Messages

4891

Third party software and hardware support forums. / Re: Question mark flag on Mach3 Puseling Driver in Device manager

« on: March 31, 2018, 04:47:04 PM »

Hi,
run DriverTest.exe and report the results.

Craig

4892

General Mach Discussion / Re: Steppers are too slow

« on: March 31, 2018, 08:43:33 AM »

Hi,
laptops are not recommended for Mach3, they have powersaving code that causes the CPU to run slow. Having said that they usually do work and I don't think
that's why your machine is running slow.

I don't know where you get D00 from, I rather think you mean G00....it is after all called 'G Code'.

G00 Xnnnn Ynnnnn Znnnnn  causes your machine to drive to the coordinate location at the machines maximum speed as determined by your motor tuning
G01 Xnnnn Ynnnnn Znnnnn  causes your machine to drive to the coordinate location at the prevailing feedrate. If you want to change the feedrate  use"
G01 Xnnnn Ynnnnn Znnnnn Fnnnnn which causes your machine to drive to the coordinates at the feedrate  specified by Fnnnn up to the maximum axis speeds
determined by your motor tuning.

Craig

4893

Mach3 under Vista / Re: Mach3 under win10

« on: March 31, 2018, 05:45:00 AM »

Hi,
the PoKeys 57E and 57U have somewhat fewer output suitable for step/direction and somewhat lower maximum pulse rate than the expanded version the 57CNC. But yes you are right they do make for a
relatively low cost foray into Mach4. Having said that they are still 1/2 to 2/3 of the price of the 57CNC and I think you would be disappointed if you economized only to find six months down the track wishing
you'd spent the extra to get the real deal.

Given that you are happy with Mach3 and there are plenty of low cost hardware solutions for Mach3 then why bother. The main strength of Mach4 is that it is so readily customized IF you are prepared to
program it which is especially desirable for OEMs. If you want to participate there is Mach4Hobby.

Craig

4894

Mach3 under Vista / Re: Mach3 under win10

« on: March 31, 2018, 03:16:25 AM »

Hi,
actually I've just remembered that PoKeys do a couple of boards for under $100USD that will work with Mach4 but there have some limitations that are addressed by their 57CNC board
which is fully capable but over $100USD.

Craig

4895

Mach3 under Vista / Re: Mach3 under win10

« on: March 31, 2018, 03:12:05 AM »

Hi,
I am a hobbyist and paid $200USD for Mach4Hobby, $180USD for a Warp9 EthernetSmoothstepper and $100USD for two Homan Designs BoBs and have a CNC solution a
quantum leap forward on Mach3. Certainly the Industrial version would be nice although it doesn't really add anything useful that you can't do with the Hobby version.

At this point in time there are no external motion controllers that work with Mach4 for under $100 unless they be knockoffs of boards that do work. The time investment
in the plugin particularly leads me to believe that no manufacturer will be selling any useful Mach4 solutions cheaply anytime soon.

Craig

4896

Mach3 under Vista / Re: Mach3 under win10

« on: March 31, 2018, 02:17:17 AM »

Hi,
there are some perfectly good Mach4 external motion controllers both USB and Ethernet but aside from the dubious offering from XHC no Chinese made ones.

Mach4 will cost you $200USD, do you really think that it makes sense to but the cheapest possible controller and thereby limit the utility of Mach4 and that investment?
Do yourself a favour, if you are considering Mach4 get a controller that works with good documentation and manufacturers support. The Mach4 hurdle is entirely hard enough
without trying to run it on s*********t hardware.

Craig

4897

Mach3 under Vista / Re: Mach3 under win10

« on: March 31, 2018, 01:45:39 AM »

Hi,

The company that makes them seems to be working on a Mach4 version with an additional 8 or so inputs...  Would be nice. But I can't read Chinese so I can't order one, but they cost about $50.  If I can figure out how to get my wireless pendant to work with Mach4, I might even try getting that one and give Mach4 a go...

I think you are buying yourself some trouble. I've heard of one Chinese company producing Mach4 ready gear:

http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,36023.0.html

Craig

4898

Mach3 under Vista / Re: Mach3 under win10

« on: March 31, 2018, 12:20:17 AM »

Hi,
by the way 100kHz is not too shabby, standard Mach3 parallel port is 25kHz and yet plenty of good results can be had with that.

Higher pulse frequencies come into play when you start using high resolution encoders at high speed as found on all current AC servos. With electronic gearing you can still get good results with
100kHz but you can get better resolution and/or speed with 200kHz or better yet with 500kHz which is the common maximum differential signaling rate for AC servos.

Craig

4899

Mach3 under Vista / Re: Mach3 under win10

« on: March 31, 2018, 12:13:00 AM »

Hi,

Still, I noticed no one else mentioned these cards, so was there any reason no one seems to be using the cheap $21 cards with Mach3? Is it because they are only 100Khz? ( Everyone seems to be looking for 200 KHz models )

No, because most of the time they don't work, the manufacturer/supplier wont respond to requests for back-up, and seldom do these cheap boards offer features like probing, auto-squaring, THC, lathe threading or backlash compensation.

If you spend a few hours reading posts on the forum you will discover that there are many hundreds of post along the lines: 'controller doesn't work....no response to email...no documentation....no plugin download'.

Craig

4900

General Mach Discussion / Re: Only X-axis motor is working

« on: March 31, 2018, 12:03:09 AM »

Hi,
the highest power/torque will be achieved with a parallel combination. It will also be the combination which gets hottest fastest.

The trick to wiring them in parallel is to ensure that the two windings of the pair are co-phase. You either have to measure it by feeding a signal into one
coil and monitor the phase of the voltage induced in the second.

The diagram you posted suggests that you have enough information to do it by trial and error if the groupings of the four windings into two phases can be believed.

Wire the two phases in what you think is co-phase and try it. The swap the one winding in one phase only and try it, if its better then that phase has now got co-phase windings,
if not they were co-phase in the previous wiring condition. Now do the same excerise with the other motor phase.

Once you've got it correct don't keep fiddling with it. It will just keep introducing more diagnostic variables when you are actually trying to eliminate them.

Craig