Messages

2511

General Mach Discussion / Re: Button Reprogramming...

« on: April 03, 2014, 03:59:42 AM »

Hmm, if I try to edit button script, the only buttons that flash are "ref all home" and "display mode", I can't edit the "Origin" button, Is there another easy way in??

2512

General Mach Discussion / Re: Button Reprogramming...

« on: April 02, 2014, 06:04:15 AM »

Brilliant i will give it a go later on.


Thanks

2513

General Mach Discussion / Button Reprogramming...

« on: April 02, 2014, 05:07:56 AM »

I have a "Origin" button on my plasma screen, it sets all the work DRO's to zero from my pendant.

Is there a way to have this button also press the "Regen Toolpath" button after it does its reset??

This would stop getting soft limit errors when using the pendant to start a job.

2514

General Mach Discussion / Re: Look-ahead settings...

« on: March 19, 2014, 10:14:07 AM »

Thanks

I'll check the g2/g3 thingy out and also see if an increase in look ahead makes any change.

Also, should plasma mode be on or off or does it not make any difference?

It's off at present but CV mode is on.

2515

General Mach Discussion / Look-ahead settings...

« on: March 19, 2014, 08:57:47 AM »

Can anyone advise re the setting of look-ahead.

I am having issues on a plasma cutter running small 20mm circles at around 3700mm/min and there is a pronounced flat on one side, I have been advised to up the look-ahead settings but have no idea what to?

I am running in CV mode as far as I know.

Thanks

Dave

2516

General Mach Discussion / Re: What has gone wrong????

« on: March 17, 2014, 10:26:38 AM »

Well it seems it is lack of current, this was run at 30A...


Its pretty good I think, I have axis wobble to fix but the cut is clean there is no dross front or back apart from a small amount where it slowed down for the corners.

Still 100% better than the first go.

Although I am happier now, I still fail to see why 20A will cut an excellent straight line but produce so much dross and crap on a simple shape at similar speeds??

Oh, and I still need to fix the pierce delay issue, I have 0.1s set but its holding so long that the torch starts popping before moving due to lack of metal in front of it.

2517

General Mach Discussion / Re: 3D printing with Mach 3, who is doing it?

« on: March 17, 2014, 10:02:24 AM »

I did try it by mounting a 3d head on my CNC plasma table, but again the print head was junk so i gave up and bought a RepRapPro Ormerod printer instead to play around with, good little machine.

Mach3 behaved perfectly though, using Slic3r to create the code.

2518

General Mach Discussion / Re: What has gone wrong????

« on: March 17, 2014, 09:33:41 AM »

Well, i'm getting baffled again, the new torch arrived this morning and results seem to be better but something is still wrong.

In this picture...
http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/members/davek0974-albums-problems-picture15119-photo-1.jpg

The long cut is made at 20A @ 4000mm/min, its a nice fine cut about 0.5mm kerf with zero dross front and back.

After that success I thought I'd load up a little test file i've been messing around with and try that after editing the sheetcam settings to suit the new parameters...
http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/members/davek0974-albums-problems-picture15120-photo-2.jpg

Now, this was the second run as the first one at 4000mm/min was worse so i dropped to 3750mm/min but all i got was a pile of dross and partial cuts.

Both tests were pierced at 4mm (mfg recommendation) and cut at 1.75mm (mfg says 1.5 - 2.0mm)

Now this tells me that something is badly wrong but my lack of experience does not tell me what.

Any pointers here???

Also, I have set a pierce delay of 0.1 sec in sheetcam but mach3 seems to stay for at least a second or so.
Does Mach3 have a default minimum pierce delay??

2519

General Mach Discussion / Re: What has gone wrong????

« on: March 14, 2014, 05:40:08 AM »

I think this BOB is toast really, its the original one and the LED for the relay is off when initialised but after it warms up, the LED is half-on. It still switches the relay as required but the LED goes from full to half power not full to off.

When i started testing I had the BOB powered from the stepper drive PSU, this I now know was bad idea so I am hoping it was this that did the toasting.

I have a new BOB sitting here, just not sure to try it or not.

I now have fitted a small PSU purely for the BOB and its on a filtered supply too, cant do much more than that.

My other issue turned out to be the machine torch, its a duff one, the new test hand-torch they sent me today cuts really well.

2520

General Mach Discussion / Re: What has gone wrong????

« on: March 13, 2014, 11:25:37 AM »

Just had a chat with the suppliers and they feel the generator is not switching to full power i.e. I am cutting (or trying to) with pilot arc power which is about 20A on this model

They are sending me a new (tested good) hand-held torch for test purposes and while waiting they have advised me to try upping the air pressure to 75psi just for a test.

But basically at 30A and 1.5mm sheet, it should practically vaporise the damn thing at the slow speeds I have been trying!!

Will know more tomorrow.