Messages

3061

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: spindle pause

« on: February 19, 2019, 02:26:10 PM »

Hi,
in absence of an index signal you are going to have to increase the delay until the spindle accelerates up to speed.

Craig

3062

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: spindle pause

« on: February 19, 2019, 02:23:26 PM »

Hi,
so you don't know if your spindle has a feedback pulse?

If you don't know, and you would know because you would have to set up the pulse input to your
controller, then I'm guessing that you dont have one. Therefore the 'Wait until (percentage)' setting
is total irrelevant UNTIL you provide it with a signal.

Craig

3063

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Verify button does not work in wxMach screen

« on: February 19, 2019, 02:18:35 PM »

Hi,
homing is rightly the job of the motion controller.

When an axis homes it travels in a given (programmable) direction at a given (programmable) speed until the home switch
changes state. Then the axis is to stop. The axis must stop exactly when, or very close to, when the switch operates.
That makes it a real time detection, that is the axis must stop within a few or perhaps tens of microseconds.

If you programmed Mach to drive an axis until a switch activated it would fail because Mach is not a realtime controller.
When the switch activates it would take several or perhaps tens of milliseconds for the signal to propagate back to Mach
and then another several or tens of milliseconds for Machs STOP instruction to get back to the motion controller.
All precision is lost because of the communication delay.

Your motion controller is however very fast and normally has responsibility for homing. Most motion controllers cannot be
programmed by a user however. Thus if controller is instructed to home an axis, it will and reset the machine coordinate.
What you really want is for it to home an axis, ie drive slowly to the home switch until it activates , back up until it
deactivates, but NOT reset the machine coordinate.

I am still trying to contemplate a way of doing as you want.

If you were prepared for the axes to drive very VERY slowly so that the communication delay does not adversely affect
the accuracy of the result then programming it in Lua would be easy.

The other way I'm thinking of would require the button to cause the machine to drive (at traverse speed) to machine
cords 0,0,0 and THEN be instructed to <ref all> and detect the distance moved between the original 0,0,0 and the newly
minted 0,0,0 position. The difference between the two would represent lost steps/inaccuracy that had accumulated between
homing operations.

Craig

3064

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: spindle pause

« on: February 19, 2019, 01:29:20 PM »

Hi,

in the control configuration, spindle, checked = wait on spindle to stabilize to 95 percent. (was 90%)

Do you have a spindle index signal?

This setting works only if you have such a signal.

How does Mach know what speed the spindle is doing? It can't know unless there is a feedback signal called an
index signal. A lot of people use either an optical device and a disc with a slot or a Hall device and a button
magnet to generate a pulse once per spindle revolution. That signal is applied to your controller.

Mach measures the time between pulses and can therefore tell the spindle speed.

Craig

3065

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Verify button does not work in wxMach screen

« on: February 19, 2019, 04:13:02 AM »

Hi,
well just code it and attach it to a button.

All that is required is a GoTo zero (machine coordinates) for all three axes.

Craig

3066

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Verify button does not work in wxMach screen

« on: February 19, 2019, 12:35:59 AM »

Hi,
you need to ditch wxMach.set.

It was the very first and most basic Mach screen set. It has very limited (maybe even nil) editing properties.
I believe it was intended as a test bed only. You can if you crash Mach hard enough CAUSE wxMach.set to run but its crap
by comparison to wx4.set or wx6.set for instance.

Try View/Load Screen, make a selection other than wxMach.set and <open>. The screen will load and redraw itself. If you like
it close Mach and that will cause the new screen set to be flushed to the .ini file.

If you decide that you like wx4.set for example then you should make a copy of it and call it sberanwx4.set say, and then use
the copy. Any screen edits you make will be stored in the new an individualized screen set and not be overwritten when you
update to the newest build of Mac4 in a few months.

Craig

3067

General Mach Discussion / Re: CNC router specs

« on: February 19, 2019, 12:15:51 AM »

Hi,

Second, i want woodworking and aluminum so. and it will work heavy.
3D modeling will need tall tool, right? what about the spindle type and model ?

For wood an aluminum with smallish tools then a 24000 rpm asynchronous spindle and VFD as abound on Ebay
will be fine, I would suggest getting the largest your budget allows. 2.2kW is about the maximum that you can power
with a the single phase 230V supply.

