Messages

21

Mach4 General Discussion / Installing ESS with G540 on Mach 4.

« on: November 29, 2020, 04:54:55 PM »

Greetings everyone.  I am stuck and need help.

I have a WorkBee CNC.  It came with Novusun controllers, and based on the advice on this board I swapped it out for Warp 9 ESS control system with a G540 to drive the motors.

I am operating the spindle manually for now and will worry about that later.  The ESS is installed in Mach 4 and it does see it.  The ESS and the G540 are connected with the 25 pin ribbon cable I ordered with it.  I have the G540 installed with the light green and power goes to all the motors holding them in place.  I also used the G540 to connect to the limit switches and E-stop.  The E-stop does work and turns the G540 light red, but it's not seen by Mach 4.  The limit switches are not seen by Mach 4 either.

I have read all 41 pages of the ESS manual and the G540 manual.  My problem is assigning ports/pins, therefore I am stuck.  I can see the pin number assignments in the G540 manual, but don't know how to assign them in Mach 4. 

I would greatly appreciate any help.  This has been a long process with me assembling this CNC back in May. 

22

General Mach Discussion / My energized motors sound like a copper pipe in the wall running water

« on: September 13, 2020, 05:16:38 PM »

I changed out my contol system from a Novsunun with T6600 stepper drivers to a ESS Smootherstepper and a G540 to run the stepper motors.

When I turn on the power I hear the steppers energizing but they do sound like a copper pipe that is in the wall with water running through it.

Is this normal?  Should I have concerns?   Now, the motors are not turning, they just have power to them. 

23

General Mach Discussion / ".txt" files and switching from Mach 3 to Mach 4

« on: September 02, 2020, 06:42:14 PM »

I use V-Carve Pro and it has the option to create "Mach 2/3 .txt" files for G-code.  But it doesn't have the option for Mach 4 .txt files.

My question is this: If I switch to Mach 4 should those "Mach 2/3.txt" generated G-codes still run on my machine that now has Mach 4 operating it instead of Mach 3?

24

General Mach Discussion / Re: How can I turn a home switch also into a limit switch?

« on: August 31, 2020, 04:10:20 PM »

Bummer, I did this, yet when the Z axis goes too high it still does not turn off, but screams as it tries to crus the switch until I hit the escape button. 

25

General Mach Discussion / Re: My Mach 3 is set to native units of MM, but when I tram the DRO gives it in inch

« on: August 31, 2020, 12:02:45 AM »

I believe the lead pitch screw is 8.  It is direct drive.

The step count is 800.

I have set the steps to "100" before and it will only tram about an 1/8 of an inch and spring back. 

Your help is much appreciated!

26

General Mach Discussion / Re: My Mach 3 is set to native units of MM, but when I tram the DRO gives it in inch

« on: August 30, 2020, 04:59:39 PM »

I have the native units to set to MM, and I set up the limits with MM.  I even have "Lock DRO to native units" checked in the config, but it still shows inches when I move.

I think I set up the motor units in MM, but I did get them from another guy who said he did. But the more I look at them they look like they are in inches.

Steps: 1277
Velocity: 154.98
Acceleration: 300

If they are, how do I convert them to metric?  I already have the machine set to native metric and when I plug them back in, I think the machine still interprets them as standard, if that is what is happening.

If I

27

General Mach Discussion / Re: My Mach 3 is set to native units of MM, but when I tram the DRO gives it in inch

« on: August 30, 2020, 04:20:04 PM »

Mine only says G80.

28

General Mach Discussion / Re: How can I turn a home switch also into a limit switch?

« on: August 30, 2020, 04:11:09 PM »

Thank you!

29

General Mach Discussion / Re: How can I turn a home switch also into a limit switch?

« on: August 29, 2020, 11:49:24 PM »

I have that set right. 

The problem is that it works fine while homing.  The switches stop it and work just fine.  It's when I'm running a g-code.  The switches don't stop squat.

30

General Mach Discussion / Re: My Mach 3 is set to native units of MM, but when I tram the DRO gives it in inch

« on: August 29, 2020, 06:45:36 PM »

I listened to the video on initial Mach 3 setup and I believe it said you had to set up the initial MM vs INCHES and set motor tuning according. So, I went back and made sure the innate measurement was set to MM, and then I reset all the motor tunings and limits distances according to metric distances.

But when when I do the command "G0 X1" it goes one inch instead of 1mm.

How do I get this thing to the metric system?