Messages

11

General Mach Discussion / Re: CamBam export g code into Mach3

« on: October 31, 2014, 04:27:19 AM »

Thanx for the reply, will ask on the cambam forum, however, I still think that there might be another issue, as I experience the same in Lazycam and even before i started using Cambam.

12

General Mach Discussion / Re: CamBam export g code into Mach3

« on: October 30, 2014, 04:00:19 PM »

Thanx Jeff

Got that sorted this eve, I swear it did not allow for the id (showing other formats) when I tried load g-code files on Wednesday, but like I said I got that right tonight. The thing is that with the g-code in cambam (since I am able to load the .nc files) (previously exported the file in cambam to dxf, then opened in lazycam, then posted to mach) it seems to omit some parts of the cut, if I do manage to get all the lines of the cut as part of the g-code then it only allows for a certain depth to be cut, it is either or, either I can cut some part of the drawing full depth or the full drawing only part of the target depth, this is the main reason why I went nuts when I used lazycam, it does exactly the same? Make me think I am stuffing-up somewhere! Just don't know where.

13

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: My Build EVO v1.I

« on: October 30, 2014, 03:50:17 PM »

Thanx Stirling

Yeah you're right, unfortunately my brain works (I'd like to think it does anyhow) much like a Multi-functional device, and that gets me all-over-the-place, constantly.

As for the homing issues, that is sorted, limit switches (Y+, X+ and Z-) are working just great, wasn't too sure about the config on the other ends where I only have the homing switches, so the latter are only used as homing switches, but that is fine, except for the once or twice where a manual move of these axis's pushed into the switches and broke them loose, learned to keep my eye on the movement of them since and have not made that mistake again, so I guess that it sorted, unless there is a config to set the homing switches as limit's as week without actually having to install separate switches for that?

As for the circle wizards, I have (I think) identified the issue, offsets! Why, well I drew a part that had a 7mm hole to be pocketed, I figured out after some dummy runs, cutting some pine, that if I drew the hole with a 1mm diameter, then using the 6mm endmill I got a 7mm hole. Similar was larger arcs and circles and even straight (parallel lines), everything seemed to be out by the diameter (perhaps just the radius x2, both sides cut) of the 6mm endmill. So if you can slap my head into the portion that would resolve that, it would be great.

Why am I moving on to other things, well I cannot sit still and as mentioned, already made myself a probe, also made two electronic tool setters, which works perfectly, very simple and very easy to make, and accurate to 0.0012 of a mm. Again as I cannot sit still for a moment, I installed a laser (still need to calibrate that thou) to be used a a center point (mill-bit center) indicator.

Will stop here, otherwise you'll be all-over-the-place trying to assist me.

PS: Thank you ever so much for the patience with helping a Ritalin case like me, lol, but serious on the Thank You part. It is appreciated much more than you know!

14

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: My Build EVO v1.I

« on: October 30, 2014, 08:51:51 AM »

Thanx Stirling.

Sorry for the late reply, just had to deal with the passing of my father on the 8th of October, anyhow, thats done now, so it's full steam ahead and .... the icebergs!!!!


I've seen some photo-sensitive (forgot the actual name) that is found in printers etc etc, where the optical line gets broken by a tooth on a circle which is directly connected to teh spindle shaft, thus producing the true revs of a spindle, which I suppose would be required for some sort of current control to control the actual spindle speed? Do you think it's worth investigating?


PS. I have built a digitizing probe with a piezo-element but I am not sure at all where to configure it in Mach (if at all possible) to be used as a point cloud generator, which I could then turn into g-code to cut from stock again. Any thoughts?

15

General Mach Discussion / Re: Which cam soft for 4 axis simultaneous milling with mach3 ?

« on: October 30, 2014, 08:34:55 AM »

greg2fs

I am currently looking at CamBam, it claims to be able to control the 4th axis, but I have yet to test this claim. I just have a slight issue (most probably operator fault, by default) in that I cannot get the G-code produced in CamBam to load to Mach even with M<ach set as the post processor in CamBam.

It also seems very affordable (think it's 149$) as opposed to cam's like BobcadCam, way over my entire years earnings, so I could never afford that.

16

General Mach Discussion / Re: CamBam export g code into Mach3

« on: October 30, 2014, 08:29:03 AM »

Guys

I use autocad for the designing, then importing into Cambam, do all the required thingy's there but for a reason yet to strike me like a lightning bolt on a cloudless day, i cannot seem to get the g-code loaded into mach. I can however only export the processed file as a dxf file that I then get to load in lazycam, but it throws away all the parameters that was set in cambam.

Cambam saves the processed G-code file as a .nc, but Mach doesn't see the file in the sub when it is to be imported.

