Messages

21

LazyCam (Beta) / Re: From .DWG to LazyCam to Mach3 Turn - Natural Progression

« on: January 21, 2008, 04:43:00 AM »

Chip
 I agree with your interpretation of what's happening. I think that maybe the number is being applied incorrectly.Certainly according to the diagram I have from Cutviewer, its the other tool face, so an angle of 0 would have the tool rubbing on the OD. I'll have to see if I can find some ISO tooling definitions.

Tony

22

LazyCam (Beta) / Re: From .DWG to LazyCam to Mach3 Turn - Natural Progression

« on: January 20, 2008, 02:45:28 PM »

Hmm,

I've just looked at my evaluation copy of Cutviewer & the tool setup in there has an angle marked 'BA'. For a Diamond tip standing on one of it's points and leaning to the right the angle between the right hand face and the horizontal is angle BA. Sorry I can't give a diagram at the moment.

Tony

23

General Mach Discussion / Re: threading on lathe

« on: January 20, 2008, 06:55:00 AM »

Hi Sanlee,

the license is for LazyCam Pro. If you look on the Artsoft website, you'll find a link to buy it.

Tony

24

LazyCam (Beta) / Re: From .DWG to LazyCam to Mach3 Turn - Natural Progression

« on: January 20, 2008, 05:45:38 AM »

Hi Anton,
pleased that it's started to work for you. I played around a bit more after I did that post & found that by choosing the correct tool parameters & deleting a few moves the code started to look quite reasonable.

Jhowelb,
the Margin setting seems to mean tool clearance. Increasing this will give a greater clearance during rapids etc. Back Angle I haven't played with yet, but Max Penetration can have a big effect on the results. I think it is the distance the tool can project into the work before fouling occurs. I find that setting it to something like 10 or 15 (mm) often gets rid of uncut sections.

hope this helps,

Tony

25

General Mach Discussion / Re: threading on lathe

« on: January 18, 2008, 05:44:05 AM »

Sanlee,
I think that you need a license to post code for turn - tough, I know, but it's not very expensive.
Don't expect too much from the Lazycam in turn. It's still beta software and doesn't always produce the result you'd expect. Check the toolpath carefully for dangerous moves.

Tony

26

General Mach Discussion / Re: threading on lathe

« on: January 18, 2008, 04:24:49 AM »

Sanlee,

you can build up a series of operations, using the wizards. To do this you must save each operation separately, then cut & paste them together using notepad, or whatever text editor you use. The combined code must then be edited to remove unwanted operations, such as intermediate M30's ( program rewind  ). If you need to have different tools for each operation, make sure that they are called at the start of each operation, along with the appropriate spindle speed.
This can all be done from within Mach, without leaving the program.


Tony

27

General Mach Discussion / Re: Lathe speed control

« on: January 15, 2008, 05:03:18 AM »

Chris,

I've tried the brain on my lathe & it seems to work. There needs to be a bit of polishing but the idea works. See the attached file.
I've allocated outputs 5 & 6 for the relays. To try it, load the brain file into you brains folder. You should then see it in Mach under Operator/ Brain control. Enable it and go to diagnostics. If you set a speed & start your spindle, Output 6 will start to flash (speed up relay), as the speed passes the requested number, 6 will go out & 5 will come on. ( speed reduce)
I need to include a delay in operation so that the spindle reaches a stable speed before any corrections start & also a bit of dead space to stop chatter.
As I say, it's not exactly right yet but it shows that it's possible.

Hmm it won't let me post brains, I'll try a .dxf ending. If it works you'll have to rename it.

Tony

28

General Mach Discussion / Re: Lathe speed control

« on: January 14, 2008, 03:08:40 PM »

Chris,
Having said all that, I've had a quick play amongst the brains and I think I can do it with a brain. The brain editor is a bit frustrating with its editing limitations, so I'll go off to the pub now & think about it on paper over a pint. I'll have another go tomorrow and try it on a real machine so I have some true spindle revs as an input.
I assume you have a couple of outputs free as well as spindle start etc?

Tony

29

General Mach Discussion / Re: Lathe speed control

« on: January 14, 2008, 12:21:23 PM »

Saves an output too!
Does your breakout board have a pulse/voltage converter? If not, I can recommend the LM2917 for the job. You would also need something similar for the local (motor) converter.

Tony

30

General Mach Discussion / Re: Lathe speed control

« on: January 14, 2008, 10:52:29 AM »

Chris,

The first thing that you need is a spindle sensor so that Mach knows what is going on. Maybe you have one already? If you can get a readout of speed then maybe a bit of code could be written to do what you want, but I'm not sure how easy that would be.
One way to do it would be using the brains system in Mach. It would be possible to compare the requested speed with the actual speed and turn on an output accordingly.
There is also a hardware solution, with Mach using the normal PWM or pulse output to produce a voltage proportional to the speed. The rest of the hardware would require a couple of comparators and another pulse/ voltage converter. Basically the output from the spindle sensor would be converted to a local voltage which would be compared to the voltage produced by Mach. If the local volts are lower one comparator actuates the speed increase relay - if  higher the other actuates the speed reduce relay. There would be a small dead band in the two levels so that relay chatter could be avoided.
I'm not saying that it is simple, but if you are into electronics it would be both possible & interesting.

Tony