This is an example, I have no idea about this company or anything else, I picked so you could see the type of
spindle I mean:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/CNC-80MM-ER20-2-2KW-WATER-COOLED-MOTOR-SPINDLE-AND-DRIVE-INVERTER-VFD-FOR-CNC-HY/262023137513?epid=1772185565&hash=item3d01cbc8e9:g:0A8AAOSwfVhaRbvk:rk:2:pf:0

i will use aluminum extrusion or aluminum plate with 15 mm thickness ,about 20 mm chrome shaft for holding. ball screw for 1.5 m side.

The extrusion and aluminum plate will determine the machines rigidity. Many have constructed machines with these
materials and are adequate. The 20mm shaft will need to be supported. If it were supported only at each end it would
flex badly. For a machine of the size you plan square linear rails and re-circulating ball loaded cars would be better.

This is an example of cheap Chinese linear guides (trying to behave as THK units!):

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2-sets-HSR15-1000mm-Linear-rail-Guide-4-pcs-HSR15CR-Square-block-bearing/262454933071?hash=item3d1b88764f:g:6jgAAOSwNsdXRt1T:rk:3:pf:0

it needs also a stepper one.

Why? Some of the low cost AC servo brands, while still more expensive than steppers, they are not that much more and
leave steppers in the dust performance wise.

by the way i want to use Siemens NX or Catia v5 which i familiar with. what is your opinion!

I have no idea what they are? This forum is about Mach3 and Mach4 both of which run on Windows OS Personal Computers.
You can induce a PC's parallel port to produce signals (via a breakout board) to control CNC machines. Regrettably the parallel
port has various limitations so it is becoming increasingly popular to use an external motion controller like an Ethernet
SmoothStepper or a UC300.

I use, and am very happy with Mach4 and an Ethernet SmoothStepper, and is my preference. Many other users will have equally
valid preferences, say Mach3 and a UC100 or UC300 or UC400.

Craig

3068

General Mach Discussion / Re: cutting to small

« on: February 16, 2019, 07:48:18 PM »

Hi,
sounds like the machine is cutting in millimeters rather than inches.

Put a G20 at the top of the file and try again.

Craig

3069

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: SRO disable

« on: February 16, 2019, 04:04:51 PM »

Hi,
yes it is possible.
Look in the 'Spindle' category of the Mach AI.chm:

Code: [Select]

LUA Syntax:
rc = mc.mcSpindleSetOverride(
number mInst,
number percent)

Description:
Set the spindle override percentage.

You could use this or you might experiment with another from the same category:

Code: [Select]

LUA Syntax:
rc = mc.mcSpindleSetOverrideEnable(
number mInst,
number enable)

This API determines whether a SRO is applied at all.

Craig

3070

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 and fusion 360

« on: February 16, 2019, 03:57:50 PM »

Hi,
Tom is right, m26 seems misplaced.

Note also the spattering of g17 and g18's throughout the code. g17 declares the machining lane as xy whereas
g18 declares the machining plane as xz.

The link that Tom posted suggests that m26 is somehow related to lathe operations and the g18 seems to confirm it.

Could it be that Fusion is generating code for a lathe not a mill?

If I understand your situation you are new to Mach4 and possibly even CNC? If that is the case you have too many
'variables' going on. Mach4 in itself takes a little learning, using faulty code is making that learning impossible.
Likewise Fusion takes a lot of learning as well, but worse is that you clearly cannot read Gcode nor are you confident
of the machine software.

May I suggest ditch Fusion.....for the moment. What you need is good Mach compliant code that you can run through your
machine so you can gain familiarity and confidence in it. You also need to start to read Gcode. There are many online
tutorials about Gcode. You don't need expertise in Gcode but you should be familiar with what good code looks like.

For that purpose you should be writing Gcode manually or using a wizard. My recommendation is Mill Wizard.
Download it for free and experiment with it. You should be able to produce goo Gcode for simple operation in
under half an hour.

As an example about a week ago I had to machine a heatsink for a electronic project I'm working on. The material
(extruded finned heatsink) had previously been used. I required that the top face be surfaced and then four rectangular
pockets be formed. I stood at my machine for about 5 minutes and had Gcode, and about another 5 or 10 using s Gcode
viewer to verify and fine tune it before running the job. I had four heatsinks to do, it took 20 minutes to machine all
four.

This is an example of simple jobs that don't require a CAM program. You may have seen advertising material for Fanuc, Hass,
and Siemens and they both bang on about 'conversational programming' It is exactly the process I have just explained.
It allows a machine operator to stand at the machine and in short order chain together simple machining ops
all WITHOUT using CAM. This allows a machinist to be highly productive despite not be a programmer.

Of course there is a place for CAM programs as well. They typically are used in the office and then given to the operator
to run on the machine.

Craig