Messages

4491

General Mach Discussion / Re: Retrofit Recommendations for Sharp CNC Knee Mill Using Existing Components

« on: May 24, 2018, 04:13:35 AM »

Hi,
this forum is dedicated to Mach CNC software. It seems unlikely then that this forum will provide much information about a Mitutoyo control.

CNCZone has a wide readership on a very diverse range of equipment and may produce results for you.
Have you emailed Mitutoyo?

Craig

4492

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 THC

« on: May 24, 2018, 02:45:50 AM »

Hi,
I don't believe the plugin for the UC100 supports THC in Mach4.

The only Mach4 capable controller that I am aware of that has support for realtime THC control is Vital Systems HiCon board. I may well be wrong here, I'm sure
that others will chime in if they know of other THC capable boards.

For THC to be effective it nees to happen very quickly, responding in tens of microseconds and must therefore be done by the hardware controller. Mach4 running
on a Windows PC cannot get close to that sort of response but perhaps tens of milliseconds, about 100-1000 times too slow to be truly effective.

Hardware manufacturers of Mach4 ready boards are where they were about five or so years ago with Mach3, they had some hardware controller features enacted but not all.

CNCDrive, the manufacturer of the UC100 and its sibling UC300 have only had a Mach4 plugin for a year or so. I imagine it would be a big challenge to develop THC support
AND support their existing Mach4 customers in that time frame.

Craig

4493

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Vista CNC P1A-S with Mach4 - Problem

« on: May 23, 2018, 10:55:29 PM »

Hi,
but I use an ESS and the P1A works fine. Additionally the pendant interacts with Machs core via its plugin
not with the motion controller plugin.

Certainly any movement comes from Machs core via the motion controller plugin to the controller but I was of the opinion
that the pendant never interacts with the controller.

Craig

4494

General Mach Discussion / Re: Retrofit Recommendations for Sharp CNC Knee Mill Using Existing Components

« on: May 23, 2018, 08:37:03 PM »

Hi,
by far and away the cheapest alternative is to use the Galil and existing servos and drives.

If you find you need to replace the drives you are in the territory where replacement with a DC drive like
a Gecko looks cheapest but you are adding a layer of complexity which may mean that the apparently
more expensive option, AC servos, actually works out cheaper, they are a buy once and use for decades
type solution.

If you wish to resurrect the existing controller you will need Mitutoyo support, and what's the bet they say it obsolete.
It becomes not a project in Mach or even CNC but a vintage electronics restoration project.

My guess is that the linear scales are free standing.

Craig

4495

General Mach Discussion / Re: Retrofit Recommendations for Sharp CNC Knee Mill Using Existing Components

« on: May 23, 2018, 03:57:15 AM »

Hi,
Mach3 and in fact Mach4 are native step/direction controllers. They can with suitable motion cards be used to drive analogue servo drives. The motion card usually completes the loop. I would
suspect that is what the Galil card does. Galil is a very good brand but expensive, if you can reuse it by all means do, I suspect you wont buy a new one no matter how good they are.

Another possibility is to use the step/direction output from Mach/controller to step/direction input DC servo drives with your existing servos. Gecko 320s have as good rep as do CNCdrives servo drives.

DC servos are yesterdays technology, if you have to start to replace components, particularly if you have to mix and match between manufacturers it can become expensive really quick. The combination
becomes vunerable to obsolescence.You might consider AC servos and matching drives. Delta is a trusted Twainese brand and about $500 for a 750W AC servo and drive which will outperform any DC servo of the
same power. The resolution and control solutions of a modern AC servo so far exceed anything that was ever even attempted with DC servos and AC servos are now cheaper as well!

I would suspect that the Mitutoyo scales are separate to the CNC control. Can you provide some pcs and model numbers? If they are separate or could be made so that would be easy. Some people like the idea
of trying to incorporate them into a closed loop control setup. I have no doubt its possible but if you can do it I suspect JPL and /or NASA will be wanting to hire you. If that's the case play with their mill! LOL

Don't know anything about the spindle motor. Most probably an asynchronous AC motor. May I suggest work out how to control the axes first...see whats possible and within your budget and THEN start getting
serious with the spindle motor.

Craig

4496

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Vista CNC P1A-S with Mach4 - Problem

« on: May 23, 2018, 03:23:57 AM »

Hi Mauri,
snuck out to the shed to have a look, the firmware I have is P1A, V1.00 7/7/2016 and as  I say it works, notwithstanding the confusion I suffered at the beginning.

If you have no luck with the P1A-S firmware then try the P1A firmware...it might work...you'd lose the LCD but the rest of it would still be handy.

