Messages

91

General Mach Discussion / Re: axes not moving anymore

« on: October 22, 2016, 02:08:37 PM »

not sure if this is the right manual: - http://campbelldesigns.net/files/breakout-user-guide-1-8.pdf

Chargepump not setup?  (pin #17 on the outputs tab....)

92

General Mach Discussion / Re: want to put mach 3 on my journeyman tree mill

« on: October 20, 2016, 02:30:21 PM »

This side of the cnc market don't really work that way....

Mach3 is only the software, the hardware is sold by hardware vendors, and a few other companies can provide the service i think you are after which is guidance and a box of conversion bits... unfortunately I am not aware of anyone on here offering such a service, but you may get a private message or two as soliciting your own business tends to get frowned upon on another companies forum...

There is a section on this forum which does allow people to advertise their products, and I guess you could put an advert up asking for the service you want.

You could also try cnczone.... as there are persons on there who may have converted similar machines and able to offer such service

(Sorry I'm across the pond, or I would have helped out of interest) ..

The support you'll get from artsoft / new fangled solutions will be purely for mach3/4... software side... no hardware, interfacing or conversion I believe

93

General Mach Discussion / Re: want to put mach 3 on my journeyman tree mill

« on: October 20, 2016, 08:17:17 AM »

Here is an old similar type post with similar relevant information:
http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php?topic=11670.0

94

General Mach Discussion / Re: want to put mach 3 on my journeyman tree mill

« on: October 20, 2016, 03:11:33 AM »

I know noting about your mill, but the place to start is to basically work out what you have and what you can reuse.

Mach3/mach4 requires compliant  hardware to control your steppers / servos.  So I would suggest by having a look as your drive motors to determine if they are stepper motors or servo motors (photos + check and write down the wiring).

Then trace the wiring back to the control board, is it one board or lots of motor controllers?  (Photos, wiring diagram traced out / sketched out)

Mach3, mach4 requires that the motors are controlled by step and direction signals..... hence you have to determine is your motor controllers are able to accept step and direction signals... I am guessing it's probably one control board hence you may need to source motor controllers...
Then you need to determine what other stuff you have...

Spindle control (on/off, pwm, step and direction?... photos, trace wiring out)
Coolant control
Probe inputs
Anything else? (Tool changers?)

Basically you need to trace out your existing wiring in a high level (block diagram schematic) and in a low level detailed (cores, colours etc detailed schematic)

Then you need to determine what else you want in the end if your machine does not have it (mpg, tool changer, whatever)

What you are trying to do is find your current hardware requirements, what you need to replace, and what inputs and outputs you require (can you get away with a parallel port connector of inputs and outputs, or do you need a multi port motion controller?)

A dedicated pc or laptop running mach3 or mach4 (or any other cnc software) is always better than sharing a pc or laptop.... note that mach3 requires a 32 bit version if you want to run the simple printer port (and some newer machines dispite having a printer port have displayed problems with using the parallel port).

Personal suggestion... get a motion controller.... the timing is better, machine tends to run smoother, less chance of timing glitches, more potential for newer windows operating systems than xp or w7 32bit.... future pc replacement upgrades or if you have a problem with the pc and you need to swap it out for a replacement quickly).

You basically need to get to know the innards of your machine to start with then create a shopping list of requirements before moving on to doing the conversion.

Get yourself a big bound notepad and camera and start taking notes and sketches and photos.... please feel free to post and I'm sure someone will help

95

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 and ESS issues on new laptop

« on: October 19, 2016, 03:41:02 PM »

General configuration tab.... explained here: http://warp9td.com/index.php/faq/faq-mach3#WatchdogOrRunsOutOfData

suggestion, have a work through the warp9 FAQ section as it is way better than the manuals ever were and covers a whole raft of common items.

you've also not mentioned what (your new laptop) operating system you are running, but presuming its W10, then there have been issues with automatic updates stopping the ess communicating with the PC because W10 is doing some antivirus stuff.

Really the best solution for cnc is to have a dedicated cnc PC.... so it has one purpose in life.... ok, my setup is a little different, I have a cheap old PC running XP, 2gb graphics card (didn't have another purpose for it), 4gb ram I think and a hdd (may upgrade to SSD at some point, the 120gb drives without a case seem nice and cheap at the moment).   no antivirus, just windows with all the updates, an old copy of autocad (so I can convert dwg's to dxf and do minor mods), sheetcam , and my cnc software (mach3, mach4, uccnc) and it runs happy feeding it memory sticks with software and gcode / sheetcam job files.  If I were you, I'd clear out your 8 year old laptop (reformat, maybe SSD, max ram it will take) and load up whatever flavour of windows you prefer (and that your laptop has drivers for)..... note, some laptops have a emergency boot partition which holds the backup copy of windows .... need to read the manual of how you get a complete reinstall from it but it will have all your drivers.... although its sometimes beneficial to go to the manufacturers website and get the latest drives and bios updates and once they are loaded you should never have to do them again..... I would turn off the wifi on a laptop too so that its not potentially polling when trying to run cnc software.

96

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 and ESS issues on new laptop

« on: October 19, 2016, 02:31:42 PM »

what is the lookahead set at?

97

PoKeys / Re: 57E >> Mach3 M10Px/M11Px (Mach4 M62/M63), plus Torch Height Control

« on: October 17, 2016, 02:55:45 PM »

Wondering if motion synchronized digital output commands are supported in mach4 yet with the Pokeys?

thanks, just checking up thats all

98

General Mach Discussion / Re: Losing Steps All of the Sudden

« on: October 13, 2016, 10:17:03 AM »

Can you post the gcode files for comparison? 

(If you're precious about them cut a bit out of the middle so they can't be reused but we could look at what both option are trying to do to active a similar thing)

99

General Mach Discussion / Re: I have pulled the trigger on a SuperPid 2

« on: October 13, 2016, 05:36:25 AM »

They will probably work... although not sure about the pin spacing.... suggest cable tieing them together to provide a bit of rigidity as a bundle... if you have a hot glue gun. You could apply a bit of glue to the back of the connectors once installed and it would then make them into a more singular connector. Less chance of working their way out with vibration over time or anything like that.

100

General Mach Discussion / Re: problems with Zeroing my machine. TRIED EVERYTHING NEED SOME HELP!!

« on: October 13, 2016, 02:56:34 AM »

I thought it was the z, ignore above advice or suggestion.

Sounds like your machine is loosing steps (or something is loose).

What is your x and Y max velocity, acceleration, and steps per unit.

What feedrate, spindle speed, tool diameter, tool material, tool coating, number of flutes on the tool, depth of cut, material were you cutting when this is occurring?

I would suggest you check the tuning on the machine ... get an excel spreadsheet and type g00 x100 (if metric, say 2/3rds of your axis total travel), and the g00 x0... for 100 lines then copy and paste to a text file, save as a *.tap file and test your x axis.... do the same for the Y, then do a blended one (g00 x100 y100 /n g00 x0 y0)

And check how much your machine is out... now bear in mind that this is without any cutting forces si really you should determine where your axis begin to loose steps with acceleration and velocity then cut both numbers back by about 60% and it should be fine.