Messages

31

General Mach Discussion / Re: Unwanted Step Pulses

« on: May 01, 2012, 10:42:32 AM »

Hi Fixittt
thanks for your response , as a matter of curiosity could you tell me what settings you use on your "Z" axis ?? velocity and acceleration as well as pulse widths ?
Many thanks
Alan

32

General Mach Discussion / Re: Unwanted Step Pulses

« on: April 29, 2012, 11:02:47 AM »

Hi all
thanks for all your help but have changed over the two parallel port cards and for some reason all is cured not sure why tat hould be but the most important thing is that the problem has disappeared 
Thanks
Alan

33

General Mach Discussion / Re: Unwanted Step Pulses

« on: April 29, 2012, 10:53:43 AM »

Need help in loading up the pics to go with my last mail I keep getting this message (Sorry! There is already an attachment with the same filename as the one you tried to upload. Please rename the file and try again.) can anyone help me out ??
Thanks
Alan

34

General Mach Discussion / Re: Unwanted Step Pulses

« on: April 29, 2012, 10:44:04 AM »

Hi all
first of all all my software is fully licensed and genuine , secondly I have never said that it was a mechanical issue it is 100% electrical , to start with if it were mechanical you would no be able to remove the "Z" axis stepper motor from machine and not only feel the stepper move a fraction but see it move. As for it being in the Gcode someone else run this program for me using exactly the same steppers and drives fitted to his machine and it ran perfectly so it has to be something related to my machine , would it be anything to do with the PCI parallel port cards I am using ?? I have two in this computer so I might just swap them over to see if it does make any difference. Also the picture I attached in an earlier mail was the wrong one so attached is the correct one both machine one after the other with no changes made to machine etc. the part on the left you can see the lines on the left hand side and the part on the right has the lines on the right as I say no changes were made as soon as one part was finished second one was done.Also Pic of "Z" axis
Thanks
Alan

35

General Mach Discussion / Re: Unwanted Step Pulses

« on: April 29, 2012, 06:20:02 AM »

Hi Hood
the DRO's in Mach show the movement , the stepper drives are from www.lamonde.co.uk and are STP-DRV-4850 and can be found here (http://www.lamonde.co.uk/acatalog/Drives_PSU.html) and the stepper motors are from same supplier and are STP-MTR-34066 fitted to the "X" and "Y" axis and STP-MTR-23079 fitted to the "Z" axis and can be found here (http://www.lamonde.co.uk/acatalog/Motors_Cables.html) BOB is a CNC4PC part number C35 and can be found here (http://www.cnc4pc.com/Store/osc/product_info.php?cPath=33&products_id=270).
Thanks
Alan

36

General Mach Discussion / Re: Unwanted Step Pulses

« on: April 29, 2012, 03:37:45 AM »

Hi Rich
I have already tried this and am certain that this is not a mechanical issue as the Z axis only moves up never down , only by a small amount but always up , if I watch the DRO for Z then where as it should be cutting at depth of say 5mm then it will alternate from the 5mm that it is supposed to cut to 4.9650 and then back to 5mm , as I say not a great amount , the other thing is that if I remove the stepper motor from the "Z" axis and just hold it in my hand you can see and feel the motor run down to where it would be machining at the required depth and then you can see and feel the motor move a small amount so I am convinced that this is an electrical problem and not mechanical
Thanks
Alan

37

General Mach Discussion / Re: Unwanted Step Pulses

« on: April 28, 2012, 05:10:10 PM »

Coupler is 100% tight and all the "Z" axis all brand new , new ballscrew and nut plus all the other parts required and new Hwin linear rails and bearing blocks , there is for sure no loose fittings backlash etc.As for acceleration I have been up and down the scale with no effect , so if it is mechanical as you suggest where would you be looking ??
Thanks

38

General Mach Discussion / Unwanted Step Pulses

« on: April 28, 2012, 03:17:17 PM »

I have a problem with the "Z" axis on my router , with the help of Tweakie I have made sure that all my cables are shielded and re-routed them I have also fitted capacitors on all my inputs , when I run the driver test I get a perfect straight line without any spikes , I have changed stepper motors over stepper drives over without any success , what happens is that whilst doing a roughing cut the "Z" axis starts to move very slightly up from the level it should be at then goes back down now this is not a real problem when roughing out but it does become a problem when doing the finish cut as it leaves lines on the work piece which after spending 3 hours or so on a 3D carving is a pain that I could do without.
Before anyone one asks my computer runs Windows 7, Quad 3.4ghz processor , 12gb memory and a 64gb solid state hard drive , apart from the operating system the computer is loaded with Mac3 and the Mach Standardmill screenset nothing else at all and is not connected to the internet , all drawing work etc. is carried out on my main computer and the via a USB key loaded onto machine computer, the software that I use for my carvings etc. is Vectric Aspire and Cut3D.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated , and my thanks to Tweakie for all his help.
Attached is a pic of the sort of problem on a work piece. 

39

General Mach Discussion / Re: Problem with Software/Settings ????

« on: June 04, 2011, 10:08:04 PM »

If the axis are at the home position and I then move any axis the DRO will read negative which is correct and as it should be but if I reverse the "X" and "Y" axis as you say then if the machine is homed and then the axis are moved the DRO read positive which is not correct if it were correct then my other 4 cnc machines are all incorrect.

40

General Mach Discussion / Re: Problem with Software/Settings ????

« on: June 04, 2011, 07:56:17 PM »

Home switches are set to the max positive and 0,0 is at the lower left as it should be , cannot show any pics as I do not have a camera to hand but the machine is just a standard table with a gantry nothing fancy , I have now run a few of the sample files , roadrunner , skull and scorpion and I get the same result each time , I run the same files on my mill and they work fine , and all the settings on the router are the same apart from a couple of settings which would make no difference to what is happening.