Messages

281

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: ATC Macro adjustment for reversed tool forks

« on: February 01, 2023, 06:46:48 PM »

Hi,
I think there is some extra code we are missing. There is no code to drive the machine to the new start location....and I think that is where the failure is happening.

Craig

282

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: ATC Macro adjustment for reversed tool forks

« on: February 01, 2023, 06:40:56 PM »

Hi,
OK. It looks to me that the last thing this macro does after clamping the new tool is:

Code: [Select]

------ Move Z to home position ------
 GCode = ""
 mc.mcCntlGcodeExecuteWait(inst, "G00 G90 G53 Z0.0\n")

Which is right near the bottom (of your code). My understanding of this move is that the machine will drive vertically upwards while retaining its current X, Y location,
presumably the last tool pocket visited. The G53 means that the machine should travel to Z=0 in machine coordinates which according to common practice is the very
top of the Z axis travel.  Is this where you expect? Where is your machine Z zero? If its not right at the top where its it?

Craig

283

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: ATC Macro adjustment for reversed tool forks

« on: February 01, 2023, 05:50:45 PM »

Hi,
you'll have to post the code you are using already.

Craig

284

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Soft limits offset

« on: February 01, 2023, 05:48:23 PM »

Hi,
I've just had a thought as to why the machine is stopping short of the programed point.

As we know if Mach detects a movement command that would go outside of the Softlimits it will refuse to enact that command.

Lets say for instance the the machine is current 3mm short of a SofttLimit. If you MDI'ed another 4mm of movement Mach would not do
it and the machine would STILL be at 3mm short. Likewise if you were jogging and Mach detects that the sequence of jog commands would
take it out of limits it will ignore them. It does not drive up to the limit and then stop, its stops wherever it is because it ignores the movement command.

Could this be what is happening to you? Say you are a few mm from the limit and then you spin the jog wheel, and the sequence of jog commands exceeds
the distance between its current location and the limit, it would just ignore them, and stay where it is, still 3mm short?.

Craig

285

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Soft limits offset

« on: February 01, 2023, 05:29:31 PM »

Hi dibor,
I am at work and double checked my machine, sorry the build I'm using is 4612, a slight typo on what I posted last night.

Just as a matter of interest I deliberately jogged my machine until it exceeded the X++ and Y-- SoftLimits and took a screen shot of the result
overlaid with the Homing/SoftLimits tab of Machs Control plugin tab.

Note that the X axis stopped 3um short of the programmed SoftLimit and the Y axis stopped 2um short of the programmed SoftLimit.
They appear to work as I would expect.

Craig

286

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Just starting out

« on: February 01, 2023, 03:03:15 AM »

Hi,
thanks, but I'm not looking for a spindle. I'm focusing on four and five axis.

If I were to spend time and money on a spindle I will resume my 3kW servo driven spindle project.

Craig

287

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Just starting out

« on: February 01, 2023, 02:53:54 AM »

Hi,
well you are probably right, I should buy a Chinese spindle, after all its all I can afford. My focus is on four and five axis,
and the ATC spindle will just have to wait.

Craig

288

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Just starting out

« on: February 01, 2023, 02:28:07 AM »

Hi,
most of my paying work is high speed engraving and therefore 42000 rpm would be nice.

I also do quite a few small parts in aluminum, brass and steel with small tools, often less than 1mm in diameter. For such jobs
having a spindle with good toque at 18000 rpm would be nice, and the Mechatron Gmbh spindle I'd like could do that.

I have a second spindle that I can slip into the same mount. It's based on a 1.8kW, 6.1Nm cont, 3500rpm Allen Bradley servo driving an ER25
toolholder. This spindle I use for steel and stainless with bigger tools up to 16mm endmill's. It's manual tool change.

I have a project to build my own spindle. I have for this purpose a servo that dates from the mid 90's. Its 3kW, 14Nm cont at 4000rpm. It has a resolver
rather than an encoder so trying to find a drive was near impossible. Electronics is my thing so I'm building a Field Oriented Control driver for it.
I will pair that with an ATC. Given the slower speed probably BT30 or BT40. This project has been going on for years. At the moment with the two spindles
I have I can do almost everything I need so the impetus to make yet another spindle is modest.

My efforts and money is more directed to fur and five axis. You can only do a certain amount, and you need to focus your efforts to make progress.

Craig

289

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Soft limits offset

« on: February 01, 2023, 02:04:16 AM »

Hi'

In other wolds, your machine is stops exact on programmed limits without any offset.

Yes, that is correct. I'm at home now and can't interrogate my machine but I think its 4162.

Craig

290

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Soft limits offset

« on: February 01, 2023, 01:06:12 AM »

Hi,
I have Limit and Home switches fitted to each axis but still use SoftLimits to stop just inside the Limit switches for
exactly the same reason that you do......I never trigger the Limit switch and therefore never get Estop's.

I have the Limit switch about 2mm inside the physical hard stop, the Home switch 2mm inside the Limit switch and set the
Softlimit to be 2mm inside that. I've never had the machine stop on soft limits other than that I've programmed. Nor can I imagine
any reason that it would stop short of the programmed limit.

Note that I would expect the machine, if it ever hit the SoftLimit at speed that the machine would need to decelerate in a controlled manner
and might overshoot the SoftLimit by a mm or so, but I would never expect it to stop short.

Craig