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Messages - hermeticsj

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21
General Mach Discussion / Re: Sherline 4 Axis Mill (For Laser Welding)
« on: October 18, 2013, 09:54:28 AM »
I got another (hopefully easy) question.

I'm using a PMDX-126 so I can have external cycle start, feed hold, and rewind functions. Those are working fine, the OEMs thread was very clear on how to accomplish this.

Now I am trying to control both the PMDX and the sherline board with the computer. I have two parallel ports on this PC, so I thought this would be simple. I plugged the PMDX into port 2 and the sherline board into port 1. This was because I had originally set up my motors on port 1. I moved all of the OEM triggers to port 2, but Mach keeps asking for an external E-stop. I tried setting the port for the E-stop to port 2, since the PMDX has a dedicated spot for E-stops, but after pressing apply, and exiting out of the ports and pins tab, the program returns this, "Your reset command is failing due to an external influence...etc"

When i return to ports and pins the E-stop was reset to be at port 1. Is this just where the program wants the E-stop to be connected? That is fine, but in that case, how do I reconfigure my motor outputs so that mach knows to communicate with port 2?

22
General Mach Discussion / Re: Sherline 4 Axis Mill (For Laser Welding)
« on: August 21, 2013, 07:49:42 AM »
Thanks for the reply, it cleared up what I hope are the last of my lack of understanding as far as the basic set up goes.

May have a few more about setting the second parallel port to have more inputs, but I'm not that far yet.

23
General Mach Discussion / Re: Sherline 4 Axis Mill (For Laser Welding)
« on: August 19, 2013, 08:43:23 AM »
So I successfully made a relay switch over with m-functions this morning (a small victory I know). I've been searching the forums on how to set custom M-functions in the M100 and higher range, but I'm not sure I understand what is meant by saving in 'macros' folder to enable them. How do you let the program know that when say, M101 is called I want it to turn on output 1?

I found out that cycle start, hold, stop, etc are pretty easy to set up with OEMs, so I should be all set with that. Just need to figure out these custom m-functions and should be ready to go.

24
General Mach Discussion / Re: Sherline 4 Axis Mill (For Laser Welding)
« on: August 15, 2013, 01:07:26 PM »
So I just now got back to this laser welding project after 2 months (got pulled in another direction during that time) and I am having trouble making a PMDX-109 breakout board work with Mach3. All I have been trying to do is send the breakout board a signal to close a relay using an M-function from Mach3. I can't seem to find where I can define the output port and pins for a given M-function. These relays are going to control things like the laser's shutter being opened/closed, and the gas solenoid to switch on and off. I tried using the spindle M-function, but did not have any luck there. Is there a list of M-functions that can be equated back to the outputs page of the ports and pins window? Or do I have to do this through some other route?

25
That did it! The motors are running perfectly. Now to figure out relays and M functions and limit switches.

Thanks for the help.

26
So I installed an LPTcard into my computer (yes the motors can receive step/dir instructions)

Attached is my picture for the LPT port. I'm not sure what to tell the hex address portion of the ports and pins menu of mach3.

27
I can only assume that they do really, since they are on a sherline table and rotary. I'll look into that before buying a LPT card though.

28
Andrew,

Reading back you did state that mach3 uses LPT. I must've overlooked that fact. Thanks, I'll go get a couple LPT PCI cards later today and try it out.

Sounds like I might have been banging my head against the wall for no reason.

29
I had to install a serial port card in the computer because it did not originally come with one. Once it was installed and the drivers were installed, they showed up as COM7 and COM8 on the device manager list.

30
I don't think I've defined my address correctly for the serial port. Its COM7, but I can't seem to find the hex address to input it...

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