Messages

841

Newfangled Solutions Mach3 Wizards / Re: Wizard for clockmakers.

« on: May 15, 2007, 07:40:44 PM »

Since it 'on my list' to someday make a clock, this interests me.

Would it be acceptable to do a  simple scale factor, keeping everything in the same proportion? If so, I could generate the geometry in a CAD program, then the wizard would simply scale the job based on the outside diameter of the wheel. If I let the user specify the individual widths and arc radii then it gets a lot more complicated.

Would 3, 4, 5, and 6 spokes be enough?

I assume the wizard should allow for a rough pass and a finish pass, select a cutter diameter, and set total depth of cut and steps depth.

I can do this, if there is interest. Show of hands please, for those interested?

842

Newfangled Solutions Mach3 Wizards / Re: New Wizard

« on: May 14, 2007, 06:58:24 PM »

Yes, Brian and I have talked about a rotation wizard. It should be fairly simple. I have done a set of buttons that I use to pickup any edge of my vise, or to set Z depth. I intend to make them into a wizard, but just havent got the 'round tuit' yet.

843

Newfangled Solutions Mach3 Wizards / Re: Power Feed Wizard

« on: May 14, 2007, 06:54:49 PM »

I guess the answer to that is 'dont do that'!  why would you get ahead of the actual position?

Is there a need for a 'repeat' function, enter a number and have the feed move back and forth that number of times? Id think this would only make sense if it also did something with a second axis, like step over is Y between each X pass. But that would be better handled by the Surface wizard.

844

Newfangled Solutions Mach3 Wizards / Re: Wizard for clockmakers.

« on: May 14, 2007, 06:50:24 PM »

My first reaction is that this is a task better suited to a CAD program. But it would be possible to do one if I had a set of proportions that were standard enough. For any clock one would want all the wheels to be of the same proportion, just different diameters. Let me think about this one for awhile.

845

VB and the development of wizards / Re: Can I Make OEMDRO Count?

« on: May 10, 2007, 05:28:54 PM »

This may be a problem. The call to SetOEMDRO is going to take some time before it appears on the screen. VB may keep running and count down before you even see a display, or maybe you will get a few random numbers as it counts down.

You need some kind of delay in the loop. Im not sure While Ismoving waits for DRO calls, but as a test maybe just add a loop like

For I= 1 to 10000
Next I

A sleep would be the best way to wait.

846

Newfangled Solutions Mach3 Wizards / Re: NF Circle cut wizard

« on: May 07, 2007, 06:05:11 PM »

Can you tell me more- what dia cicrle, what tool dia, did you select inside or outside circle?

I suspect this is a function of the tool radius comp, related to your tool size and circle dia.

847

General Mach Discussion / Re: 40000 steps per

« on: May 01, 2007, 04:48:09 PM »

The steps per inch is not a number you can just pick, or tune. It must be selected to match the mechanical elements of your machine. You must know the pitch of your leadscrew, the pulley ratio, the number of steps per rev of the motor.

Mach does offer a calculator to help,  you guess at a number, command a 1" move and measure how far it actually went. Mach can then calculate what the number should be.

Reloading Mach wont help, you simply have to get the number set correctly. It sounds like you might have lost your xml file when you upgraded Mach. That does happen sometimes. Use the motor tuning screen to set steps per inch correctly and you should be good to go.

848

General Mach Discussion / Re: Just bought mach3 yesterday. Now I need mach2 ??

« on: May 01, 2007, 04:38:54 PM »

You do not need mach2, mach3 has all the functions of 2, and much more.

A 'post processor' is part of a cam program that generates the code for one specific machine. Sheetcam has many posts, you need the one that generates 2D code.

What les suggested is to use the  Mach2 2D post processor with sheetcam. It could just as well be called a Mach3 2D post. The 2D part says sheetcam will never call for a Z move- it will put an M01 in the code, which will cause mach3 to stop and wait for you to press Start. You would manually operate the Z, to whatever depth is called for, then hit start to continue the program.

If you try to run a program with a Z move, and Mach is not setup for Z acis, it will hang, as youhave discovered. You should not do that- you are asking Mach to do a Z move that it knows it cannot do.

849

VB and the development of wizards / Re: Retrieving the string in a UserLabel

« on: May 01, 2007, 11:17:14 AM »

You cannot read the value of a UserLabel from VB, only write it. There is no way to store string data in a wizard, except in files. You could create a file with a fixed name, write to it your Prog1 value, then read the file when oyu need it.

A bit of a pin, but I think its the only way.

850

Newfangled Solutions Mach3 Wizards / Re: New Teach wizard

« on: April 27, 2007, 10:13:36 AM »

I found an error in the init macro that tests for a license. You can ignore the message, when you exit from the wizard it again tests for the license, and there it does it correctly. It will save your code correctly.

I tried to attach the init file to this message, but the forum does not allow attaching macros. I will correct the zip file and post a new version.