Messages

11

General Mach Discussion / Re: G54 work offset issues

« on: May 19, 2016, 06:01:20 AM »

Hood  Rich   

Brilliant .  Thanks guy's that's exactly what I need.

The process does feel a little like learning to drive a car by post. HA HA

Hopefully I will get to stage where I can get to the stage where I can press

the cycle start button without cringing.

Hood  you were spot on. I unchecked "Copy G54 from G59.253" and it worked

Once again thanks again guy's for all your help

cheers George 

12

General Mach Discussion / G54 work offset issues

« on: May 18, 2016, 11:56:44 AM »

Hi All

Just about finished converting an Emcoturn lathe to mach3 control.

Now just starting to make some swarf.

I have used Mach mill for some time but this is my first venture into Mach lathe.

I have a couple of issues with the work offsets table. They may or may not be a

problem, The problem may just be in my understanding of how they should work.



A) I have a rear mounted toolpost and have this option selected for all tools (rear toolpost led lit)

I was expecting that with the rear toolpost setup selected a G55 workoffsets would be generated

It isn't. It generates a G54 workoffset. But having said that from what I have tried so far it appears to work!!

What I am worried about is. As I am new to running a Mach3 lathe, if this is wrong,  is there a situation where

this issue is likely to bite me some time in the future?


B) Secondly. I wanted to try and save the X axis work offset so I didn't have to do the complete skimming of

stock etc etc each time I switch the machine on.

My lathe has home switches so at the moment when I switch on I immediately home z and x.

Does the act of homing wipe out the offsets?

I have tried using the save button in the offsets table with no joy.

At the moment the offsets stay as long as the machine is switched on, but are gone on startup

Is this the correct way it should work?

For information I have the following settings

(tick)  Copy G54 from G59.253 on startup

(tick)  Persistant offsets

(tick)  Persistant Dro's

(tick)  Optional offsets save   (save fixtures etc via message boxes during shutdown)



As I say because of my inexperience in using the cnc lathe these issues may or may not be a problem.



here's hoping someone will point me in the right direction

cheers George

13

PoKeys / how to use macros with Pokeys 57E

« on: May 18, 2016, 05:51:59 AM »

Hi All

I am in the process of converting my Emcoturn lathe to Mach3 and I am incorporating a Pokeys (Ethernet version)

to help with the control panel.

The lathe has 8 stations and I have modified my tool change macro so that when I enter T101 ...to....T808 into

the MDI line it works fine . However it is very cumbersome and slow with a lot of typing involved. (well, it feels like it at the time !!)

I have spare buttons on my control panel and would like link one button to each tool change position.

(ie button 1 pressed runs macro with line    Code (" T101 ")   etc etc

I did link up one button to run a macro to index the turret one position for each press of the button

(which works well but is very slow in operation as it fully locks the tool home each time)

using SetTriggerMacro in association with OEM code 301

but that " appears " to only allow control of one macro. I want 8 one for each button.

I used to have the Pokeys 56 Usb version a few years ago  and I have it in the back of my mind that

I was able to directly link every button straight away to a macro.

I suspect I am missing something very obvious and everyone is laughing at my stupidity but I just

can't for the life of me see what to do.

Can anyone out there help and put me out of my misery

cheers George

14

VB and the development of wizards / Re: GetSelectedTool() not working for Mach3 lathe

« on: January 22, 2016, 01:27:05 PM »

Brilliant , That's it. It works now.

Can't tell you how long I have spent swearing at program

commanding it to work. Life is good again.

Thanks BR549 for your help

Have a great weekend

George

15

VB and the development of wizards / GetSelectedTool() not working for Mach3 lathe

« on: January 21, 2016, 12:40:00 PM »

Help

I am partway through a project getting my 8 station tool turret up and running and now I'm stumped.

So far the turret is working mechanically and when I press a button a short macro controls it so that

it indexes one position. At the same time a Brain program reads 4 sensors compares against truth table

then outputs the current tool. All that appears to be working fine.


The next step of the project was to make it fully automatic with all the indexing controlled from M6start macro.

I thought it would be a relatively straightforward extension of my initial program. Apparently not.

After some investigation I identified where the program was failing. It wasn't reading the selected tool !!!

I have whittled the program down to the minimum just to test this function



 (M6Start.m1s)


Dim tool As Integer

tool = GetSelectedTool()

Message   " Requested   Tool     " & tool '  just a test output to check function read



As a test when I type for example    M6  T4     into the MDI line    I was expecting to get


Requested Tool  4          instead I get         Requested Tool     0    and the current tool DRO also changes to  '0'


I have tried  on mach3 mill and it works as expected  but not on mach3 lathe

For information

I have  CONFIG - TOOL CHANGE-  set to   Auto tool changer

tried on versions  R3.043.066  and R3.043.052   with three different lathe screen sets

I have looked through the forum and cannot see   this flagged up as a recurring fault

and considering the amount of lathe tool turrets there are out there is must be something I am doing wrong

Any help would be greatly appreciated

cheers George

ps I have also tried removing the brain program from the equation but result is just the same

16

General Mach Discussion / Re: Why Is this happening?

