Messages

31

General Mach Discussion / Re: Sherline 4 Axis Mill (For Laser Welding)

« on: June 11, 2013, 10:04:34 AM »

Fixed the pulse rating issue. Still not getting any motor response though.

32

General Mach Discussion / Re: Sherline 4 Axis Mill (For Laser Welding)

« on: June 11, 2013, 08:20:57 AM »

I ran the driver test program, and it is saying that the computer is pulsing too fast. It shows a yellow bar, then even that disappears.

I'm using an HP Desktop with:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4200+  2.2GHz
2GB of Ram
32-bit operating system

Are there any ways to slow down the pulse rating? I'm thinking that may be my issue with motor communication.

33

General Mach Discussion / Sherline 4 Axis Mill (For Laser Welding)

« on: June 10, 2013, 03:03:58 PM »

Hello,

I'm reasonably new to CNC, however, the codes we run for our parts are very minimal.

Currently we have 2 HAS CNC machines that we outfitted with 600W lasers for laser welding of aluminium, titanium, and stainless steel parts. The HAS machines have been connected to the laser controller that turns over controls of its relays to the program, allowing us to do things like open/close the shutters, and to turn the gas on with gcode in the programs.

Now we are looking to outfit this sherline 4 axis mill (it is actually a x-y table that we added a z post, as well as a rotary stepper motor for the r axis) with a 70W laser for welding of smaller parts that do not require a lot of weld penetration.

For the sherline I have hooked the motors up to the Sherline controller that came with the x-y table. When using it with the linux software Sherline supplies, all 4 axis work on their own with gcodes. I decided to switch over to mach3 for its customization and ability to handle more relays than the stock sherline program.

I can not seem to get the computer to communicate with the motors. I'll attach the XML file I'm using, it is the Sherline Mill (inch) XML on the mach3 website.

All I've written is a little test program to see if I could get the computer  to talk to the motors.:

G00 X2 Y2 Z2
G04 P2.
G00 X-2 Y-2 Z-2

When I run the program, I can see the tool path change as expected in the tool path window, but no response by the motors.

I've also tried to go through the tutorial for the program set up and motor tuning on the mach3 website, with no success. In the motor tuning set and setup window, the motors do not respond when the velocity/acceleration bars are moved.

Any troubleshooting help would be greatly appreciated.