Messages

11

General Mach Discussion / Weird backlash issue

« on: March 18, 2015, 06:47:55 PM »

I had to set the backlash of an axis on our lathe to 0.5mm! There is actually almost no backlash at all, it's a ballscrew. After some messing about I found that the servo just doesn't react quickly. If I turn the handwheel for the axis I can go 45 degrees in either direction before the servo fights back. The weird thing is that axis does actually move in this time. This is consistent and the machine is accurate with the 0.5mm correction but clearly something is wrong here. Perhaps a software setting on the servo driver? I use CNCdrive from Hungary and the motors are SEM with Heidenhein encoders. Can anyone offer some insight please?

12

SmoothStepper USB / Re: USB to Ethernet adapter for ESS Smoothstepper?

« on: March 18, 2015, 06:40:34 PM »

I just tried this and had no luck at all. Total fail.

13

SmoothStepper USB / Cable length issues

« on: March 18, 2015, 06:38:43 PM »

So I bought a SS with the USB port because I didn't think it through. Our MachIII installation is on a lathe with a 2000mm bed, with the cabinet at one end and the control panel at the other. We decided to rip out the Heidenhein guts and simply put a PC inside the panel. Unfortunately it seems that 5 meters is too long for the USB cable, the SS is not detected properly (off/on/off/on really fast - weak signal?). The cable is supposedly active and useable at 5 meters, I guess maybe is ok with a printer or something less critical.

I already tried a couple of different brands of USB cable and also a USB to Cat5 converter. I don't want to buy a new ethernet SS but I see that there are powered USB hubs with amplifiers. Given that we already tried an amplifier cable I'm a bit suspect about it. Has anyone else had this issue? What was the solution? Can someone recommend a known USB amplifier hub that actually is proven to work.

For anyone about to buy a USB smooth stepper, don't believe these claims of the USB cables.

14

General Mach Discussion / Custom alarms?

« on: February 05, 2015, 07:01:22 PM »

I've been searching for an answer to this with no avail... Our machine has a PMDX-126, and I want to use the fault reporting of our VFD and servo drives. So far I have them working, by designating them as limit switches for axes we don't have (no conflict). But I would much prefer to see "Spindle Alarm" or "Servo Alarm" as opposed to "Limit switch triggered" Does anyone have a tip for this?

15

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: New people welcome !! Come in here and introduce your self!

« on: February 05, 2015, 06:55:06 PM »

Hi Everyone,

Amsterdam, Netherlands reporting in! We are just getting started with Mach3. We have older CNCs and when they fail (quite often) it's nearly always computer related, the price of a CNC refit is absurd so we tried it ourselves with a Padovani lathe, and got a very nice machine out of it.