Messages

1

General Mach Discussion / Re: Can Mach3 remember manual moves?

« on: October 03, 2008, 06:03:08 PM »

Great, thanks for that info.

2

General Mach Discussion / Can Mach3 remember manual moves?

« on: October 03, 2008, 03:02:18 PM »

Is there a feature where Mach3 can remember a manual move, and store the move as a file name for future automation use?

The concept is to test out an SMT pick and place mod for a benchtop CNC mill by attaching a vacuum nozzle to the spindle.  At first the nozzle is moved to a part located in a fixed position, then turn on the vacuum, pick up the part and manually position it on a PCB, release the vacuum, raise spindle up.  That complete 'move' is stored as a filename, ie  R2  or C3, or IC14. 

I would probably mount a servo to the spindle to manage rotation from 0 - 90 degees, and either use an existing free mosfet on the controller driven by a coolant  on/off gcode command, or similar. 

Thanks

3

General Mach Discussion / Re: mach3 a servo

« on: March 06, 2007, 03:03:01 AM »

If a USB device was emulating a keyboard, the processor could return a pulse to pause Mach3 on each  step(as USB key command) followed by a continue command(USB) once the move was complete.  The question would be how slowed down things would get.  But, is this at least doable?

How hard is it to add the pause/continue update to the parallel port and software?  My old MAXnc10cl would do something similar I recall when using MAXNC CL mode. 

4

General Mach Discussion / mach3 a servo

« on: March 05, 2007, 07:13:32 PM »

I am building a BLDC driver for a non-cnc application, but would like to convert it to step and dir use as well.  Is there a method in Mach3 to wait for a "Move Complete" pulse from the driver?  Having never used a servo before, it just seems likely that each position (from the step) would need to be reached prior to sending a new pulse.  Is this correct thnking?

5

General Mach Discussion / Re: How to use pin 10 for move enable

« on: October 12, 2006, 02:24:53 PM »

I am currently running it to Estop along with the limit switches since I can't find a way to pause on pin 10 as it does in Maxnc cl mode.  Obviously there is no way to program Mach3  to do it except to choose the maxnc mode, which is quadrature,   I sure wish there was an option to simply route pin 10 to pause the gcode until the pin goes back to the original state, then resume movement,

6

General Mach Discussion / How to use pin 10 for move enable

« on: October 11, 2006, 06:45:34 PM »

Hello all

I want to use pin 10 input to pause Mach3.   I can set the machine conroller to output a high or low if the encoder doesn't equal the step count, and have the Mach3 wait until either it corrects or not.  I check the box for closed loop under mill options, press apply, but it always comes back unchecked.  When using the MAXNC CL mode, the input will respond as desired to pause when the pin is triggered, but that mode affects my pinouts and also sends out quadrature. 

After looking all over for how this is internally configured, I cannot find how to assing pause to pin 10 active.  Any suggestions are welcome.

Thanks

7

General Mach Discussion / Re: Some basic Mach3 questions

« on: October 10, 2006, 01:07:54 AM »

Thanks Brian.  I looked at it like this, I could send it back again for the second time knowing I'd still have problems forever, or just bite the bullet and build a board exactly like I wanted.  I used the Propeller chip from Parallax,  8 processors in one package,  so each motor runs on its own cog, there is a quadrature object reading 3 encoders updating their counters.  It was a beast of a project to get the right drivers and current regulation tackled, but well worth it for the freedom to know how to deal with problems myself, plus add mods as needed,  This board is an exact retrofit size for the MAXNC10CL controller.  It will actually be way cooler than theirs.  I can shut off the motors on a short timer when they are not in use, but they can self correct of they move out of position.  Also, I set this one  up halfstepping which seems much smoother that the old whole stepping sound. 

Sid you just gave me a great idea!   I had put in some extra mosfets for future use like mist/vac etc.  So I can very easily just make some code on the processor that sets the freq and duty of the mosfet triggering the mister/vacuum.  How simple, but I didn't think of it.  Just turn on M8 in the Gcode at the top, and off at the bottom, run it to pin14 for example, telling the processor to start the mosfet.
 

Thanks guys. 

8

General Mach Discussion / Some basic Mach3 questions

« on: October 09, 2006, 09:59:12 PM »

I recently had been having some major issues with  MAXnc10cl that never would work right with Mach3 software. So I just completed my own controller  design that will fit in the same box, using all my own code and drivers.  I did use the exact same pinouts, although I set mine up to run step and direction instead of quadrature like Max was doing. 

