Messages

6671

General Mach Discussion / Re: IS THERE ANY WAY TO JOG AROUND BOUNDARIES OF GCODE IN MACH3

« on: September 15, 2017, 10:13:32 PM »

Hi,
if you want to go around the outline of your part to ensure that your material is well placed within the machining boundaries of your machine then its
likely to fail.

Lets say that you have an unusual shaped part that has an arm which extended beyond the boundary of your machine. I can well understand that you would
wish to know this before you starting your part program but even if you had the means of running around the outline of the part you will cause or
attempt to cause your machine to go outside its boundaries, that is crash it.

I have Mach setup to display the machine boundaries in addition to the part toolpath and can at a glance tell if part of the part program would attempt
to go outside the boundaries. Its usually a matter of shifting the material on the table, re zeroing to the new reference of the stock and confirm the toolpath
lies within the machine boundaries.

To display the boundaries Config/ToolPath check Machine Boundaries. The numerical values of the boundaries are the soft limit max and min on the
Config/Homing-Limits page.

Does this technique provide sufficient info for you?

Craig

6672

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: New user - ToolPath Not Showing

« on: September 15, 2017, 09:48:11 PM »

Hi Alex,
I don't have an answer but there is a couple of things to check.

Go to Operator/Edit Screen and put the cursor on the toolpath window and left click...in the Properties panel lower left confirm that
'Enabled' is checked and 'Enabled States' All is checked. Note that the toolpath doesn't have any events so the panel will be blank if
you select the events tab rather than the properties tab.

On Configure/Mach/Tool Path there should be a whole bunch of different colours to represent different types of toolpath. Are they displayed?
If your not sure what they should look like post a screen shot. There are three 'Tool Path Options', not sure what they all mean but can't hurt
to experiment with some of the settings.

Craig

6673

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: New people welcome !! Come in here and introduce your self!

« on: September 15, 2017, 07:09:29 PM »

Hi Gerard,
welcome aboard. Start a new topic in the main board, it will allow others to see it, comment and/or learn from. I for one am intrigued that
you have PWM active at all, I mean I thought you triggered your plasma on and off.

Craig

6674

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 always hesitates in arcs and circles

« on: September 15, 2017, 03:14:28 AM »

sorry, misclick, from the manual:

5.6.3 Configure Backlash
Mach3 will attempt to compensate for
backlash in axis drive mechanisms by
attempting to approach each required
coordinate from the same direction. While
this is useful in applications like drilling or
boring, it cannot overcome problems with the
machine in continuous cutting.

Again from the manual:

6.2.15.3 CV Mode/Angular Limit
This LED is lit when the system is running in "Constant Velocity" mode. This will give
smoother and faster operation than "Exact stop" mode but may cause some rounding at
sharp corners depending on the speed of the axis drives. Even when the system is in CV
mode a corner with a change of direction more acute than the value given in the Angular
Limit DRO will be performed as if Exact Stop was selected. Full details of this are given
under Constant Velocity in chapter 10.

And Chapter 10 as promised:

10.1.16 Path Control Modes
The machining system may be put into any one of two path control modes: (1) exact stop
mode, (2) constant velocity mode. In exact stop mode, the machine stops briefly at the end
of each programmed move. In constant velocity mode, sharp corners of the path may be
rounded slightly so that the feed rate may be kept up. These modes are to allow the user to
control the compromise involved in turning corners because a real machine has a finite
acceleration due to the inertia of its mechanism.
Exact stop does what it says. The machine will come to rest at each change of direction and
the tool will therefore precisely follow the commanded path.
Constant velocity will overlap acceleration in the new direction with deceleration in the
current one in order to keep the commanded feedrate. This implies a rounding of any corner
but faster and smoother cutting. This is particularly important in routing and plasma cutting
The lower the acceleration of the machine axes, the greater will be the radius of the rounded
corner.
In Plasma mode (set on Configure Logic dialog) the system attempts to optimise corner
motion for plasma cutting by a proprietary algorithm.
It is also possible to define an limiting angle so that changes in direction of more than this
angle will always be treated as Exact Stop even though Constant Velocity is selected. This
allows gentle corners to be smoother but avoids excessive rounding of sharp corners even
on machines with low acceleration on one or more axes. This feature is enabled in the
Configure Logic dialog and the limiting angle is set by a DRO. This setting will probably
need to be chosen experimentally depending on the characteristics of the machine tool and,
perhaps, the toolpath of an individual job

If you haven't got the manual go to the Artsoft site and get it. Manuals work best when they're read, usually several times!

Craig

6675

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 always hesitates in arcs and circles

« on: September 15, 2017, 02:40:53 AM »

Hi,
turn backlash compensation off. Turn CV on.

From the manual:

6676

General Mach Discussion / Re: mach 3, motors will not run

« on: September 15, 2017, 02:35:47 AM »

Hi,
that's your call, I can't think of another way to see if Mach is communicating with the control. Man you've got to luv this
Chinese made gear!

Craig

6677

General Mach Discussion / Re: mach 3, motors will not run

« on: September 14, 2017, 05:40:19 PM »

Hi,
OK that makes things a little harder. I'm surprised that you don't have an Estop button on the control box. It is a simple way to see if Mach and
the control box are talking.

Can you take the cover off the box and take a few pics of whats inside, we may find a place to probe or it may have some LEDs.

Craig

6678

General Mach Discussion / Re: computer updated and now no stepper movement

« on: September 14, 2017, 04:52:33 PM »

Hi,
well that looks fine. Do you have an Estop button on your control box. Does it work? If it does then Mach and the control box are talking to each other
which is good news.

Does your BoB require a charge pump signal? If you take the cover of the box can you see/get to/probe the Dir pins of the BoB or drivers?
Thinking that if you have a multimeter you could probe the Dr pins while jogging backwards and forwards.

Craig

6679

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 how to manually moving x axis or y axis very fast

« on: September 14, 2017, 02:43:35 PM »

Hi,
that's good info. What are your natural units? I see for instance that the velocity setting for both axes is 226. Sounds right for inches but way slow for mm.

On the second last screen shot it shows the main page but with the feedrate override of 6 units. I think that 6 is a default setting for Mach but is very slow.

On the Config/General Config... in the second column near the top is a box of controls called 'Start Up Modals'. In the text box 'Initialisation String' please
add F226 <enter> and restart Mach. Does this make any difference?

6680

General Mach Discussion / Re: computer updated and now no stepper movement

« on: September 14, 2017, 02:30:36 PM »

Hi,
do you use a parallel port? If you do run DriverTest.exe and post a screen shot if you can.

Craig