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Messages - robertspark

31
With regards to the UC300eth + UC400 motion controllers from CNCdrive, their response on a similar question I posted on their forum was as follows:

Quote
With Mach3 the syncronous thread cutting is working, but there are a few bugs in Mach3 about the thread cutting which can cause issues with some type of thread cutting codes. (I can't remember at the moment which are the cases.)
With Mach4 the UC controllers can't cut threads. We have tried to implement thread cutting some time ago, but found out that it did not work at all on the Mach4 side, so we gave up on it.
Later it was reported to be fixed, but we could not find the time yet to make another try.
/quote]

32
ESS support for lathe threading is in development!

...ESS is always in development....  problem is progress is so slow you could have teenagers by the time something is implemented .....

The thing I learnt with cnc is you buy the product as it is forget the expectation or carrot of development changes you have no control over those / what is developed and how long they take

(note I've had both a USB-SS (since ~2008, now sold) and an ESS for a few years now (4 I think, sat on shelf))   I keep having a dabble with other controllers / solutions (I've got a MESA 7i76E I keep meaning to have a play with .... but my knowledge of linux has been slow + gaining momentum of late with the command line interface and playing with Raspberry Pi's + other SBC's  (I've got a dual boot setup with it all configured, just not wired up the IO card to hardware).

Keep wanting to check up on developments with and use my Mach4 licence and see what I can do with it with what I have to hand.

33
Thanks for taking the time to reply Steve much appreciated.
PMDX always seems to be at the forefront of motion controller function integration for mach3/4.

34
As per the title, with regards to Mach4 and Lathe / Turning Applications.

For screwcutting / thread cutting applications does it use an encoder input for the spindle sync or a single pulse per revolution trigger?

Is it motion controller dependent?

(I have a UC300eth, UC400 and ESS)

Lathe programming guide is a bit old and not sure if things have been updated somewhere:
http://www.machsupport.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Mach4%20Lathe%20GCode%20Manual.pdf
http://www.machsupport.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Mach4%20CNC%20Controller%20config.pdf

35
General Mach Discussion / Re: THC Proma compact problem while cutting
« on: July 22, 2017, 05:55:14 PM »
I don't frequent this forum much, is your problem now sorted as it was listed a while ago (but no one else seems to have chipped in).

I need to understand what the proma is doing?

You say "when I started to cut something, Z axis goest straight to THC min value".

Presume, you do a touch off (zero the Z), back off to the pierce height, fire the torch, wait for the ARC OK from the Proma, then wait for the pierce delay, drop to cut height, then begin motion, then after a set time you turn on your THC once the voltage has stabalised....

Note.... the proma is not very quick to respond as it uses relays internally (contacts that take a while to make + break).

What you may find is because you are now using a negative value to Zmin, the torch is diving below the 0 Z-axis position because the proma is telling it to THCDN because the voltage setting is too low and the THC voltage being sensed is too high (relative to the setpoint).

Where as with your old screenset (where you could not lower the Zmin below zero) the torch (Zaxis) was only able to dive to zero and then Mach3 ignored it's motion any lower than this.

There are only a few settings within the Proma.
One of which is the transfer voltage.... when I was using a proma, I set this voltage lower than the transfer voltage (I actually set it at about 120V when my target voltage was about 90 / 95v)
Also the hysterysis is only about 1 or 2 volts minimum, hence I set this fairly low / close.  

What you find is if you have a fast Z it may shunt your Z up and down and crash the torch (because it's only bang-bang control [UP / DN / STOP]) hence you end up having to counteract this by slowing the Z-axis velocity setting.

Note mach3 (and most CNC software) ignores the Z-axis acceleration when making THC movements and it will just shunt it up and down at the maximum velocity / THC speed setting.

Suggestion..... try running the cut without THC on a relativly flat peice of steel and view the voltage on the proma (is it telling your machine to dive?)  If so, move the voltage setpoint up a bit and try again.  

Also what plasma cutter are you using?  The Hypertherms have good manuals which list the cut and pierce heights and feedrates for various materials and thicknesses.... all the other seem to be guesswork...

36
General Mach Discussion / Re: Windows 7 64b and uc100 Mach3 Plasma
« on: December 10, 2016, 05:09:42 AM »
sorry, not had access to a proper keyboard...

First question, have you got a genuine UC100?  There are a few ebay fakes about of chinese origin.  Does it have a serial number on it and look exactly like the one in the pictures in the manual below?
http://cncdrive.com/MC/UC100%20datasheet/UC100%20users%20guide.pdf

The manual clearly lists slave axis as a mach3 function (so it will do it).

As listed above, please could you post your mach3 profile (*.XML) file so we can have a look at it?


The latest drivers and Mach3 plugin are listd here:
http://cncdrive.com/UC100.html


You can post a question on the manufacturers forum here:
http://www.forum.cncdrive.com/
They are normally fairly quick to respond.  If a fix is required, it will be done very fastg (although I seriously doubt that there is a problem with the mach3 driver for the uc100??)
..... but really.... you're going to need to post your xml file as it is sooo much easier to just load it and check the settings and advise if there is something amiss.

37
General Mach Discussion / Re: Windows 7 64b and uc100 Mach3 Plasma
« on: December 09, 2016, 02:32:06 PM »
If you've slaved it, it should work fine.

Questions...
Have you got the latest plugin, check on the manufacturers website. Cncdrive

Post your profile and someone will have a look at it

You can ask the question on the cncdrive forum website, Balazs is very proactive on there and he knows his product well.

38
General Mach Discussion / Re: Windows 7 64b and uc100 Mach3 Plasma
« on: December 08, 2016, 02:36:32 PM »
Have you setup the ports and pins and slaved the axis in the configuration screen

39
General Mach Discussion / Re: How would I drive an output from ARCok on THC
« on: December 06, 2016, 03:39:11 PM »
Oops.... Yeah, it might do.... (In my defence I was multitasking with two kids and a brownies Christmas fare )... Men don't multitask well.


40
General Mach Discussion / Re: How would I drive an output from ARCok on THC
« on: December 06, 2016, 02:22:54 PM »
These three documents should be alongside all your other manuals for Mach3:

http://www.machsupport.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Mach3_V3.x_Macro_Prog_Ref.pdf
http://www.machsupport.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/VBScript_Commands.pdf
https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0ahUKEwjex9DX9srQAhVJKMAKHUk2BU8QFggaMAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.machsupport.com%2Fforum%2Findex.php%3Faction%3Ddlattach%3Btopic%3D19482.0%3Battach%3D27839&usg=AFQjCNGJn1E7RpKyfyjY7STvwaxPFsA6ng&sig2=5hNCpKOZsqx_gUdjhxtO0g&cad=rja

The setup a macropump, enable the checkbox within the mach3 configuration tab as shown below.

Write the macropump using your prefered text file editor, and save the macropump within the profile you want it to run.
Highly recommend notepad++ https://notepad-plus-plus.org/

The file is saved as a macropump.m1s file.

The following will toggle Output 2 and 3 when the THCOK is enabled by monitoring the

Code: [Select]
If GetOEMLED(36) = 1 'THC ARC Good LED
ActivateOutput(OUTPUT2) ' turn on output #2
ActivateOutput(OUTPUT3) ' turn on output #3
  Message " ARC OK ACTIVE " 'adds a status message to the status line

Else
DeactivateOutput(OUTPUT2) ' turn off output #2
DeactivateOutput(OUTPUT3) ' turn off output #3
  Message " ARC OK LOST "  'adds a status message to the status line

End If
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