If anyone knows the answer to these questions below please let me know so I can tighten up a few loose ends on the processor coding:

1. Pin 10 INPUT, MOVE ENABLE (LOW=NORMAL OPERATION, HIGH=STOP, SEE NOTE)

Would this be set up as a normal low from the controller, with a high meaning the controller has requested Mach3 to stop?  Since I wont be using MAXNC mode r drivers anylonger, where do I program this enable in Mach3?

2. Pin 13 INPUT, G61 SWITCH SENSOR   

What is G61 Exact Stop Mode and what does Mach do with it?  I never used it so maybe it isn't needed.

3. Pin 16  OUTPUT, DISABLE POWER TO MOTORS (LOW=NORMAL, HIGH=DISABLE)
    Pin 17   OUTPUT, RESET CONTROLLER (LOW=RESET, HIGH=NORMAL)

Since I will no longer use the MAXNC CL mode, I will likely use a mach3mill setup.  How do these outputs get programmed, and where do I look to set them up to send the info to the controller?  When do you want to ever reset the controller, and when to stop motors?  It seems pressing reset does the same thing as stop motors.  Reseting the controller means losing encoder variable counts, so I am not sure when this would ever need to happen.

4. When using M8, how do most people use this feature?  I would like to set up a mist on a timed basis, not always on, so I'd like to program the M8 to run on/off at set times.  I assume it can only be used inside the gcode as entered, but it would really be nice to have mach3 set up with a timer and duty/freq for mist/flood.

The controller runs as is with none of the above features, but I wanted to put in everything that might be useful.  I am counting both step pulses to each axis and comparing to the encoders.  In the event of an encoder shortage, what is the best method to use to stop Mach3 instantly?  I was going to have the processor send a pulse to pin 12 as an estop. 


Thanks for any suggestions.

     

9

General Mach Discussion / Re: MAXNC10CL and MACH3 issues

« on: October 02, 2006, 02:53:38 PM »

Yes pin 10 was always  mandatory.  I pulled out the PICs they had on the board, cut all traces in and out and hooked up my own board over the weekend.  I wrote a piece of test code to sort of debug some conditions.  One was I wrote it to shutdown the processor if the EncoderCounter was less than the XMotorCounter.   One counts up/down for every output to the motor, the other counts up/down the encoder, then compares on every iteration.   Since I was still getting the code right for couting the encoder, it was losing a pulse once in a while, and it would shut down the processor if I jogged back and forth a few times.  On shutdown, the processor would stop all outputs including PWM to the motor, so it was obvious according to the lack of high pitch sound that it had stipped,  This is exactly what was going on before that was happening on a regular basis with their processors that drove me to replace them with my own,   Like I mentioned before, Mach3 was still sending it pulses, but the controlled for an axis, usually X, would stop running.  Sometimes it was Y or Z, but mostly X.

Almost always on Ref home, X would stop and need rebooting the machine.  I was usually REF homing at 30%, but had tried others as well.  There was something very specific with the Ref home feature that my machine did not like, especially X.  It would almost always make  grinding sound or gurgling sound as it homed, then in many cases pop the breaker as it either went home, or right after.  If it didn't pop the mahcines breaker, it would stop working after homing, and need resetting.  One thing I notice is that unless the encoder cbale is sheilded, you can get false triggers.  I am just guessing that maybe some motor spikes might have been getting in their encoder lines, which would be a very good explanation.

Nonetheless, I am almost done with my code using step and direction.   There are a few outputs left on the processor and I'd like to send those back to the PC for future use.  I think Estop is one  good use, if a motor's encoder doesn't move enough pulses, it will shut down the processor and hit the estop.  Maybe someone has some suggestions on other things to try as well. I am having boards made very to reflect the new processor and sense circuitry.  Once I get this all dialed in I think it will be a great controller.  There's nothing better than having your own boards, with your own code to mod as needed,

Thanks

10

General Mach Discussion / Re: MAXNC10CL and MACH3 issues

« on: September 30, 2006, 02:47:27 PM »

Art   Thanks for response.  I was aware that that there are several versions of running pins 16 and 17 floating around.  I have tried every possibility of combinations a gundred times.  For some strange reason though, this cobtrollr would just lose connection on an axis every day, usually the X, but others as well, so it wasn't easy to trace.  I will be done with replacing the processors and code tody or tomorrow, although it is a challenge.  Being strapped to someone elses controller  is nor fun.  I'll run my own boards soon, with my own code and the adpat and modify as the need arises.  MACH3 was always sending out the quadrature, but their processor would just drop the ball.  Something on their processor didn't like some other state obviously.  The problem was not the 16 - 17 pin config. 

Thanks