Topics

1

Mach4 General Discussion / How do I get to the center of 2 edges?

« on: October 09, 2017, 04:47:47 PM »

I use a Haimer 3D mechanical probe to locate parts and for the life of me I can't find the method to find the center of a part in Mach4.

Here's the scenario. I have a part in my vise and I need to reference the center of the Y axis. In Mach3 I would indicate of the Y+ and zero the DRO, move to the Y- and then in DRO output I could add " /2" and the DRO would update with the number. Then all I had to do was to jog to the 0.000 position of the Y axis. This also a very similar process on my manual mill with a DRO.

But in Mach4 this doesn't work for me. The DRO ignores the "/" and will just update with the number 2.

I can't find any method to achieve the same result. Am I missing something obvious due to inexperience with Mach4, or is this feature not possible?

2

Mach4 General Discussion / Tool Height offsets ignored?

« on: October 04, 2017, 03:34:11 AM »

I'm either missing something fundamental that is different to the way Mach4 works over Mach3, or there is something wrong.

I have all my tools in dedicated holders with my Tool1 my Haimer 3D dial gauge. All have their respective lengths loaded into the tool table.

Now to set up a job, I use a Haimer 3D dial gauge to indicate my parts to set up a G54 position. X,Y,Z....zero the DRO out in Mach3 and then load program and run. All's good. All tool H offsets are taken into account just as you would expect.

In Mach4 the exact same offsets have been set up in the tool table. So then I go and indicate off the part and zero out the DRO's with tool #1.

But when I run the program Mach4 seems to ignore the tool H even though it is displayed as the active tool. So far the program just wants to cut air at what seems some arbitrary height.

With further reading and checking, if I indicate off something and zero out the DRO, and then switch tool number, the ofsets do not update as the manual says they should and as they do in Mach3.

I've done some searching, but all I can find is help using a probe, or setting up a fixture. I want to use G54 for the quick one off jobs.

Any help getting this worked out iis greatly appreciated.

3

Feature Requests / Description Column in Fixtire Offfset Table

« on: August 01, 2017, 09:11:48 PM »

I just installed Mach4 and setting up my machine and noticed that the Mach4 Fixture table doesn't have the description column like Mach3 has.

I find that really handy to remember what and where I had "set ups" on my table.

4

Mach4 General Discussion / Help with first cut please

« on: July 27, 2017, 05:20:21 PM »

I've just got Mach4 up and running on my router and tried to run a file with limited success.

I've indicated off the material and zero'd out the DRO inputs just as I do all the time in Mach3.

Loaded the file and pressed Cycle Start. The result is that the spindle moves up to what might be a safte hight. Pretty much at the top of it's travel and then proceeds to cut air.

I load the exact same file into Mach3 and it cut's the part just as expected. I'm pretty sure it's just something simple that I'm not seeing or aware of.

Here is the start of the code. Any hints on what I'm missing?

G90 G94 G91.1 G40 G49 G17
G21
G28 G91 Z0.
G90

(2D CONTOUR4)
M5
M9
T2
S20000 M3
G54
M9
G0 X464.338 Y-25.245
G43 Z15. H2
Z5.
G1 Z1. F500.
Z-0.8
X464.331 Y-25.244 Z-0.852
X464.311 Y-25.241 Z-0.9
X464.28 Y-25.236 Z-0.941
X464.239 Y-25.23 Z-0.973
X464.191 Y-25.222 Z-0.993
X464.14 Y-25.214 Z-1.
X463.943 Y-25.182

5

General Mach Discussion / C11 and ESS Spindle/VFD setup

« on: October 21, 2015, 01:02:36 AM »

Hello everyone. My first post here, as I've just swapped to a C11 board with the ESS running Mach3.

The spindle now starts and stops via software commands, and the next step is to get software to control the spindle speed. Right now I'm using the pot to change the speed. I've got a pretty good idea of what the VFD parameters will need to be set to, but the proof will be in the pudding once the wiring and config are set.

I have a Chinese 2.2kw ATC spindle with the Sunfar E300 VFD.

The config screens with Mach3 are a bit confusing, as is the wiring up of these items. Every example that I've found isn't for the setup that I have.

Can anyone give me a walk through of the set up for the required parts please.