Is there any way that one can import the .nc file into mach for the G-code to load?

PS, I have mach set up as the post processor in Cambam.

17

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: My Build EVO v1.I

« on: October 07, 2014, 07:59:45 AM »

Cool,thanx so much, will check the the pdf, now noe thing i noticed there is the word Macro, be ready to assist in kicking my B-Hind in the right dircetion when it comes to the programming part 

As for th glitch, well perhaps the switches I got with bearings at the end were of poor quality, I do have sealed switches but these only have extended levers and come to think of it, the one that is currently part of the machine is working as it should.

The circle wizard thing:
I tried cutting a circle with Kirans "Cut Circle" and this produced the square with the rounded corners. Without touching any mechanical part of the machine i.e. lead screws, backlash nuts etc etc. I did a cut with the "Circular Pocket" wizard by Brian Barker. The latter gave me the perfectly rounded circle, albeit the diameter was .8mm larger than the intended 21mm. hope that helps in explaining this strange phenomenon?

The router is a Ryobi TR50 router, does 500W at 33000rpm (without load) weighs 1,3kg and is small enough to be used with one hand (the latter two mentioned properties was the reason for the aquisition) it runs on 220-240VAC. It currently has a manual switch and I have attached a current control unit to it with a potentiometer (pot) but it still remains a manual operation (with limited control width) and I would idealy love to have Mach controlling it.

PS Thanx so much for taking time to assist, you do not realise how greatful I am for that. Thanx a mill !

18

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: My Build EVO v1.I

« on: October 07, 2014, 06:41:48 AM »

Hi Stirling

Thanx so much for the reply, yes I followed the advice some weeks ago, forgetting the brain which was a nightmare as I knew what I wanted to do but didn't know in which order it had to be done (specified in the brain). I combined the switches and have no issues with them. The homing switches are however seperate still and I do wonder if my connections are perhaps wrong as they do home and zero automatcially but they do this one axis at a time and the Y has an added glitch as it does not move off the switch once zero'd. not a train smash, just irritating. Another is when a limit switch (doesn't matter which one) was triggered, when I try and move the axis it does another e-stop with the pop-up that Mach has to automatically fix the "toggle" between the switch status, then i have to accept these changes and do another reset and then only can i move off the limit switch without triggering it again, also irritating but not a train smash.

As for the wizard circle cut (author is Kiran if I'm not mistaken), the actual cut was a perfect square (equal sides, length and angle wise) with identical rounded corners. but when I used the circular pocket wizard directly after that I got a perfectly shaped round circle, with the only issue that it was .8mm larger than what I specified. When I say perfect i mean that with several measurements in various angles in the circle there was no difference in diameter, nothing, nada, ziltz. so it was truely round just slightly oversized, this and the sqaure with rounded corners cut made me think that backlash is not the culprit but rather something else, like i mentioned, perhaps the ommiting of the clearance spec in the cut a circular pocket.

PS thinking about the code for the circle cut it seemed that it was intended (cannot think that it is correct to assume this) to cut in the square fashion it did as opposed to the circular pocket cut code which semmede to be very different (taking into consideration that the latter is cut in a spiral fashion as opposed to the prior which was just a boundry cut)


Lastly, what does one need to connect the spindle (industrial router) to mach in order for Mach to control the spindle on/off and speed? would it perhpas be a relay or some sort of variable resistor?

19

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: My Build EVO v1.I

« on: October 07, 2014, 04:54:39 AM »

Happy to report that I did my first test cut last night and it was well, a learning experience.

Did a 21mm circular pocket cut that I posted through the Wizards and did a 3mm deep cut, all went well very well!
One thing thou, when I measured the final, i got the diameter of the pocket at 21.8mm all round (thus eliminating the possibility for backlash issues). I suspect that either my axis calibratiojn must be off by that .8mm or I did not remove the 1mm"clearance" from the wizard prior to posting the G-code.

Anyhow, one issue that still haunts the machine is the blocks that holds the backlash nuts in place. These I had to hand fabricate as engineering is rather silly expensive here and inherantly they are not perfect, so these will be the first things I have to cut and replace (perhaps a couple of times as the machine gets more aligned and less distorted on the one axis at least).


PS. The cut a circle wizard in Mach3 was quite funny as it was actually nothing more than a small square with rounded corners, anybody else had this issue?

20

Modbus / Re: How to Address Modbus Outputs if you have more than 20

« on: September 25, 2014, 05:22:47 AM »

on this question, I saw a tut vid where an additional port was said to be used and that one could with the 2nd port config them to all be inputs? Have a second port and might require this soon, with homing switches and limit switches (although all my limit switches are on 1 input pin)