

Craig

2304
Hi,
BobCad has the same feature.

It would appear that Fusion 360 has the ability to define custom tools including a slot mill type, of which a disc is just
a logical extension.

Craig

2305
Hi,
this may not be of huge value to you given the price of the solution that I am going to suggest.

Mastercam allows you to construct a profile of a custom tool. I have, or rather had, when I had access to Mastercam,
a cutoff disc.

I would guess some of the high end Cam packages would allow you a similar feature, namely to construct a custom tool.

Craig

2306
Hi,
are you using screen buttons to jog or trying to uses keyboard arrows.

If you are trying to use the keyboard make sure the keyboard inputs are enabled on the Jogging Tab.

Craig

2307
Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mill Profile Initialisation String
« on: July 10, 2019, 02:54:22 AM »
Hi Steve,
thanks.

Yes, that is exactly how I have attempted to do it. The screen unload script records the currently used work offset number
in the .ini file. On starting a new session of Mach I wait until the first run of the PLC script to read the .ini entry and
initialize Mach to the recorded offset group.

The only fly in the ointment is that when Mach runs its default initialization string it resets the offset group back to g54.

I need either to prevent Mach from reading the g54 in the string OR have Mach set up my required offset group AFTER the
g54.

Do you know when the initialization string is read and executed?

Craig

2308
FAQs / Re: parallel port to serial
« on: July 09, 2019, 02:52:36 PM »
Hi,
the Ethernet SmoothStepper (ESS) requires one or more breakout boards. A breakout board is a buffer that protects
the ESS and has screw terminals to attach wires.

A C10 is a simple and cheap ($23.00) breakout board. It will connect to one output port of the ESS. Thus the one board
will give you 12 outputs and 5 inputs. A second board is recommended, and if arranged such that the second ESS output
port pins 2-9 as inputs, then the second C10 will give you another 13 inputs and 4 outputs. The two C10s would under this
configuration give you a total of 18 inputs and 16 outputs. That should prove to be more than adequate.


The C10s are quite simple, they don't have opto isolated inputs nor do they have relays  or a PWM to analogue circuit.
I use Homman Designs  MB02 breakout boards (Australian made and near local to me in New Zealand) which are
very similar to the C10, that is they are bi-directional without opto isolators, relays or PWM circuit. I have used them
for six years without problem. Electronics is my thing, if I decide I need opto isolation on a particular input I add it; likewise
relays and PWM circuit.

Both the C10 and Homann boards are 5V boards whereas the CSMIO that TPS prefers has 24V IO. 24V IO is industry standard
and claimed to be more noise resistant, with some justification. Don't get me started on 'noise impeadance'.....I'm a radio
engineer and can talk about comparative noise performance all day long. Suffice it to say that 24V IO is nice but not essential.
In general 24V IO equipped boards are much more expensive. I have been using 5V boards for six years without problem
and do not regard 24V IO essential, nor even consider it a great advantage provided you pay close attention to the
'noise impedance' of the circuits to which you are interfacing. 24V IO allows you to be a bit sloppy whereas 5V tends
to focus your attention.

If you are not comfortable with adding circuitry to C10s then consider the MB03 board by CNCRoom at $180. It supports
all three ESS output ports with a balance of inputs and outputs including single ended and differential IO, relays and
a PWM circuit. I have not seen one myself but ger21 reports them to be good quality.

Note that these breakout boards do not drive the steppers but rather produce step/direction signals to the stepper drivers.
Your existing machine must have stepper drivers and you may be able to recycle those. If not you can buy entry level
stepper drivers for as little as $20 each or up to $150 for Gecko drivers, the gold standard among two phase stepper drivers.
Can you post some more info about your existing stepper drivers?

The most common way with Mach to control a spindle is with relays, up to three, to turn on/off, forward and reverse the spindle
and a PWM signal which is converted to a 0-10V signal to control the speed of the spindle. This is not the only means of
controlling a spindle but is most common.

Can you post more information about your existing spindle and its driver?

Craig

2309
FAQs / Re: parallel port to serial
« on: July 09, 2019, 08:20:23 AM »
Hi,

Quote
Confusing part is the program they seem to use looks identical to Mach3.

Hi, you are correct, they do picture a program page that looks remarkably like Mach3. It was a common technique
for Chinese manufacturers to take Mach3 and modify it for their machine and then sell it with their machine, a straight
out pirate derivative. Most of those manufacturers are gone. The screen shot in the manual you linked to is an example
of such a pirate derivative of Mach3.

If you can find a copy of it you may well get it to work but you will not be welcome on this forum....we don't support
pirated copies of Mach, either plain Mach3 or some derivative of it.

If you wish to get this machine going well do as TPS has suggested.

The first decision is Mach3 or Mach4. All development on Mach3 ceased six years ago, any bugs it has will stay that way.
It still has a huge fan base and is somewhat cheaper ($175 verses $200). Mach4 is the supported version, a much improved
and flexible solution that does all Mach3 did and more.

The second decision is external motion controller or parallel port. Both Mach3 and Mach4 have a parallel port option,
the Mach3 parallel port is free whereas the Mach4 parallel port called Darwin has a $25 license fee. Both parallel ports
require that you use Windows 7 or earlier and 32 bit OS. The parallel port despite its popularity (being cheap/free) is
not as stable and robust as a good external controller.

Well known, good quality controllers that have full manufacturers support include the Ethernet SmoothStepper (Warp9),
the UC300 (CNCDrive) or the 57CNC (PoKeys). These three all have both Mach3 AND Mach4 plugins. All three have fully developed
Mach3 plugins whereas The Ethernet SmoothStepper enjoys an edge in capability over the other two in Mach4. They range
in price from about $140 to $190.

There are other controllers like the CSMIO (CSLabs) at 600 Euro and the Hicon Integra (Vital Systems) at $600 for the base
model (more for various extra activated features); as you see they are very much more expensive.

There are a number of cheap to very cheap Chinese made controllers, seldom do they work well and none I know of support
all of Mach3s features and worse still you get zero support from the manufacturer. There is one Chinese manufacturer offering
what they claim is a Mach4 capable controller, XHC, it so buggy....avoid like the plague.

Craig



2310
Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mill Profile Initialisation String
« on: July 09, 2019, 03:11:21 AM »
Hi Steve,
I had hoped to arrange it such that if I ended a session in g58 say that at the beginning of the next session Mach would
assume the same offset set. Having any particular, but fixed, offset in the init string defeats scripts ability to initialize the machine
with another set.

Craig

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