Messages

41

General Mach Discussion / Re: Splitting an axis signal/Controlling more than 6 axis?

« on: March 10, 2011, 04:01:39 AM »

Well, at the beginning i experienced loosing steps, but it was matter of bad grounding of the machine.

After connecting the common ground everywhere (computer, printed board, drives, bridge of machine),
the machine does not lose any step.

If the pusles are not strong enough, you can use common input to the buffer state and seperate outputs.
(See figure).

In my opinion the motors will never get out of sync, unless:
they dont have the same parameters in the drive units,
or if one drive unit fails to become enabled (or there is a damage).

To solve this matter, you can have an output from the drive (most of them have programmable outputs),
informing the computer to stop, whether there is a fault.

Good luck...

Giannis

42

General Mach Discussion / Re: remote jog control

« on: March 05, 2011, 06:09:50 PM »

No matter what is connected to the output of Mach3 (i dont know what is xylotec), you can have a keyboard with emulated inputs.
Go to "config" - "ports and pins" - "inputs" and specify witch input to witch key.
Is that what you want?
Giannis

43

General Mach Discussion / Re: Splitting an axis signal/Controlling more than 6 axis?

« on: March 05, 2011, 05:57:23 PM »

I have worked with 2 identical Z drives, as following:
From the parallel port a buffer state with 74HC244 (and 5V regulated power supply).
The output of the buffer directly to the pulse and direction inputs of the drives in parallel.
Enable switches (on the drives) will select the drive needed (or both).
Seperate home switches (and make 2 times Z homing), so the router heads will be at the same position.
Hope that helps...
Giannis

44

General Mach Discussion / THC unwanted movements...

« on: March 05, 2011, 02:36:26 AM »

In order to move the Z axis while the program is running,
i have activated the THC UP and THC DOWN inputs,
emulated with PageUp and PageDown keyboard buttons.

Also, THC is enabled on the "MIll Options" menu.
The Z axis moves very nice with the specified speed (0-100%).

My problem is when i press "pause" and after that "start" again,
the Z axis makes a movement Up or Down, which i dont want at all,
because my torch touches the plate!

The movement is:
Up if before "pause" i have pressed "THC UP" or Down if
i have pressed "THC Down".

I have tried many combinations of THC on or off, G28.1,
external buttons at the parallel port, but still the same.

Have you ever seen that? I can't find a specific post.
Any i deas will help.
Thank you!
Giannis

45

General Mach Discussion / Re: Spindle OFF and DoOemButton(110) problem (SOLVED)

« on: January 21, 2011, 03:31:21 AM »

OK finally M5 and DoSpinStop() work,
but only if they are in a seperate command.
Does not work if i call M5 from other macro (code "M5").
But anyway, i do what i want now,
thank you for the posts!

46

General Mach Discussion / Re: Spindle OFF and DoOemButton(110) problem

« on: January 20, 2011, 12:43:47 PM »

Thank you for the posts!
I will try and let you know soon.

47

General Mach Discussion / Spindle OFF and DoOemButton(110) problem

« on: January 20, 2011, 08:50:51 AM »

I face a problem with spindle speed as following:

I have made a macro "M900" in the middle of a program, which includes:
If GetOemLed(164) then
      DoOemButton(110)
End If
which means, if the CW rotation LED is active, switch off spindle.

The spindle is switched OFF, but the Oem 164 LED is still ON.

It goes OFF only at the end of the program when "Turn OFF spindle" under "General config" is selected.

My problem is that i want to start and stop it during the program flow,
by reading the 164 Oem LED.

Exaclty the same happens if i read the OemLed(11) instead of (164).

Do you have any ideas?

Thanks,
giannis

48

VB and the development of wizards / Re: Which is the focused DRO?

« on: December 23, 2010, 01:58:36 PM »

No, i want to change some user DROs with "sendkeys()".
So, when i click a DRO, i would like to read from somewhere which DRO is that.

Giannis

49

VB and the development of wizards / Which is the focused DRO?

« on: December 23, 2010, 12:26:53 PM »

Is there any way to know which is the focused DRO?

Giannis

50

VB and the development of wizards / Re: Wait until external application ends...

« on: November 20, 2010, 12:15:15 PM »

The problem was solved as following:

I created a button which has VB script:
LoadFile("c:\myfile.txt")
While IsLoading()
Sleep 100
Wend

This button has enabled a HOTKEY (for example key "0").
So when my application finishes, focuses on Mach application
and sends a keystroke "0" (the HotKey).

2-3 days of searching and i didn't find any other solution.
Still if you have any idea of controlling it through Mach,
please share.

Giannis