Messages

11

General Mach Discussion / Re: inhibit all axis

« on: November 29, 2013, 04:29:38 PM »

I answer to myself.
I'm working on an Apple MacBook Intel with Win XP SP2  hard installed.

It seems that the Apple Keypad(via Bootcamp drivers)  is not perfectly recognised by Mach and the system Hotkeys are not present and not editable.
I'm obliged, to jog , to emulate the  jogging action.
I guess this causes the issue.

If  i replace the XML profile with one from a TRUE PC , the problem disappears.
Maybe i should initiate a virgin profile on my PC and transfer it to the Mac and reconfigure everything.
I don't know if it will work, but it seems to.

12

General Mach Discussion / Re: inhibit all axis

« on: November 29, 2013, 01:41:22 PM »

Hello Hood !
I'm back home and did some tries:It works the way you told. Perfect !

Now i've got another problem:
I'm fine tuning the motors and i realized that in JOG mode, Mach (or mach with ESS) double the value i ask.
But only with the jog function, not with MDI.

I explain :
In 1 mm increments, the DRO goes  to 2mm with just one keypress. And this is effective, i checked with dialer.
The same happens  with a  0.1mm increment : i got a 0.2 mm move for just 1 keypress, 0.4mm for 2 keypresses etc..
Obviously it is also the same for 0.01 increments, that give me 0.02mm each time...

 

In MDI mode, everything is allright, if i ask 1 or 0.1 or 0.01 mm it moves accordingly truly

I've searched in Mach and in ESS config. but didn't find something interresting.
Can you help me, please ?

EDIT:
i rechecked the situation and found that sometimes, mostly the 2-3 first kepresses after having completely  shut down Mach , it  gives the correct move, and then it starts to double the values.

13

General Mach Discussion / Re: inhibit all axis

« on: November 27, 2013, 08:24:43 AM »

OK!

thanks a lot, Hood !
I'll try this when i'm back home.

Cheers,
Cyril

14

General Mach Discussion / Re: inhibit all axis

« on: November 27, 2013, 06:18:19 AM »

Thank you Hood and Brett.

So Hood, you mean the "Offline" button could disable my drivers???
I was going to connect the enable inputs of the drivers to any relay available on my BOB  to activate or desactivate the drivers.
A button in the screenset to toggle the relay, et voilà !

Is the "Offline function" acting so ? What is the physical way (relay?) it acts on ?

15

General Mach Discussion / Re: inhibit all axis

« on: November 27, 2013, 06:05:07 AM »

Hi Hood,
thanks for answering one of my question again....

hummmm.
i haven't thought about the pause changing the position, you're right...

But anyway, the function i mentionned doesn't produce the desired effect.
Actually i'm not at home for some days and i'm doing tests with a non connected at all Mach3 installation on a laptop.
And the DRO's are moving despite the instruction DoOEMButton(250) or (251,...252,etc...)

At home my configuration is the following:
-Macbook Intel with windows XP SP2  hard installed
-Ethernet SmoothStepper (so no parallel port)
-Bob + 4 digitals drivers

Maybe i'm not using the correct function, can you help me with this VB programming?

Greeting from France!

16

General Mach Discussion / inhibit all axis

« on: November 27, 2013, 04:39:44 AM »

Hello everybody,
 
i'm creating a button on my screenset to disable/enable the drivers of the stepper motors, so that i can
put the motors "on pause" when needed.

The problem is that when my motors are  "paused" this way, i can still jog the different axis in Mach ( with no moves of the motors obviously)
and the DRO's are changing.
That's pretty disturbing because if i jog unvoluntay, i lose my reference.
So my question:
Is there a way to "freeze" the DRO's so that they won't change when  the motors are paused, and as soon as the motors are re-enabled the DRO's would be free to change again.
I've tried the function DoOEMButton(250).  (Jog Inhibit X Off/On Toggle  and so on for each axis)
But it doesn't prevent the DRO's to change.

Any ideas ?
Thanks

17

General Mach Discussion / Re: Feedrate overide for each axis independently

« on: November 22, 2013, 04:11:53 AM »

Hello,

thanks for your answers.
The reason for asking such a question is that i'm doing some tests with very small mills.

I'm doing engraving and cutting jobs on thin solid silver.

At that moment i'm working with a carbide  0.2mm conical (15°) bit two cutting edges .My spindle speed is 45.000rpm , X/Y feedrate: 350 mm/mn and Z feedrate 20mm/mn
each cut : 0.05mm

I think i can go higher but i't's pretty hard to know precisly the best feedrate i can achieve either  in X/Y and either in Z.
The documentation on such  small mills is pretty hard to find.

And having the opportunity to alter the feedrate on Z independently is convenient to find the highest feedrate
for X/Y and Z (with good work quality and no mills breaks !).This way i would'nt have to rewrite the G-Code for each value
of the feedrates i want to try.

18

General Mach Discussion / Re: Feedrate overide for each axis independently

« on: November 21, 2013, 05:15:43 PM »

OK !
I understand your statement  for X and Y as they should be in "unison".

But concerning Z, in the G-code , i'm used to always specify a low  F value for the plunge action, to avoid breaking small mills.
And i can clearly see Mach waiting for the mill to "slowly" go down to the requested depth before going on.
So X and Y are "waiting" and are not in "unison" with Z, aren't they?

Anyway,  i don't want to bother you,  Hood.If Mach can't do it, it can't do it , that's all !

THX

19

General Mach Discussion / Re: Feedrate overide for each axis independently

« on: November 21, 2013, 12:00:34 PM »

hi Hood,

thank you for your reply.

Maybe a mid solution can be found:
1 slider for overriding X/Y together
1 slider for overriding Z alone.

I don't understand why it wouldn't be possible as i guess the overriding command
"changes  artificially " the feed rate in the G-Code, and the feed rate can be different  for  the X/Y translation
and the Z translation.
It's a proof that they're can exist 2 feedrate values, no?

20

General Mach Discussion / Feedrate overide for each axis independently

« on: November 20, 2013, 04:38:04 PM »

Hello,

i would like to know if there's a way to add sliders to control the overide of the feedrate  for EACH axis.
At that time the overide function acts on every axis.

I would like  to be able at least to control the common overide for  X/Y feedrate and besides  this  be able to
alter the Z feedrate independently.

Do you think it is something achievable by creating sliders and macros?
I don't have any clue which instruction(s)  can modify the feedrate...

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks