Topics

21

Tangent Corner / Planetar Gearheads for Automation Directr Servos

« on: October 22, 2008, 10:44:11 AM »

hello Guys,
Does anyone know a good place, (not necessarily cheap, but good performance/quality/value balance) for planetary precision gearheads? preferably ones that would fit the automation direct servo family.

low backlash is a must.

best Regards
Fernando

22

Mach Screens / Custom onscreen keyboard

« on: October 09, 2008, 10:54:15 AM »

Hello guys,

i was thinking of using the TAB screen to make an onscreen keyboard. just the used Keys in CNC, (G, M, F, S, P, -, numbers... etc...)

Ive seen the shell command to open the OSK from windows, but it is not too friendly for touchscreens.

is it possible to make this without flash?

Or maybe a standalone onscreen keyboard i could call from the shell but that is touchscreen friendly... and customizable to remove non used keys...

Regards
Fernando

23

General Mach Discussion / Tool offsets in X and Y direction

« on: September 29, 2008, 12:37:38 PM »

Hello Guys,
I know that the common thing to have is tool offsets in the Z direction, in order to accommodate different tool lengths in the same spindle.
But if you have two spindles in your Z carriage, or maybe two different processes... for example, a drill head and a plasma.

Is it possible to program an offset in X, Y and Z, for the secondary process, and just call for a toolchange?

for example:
Primary process - Plasma
secondary process - spot drill.

the spot drill is 1" offseted in X, and 2"offseted in Y, and 1/2" offseted in Z in relation to the plasma torch.

Could you just call the plasma head T1 and the drill head T2, and just call for the toolchange to switch from one process to the next?

regards
Fernando

24

VB and the development of wizards / How to send DRO´s values to PLC trough modbus via VB

« on: August 21, 2008, 02:15:50 PM »

HEllo guys,
well, im trying to set up a bunch of timers in my DL05 plc.
Thing is i want mach3 to work as a HMI, have a page with a bunch of dros that represent the timer values.

Send the numbers in the dro´s to the plc to work as timer parameters.

Anyone know how to do this?

i guess i could do this in VB, but i dont want to have the sequential outputs that VB must have.
I could do this in brains, but I cant send the dro´s to timers there.

Any ideas?

Regards
Fernando

25

Brains Development / USER DRO for Brain timer amount

« on: August 13, 2008, 11:20:12 PM »

Hello Guys,

Is it possible to set a bunch of DRO´s on a custom screen, then have a brain lookup the value of that dro and use it as the amount of time on a timer?

Best Regards
Fernando

26

VB and the development of wizards / Re: Hypertherm THC and HPR260 with automatic console.

« on: May 28, 2008, 12:19:20 PM »

hello,
Well I just posted on the plasmacutting yahoo group, and talked to Jim Colt, extremely knowledgeable and very willing to help guy.

I was asking if he knew if the automatic gas console can be used with mach3, and he said that the comunications to the console are Serial.

I guess a plugin could be written to make it work, along with their THC that is not stand alone.

HE said that the engineers would be happy to work with Mach3 and its developers to get this to work.

How about it brian? what should i tell him? do you know him already?

Best Regards
Fernando

27

General Mach Discussion / Hypertherm THC and HPR260 with automatic console.

« on: May 13, 2008, 02:59:46 PM »

Hello Guys,
its been a loong time since i last posted, a lot of non CNC related work.

Well we have been back and forth about buying a commercial waterjet, building the table and fitting a commercial waterjet head and pump, or the same thing but for plasma.

We might have desisted on the water jet, because of all the other things that surround the operation of one (BIG BUCKS)

We have leaned toward either building, or buying a plasma machine.

We were kind of leaning toward building the table, and fit it with a hypertherm HPR260, its a hi-definition plasma big bucks too but less i think than the waterjet.

The HPR comes with an option of having an automatic gas console, in which you set the parameters of what you are cutting and the controller alone sets the type of gas and the pressure.

I was wondering if that kind on console can be controlled with Mach3, also the Command THC?

Has anyone tried to retrofit these components with mach3?, they normally use the controllers from hypertherm, which are kind of expensive but they make for a seamless integration.

hope anyone has some experience with this.
Best Regards
Fernando

28

General Mach Discussion / Debounce for MODBUS inputs

« on: September 08, 2007, 05:09:47 PM »

Hello guys,
I have a PLC connected via modbus to mach3, does the debounce setting affect this inputs? or just ones comming from the parallel port?.
Regards
Fernando

29

Forum suggestions and report forum problems. / Who stayed in charge?

« on: July 25, 2007, 12:12:23 PM »

Hi All,
Who stayed in charge in place of benny?

 think most of us are not getting the new post indicators on each thread when you first access the forum.
I beleive this is because when from the main page http://www.machsupport.com/ you access the forum, then you get redirected to http://artsoftcontrols.com/forum/index.php instead of http://www.artsoftcontrols.com/forum/index.php
When you access the page without the www you dont get the new posts indicated, when you access the page with www you do.

Thanks
Fernando

30

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Programing coutertop drainboard

« on: June 12, 2007, 03:23:36 PM »

Hello Group,
I dont know if you have seen the routed drainboards that Solid surface (Corian) countertops can have. They are a simple routed design right next to the Kitchen sink, and it is sloped, it starts shallow on the far side of the sink, and it starts getting deeper as it gets closer to the sink. They are mostly done manually with a template a router, and they set the template on a base that is sloped.
How would you go about designing (CAD, CAM) this kind of cut using a flat endmill?

Heres a site that sells the template system
http://www.ampsedge.com/products/dr_board/dr_board_body_scroll.htm
Regards
Fernando