Messages

401

General Mach Discussion / Re: Win a KX1 mill at Cabin fever Expo (and meet Brian Barker)

« on: November 28, 2011, 10:09:42 AM »

I have just received a new prize to add to the seminar. We will have a brand new Ethernet based smoothstepper, bundled with a Mach3 license, to be the 3rd place prize.

This is like the USB smoothstepper, except using ethernet. That should help in some of the cases where USB had ground loop problems. Ethernet is much more tolerant of noise and ground loops. This unit also has more I/O- essentially 3 parallel ports. That will be great for adding more controls, or maybe big operator control panels.

Tickets are still available, but going fast. Last year we sold out before the show date.

402

Newfangled Solutions Mach3 Wizards / Re: NEWFANGLED SOLUTIONS SOFTWARE - LATEST VERSION

« on: November 28, 2011, 08:24:54 AM »

You must delete the old folder called Newfangled, then rename the new folded to remove the 286. It must be just Newfangled. The material button looks for a material table with the path name of \Addons\Newfangled.

403

Newfangled Solutions Mach3 Wizards / Re: Wizard problem

« on: November 25, 2011, 04:46:55 PM »

If your tool is to big to fit the radius it cant be made. Try a smaller tool

404

Newfangled Solutions Mach3 Wizards / Re: Wizard problem

« on: November 23, 2011, 02:52:32 PM »

Sure, the popup keyboard has nothing to do with the wizard- its a standard mach option. Go to the operator menu and check off the Auto Calculator.

405

Newfangled Solutions Mach3 Wizards / Re: Wizard problem

« on: November 23, 2011, 07:15:40 AM »

You must be using the auto calculator, the on screen popup keypad. It does require the 0, or some digit, before the decimal. Thats not a wizard problem, its how the keypad works.

There is a a known bug that causes the 'last screen' button to fail to load all the wizards graphics if its the first thing called after bootup of mach. If you select the wizard from the menu it works fine. Brian knows about the bug, I guess he hasnt fixed it yet.

406

Newfangled Solutions Mach3 Wizards / Re: NFS Turn Wizard

« on: November 22, 2011, 09:10:46 AM »

On the depth of cut I guess I cant win- some like it each way. I had some complaints on the Mill wizards about not following the requested cut. Ill see how ugly it would be to add a check button for user choice.

Face will be fixed to assume Zend means end of stock and first cut will be off that. Same issue here as in turn as to even cuts or follow the entered number. Again, if its not to ugly in the code ill offer a choice.

Radius could be set to zero to get a sharp corner- at least as sharp as your tool.

I got out my Smid book and have been reading about turn and radius. Since this is so common you would think Id find an example, but I will keep digging.

Thanks for the inputs.

407

Newfangled Solutions Mach3 Wizards / Re: NFS Turn Wizard

« on: November 21, 2011, 07:40:54 AM »

OK, I agree, stock size as Xstart makes sense. It is the starting X value, and the wizard will make its first cut at Xstart- cut depth.

Ill get a new version out with that and a few other fixes soon.

EDIT!

In the current version I calculate an actual cut value that is less than the one specified, but will make an integer number of cuts. In my new code I  make the cuts as requested, and the last cut may be some small value. Is this better?

I just realized that the Face operation does the same thing-- it makes its first cut at the Zstart value. Is this OK? or should I also assume Zstart means the end of the stock before the face operation.

On another topic, Id like to add a filet at the end of the turn operation. That seems like a common need. But I dont understand how to specify the G03 move. If I use I,J mode how do I deal with Dia vs, Radius/ Anyone understand filets in turn?

408

Newfangled Solutions Mach3 Wizards / Re: NFS Turn Wizard

« on: November 18, 2011, 07:58:49 AM »

I agree that the stock size makes sense on the turn operation. But then in other screens, like face or taper, it seems Xstart should be the exact start size of the first cut. So if I made turn be stock size it would make Xstart inconsistent.

Would it be hard to add a mm/inch button? This way you could have 3.4 for inch and 4.3 for mm?

That cannot be done, the size of the DROs is set in the screenset design process, it cannot be altered by code. Do guys really use 4 decimal places in turn code? Im happy when I get my turn stuff right to a thou :-)

409

Newfangled Solutions Mach3 Wizards / Re: NFS Turn Wizard

« on: November 14, 2011, 03:22:58 PM »

Also still cant bore due to the negative values for X that I need, do you think you will get that worked out or is it going to be a problem?

I fixed the DRO so you can enter negative numbers. I still have the test and error message. I suppose I could make the message just a warning, and go ahead and post the code. If you are using a back tool you will understand the message.

One thing that gets me every time is the Start X , I keep putting in the dia of the stock and it will run a pass at that dia so have to remember to deduct my DOC from stock so as not to waste a pass. Also similar on a finish pass, say its 52mm dia and I want to take to 50mm with DOC of 1mm then it will do two passes if I put in 52 as start and 50 as end, first pass being 52mm. So what is needed is 50mm for X start and 50mm for X End, just seems a bit strange to have to do that?

I thought about that for a while. It seems wrong to make Xstart the stock value, then start cutting at a different number. Making Xstart be the actual start value seems more correct.

410

General Mach Discussion / Re: Win a KX1 mill at Cabin fever Expo (and meet Brian Barker)

« on: November 14, 2011, 02:32:40 PM »

I dont have the link yet, it was supposed to be up some time today.