Messages

41

General Mach Discussion / Re: Problems with Mach3 , Gcode or BobCad! and I am not sure whats going on!!

« on: November 06, 2013, 10:36:48 PM »

here is the actual Gcode its making.



(BEGIN PREDATOR NC HEADER)
(MACH_FILE=3AXVMILL_MM.MCH)
(MTOOL T1 S1 D12.7 H127. DIAM_OFFSET 1 = 6.35)
(MTOOL T2 S1 D12.7 H127. DIAM_OFFSET 2 = 6.35)
(SBOX X-.877 Y-.877 Z-25.4 L99.123 W99.123 H0.)
(END PREDATOR NC HEADER)

%
O100
(PROGRAM NUMBER)
(PROGRAM NAME - BOBCAD1.NC)
(POST -  MACH 3 MILL NO ATC METRIC)
(DATE - WED. 11/06/2013)
(TIME - 10:25PM)

N01 G21 G40 G49 G54 G80 G90 G91.1
N02 G53 Z0.


N03 T1
N04 S1252 M03
N05 G00 G90 G54 X66.503 Y31.743
N06 G43 H1 Z2.54 M08
N07 G01 Z-12.7 F254.5827
N08 Y66.503 F496.4363
N09 X60.153
N10 Y31.743
N11 X53.803
N12 Y66.503
N13 X47.453
N14 Y31.743
N15 X41.103
N16 Y66.503
N17 X34.753
N18 Y31.743
N19 X31.745
N20 Y66.503
N21 G00 Z2.54
N22 M09
N23 M05
N24 G53 Z0.
N25 G53 X0. Y0.
N26 M01


N27 T2
N28 S1879 M03
N29 G90 G54 X30.473 Y67.773
N30 G43 H2 Z2.54 M08
N31 G01 Z-12.7 F381.8741
N32 Y30.473
N33 X67.773
N34 Y67.773
N35 X30.473
N36 G00 Z2.54
N37 M05
N38 G53 Z0.
N39 G53 Y0.
N40 M02

(END OF PROGRAM)

N41 M30
%

42

General Mach Discussion / Problems with Mach3 , Gcode or BobCad! and I am not sure whats going on!!

« on: November 06, 2013, 12:23:06 PM »

Ok, So I am posting this from work, and I want to add that I will be posting a video later so you can actually see my problem.

So first of all, I am not even sure where to post this thread, so if it needs to be moved please do so, but I figured its all over the place, so General was the place to start.

So I am a newb at this, but I think I am far enough a long that I shouldnt be running into this, and I am hoping its obvious to someone.
I cant tell if the problem is in BobCad or in mach 3, or maybe in the post processor.

the Short version is:

I draw a box in bob cad,  I make a recess in the block and run a simulation and everything looks perfect on Screen. I "post and Save" the Gcode in bobCad, open it in MAch 3, and everything loads fine. but when I switch to the Tool View,  I see the box I made, but the recess toolpath is about 10-20mm beside the stock.




The long version:  (I was following this as a guide http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8Es52fJ1js)

- Open a new project in BobCad.

- draw a 100mm x 100mm  block  (centered)
- Draw a 50mm x 50mm Block.
- translated the part to  x,y zero.
   highlighted all of the pieces,  and then clicked on the piece to zero it.

- next I picked stock geometry and shift selected the outside box.
- next I selected the tool path and selected pocketing
- I select the geometry
- Click Finish

- I click compute toolpath.
- I click Verify

once I am here everything seems to work visually.

so I click Post and save and store the file on the HD.

So now when I head over to mach3,  I open it and move over to the tab and look at the work. I see a purple box, and a toolpath thats over to the right of the stock where its going to build the pocket.

and thats where I am confused. I dont understand where it all got confused.  I have tried it 2 different ways , once with the centering, and once with just leaving it as is.

and in both cases it appears this way.

I should mention that everything is set up for Metric, so there is a chance that something is getting screwed up, but OH GOD, I dont want to re-confirgure everything for  SAE


I hope to post the video tonight, of me running through the process, but I figured maybe someone might know the problem without seeing the video.

43

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: Looking for some , Combo or independent software for CAD / CAM

« on: October 15, 2013, 11:04:18 PM »

Thanks for your insight,

I am going to take a long look at CamBam and see if it can do what I want, The wizards thing is a cool idea, but I am hoping to learn more and do things myself.

I am usually a pretty quick study, but I seem to require a good foundation,  so with that I ask, have you run across any training aids that might give me a  leg up?

