Messages

521

General Mach Discussion / Re: Licensed MACH3 ignoring up/down signals from Proma THC and not moving Z axis

« on: September 21, 2022, 04:50:21 PM »

Hi,
i'm dubious your motion control board supports realtime THC.

Craig

522

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 scaling and keyboard button mapping

« on: September 08, 2022, 08:07:12 PM »

Hi,
kool, a very substantial machine!

Craig

523

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 scaling and keyboard button mapping

« on: September 08, 2022, 07:44:06 PM »

Hi,
'the good thing about Alzheimer's is that your always meeting someone new.'

Craig

524

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 scaling and keyboard button mapping

« on: September 08, 2022, 06:29:12 PM »

Hi chuck,
my profile, or more technically correct, screenset never had a DRO for scaling, I always used G50 and G51 for scaling whenever I've needed it.

Over the last couple of years my screenset has changed as I've built a new machine, much bigger, more powerful and more rigid, using servos
rather than steppers, and so I rather doubt my screenset is of any particular use to you.

What I have found is that my screenset is 99.99% standard as shipped by NFS....all I've really added are those specific features I need for my machine,
things like individual alarm inputs for each servo, and the inputs for a wired pendant for example. All and anything I can possibly require is already built into Mach4.

Craig

525

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: M6 toolchange Lua script help?

« on: September 06, 2022, 07:59:26 PM »

Hi,
to amplify what Swifty has said....Lua is a type free language, which has advantages and disadvantages as well.

For instance if you write:

local myNumber=123.789
then no troubles Lua stores that as a number, but you could also have written:
local myNumber='Just some random string'
and Lua would store that as a string. The only issue with this idea is when you have a variable and you are unsure about how Lua has stored it. In this case it's
a good practice to be explicit.... for example:
local myNumber=tonumber('123.789')   or
local myNumber=tostring(123.789) say.

You will see the functions tostring() and tonumber() used frequently throughout Lua code. If a variable is interpreted in a manner contrary to your expectation you get some very
weird results, and that where these functions come in handy.

Craig

526

Third party software and hardware support forums. / Re: Need help getting Teknic Servo motor controlled by Mach 3

« on: September 05, 2022, 10:00:31 PM »

Hi,
the Clearpath SDSK is made to be as SIMPLE as possible to catch buyers whom want servos but are only familiar with steppers.

The servos need only the same number of wires as a stepper. You need a pos and neg supply, and capable of 10A or 20A so need to be reasonable size.
You'll need one step wire, one direction wire, and one return wire, say 0V or 5V to 24V depending on your controller. These wire are signals only so little wires,
#22 or #24 would be fine. That would be enough to get the servo going if you program it so. Its common, not essential, but recommended to have one additional wire,
an ENABLE, and a #22 or #24 signal wire would be ample. This wire basically turns the servo ON or OFF. You might use it to disable the servo if the machine EStops say.
Another good idea is to have a HLFB wire, #22 or #24. You can program the servo to output a condition, for instance an overload or overheat condition. You could use this to
EStop the machine. Another possibility is to program it as a  'Following Error'. If the servo lags too far behind the commanded position it will fault, a bit like a stepper
when it misses steps. The servo will recognise the lost steps and if it can't keep up it will stop. You can use HLFB to signal that event and use it to Estop, or pause the machine
rather than carry on making an out-of-shape part.

One of the definite shortcomings of Clearpath servos is that they only have one HLFB output. So you could not have an overload output AND a Following Error output, but only
one or the other. My Delta B2 series servos have SIX digital outputs, so I can have Following Error AND Overload AND Overheat outputs. My controller can respond in different
ways to the different fault conditions. Clearpath reduced the outputs to just one in interests of simplicity....shame really.

Craig

527

Third party software and hardware support forums. / Re: Need help getting Teknic Servo motor controlled by Mach 3

« on: September 05, 2022, 08:38:20 PM »

Hi,
you have pictured two micro stepping drivers and they are for stepper motors not servos.
For servos you need servo drives which are a completely different animal to stepper drives.

Clearpath sdsk servos have the servo drive built in. All you need is a 60V to 70V DC power supply to each servo, and the step/direction signal wires
from your motion controller/BoB combination.

If you don't have steppers get rid of the stepper drives. If you have hooked the output of the stepper drives (A+,A-,B+,B-) to the pulse
inputs of the Clearpath servos you will in all probability have blown the hell out of those inputs. They are OK with 5V to 24V but you will have fried them
if you have connected them to the 40-50-60V or whatever outputs of your stepper drives.

I see you attached the manual for the servos....did you read it?

Craig

528

General Mach Discussion / Re: Repeated Pausing during cut

« on: September 04, 2022, 11:17:24 PM »

Hi,

The CNC controller is USB connection.

So what make and model?

Craig

529

General Mach Discussion / Re: Repeated Pausing during cut

« on: September 04, 2022, 09:31:26 PM »

Hi,
is it a parallel port machine?

Try disabling the screen drawing facility when running large files. The screen redraws can cause the pausing you are talking about.

External motion controllers like an Ethernet SmoothStepper reduce the dependence on the PC by relieving the PC of the need to generate
accurately timed pulse streams for which Windows PCs are poor.

Craig

530

General Mach Discussion / Re: converting the Proxxon Micro Miller MF70 to CNC

« on: September 02, 2022, 09:49:21 PM »

Hi,
this thread is very old, so it is likely that you wont get a reply.

I assume you are asking about the ability to control the spindle with Mach3?

If that is the case can you tell us about your spindle. The title suggests that you are using a Proxxon router. Is this the case?
Again assuming my guess is correct then a Proxxon router is an example of a 'Universal AC motor', and is common in routers, fans, vacuum cleaners and
many other consumer devices. They are constructed very much like a brushed DC motor but are intended to be supplied with AC power. They are
remarkably good and very economical to mass manufacture and hence their popularity.

One of the shortcomings of the Uni-motor is that it is not a well suited to speed control. You can control the speed by using a Triac, not dissimilar to a light dimmer,
but the accuracy of speed control and its speed stability under load is only fair at best. Another issue is that the motor is air-cooled with a fan blade mounted on the shaft.
If you slow the shaft rotation you also reduce the air flow and it will overheat. The air flow is approximately proportional to the square of the shaft speed so reducing the
shaft speed by half reduces the cooling effect by 3/4's, ie a big drop.

A further complication is that the current in the motor is largely determined by the 'back EMF' of the rotor. As the shaft speed reduces the back EMF reduces also
and therefore the motor current will go up, with consequent increased heating.

The two factors combined, ie increase in heating as the speed reduces and a marked decrease in cooling as the speed decreases suggests that a uni-motor run at less
than rated speed may not survive long.

Craig