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« on: July 17, 2015, 11:40:14 AM »
I've posted this in the CNC Zone forum and got a pretty limited response so I thought I would try this forum.
I have a laser welder that I added a motion system to. Gecko steppers and 540 box, Mach 3 and a lot of machining to get it all together and working. Everything worked fine, but the mouse and keyboard were pretty bad as input devices.
I read some good things about the pendants that Vista CNC sells and ordered their P2S because it has the ability to command "cycle start", "stop", "rewind", etc.
The pendant is pretty nicely made. The housing is plastic but sturdy, the switches work nicely and the MPG works just like the ones on $100K cnc machines.
But I've run into a glitch that REALLY needs to be fixed before I can use it.
I have a program to laser weld a part that requires the use of filler wire. This means that stop points (M1s) are needed in the program to get the wire in place before it starts the feed move.
If I don't use the pendant it feeds as it should through the whole program whether optional stop is on or off.
If I use the pendant while optional stop is on, it works as it should until I use the pendant cycle start to restart the program after an optional stop. That's when the feed moves become rapid moves. Once this happens it stays that way regardless of whether the commands come from the pendant or keyboard. The only way I've found to restore it is to exit the program and re open it.
If I use the pendant with optional stop off, everything is fine. It seems like the combination of optional stop in Mach 3 and cycle starting from the pendant is where the trouble is.
It also does this with M0 stops.
Has anyone else encountered this problem?
I sure hope that someone has an answer!
Mike