Messages

441

General Mach Discussion / Re: Newbie to CNC learning curve

« on: March 18, 2019, 01:29:41 AM »

Sorry - no offense intended.

This forum has many guest public readers so comments are often meant to help the wider audience.

On PIXELCNC
1.   Will NOT run on PCs without OpenGL 2.1 graphics card and Physical RAM of 2GB RAM. Even my Windows 7 and my Windows 10 laptops won’t work because they do not support OpenGL 2.1 but only Open GL 1.1 and OpenGL 2.0 respectively.
2.   Trial version limited to 65,536 pixels 256x256 or 512x128 pixel
Lower than even VGA resolution which is 640x480.
3.   Not good enough to engrave (V-CARVE or B-Carve) beautiful Text from Fonts.

442

Video P*r*o*b*i*n*g / Re: 3d Probing on Granite slabs

« on: March 17, 2019, 10:07:04 PM »

Auto pressure foot has bearings to glide

443

Video P*r*o*b*i*n*g / Re: 3d Probing on Granite slabs

« on: March 17, 2019, 09:45:22 PM »

There is also a feasible mechanical solution to engraving on Granite slabs.
NO NEED FOR any PROBING & AUTOLEVELER SOFTWARE even.

The engraving spindle head is mounted on additional rods and linear bearings so the head will move up and down freely but will drop to lowest by its own weight by gravity. The engraving head has a smooth nose ring that that will glide on the surface of the granite and the engraving tool will only engrave the depth between the it and the nose ring - a consistent depth of engraving always.
Z axis motor do still move the head up and down but the actual depth of cut is NOT actually controlled by the z-axis motor.

(I learned this from Multicam CNC machine builder about 20years ago at their factory)

Not hard to implement on the z-axis of a typical CNC router. Just decouple the z: motor from the spindle mount and make it LIFT the spindle from the bottom only.
Then
modify (lock the springs) of an "auto pressure foot" to suit.

444

General Mach Discussion / Re: Newbie to CNC learning curve

« on: March 17, 2019, 03:10:56 PM »

I first encountered a CNC router in January of last year and have been fascinated ever since. I had never herd of Gcode, Grbl, Mach anything, post processor etc and i jumped right in. I built my own machine!
I jumped on the internet and started searching. Now i have to find a way to connect software and machine. I came across Newfangled Solutions and mach 3. After downloading the free version and some setup my machine made some moves.
 
Mach forum is great, and everyone is willing to help.

After all my research i said to myself that there has to be a better way, a simplified process. All the pages and pages of do this do that then go here and still not have anything Gcode to work with the machine.

I found a program by accident with a simple learning curve that will give you a free trial for 32 and 64 bit windows systems and not have to spend a lot afterwards.

Check it out



https://deftware.itch.io/pixelcnc


Ken

I know Pixelcnc but that is NOT the only way to learn CNC unless all you want to do is carving art or  making signs.
You cannot make precision engineering machinery parts or jigs for your Wood Router for large furniture with pixelcnc for example.
ALSO
1.Learn how to write G-code manually.
2. Spend GBP1O to get and learn HEEKSCNC

If you just like to do engraving & artwork FREEWARE from Scotch Works:-
like
F-engrave
Dmap2Gcode
G-Code Ripper
used in combination will be superior to using pixelcnc

445

General Mach Discussion / Re: Auto Calculator Size

« on: March 17, 2019, 02:36:17 PM »

read my post
https://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php?topic=39655.0

An Android tablet or a windows 10 tablet connecting into a MACH3 PC as a RD Client will ALREADY provide touchscreen, ZOOM, PAN and large touch Keyboard capability for data entry.

A simple screenset like the ready uploaded "School_Router.set" could be used if just running programs if using Remote Desktop touchscreen since buttons are LARGE.

446

General Mach Discussion / Re: Windows xp vs Windows 7

« on: March 17, 2019, 12:53:26 PM »

I also disabled the following services
1. superfetch
2. Windows update

and
disabled/deleted all items listed in Task scheduler

447

Feature Requests / Re: Mach3 Softlimit by dxf

« on: March 17, 2019, 06:03:54 AM »

So to use mach3 for metal spinning machine and ease of programming.
In teach in mode with joystick command, programming of part  can be done,
  but the problem is in crashing in the part by overreacting with joystick commands.
So to overcome this problem I tought if someone can make some sort of plugin/wizard
  that load .dxf or some 2D drawing that represents softlimit to mach3 (X,Y), but not cousing reset state,
  simply not allowing manual joystick control or any other to go pass by these softlimits.
If someone can do it, I would like to know.
Thanks!

