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General Mach Discussion / After re-installing Mach3 proven programs are not running properly

« on: May 21, 2019, 06:36:40 PM »

  Long story short the pc I was using to run my machine died. I reinstalled Mach3 on to my new pc. Reset my config. inputs and outputs, motor tuning spec and so on. When zeroing out the machine all axis home in the proper directions. When keyboard jogging left arrow goes left, right goes right, up goes up, down goes down just as before. When I load a program however it seems to be reading the code differently.Now keep in mind these are proven programs that have ran on this machine within the last 2 weeks. When looking at the toolpath I see a bunch of purple circles. I can also see the original shape to be cut (in blue lines) but there are so many circles. I just don't get it. it seems to be G3 lines mainly but not all G3 lines. I am at a total loss at this point as to what can be causing this. I'm sure somehow it's operator error but right now I'm not sure what to think. Has anyone had an issue like this before?
  Thanks for reading. Even bigger thanks if you can help. 
Scooter

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General Mach Discussion / Newbie to cnc building in need of some help please

« on: January 17, 2019, 08:44:48 AM »

 Hello all, My name is Scooter. I'm a CNC machinist of over 20 years but this is my first build and I'm a bit confused at this point as to where my problem is.
  A little about my project: I have a 3 axis Central Machinery mill with a conversion kit I purchased from Heavy Metal CNC. I have a Longs Motor CNC kit I purchased from Ebay (that came with no documentation) The kit included 3 Nema 23 425 oz. stepper motors. I am trying to run this unit with my laptop which is a Windows 10 version / 64 bit system. I'm also using a parallel port to USB cable.
  I downloaded the Mach 3 demo to see how user friendly it is. The download appeared to go smoothly. I also printed out the Mach 3  installation and configuration manual (version 3)
  I think things started going sideways when I got to section 2.4.1 in the manual talking about running a driver test. I was told by Long Motors that my kit was set up for Mach 3 so I don't know if I need to install drivers and if I do I don't know where to locate them.
  I believe I have my dip switches set correctly as well as my ports and pins (I'm not 100% but pretty sure) When I power up the machine I think I hear the motors power up but I'm not quite sure because of the constant ringing in my ears caused by my years of machining. lol. I can still turn the ball screws with my hand and that doesn't seem right. Also when I try to jog the axis's thru Mach 3 the DRO shows movement but I get no movement on the machine.
  I'm kind of at a loss at this point of how to troubleshoot this thing. Any advise at this point would be greatly appreciated!