Messages

1

General Mach Discussion / Re: 9 Pin serial interface

« on: July 22, 2007, 03:57:38 PM »

Hi Brian

Thanks for the reply well it sounds just the sort of thing i need, as i originally wanted to have one small interface cable running from the PC to the controller, as I am using MACH3 as an interface on the pc it sort of made sence to have an option in MACH3 where a serial IO could be used, afterall most of the professional cnc controllers are using it, but these are most probably migrating to usb.

so what do i want, well all of the most obvious things limits, step direction spindel control, you know what ever i can get realy

roger

2

General Mach Discussion / Re: 9 Pin serial interface

« on: July 16, 2007, 06:26:05 PM »

Hi Brian.

What do i want HUmm well my initial thoughts ran along the lines of loosing the two paralell cables and adopt an intelegent interface/ controler.
It must be possible to develop a bit of PIC code that will give a serial port connection and then dunp out the info in a format that can be used by the stepper drivers.

The electronics i can do the software no hope i cant spell letalone wright software

what do you think?? 

oh if you want to see my creation working www.foundry-fopars.co.uk and navigate to cncproject

Roger

3

General Mach Discussion / 9 Pin serial interface

« on: July 12, 2007, 04:42:15 AM »

Hi
Will MACH3 run with a serial connection, i have mine running and working with two parallel ports but i would line to condense it some what by using a db 9 pin serial connecter interface.

if so anyone got a circult suggestion on how this can be done.

roger

4

General Mach Discussion / Re: Setting Limit switches

« on: June 24, 2007, 02:28:50 PM »

Well that seems to have fixed it,

i formated the drive and reinstalled windows.
now all back to as it was and the machine seems to be preforming as expected.

Thanks for the help everyone...

Roger

5

General Mach Discussion / Re: Setting Limit switches

« on: June 24, 2007, 04:42:14 AM »

HOOD, Thanks for the reply

Yes i used the add remove funtion to remove the service pack, yes it is quite likly that there are some registrations left in the PC.

I am going for a compleat format and reinstall this morning, with win2k, so watch this space


Roger

6

General Mach Discussion / Re: Setting Limit switches

« on: June 23, 2007, 06:38:50 PM »

Hi HOOD!!

Thanks for the reply,
Things have moved on a lot since my last post, i have found that uninstalling windows sp2 regaind control over the limit switches to the extent that i could see the lights on the diagnostic page and run g-code ( road runner ) however i noticed that as i swoped from one program to another playing with the machine ( as one does )i was loosing control over funtions that i could give. foe example i lost input on the numeric section of the keypad so that i could not change the values oth position.
This has made me think that there must be somthing fundimentaly wrong with my pc even though it seems to work well with other progerames.

so this has led to the next question, how many people out there have had simular problems or is it my cranky pc, afterall it is a 1GHz P3 it should work fine, but somthing is wromg...

Roger

7

General Mach Discussion / Setting Limit switches

« on: June 17, 2007, 03:41:00 PM »

www.foundry-fopars.co.uk

Right I am new to both cnc and mach, i have been building my machine from scratch and casting aluminium bits for some time now, eventualy i come to the electronics.
Last weekend i wired and successfully linked each linit switch Home and Limit+ to a pin on the printer port, and as i clicked a switch i could see the lights change.
now this week end having got some motors runing i can nolonger see the port activity when i click a limit or home switch.

Question what would stop the diagnostics screen from displaying the pin activity,  the most obvious is that i set somthing unknowingly but what.

Any help!!!!!!!

if you would like to see my creation click on the link above and navigate to the CNC link you will see the build unfold.

Thanks

Roger