Messages

1

General Mach Discussion / Random movement fault in CNC router

« on: November 13, 2019, 06:56:03 AM »

Hi Guys, I am having trouble with my CNC router (Mach3 using unshielded USB connection cable). To illustrate the fault, lets say there is a command to move the X axis 100mm. It moves along and somewhere in this movement it pauses for a brief while, makes a buzzing sound, (maybe .3 seconds) and then skips to the next line in the program which causes the cutter to move through the middle, say, of my workpiece. It does this randomly without any way of predicting if and when it will do it. All I can think of is that if I shielded the communication cable from the PC to the CNC controller unit it may help. What do you think?(If I can't get a shielded cable, how can I shield it?)
Cheers  Gary

2

General Mach Discussion / Re: Y axis problem in CNC router

« on: September 11, 2019, 06:26:13 AM »

Thanks for the help but on close inspection I found that on of the pins had popped out of a plug to the Y axis. When it was pushed home everything worked.
Cheers

3

General Mach Discussion / Y axis problem in CNC router

« on: September 09, 2019, 09:46:16 AM »

     Hi,  My CNC router has just stopped working properly. When I press the Y axis key on the keyboard of my PC, which runs Mach 3 software, the Y axis does not move, Instead of the Y Axis jogging, I just hear a buzzing sound. The X axis moves normally when jogged. When I swap the X & Y plugs that come out of the CNC controller box I get the same results except that I have to press different "Arrow" keys on the PC keyboard. It seems like it may be motor or cable connect problem. Any ideas?
Cheers   Gary

4

General Mach Discussion / Coolant for CNC router motor.

« on: June 22, 2019, 07:41:29 AM »

Just a quick question. I have recently received a small CNC router with a high speed motor that is liquid cooled. Do I use plain rain water or do I need to add an anti-corrosion additive?

5

General Mach Discussion / Re: Can't Install Mach3 on my PC

« on: May 18, 2019, 06:30:38 AM »

Thanks again everyone for the help, I am a lot wiser now. Youtube tutorial guys; some of them say that with the CNC routers that they build, they don't add limit switches. they just take care to not over travel. If I did put them on would they be the micro switches that I see on Ebay or some special one?
 Also, I have noticed that every now and then my machine goes haywire and wont move or spindle wont turn on. I reboot the operating system and everything works again. Do others have this problem ?(I have WinXP communicating through a USB cable)
Cheers

6

General Mach Discussion / Re: Can't Install Mach3 on my PC

« on: May 10, 2019, 10:58:21 AM »

Hi and thanks TPS, I have solved the max spindle speed problem. I fished around and found the place where that can be set.
      The LED's that didn't light up were the EJog ones when the respective axis was jogged. Also there were no green lights showing pins active (Upper right hand side on diagnostics page.) The machine seems to work OK but I am concerned if it were to over-travel.
It appears that the CNC mill doesn't have any home switches or homing facility.
 What would happen if the carriage hit the end of travel? Damage? or overload?
Thanks,Regards  Gary

7

General Mach Discussion / Re: Can't Install Mach3 on my PC

« on: May 10, 2019, 12:11:35 AM »

Hello and thanks to everyone who has helped. I think the problem is solved. Upon opening "Mach3Mill" a dialogue box is displayed requesting the port to be used.
Options are: "Normal Printer Port operation. (this is the one I used at first)
           and   "RnR Motion Controller"         (this is the one I changed to. The supplier didn't mention this in the manual supplied)
       
As soon as I changed to the second option all motors and spindle worked. The only problems still are:
* The E_Stop button on the CNC controller doesn't work. (Only the one on the screen works)
* None of the LED's on the diagnostics page light up when they should.
* Spindle won't go above 8,000 RPM (Error msg comes up if you try to go higher and returns it to 8,000)

 It appears that the CNC mill doesn't have any home switches or homing facility.
 What would happen if the carriage hit the end of travel? Damage? or overload?
 
 This is possibly all the help needed at this stage,thanks again.
       Cheers  Gary

8

General Mach Discussion / Re: Can't Install Mach3 on my PC

« on: May 09, 2019, 08:41:34 AM »

   Hi and thanks for the help so far. Yes, I am using a USB cable to connect to the machine, maybe that is the problem because when I went to Control Panel / Device Manager / Ports /   there was no port labeled USB just LPT1, Com1 and Com3.
The machine I bought was a USB machine as opposed to a parallel port machine so would it help if I got a 25 pin cable instead?

      I have installed what I thought was the plugin, I will check with the supplier. I have been receiving confirmation from the supplier in regards to the settings on the "Ports & Pins" section of the machine setup so hopefully that should be OK. I will try to get more info to help with this problem.
Bye Regards  Gary

9

General Mach Discussion / Re: Can't Install Mach3 on my PC

« on: May 09, 2019, 02:16:46 AM »

Sorry, I forgot to add a picture of the Diagnostics page I took.

10

General Mach Discussion / Re: Can't Install Mach3 on my PC

« on: May 09, 2019, 02:13:38 AM »

Thanks for the advice. Well, I have got Mach3 installed on my XP machine but after about 10 hours work I still can't get anything moving. No axis will move and the spindle won't turn on. I have gone through the setup of ports & pins several times To check that is OK. Input#1 is set to 0x378. I think this is correct for my PC (I haven't confirmed it as yet in XP settings(Can't find it))

     I am thinking it is a cable/pin connection problem. I have noticed that when I press keyboard buttons  for JogX+ or minus, the LED's in Diagnostics page (called EJogx+ or EJogX-) don't light up. Also when I press the Estop button, the red Emergency LED doesn't light up. I feel that I am very close to getting this working.  Bye  Regards   Gary