Messages

1

General Mach Discussion / Re: Inhibit Jog

« on: October 16, 2015, 08:51:20 AM »

Yes, that is what I tried but the button didn't seem to make any difference. The axis continued to be joggable.

I thought I could add a macro into the macropump that would disable the jog buttons if the knife was down, but I don't know what the code for the would look like...

2

General Mach Discussion / Inhibit Jog

« on: October 16, 2015, 07:07:40 AM »

Hi
Has anyone got an example of how I can inhibit the Jog function under a certain condition?

For example, I have a knife cutting machine. When the knife is down, I want to ensure that the machine cannot be manually jogged.

I have tried using the OEM buttons: Inhibit X or Y and Toggle Y Jog++ but these don't seem to be working as I expected.

Many thanks
Mark

3

General Mach Discussion / Re: Fundamental issue with the Tangential Knife Cutting option

« on: October 15, 2015, 06:17:18 AM »

Hi Thomas,

That makes sense, although it is a bit of working out to include this pre-position in the GCODE. Especially when working with odd angles. Eg is the start position was X100, Y100 and the finish point is X43, Y28, what would be pre-position point on that vector? 

Don't suppose you know the formula for working this out?

Many thanks
Mark

4

General Mach Discussion / Fundamental issue with the Tangential Knife Cutting option

« on: October 13, 2015, 04:41:40 AM »

Hi guys,

I'm using tangential cutting option on Mach 3, on a knife cutting table.
However, there appears to be a fundamental issue.

I am cutting plastic material which is approximately 35mm thick. My Gcode is simple:
G0 X100  Y100     -     move to position
G1 Z1         -     plunge knife
G1 X10  Y10     -     Cut to end position

I am using 2.5D Z control to plunge the knife in and out, hence setting the Z to positive 1 to activate the output.

However, what I expected to happen was for the knife (rotation axis A) to rotate to the correct angle PRIOR to plunging into my material. But it didn't. It rotated after plunging and therefore made a big mess of the material as it rotated.

Now, I can understand the logic behind the action. It can't know which angle to rotate the knife until it reads the G1 X & Y line.

I then tried adding the Z motion to the Cut command:

G1 X10 Y10 Z1

But as you can imagine, the knife rotated to the correct angle as the machine was cutting in the XY direction, and because Mach3 set the speed of the Z movement such that it reach 1 at the same time as X and Y reached 10, then the knife only plunged half way through the cut.  

Anyone know a way around this?

Many thanks

Mark

5

General Mach Discussion / Re: Is it possible to open another application from a Mach3 button?

« on: October 09, 2015, 04:47:33 AM »

Thanks for that Thomas,

I also found another way - I just changed the G Code Editor path in the General Config options from Notepad to my CAD program, and hey presto, clicking Edit G-Code opens my CAD program.

Think I'll use your method though, so I don;t lose the option of opening Notepad for minor edits.

Cheers
Mark

6

General Mach Discussion / Is it possible to open another application from a Mach3 button?

« on: October 07, 2015, 08:41:29 AM »

I would like to add a button to the Mach3 screen that will open another application on my Windows OS.

I use this other program to create the GCODE files, that I load up into Mach3.

I could load the program from my Start Menu, but I think it would be pretty cool to launch it directly from Mach3.

I tried just putting the path and file name into a Script and linking that to a button but it through up a compile error.

Any ideas?

Thanks Peeps!
Mark

7

CS-Lab / Re: Plug-in Backup and reset

« on: October 06, 2015, 04:28:28 AM »

I don't think it is drift on the voltage as the controller kicks out the full 10V in the direction that I jog. It is all or nothing. Just glad I had my hand on the estop when I pressed reset.

ORdered a new controller, just in case this one is broken.

Unless anyone knows if the IP/A has a Reset to Factory Default Settings anywhere?

8

CS-Lab / Plug-in Backup and reset

« on: October 05, 2015, 10:41:53 AM »

Hi again!

Getting there with my machine using CS-Labs CSMIO/IP/A controller now...

But, a couple of more questions:

Is there a way to backup and restore the settings I have put into the Plugin? I have two controllers, mine and one I have borrowed, and the one I have setup the machine with is the borrowed one. So I want to back up the settings I have made before I switch the controllers over. Also, the controllers are setup on different versions of the plugin, so when I put my new one in, (version 2.703, as opposed to v2.700 on the borrowed unit) I have to re-install the plugin which will lose all my settings - hence the need to backup and restore.

Also, does anyone know if the plugin/mach3 has a set of default values stored somewhere which are initialised when it is turned on? For example, y Feedrate speed is 10000 when I turn it on, but I want it to be 100 and have to remember to change it each time I start it.  If I could find the default values then I wouldn't need to worry about it in the future.

I think this also may be a problem with a X Axis, because the controller is outputting 10V on the analog line to the drive, without any command from Mach3. As soon as I press reset, the drive zooms off at full speed until it trips the PID following error. I presume that I have got a value somewhere in the config that is telling it to do this, but I can't find it. When I reconfigured the drive onto the B axis instead of the X, it works fine.

Any tips regarding the above would be appreciated!

Many thanks
Mark

9

CS-Lab / Re: Setting LEDs to show Output activity on CSMIO IP/A

« on: September 29, 2015, 09:44:22 AM »

Don't worry - I found the problem - it was the screen button covering the LED up. If I moved the LED to a different part of the screen with no other features, then it worked OK.

Now I just need to play around with my MachScreen layout to get it to appear in the place I want it to!

Mark

10

CS-Lab / Re: Setting LEDs to show Output activity on CSMIO IP/A

« on: September 29, 2015, 09:19:56 AM »

Hi Hood,

Thanks for the tips. It was working OK but I have a weird bug. See attached vid. https://youtu.be/YVt0htx6DgY

Basically if I run the code in the script window it works. But if I press the button to run the code in Mach3, it doesn't work!

I wondered if it is because I have more than one LED with the same User Defined reference?

Can you spot the bug in my code?

Also, I think it would be best if I can just read the state of my Outputs in the Controller. I'm surprised there doesn't appear to be an easy way to do it.

Many thanks
Mark