A workaround...
I think you can get what you need by just using multiple named MACH3 profiles with different softlimits settings.
Just copy your default mach3 profile (e.g. mach3mill.xml) to another profile named say mach3mil-small table.xml.
Now launch Mach3mill-table.xml and simply edit the softlimits settings of this new profile to suit your requirements.

If you use custom macros, you will need to copy those macros to the "macro" subfolder under your new profile.

448

Mach Screens / Re: Please tell me how to set TABLE SIZE in Mach3

« on: March 17, 2019, 01:05:17 AM »

I've always had trouble getting my tool path to display large enough to be very helpful. It occurred to me that Mach may think my machine is 20 feet wide and 30 feet long. And so the material being milled shows up the size of a postage stamp. In reality, my machine is about 20" x 30", and my material is about 5" x 10". Can you help? As a secondary request-- I've messed up my colors and there's not an option to reset to default. (Config > ToolPath > Colors)  If you can help with that too, it would be great. Thank you.

I know it is an old post
BUT since the question is high is GOOGLE SEARCH- it is better to answer for even newbies & others to know.
Solution to define the router table size
is to define SOFT LIMITS from 0 to within 0.1" of far end physical limit switches for X & Y axis.
MACH3 now knows your table size.
Under config | General Config, lock DRO's to setup units is unticked in my case because I run Gcodes in both G20 (inches) and G21 (mm).
(MACH4 is BETTER as it will tell you in the DROs whether you are displaying in INCHES or mm.)

449

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach 3

« on: March 17, 2019, 12:37:14 AM »

The problem I have is when running a program my cnc will not run faster than 58 ipm, even if I manually increase the feed rate. So is there something in mach 3 that puts a limit on how fast your feed rate is? If so how do I change the limit?

Thank You
Dennis Killian AKA capdenny

MACH3 do limit the speed but only for the DEMO version limiting the kernel engine to a MAX. of 25,000Hz.
If you have MACH3 full license, you should NOT be running the kernel at 25,000Hz.
I built a new PC with win7 32bits with I5 7600 36MHZ CPU and my MACH3 kernel speed was able to reach 100,000Hz with STILL excellent results.
(But for balanced stability I intentionally reduced the kernel speed to 60,000Hz.)
Result was my router that previously with core2duo 24MHz could not run faster than 40ipm now can run at 100ipm. This is the max speed my router can run physically design.
To run even faster, I would have to increase the driver voltages from 24volts to 48volts and use steppers with higher torque that also requires higher current to run. $$$$ required.

Many make the mistake of buying OLD PC with XP or Win 7 to run MACH3. 
Even with old PCs you may be able to increase the kernel Engine to run at 36,000Hz or 48,000HZ if you can tune it up or just upgrade the CPU and RAM and video card reducing background programs and interruptions.

Step pulse and DIR pulse under Motor tuning can affect the speed too.
Default is 5 and 5us though some people even use 15 and 5 for stability because they have inferior hardware.   
BUT with my faster PC, I could reduce Step pulse and DIR pulse to 1us and 1us have no known issue yet

450

Video P*r*o*b*i*n*g / Re: 3d Probing on Granite slabs

« on: March 16, 2019, 11:11:41 PM »

Hello guys! I am Peter and I am stonemason and I use CNC mill for 90 percent of my jobs. I have read a lot of topics on the forum but none of them points me directly to solution of a problem:

My granite slabs are polished as glass and they are uneven on the surface. When I have to engrave a 100 or more letters on them I have to measure every two letters and make a separate toolpath in aspire or artcam. When i have a slab 1000mm on 2000mm and it has difference lets say 2mm from one side to the other and my letters are careved 2mm deep, I get no letters on the lower side and get bold (like offset) letters on the higher side of the slab. I can always  try to make the slab even, but since they are polished I cannot calibrate them with a tool, because I have re-polish them after the lettering. The other way I tried is to make the slabs even by putting something under the lower part, but this also did not worked, because most of the slabs are cut and polished like and arc. So they have a "belly in the center. So I get a slab that is Z=0 in the center of XY, and Z=-2 in one corner, Z=+1 in the other, Z=+2 in the third and Z=-3 in the fourth corner.

I found that my only solution is a some kind of material flatness detection software and hardware like mach3 plugin plus a laser scanning or touch probe digitizing.
Can somebody tell me what to buy to solve this problem, that I have been struggling for a long time. Thank you all in advance.

G-CODE RIPPER (freeware)  + a very simpe z-axis probe
http://www.scorchworks.com/Gcoderipper/gcoderipper.html
Can already solve a problem like yours.
** G-CODE RIPPER Now with "Auto Probe" for cutting (+ engraving) on uneven surfaces **