Messages

3721

General Mach Discussion / Re: Noob here

« on: August 30, 2018, 02:24:15 PM »

Hl,
all development of Mach3 ceased five years ago in favour of Mach4.

Lots of people still use Mach3 and prefer it but as Gerry points out recent Microsoft Windows updates have broken Mach3.
There is a patch but really you will have to prevent your Windows OS from updating. There are NO updates for XP so that should be
safe.

Mach4 has no reported problems with updates and NFS is on hand to fix issues as they arise.

Craig

3722

General Mach Discussion / Re: Anybody help me?

« on: August 30, 2018, 12:57:28 AM »

Hi,
more important than speed is acceleration.

If you had some Gcode that makes an axis go backwards and forwards at maximum acceleration.
Then up the acceleration in Machs motor tuning and do it again. Keep upping the acceleration until
you get an overcurrent fault from the Gecko. Back off the max acceleration by about 25%.

Is your machine in inches or metric? How long are the axes?

If in inches I'd try something like:
G0 X4
X0
X4
X0
X4
X0
X4
X0
X4
X0

Which will make the X axis go backwards and forwards by 4 inches as fast as it can, up to the max velocity
you have set. What you are hoping is that the axis is still accelerating by the time it has to start slowing down
again, ie it never gets to V_max but is in a reversing but maximum continous acceleration phase.


Craig

3723

General Mach Discussion / Re: CS Labs CSMIO/P-A

« on: August 29, 2018, 08:51:14 PM »

Hi,
if that is the case, and the parameter is adjustable? then I would set it to 1250 line per rev
which corresponds to 5000 counts per rev.

With 1:1 coupled leadscrews at 5mm pitch then the resolution is 1um, an easy number to deal with.
The steps per unit (mm) in Mach would be 1000, easy. Set the max velocity in Mach at 5000 units/min
ie 5m/min. That would mean that Mach and the CSMIO would demand no more than 1000 rpm
from your servo.
Set the acceleration as high as is practical, excessive acceleration will cause over current events, so you
want to back off by 25% or so from that.

At 1000 rpm and 1250 lines/rev the A/B quadrature signals would be 21kHz, real easy going.

Craig

3724

General Mach Discussion / Re: Marchant Dice!!!!!! Kress Spindle NOT working!!!

« on: August 29, 2018, 06:32:50 PM »

Hi,
in absence of technical support what else can you do?

Craig

3725

General Mach Discussion / Re: Marchant Dice!!!!!! Kress Spindle NOT working!!!

« on: August 29, 2018, 03:05:51 PM »

Hi,
does the spindle work if you plug it in direct?

Craig

3726

General Mach Discussion / Re: What kind of bit/end mill should I be using?

« on: August 29, 2018, 03:00:43 PM »

Hi,
why use single flute?

Download a demo copy of HSMAdvisor.

The surface speed for 6061 with uncoated carbide is in the region of 200-500 m/min. What you can actually achieve will depend to a large extent
on the rigidity of your machine and whether you can avoid recutting the chips. If you recut chips ALL BETS ARE OFF.

Craig

3727

General Mach Discussion / Re: Noob here

« on: August 29, 2018, 05:44:24 AM »

Hi,
I agree with Gerry, almost all the Chinese machines are pretty good mechanically, its just the electronics and pirate software that
lets them down.

You need to be aware of that potential shortcoming. It's not the end of the world, substitute a decent controller and stepper drives and you are well
on your way to a good machine. Wiring up  a controller and drives is not that hard.....and CNC is a learning hobby.

Craig

3728

General Mach Discussion / Re: CS Labs CSMIO/P-A

« on: August 29, 2018, 05:19:22 AM »

Hi,
finally found the setting.

Note the factory setting is 2048 line per rev or 8192 counts per rev.

Its not clear to me from the table entry that it can be adjusted. The fact that it is  a RW variable suggests that you can set it  but equally the lack
of max or min data values suggest that it is fixed. Either way 8192 counts per rev is useful middle ground.

At max servo speed, 3000 rpm or 50 rev per second, the line frequency is:
Fline= 50 X 2048
       =102.4 kHz
This will be the maximum frequency of the A/B quadrature signals to the CSMIO encoder inputs. 100 kHz is quick but not too difficult. Twisted pair differential
signaling is provided and should work well here.

If your leadscrews are 5mm per rev and your servos are 1:1 coupled to the leadscrews the resolution at 8192 counts/rev is:
resolution (linear)= 1/ 8192 X 5
                         =0.6 um
Sub micron resolution is very good and still the encoder line frequencies are realistic. In short even if the resolution of the synthesized encoder is not
programmable the choice made by the manufacturer is right in the sweet zone with respect to resolution and signal frequency.

Craig

3729

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: How do you set pound variables to #0 in LUA?

« on: August 28, 2018, 08:59:06 PM »

Hi,
I'm not at all sure that's possible.

Remember pound variable are defined by Machs core. If Mach defines a pound variable (register) and
gives it an initial value it can no longer be null.

Craig

3730

General Mach Discussion / Re: Noob here

« on: August 28, 2018, 07:00:05 PM »

Hi,

are u saying that i can throw the controller in the bin?

Rather brutally put but yes, if you replace that controller with something like a SmoothStepper you
will end up with a better machine.

If you were to replace the driver yes you would have to wire them up.

Which other machine will be ready to use out of the box

That is problematic, there are many good machines that will work really well 'out of the box'
but they will be very much more expensive.

Craig