Messages

111

Mach Screens / Re: Starting A Wizard

« on: May 31, 2006, 04:50:15 PM »

Yup - turning auto screen enlarge off seems to have cured the problem - but why? Is this a bug? The 1024.set screens work perfectly with auto-enlarge on, but any screen I create in Screen4 needs it turned off.

Cheers

Dave

112

Mach Screens / Re: Starting A Wizard

« on: May 31, 2006, 01:40:09 PM »

Ah ha - well thats sorted out my script problem - but I haven't got a clue what is going on with the screen sizes. Here's a picture of the screen in screen4 and in Mach. Is this a bug? I'm running 1.09.040.




Cheers

Dave

113

Mach Screens / Starting A Wizard

« on: May 31, 2006, 10:16:20 AM »

Well - looks like I will start off this new area - thanks for adding it Brian 

Right, I'm just starting to play with creating wizards and have a few questions :-

1) What screen resolution should a wizard be in ? I'm running Mach in 1024 and creating a screen in Screen4 in 1024, but when I run the wizard only the top left quarter of the screen can be seen in Mach and the buttons are enlarged.

2) I have an exit button on the screen. This is defined as a VB script. I then go into Mach and write the script. Close the script and when asked whether to save I say yes. I then click the button and it works and Mach says 'screen modified and saved' I then open the wizard click exit and it gives an error and the script is blank. What am I doing wrong?

I'm sure these will be the first of a long list of questions - 

Cheers

Dave

114

General Mach Discussion / Re: "Analog Joystick"?

« on: May 19, 2006, 09:15:32 AM »

Cool!!!!

Thats looks like a great little addition. How difficult was it to setup - how about writing us a quick setup guide - think I might get me one !

Cheers

Dave

115

General Mach Discussion / Re: Help with Mach3Mill Motor Tuning

« on: May 15, 2006, 09:48:51 AM »

Have you checked that you cable is all wires connected and through wired?

Cheers

Dave

116

General Mach Discussion / Re: BEst controller or driver to use w/mach3

« on: May 03, 2006, 11:09:55 AM »

Hi

I'm running a hobbycnc 4 axis kit- works just great. have a look here for a video of my mill during testing :-

http://www.geocities.com/davidimurray/pentest.avi

That's with some 110oz/in motors - once I modify the mounting plates I will be dropping some 325oz/in motors in that arrived yesteryday!

Cheers

Dave

117

General Mach Discussion / Re: Denford ORAC.

« on: April 09, 2006, 04:37:40 PM »

Hi

If you have a look around this group and the Yahoo ones you will se that I am currently working on an AVR based system for an Orac toolchanger. Mach then uses serial communications to talk to the AVR.

Cheers

Dave

118

General Mach Discussion / Re: Z axis keeps gouging part

« on: April 05, 2006, 09:21:41 AM »

Hi

If your using Mastercam to create the files then you probably need to adjust the setting for the feedplane and or retract values. Note that as the default the feedplane is set to being incremental.

I'd recommend seeting the feedplane to something like 10 (if in Metric) and absolute mode. This way the tool raise up to Z10 before any XY move is undertaken. You may also want to consider using retracts as well. Moves to and from the feedplane are done at the plunge rate. The retract plane is another plane that the tool can move up and down to at the rapid rate for rapid XY moves(e.g. fo jumping over clamps etc.  i.e.

Tool in work
Feedplane set to 10mm - tool retarcts slowly to Z 10
Retract set to 50. Tool rapids to Z50
Rapid to new XY position
Tool Rapids to Z10
Tool plunges at desired feed to required Z position.


Alternatively, there is a Safe Z plane option In Mach - but I can't say I've ever used it. If you're unsure about using Mastercam I may have some old MC9 PDF tutorials lying around. I've been using MC9 for the last couple of years for work, just starting to get a grip on Mastercam X now!

Cheers

Dave

119

General Mach Discussion / Re: calibration problems need help please!

« on: April 04, 2006, 05:43:13 PM »

Sid

Just realised that I should realy explain backlash - apologises if you know this already.

A screw and a nut can never be perfectly matched, i.e the male portion can not be a 'perfect' fit in the female portion. If they were you would have a press fit and you wouldn't be able to turn the screw. As a result there must be some clearance between the nut and the screw. As a result, when you turn the screw in one direction it pushes the nut along, but when you reverse the direction the screw has to turn a certain amount before it actually takes up the slack. The amount that the screw has to turn before the nut starts to move is the backlash.

Obviously this rotation would be very difficult to measure. So the easy way to do it is to measure how far Mach thinks it's moving the table, and compare this to the actual movement WHEN CHANGING direction. This will give the backlash which Mach converts into the number of steps to give the desired rotation to remove the backlash. When you get backlash setup, whenever you change direction, Mach will add an extra motor move to take up the slack, before the real move starts.

Cheers

Dave

120

General Mach Discussion / Re: calibration problems need help please!

« on: April 04, 2006, 05:19:43 PM »

No probs sid

Are you making sure that you take out the backlash before the negative move? In this case you would need to go to a positive value then move to zero to remove the backlash and then move to your final negative value.

To use backlash compensation what you need to do is this :-
First remove backlash - so G0 x-10, G0 x0
Set your indicator to zero.
Now move to a new position e.g. G0 X50
And move back to the original position i.e. G0 X0
Read the value off the dial indicator - This is your backlash value.
Go into the Config, backlash menu and enter the value you just found for the relevant axis in the NATIVE units of the machine.
Click the enable backlash button - then you must restart MACH before the compensation starts to work.

In theory if the steps per unit is correct and the backlash you should be able to move back in forth in any combination of positive and negative moves and always return to the same position. Of course this is only theory and things like the leadscrew pitch not being perfectly consistent can lead to small errors.

Let us know how you get on.

Cheers

Dave