44

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: Looking for some , Combo or independent software for CAD / CAM

« on: October 14, 2013, 10:55:36 AM »

And for anyone who cares, here is the video series on Youtube for FeatureCAM

(CNC Mill 2: Part 1 of 39) Welcome
Instructional Video on how to draw up a part in FeatureCAM for the CNC Mill 2 upgrade for your shop pass in the COE Student Shop. (University of Wisconssin)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cs_LoyaVrpg

(CNC Mill 3: Part 1 of 24) Welcome
Instructional Videos on how to draw up a part in FeatureCAM for the CNC Mill 3 upgrade for your shop pass in the COE Student Shop. More information can be found on our website:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uNV0aCcOhc

45

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Looking for some , Combo or independent software for CAD / CAM

« on: October 14, 2013, 10:53:33 AM »

So, I am just starting out,  the only real decision I have made so far is to purchase Mach3 and converted my Sieg x2 to CnC

I decided it would be more cost effective to play in Wax, because I can soften the learning curve, so I made up a bunch of bricks to mill.

so in the PAN where I melted the wax, it wicked as it was drying, so it made my bricks a LOT uneven, so my first CNC project is to True up these wax bricks.

The stock is   40 x 40 x 150 mm   ( about 1 x 1 x 7 inches)

What I want to do , is park it in the vise, and basically make a multi pass cut.

So, using FeatureCAM,  I made a 50 x 50 x 200 stock, and then put a 40 x 40 x 140 pocket in the design.

Exported it to to Gcode. and then  brought it into Mach3, and thats where everything went weird on me.

I am only running the demo version, but I found some really nice training video's on how to use it,  but its not working out for me, so I am hoping some of you guys can shed some light on software that might accomplish the same thing.

- I am looking for something that possibly is a one stop solution, but it doesnt have to be.

- I would like it to be somewhat intuitive.

- it should work well with Mach 3 with little or no re-work.

- Since I am Canadian, I kind of like using Metric.

- Really nice tutorials on Youtube would be nice.

I have looked through about the first 4 pages of this forum, and I dont see anything that stands out, maybe I should look deeper while waiting.

46

General Mach Discussion / Re: Need help understanding some of my settings.

« on: October 14, 2013, 10:40:36 AM »

Ok, It never occurred to me, that it could be wired right and the table orientation could be whats messing me up.

Thanks tons!

47

General Mach Discussion / Need help understanding some of my settings.

« on: October 14, 2013, 01:03:17 AM »

So the long version of my problem is, I am trying to test my environment to prove I have it configured right.

I have Demo version of featureCam (I found some really awesome instructional videos on youtube from the University of Wisconsin)
I have a Licensed copy of Mach3  
I basically want to Surface a block of Wax to prove I can control the CnC and work from there.
I wont go into the problems I have with Feature Cam just yet, I think my problems are specific to my setup.


I downloaded 540BVFD.xml from someplace, and started hacking to make it work, but I found that I think I changed too many things, so I started fresh today, I created a new Profile.

In Config-> Ports & Pins -> Motor Outputs :
- I have  Y,Y,Z enabled.
- Pins and Dir Pins set according to my Gecko board.
- Dir Low Active and Step Low are all (red X's)
- Step Port and Dir Port all set to 1's

When I have this configuration setup, I find I have the following problems.
- X axis is reversed
- Z axis is Reversed
- Y axis is Fine.
- and When I do a "Ref All Home" the Z axis homes to the bottom.

I found, that if I change the following:
- In Config -> homing and Limits.
 I was able to reverse the X axis, Z axis, and Home Neg the Z Axis.

And after doing this, the hardware performs as I expect it should.

Question #1,   is this the right way?
Question #2,  Why do I have 2 axis reversed?

I also noticed, after looking at my previous profile, I could mess around with the direction of the Z and X axis, by setting DIR LowActive in Config-> Ports & Pins -> Motor Outputs.

Question #3,  which setting is the better one to get it behaving properly?


One of the problems I ran into in Feature Cam, is when I loaded my Gcode, my X,Y tried to home to the X+, and that's what caused me to investigate my settings.
(I am also having a problem where when I import my Gcode from FeatureCam, there is a discrepency of size, the mill will travel 100mm, when I tell it too, but the gcode is doing something else.(but I am not ready to tackle this problem till I know the environment is working.)

48

General Mach Discussion / Re: Problems with "ref all home"

« on: October 06, 2013, 02:17:41 PM »

OK , Hood your the man!

what was confusing me on all of this, was the tutorial video has it showing that it the Esc button skips to the next Zero'ing, and thats why I was expecting it to behave the way I was explaining it.

I now have it zero'ing as expected.


on a side note though, my X axis is Reversed,   so on the config, I have to have it reversed, so that the arrow keys adjust the table correctly, then also have Home Reg unchecked so it goes to the right place.

i can post a screenshot if I am not making sense.  but that aside, I am going to be buying my copy of Mach 3, if only because of all the help I been getting

49

General Mach Discussion / Re: Question about the Scale of my DRO.

« on: October 06, 2013, 02:12:25 PM »

Thank you very much, I know understand a whole lot more of that screen, ya, plugging in the smaller number definitely makes the DRO display bigger numbers.

50

General Mach Discussion / Re: Question about the Scale of my DRO.

« on: October 06, 2013, 01:32:57 PM »

thanks, I have added that to my config.

although, its moving the table around a lot nicer, it DRO still doesnt seem to be displaying the right info.

I am set for Metric,  and when I move the table say "1000mm" to the left, on the DRO its only displaying  +1.5  (i am assuming this is still in inches?)