« on: September 13, 2015, 10:49:12 AM »

Hi Guys

Good news.  I've cracked it.  (well it seems to be working so far)

But I have absolutely no idea why it's working.

Stumbled across it by complete accident. I noticed that if I zeroed

the axis DRO immediately after start up or after coming out of ports and pins

it didn't go through the slow cycle.

What is strange is the first line of my macro zero's the DRO using

DoOEMButton(1012)

The button on the screen zeros the DRO using

Call SetDRO(4,0)

when I put the   Call SetDRO(4,0)   line at the start of the macro I don't get the slow cycle


The vb manual says SetDRO is just a legacy command and it's use is not recommended

So I tried putting an extra line of  DoOEMButton(1012) but that didn't work

But at least I have a solution which seems to work so far.

If anyone has any has any theories why it is behaving like this I would love to hear them.

Cheers George

17

General Mach Discussion / Re: Why Is this happening?

« on: September 12, 2015, 11:33:26 AM »

Hi Guys

Sorry about the delay in responding but I have been working away for a few days.

Have done what you said ie changed axis over from A to B and it has made some improvement .

When the system is initialized it does start up at 6  (although my selected units are mm not inches)

Now when the turret moves in the fast cycle (either macro or MDI) it does follow the feed rate

(not the acceleration value in motor tuning as before)  set in the code.

(or at least it seems to compared to the DRO I haven't actually timed it)

But I still have the problem that after start up coming out of ports and pins

it runs the first cycle slow (occasionally it will be two cycles)

This is true if the code is entered via the macro or MDI.

One thing I have noticed is that when the cycle is running on the slow

cycle the feed increase/ decrease buttons never work. When it is running in the

fast cycle some times the feed  rate change buttons sometimes work!!

(but I haven't been able to spot the pattern why sometimes it does and sometimes

it doesn't)

I don't know what else to try.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers George

(ps I am contacting pokeys so see if the issue may stem from

pokeys but not holding my breath as I have tried without using

encoder readings or pokeys controlled button but just via MDI.

but we shall see what they say)

18

General Mach Discussion / Re: Why Is this happening?

« on: September 09, 2015, 10:44:48 AM »

HI BR549

Thanks for the help.

When I did what you suggested the feed value does appear in the feed rate DRO but is not used

in either the fast or slow cycles. At the end of the cycle the feed DRO reverts back to this value.


However I have noticed something very strange.


When it does the fast cycle I thought it was following the feed rate in the macro.   It is not.

It is actually following the value I have set up in motor tuning for axis A acceleration.

I have tried altering this for low to high values and it does appear to be using the acceleration value

as the feed rate.


Does anyone have any idea what could be causing this?



For information

The stepper driver I am using for the turret is a Leadshine   DM422C

I have the steps per set to 93.333333333

the steps per rev of stepper is 1600
the turret gear ratio is 1:21

so     (1600 x 21) / 360 = 93.3333333

also the manual states that  t3 the pulse width should not be less than 7.5 us

(page 12 of manual)

I have tried the step pulse width at both 5 and 8 dir pulse width 5

with no change

I have tried several different acceleration values but for most of the time

I had it set at 900 which was the same feed rate value I had in my macro

and why I didn't realise it wasn't using that value

the velocity I have normally set to about 1/3 the accel value

let me know if you think this may be part of the problem?

cheers George

19

General Mach Discussion / Re: Why Is this happening?

« on: September 08, 2015, 02:40:33 PM »

Hi Gerry

Just the same unfortunately

cheers George

20

General Mach Discussion / Re: Why Is this happening?

« on: September 08, 2015, 10:47:21 AM »

Hi Rich

Mach version is R3.043.066
Please find attached xml and screen set


Got the screen somewhere on forums a couple of months ago
but can't see it listed now. Wanted to try it as it already had A DRO set up
only mod I have made to original is added extra encoder DRO.

However since your post I have tried using standard lathe screen and
problem is just the same.

What I have also tried is typing G01 A45 F900 directly into MDI line and this
works every time even after restarting mach or after viewing ports and pins

So then I tried writing a new shorter macro (without using cut and paste from previous macros)
consisting only of

DoOEMButton(1011)

Code("G01 A45 F900")
     WhileIsMoving())
          Sleep(100)
      Wend

I then called this macro up direct from the MDI line and the problem is
exactly the same as before ie slow after start up then works fine
every subsequent attempt

Cheers George