Messages

1

VB and the development of wizards / Re: Tool Zero Code w/ Wait for Probe Confirmation

« on: August 15, 2017, 10:31:29 PM »

OK, I'll look into that too!

2

VB and the development of wizards / Re: Tool Zero Code w/ Wait for Probe Confirmation

« on: August 15, 2017, 07:53:03 PM »

But my main screen does not have a probe status LED indicator. I'm not sure if it has it but I did purchase a copy of the 2010 screen set a while ago but had some initial problems running it so I saved that project for a rainy day that hasn't come yet.

3

VB and the development of wizards / Re: Tool Zero Code w/ Wait for Probe Confirmation

« on: August 15, 2017, 11:54:18 AM »

Thanks, this looks interesting. Is there a way to give a visual indication in a message box like to see on the diagnostics tab when you touch the probe to the plate? I would also like to "improve" the script so that it doesn't proceed until it does confirm that the probe is detected.

My goal here is to try and eliminate the situation where the ground clip is not attached or it was but came free.

Thanks for your help so far, if nothing else I see some things to improve on what I have now.

4

VB and the development of wizards / Re: Tool Zero Code w/ Wait for Probe Confirmation

« on: August 14, 2017, 06:12:47 PM »

Awesome, thank for sharing. I'll print it out and study it tonight

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VB and the development of wizards / Re: Tool Zero Code w/ Wait for Probe Confirmation

« on: August 14, 2017, 03:59:39 PM »

Thanks, I'm familiar with programming but almost no experience with Mach's VBScripts.

I see the MsgBox command. Now to get a little fancy can you point me to some examples of how I could combine that with the display of the probe touch? I'm thinking now that I could have this MsgBox pop up asking to touch the probe. The box could have a circle or something that lights up with the probe is touched (like on the diagnostic screen). Once Mach detects the touch the MsgBox changes to saying something like "Saw probe, clink continue when touch plate is ready". Then of course there would be a cancel button if for some reason you change your mind or the touch plate isn't seen.

6

VB and the development of wizards / Tool Zero Code w/ Wait for Probe Confirmation

« on: August 14, 2017, 12:02:54 PM »

I was wondering if someone could help with some code that I could add to my tool zero script which waits for you to touch the plate to the bit to confirm that your ground clip is connected. I ran my script yesterday and forgot to attach the ground clip and I ended up driving into the block before I could hit the stop. That made me start thinking that rather than rely on my memory it would be good to add that into the script.

I'm thinking it might be something like this:

Code: [Select]

Code "(Touch Z-Plate to bit)" 'this goes in the status bar
Code "G4 P1" 'Pause
If GetOemLed (825) <> 0 Then
    Code "(I didn't see the Z-Plate)"
    Exit Sub
End If

Instead of a pause it would be better to wait until it sees the probe touch and then ask the operator to continue by clicking on a button or something.

Any suggestions?

7

General Mach Discussion / Mach3 Abnormal Condition Indicator

« on: August 14, 2017, 11:47:31 AM »

Not too long ago I started getting this button to light up and the message says it's a problem with G90/G91 condition. This can happen when I load GCode but it doesn't always seem to be happen doing the same thing. I double clicked on it and said everything was OK but it keeps coming back and I can't figure out why this is happening.

Does anyone have any troubleshooting tips that I can follow to try and determine why this continues to happen.

8

General Mach Discussion / Re: Z-Axis Not Always Positioned Correctly

« on: December 13, 2015, 09:25:04 PM »

Well I experimented today by changing kernel speed, pulse widths, and micro stepping but I never found the magic solution. In fact now I'm consistently getting holes deeper rather than shallower like before. I'm consistently reading between 0.513-0.520" for the depths instead of 0.500". I guess I'll have to sleep on it and see if anything comes to mind.

The Z Axis in this video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfA-xQVCElg looks t be identical to what I have except I'm using a Bosch Colt instead of a Dewault.

9

General Mach Discussion / Re: Z-Axis Not Always Positioned Correctly

« on: December 13, 2015, 04:57:23 PM »

For completeness, the PC has Intel Core2 Duo, 1.66GHz, 2GB RAM, And running Win7 Ultimate 32-bit.

I reduced the kernel to 25kHz and the Z-Axis speed to 30in/min, Acceleration = 10 In/sec^2

You're right, my bad in saying the delta depth wasn't 0.01", it is.

I'm still not measuring a depth of 0.500". Using my Mitutoyo Calipers to measure the depth leaves a little margin of error if you don't get the plunger and caliper 90 degrees to the wood. But even allowing for a little error in the measurement technique I still don't get the results I think I should be getting with this machine.

I still need to play with the pulse width and just for completeness, change the micro stepping to reduce the number of steps. I really would have thought that the lead screw setup on the Z would have given better results than the belt and pulley setup for the X/Y but maybe not? I believe it has an Acme screw on the shaft (need to look up what I order a long time ago) so backlash should be very minimal.

The saga continues...

10

General Mach Discussion / Re: Z-Axis Not Always Positioned Correctly

« on: December 12, 2015, 11:12:11 AM »

I'll be making the suggested changes later today and will report the findings but I have some questions.

• Do you think reducing the microstepping on the Z Axis driver so it takes less pulses to move 1" will have any impact on the results?
• The pulse width is set to 5us for step/dir on all axis. The TI driver has a minimum pulse width of 1.9us so this should be OK, right?
• I was running the driver test and checking all frequencies. Even up to 100kHz it reports the system is OK. I noticed that up to 65kHz the CPU usage is less than 5% but 100kHz is ~50% but I don't see any reason to push it that high. When I look at Max Variation I see mostly repeatable spikes and values of 15us or 23us. This doesn't seem to change when I change the frequency but occasionally I see nice smooth line aith maybe variations of 5-8us. Is ~20us variation something to worry about? Should I break out the scope and see what the step pulses actually look like?

Thanks again for helping me get through this.