Messages

1251

General Mach Discussion / Re: Just about to throw in throw in the towel now :(

« on: September 04, 2016, 08:24:41 AM »

Yes, i have it on a push button at present, holding it low was just a test but does seem ok.

Its on a momentary button now

1252

General Mach Discussion / Re: Just about to throw in throw in the towel now :(

« on: September 04, 2016, 08:11:09 AM »

Thanks Hood, seems i have dropped myself in a can of worms.

I am going back to finish off the setter as Stirling mentioned above.

Yes, the index must be seen before things start working.

1253

General Mach Discussion / Re: Just about to throw in throw in the towel now :(

« on: September 04, 2016, 07:58:34 AM »

Apologies if thats how it seems but the other issue is only related to the tool height setter, I am not using that now, I have a working set of heights so i pushed that subject to a back-burner in order to get some chip-time on the machine at last.

All the macros were either returned to previous states or not called so they should have no effect on this problem.

I could not see the point of carrying on with the setter at this time as i need to make stuff as well - the setter is a luxury after all.

I have not touched the M6 macro or any other macro today, it was a fresh start up so i presumed all would play nicely but it seems not.

If preferred i will go back and finish the setter if that helps but if something really IS messing up macro's then whats the point - the setter uses macros.

AFIK it should all be working but its not, hence the hair pulling.

Apologies again and thanks for the help so far, i have had coffee but still no idea which way to turn. The part is safe as i have noted the offsets so no loss there, it will stay bolted down until i am satisfied it is safe to try again.

BTW, although i asked about modifying the M6Start in another thread, I can assure ALL that it was just a question - i have done nothing about that thought yet.

1254

General Mach Discussion / Just about to throw in throw in the towel now :(

« on: September 04, 2016, 07:36:19 AM »

Ok, so have my CNC conversion at the stage where i wanted to make a part, several tool changes, two setups, both sides of part worked

First side went ok, changed the setup, set my offsets again.

First pass went ok, tool-change was requested and made (manual), path was cut correctly.

next tool change comes up - goes ok, machine faults out on run due to my tool being shorter and not realising it - the controller throws a limit error.

Ok, move bed up, re-cam the part so no first run, this time the tool change is ignored - machine just sits there idle waiting for me to push start as if the tool change had been made.

It did not move to tool change position so i took the tool out and pressed start, it carried on as if.

pressed stop, rewind, try again - same behaviour, no M6 macro

closed mach, restarted, re-homed, re-run - same, no M6 macro

I manually changed the tool to 1 from 6, re-run and it carried on merrily trying to run with the wrong tool loaded (it thought, spindle was empty)

I am getting really disheartened with the odd crap thats been going on here, i cant trust it all, its a crap-shoot if it will work or you will spend all day like today restarting and rehoming the damn thing.

Can anyone shed light on what can stop the macros running?

I had issues yesterday with the tool-setter macro not behaving, but i have not messed with that today and the macro pump is back to where it was before.

Arrrgh!

1255

General Mach Discussion / Re: Bridgeport Knee Mill Conversion?

« on: September 04, 2016, 05:35:29 AM »

ok, yes you are correct, DRO 1502 is a CS-LABS DRO, i guess its really the internal register where the encoder count is stored, you can view it on screen as a counter that goes up/down with movement of the encoder - having it as a DRO allows us mere mortals to do stuff with the numbers

The index pulse starts the counter in the CSMIO-ENC module, unless it is pulsed low after mach is running the counter does nothing, it is supposed to be the index pulse from the encoder so it resets every revolution.

I have tested this and it seems it only needs to go low ONCE every time Mach comes out of reset AND it can be held low all the time so is an edge trigger - this makes it really simple to implement automatically from Mach3 without buttons.

It does not seem to actually reset the count unless Mach goes into reset first then out then pulse the index low - this causes a counter reset, I don't know if Hood's version does or if this is normal?

Now, if the setter is not at zero when you reset it, you get negative readings which of course is bad, very bad as the tool length with be a mile off.

I just ensure the setter is at ref before getting going, in reality it never moves unless i move it.

I will try your code cut-downs and see what happens.

1256

General Mach Discussion / Re: Bridgeport Knee Mill Conversion?

« on: September 04, 2016, 04:30:24 AM »

Definitely cosmetic, just a bell and whistle

The code was taken from CS-Labs website.

1257

General Mach Discussion / Re: Bridgeport Knee Mill Conversion?

« on: September 04, 2016, 03:52:03 AM »

Ahh, apologies, my misunderstanding.

That output merely flips a relay that controls which panel button LED's are lit - run, stop, hold, spindle etc

1258

General Mach Discussion / Re: Skip Tool-change if tool is loaded?

« on: September 04, 2016, 03:40:30 AM »

Maybe add...

If GetSelectedTool() = GetCurrentTool() Then Exit Sub

As the first line in M6Start  ??

1259

General Mach Discussion / Skip Tool-change if tool is loaded?

« on: September 04, 2016, 03:12:35 AM »

I have some code from fusion 360 for a little part i make batches of. It starts with a tool-change of course and i need the tool height offset so don't want to remove the TC.

Is it possible to alter the M6start / end macros to skip a change and do nothing if the tool selected is the same as the current tool??

1260

General Mach Discussion / Re: Homing

« on: September 04, 2016, 03:07:57 AM »

there is a option in config/home-soft limits that I suppose can

"make it come farther away from the limit switch in z when I ref home "

i think its called "home off"

No thats not what it does, Home Offset merely tells the machine where you want home to be relative to the switches.
My milling machine home switches are about 100mm in from the actual home position so i have a -100mm home offset.

The move away from the switch itself during homing is internal and based upon the switch itself - Mach will move to the switch until it triggers, stop, move away until it opens - that is the home point, it will then stop.