Messages

971

General Mach Discussion / Just when you think you are finally getting there....

« on: October 23, 2016, 04:50:53 AM »

It kicks you in the wotsits again....

I thought i'd try engraving on the bridgeport conversion today, got a little job coming up, knocked up a simple job - just the word 'Test' in V-Carve, 2mm deep 30deg 0.2mm tool.

Worked fine on my mini-mill before.

Every time it hits line N2230 i get the damn ePid fault and everything stops.

I tried 50% feed-rate, no change.

The motion seems very harsh, its lots of little moves but the machine shakes when it does it.

Acceleration too high? It's currently set on 400mm/s/s and speed is 3500mm/min and seems pretty low i think??

I have 0.05mm backlash comp set at 10% speed.

Its been working well up to now.

Any ideas???

972

General Mach Discussion / Re: axes not moving anymore

« on: October 22, 2016, 11:29:41 AM »

Is there any communication - if you flick a limit on the machine, do you get any indicator on the BOB - LED etc and again in mach diagnostic screen.

Do the motors lock up when mach comes out of reset, not always the case as some setups will be locked as soon as drives are powered up, depends if the enable lines to the drives are used or not.

973

General Mach Discussion / Re: axes not moving anymore

« on: October 22, 2016, 09:51:18 AM »

My first check would be the parallel port address in control panel,  make sure it still matches the one in Mach config.

974

General Mach Discussion / Re: run g-code by tool not moving to home position

« on: October 21, 2016, 09:07:34 AM »

Yep thats what i was thinking of doing but is it allowed to have just an Fword on a line or does it have to have an axis with it??

975

General Mach Discussion / Re: lathe threading problem

« on: October 21, 2016, 07:53:30 AM »

Just a thought but does the "Index" led flash on the diagnostics page when it sees the sensor input?

976

General Mach Discussion / Re: run g-code by tool not moving to home position

« on: October 21, 2016, 05:47:25 AM »

I had taken the end move to home out but Aspire does this at the start too...
 N210 M07
N220 (Toolpath:- Apertures Roughing)
N230 ()
N240 G94
N250 X0.000 Y0.000 F1000.0
N260 G00 X105.149 Y27.159 Z20.000

Line N250 seems to use a home move to get the feed-rate in there, no other purpose and pretty annoying, can feed-rate be entered on a line with no move?

i.e. N250 F1000.0  ??

977

General Mach Discussion / Re: run g-code by tool not moving to home position

« on: October 21, 2016, 03:49:54 AM »

I use Vectric Aspire - this one goes to home, and Fusion 360 - this one does what i want

978

General Mach Discussion / Re: run g-code by tool not moving to home position

« on: October 21, 2016, 02:17:04 AM »

I think this is a CAM thing if i understand your question properly - i have one program that always returns home before each process and one that i can start anywhere i want and it just does the cut.

I prefer not moving home first as it risks hitting clamps etc.

It does not move home on a tool change either because i blocked that by editing the M6Start macro for the same reason - i now jog to where I want it to go then change tools.

979

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 to control X axis punch press?

« on: October 19, 2016, 02:29:41 AM »

Do you want the machine to actually move the part or do that yourself?

If it were mine i would be looking at some type of linear motion - a beam with a sliding member on it connected to a belt maybe, the belt would be driven by a stepper motor for ease of build, once calibrated as to the position of the moving part which also has an end-stop on it, you just slide the metal in tell it to go to the first stop, push your stock up against the end-stop, punch, the punch process would trigger the next index move, you then slide material against stop, punch, repeat.

Its just an indexing end-stop, would only need one axis, could possibly be done with a PLC, but Mach would allow you to load files with preset stop positions in it - just load file press start and throw the metal at it all day.

Or if you want the machine to pull the metal in, then you need a little more power maybe, plus add an air gripper to the indexing stop, now you can just load a bar of stock, press run and watch. Naturally, what happens when the punch jams or takes a dump or whatever has to be dealt with too And you will certainly want two-hand start buttons for safety.

Nice little project

980

General Mach Discussion / Re: Advanced research.... ;)

« on: October 19, 2016, 02:20:52 AM »

Ok, thanks Hood, don't go to any bother, just research really.


Dave