Craig

4497

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Homing & Limit Switches

« on: May 23, 2018, 03:02:09 AM »

Hi,

I don't know why industrial machines use 9 (though I agree, that's also what I have seen), when the same can be accomplished with 3.

Wrong, the same thing cannot be accomplished with three. If for instance you had one switch which activated as a limit, both ++ and --
on one axis when it triggers all Mach knows is to stop. If you try to jog in the + direction by mistake because its going to make it worse then it will let you,
it doesn't know which end the machine is at. Whereas if you had two limit switches (and two inputs) it would know that you had banged into the + limit so it would
let you jog in the - direction but stop you from jogging in the + direction.

Additionally industrial machines are powerful and fast, when you hit a limit the machine powers down, no ifs or buts. It does not rely on a computer to turn it
off, the limit switches trigger the electrical contactor to drop out. Have to for safety, in most countries its probably legally required.

The reason I don't want to fit more switches is for simplicity sake.

Its a poor excuse but I understand

Less wires, less money, less things to go wrong...

Less money, less wiring but because you are trying to combine things you have in fact ensured that there are MORE things to go wrong, not less!

Three good quality home switches and 'soft limits' are good. If you have modest steppers then 'soft limits' are probably enough. If your axis motors are powerful
and/or fast, especially servos then limits are mandatory for safety as well. If you chose to combine functions you will end up with less protection and robustness than you thought.

Craig

4498

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Homing & Limit Switches

« on: May 23, 2018, 01:07:50 AM »

Hi,
you can have the Mach treat the switches as home switches when homing and ignore them as limits and vice versa.
Its just when you are homing you really want protection that limit switches provide, you are more likely to have a cock up
when homing and thats just when you told Mach to ignore limits...really bright!

You can have Mach ignore limits so you can jog back into bounds. If you have individual switches rather than all combined
then Mach will allow you to jog but disable the direction which takes you further into the crap.

What controller are you using?

If  other than a UC100 the you should have plenty of spare inputs, consider 'treating' yourself to one input to one switch.

Craig.

4499

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Homing & Limit Switches

« on: May 23, 2018, 12:58:56 AM »

Hi,
a limit switch is to indicate that the carriage is about to fall off the end....unless you want to be really
clever that means a switch at each end of an axis. You could use a switch as a home AND a limit although thats
poor practice. Lots of people do it, it always used to be done that way when Mach was 'small' but doesn't make
sense today.

If you only have three switches (one per axis) consider using them as home switches only. Then you can use 'soft limits'
which is a programmatic way of having limit switches and works pretty well.

Is there some reason you don't want to fit more switches?

All industrial machines will have nine switches, two for each axis as limit switches and another one per axis as a home switch,
three axes, ergo nine switches.

The best single addition to my three axis mill was three nice roller plunger microswitches for which I made little
adjustable ramps to activate them. I can reference the machine to within 0.02mm and thats without 'index homing'.
It means I can be doing a job, turn the machine off half way through, come out tomorrow, turn the machine on,
reference (also called homing), and start from where I left off without having to remeasure  or reset anything, brill!
They cost $60NZD for all three, about $45USD. Best and cheapest mod I ever did.

Craig

4500

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Vista CNC P1A-S with Mach4 - Problem

« on: May 23, 2018, 12:43:54 AM »

Hi Mauri,
I know the feeling....tough to do sometimes but walk away and have a go another day.

It also prevents the Enable on Mach4 with this MPG.

My pendant works the same way, with the pendant in Estop I cannot in any way shape or form
cause Mach4 to enable short of either removing the Estop condition from the pendant or removing
it.

One thing that I have noticed, and gave me a little grief when I first set it up is that if the pendant is NOT PLUGGED
in to the USB socket PRIOR TO POWER UP of the PC it wont work if I plug in in thereafter. Now that its working it
never is disconnected and so the 'fault/condition/situation' has never recurred.

If I recall correctly when I caused this fault by plugging in the pendant after power up and firing up Mach it caused
Mach to go cranky as well. It has been some time so my recollection may be a bit vague.

I had to enable the pendant plugin in Machs plugin page, but thats it. There is no settings page or anything.
I did have to configure an MPG in Machs MPG setup page, I presume the pendant MPG subs itself in...
I believe I got one of the first of VistaCNCs Mach4 plugins, its about 18 months old. How things have changed
since I don't know.

I have never heard of anyone getting a pendant with an LCD screen to work yet, I don't mean to say that they don't
but just that I haven't heard anyone say 'yeah I got it to work' whereas I've heard a few say 'I cant get my LCD equipped
pendant to work'.

When I get home I'll see if I can find any more info. My development PC melted down over Xmas, the only copy of the plugin
is now on my machine...and I'm not going out there tonight, cold as a witches tit here!

Craig