Messages

31

General Mach Discussion / Re: Diameter or Radius mode for a lathe?

« on: April 03, 2011, 01:19:55 AM »

I have soft limits issues as well, always have had on my lathe but never took the time to try to solve them. Glad to see it's not just me (this time anyway!) With the old 1.84 version I had to turn the soft limits off before homing or I got errors etc. With the new 3.42 something when I go to run a program it gives me a soft limit warning box every time, which takes another click to get rid of. My soft limits work well, apart from the warning box that is generated. So will be looking for the fix on that problem for sure. Good post, glad to know that.
DaveA.

32

General Mach Discussion / Re: Stepper size and max speed

« on: March 22, 2011, 09:15:47 AM »

No, meaning a simple 'apples to apples' comparison, will a larger stepper motor, on the same voltage, drive ANY machine at a higher max speed, than a smaller motor? No other reference needed.

33

General Mach Discussion / Re: Stepper size and max speed

« on: March 21, 2011, 08:27:36 PM »

Yeah, no torque curves available, or that I can find anyway. Was really wondering if anyone had tried this same idea, and if it helped or not, doesn't sound like it's worth trying though. My AB 8400 mill has 200 in/min rapids and this lathe looks pathetic alongside that. But it works, so I can't really complain.

34

General Mach Discussion / Stepper size and max speed

« on: March 21, 2011, 02:01:43 PM »

So after I upgraded my CNC lathe to the latest Mach release, forgot which one it was, there was something different about how it puts out its pulses, and I had to lower the max rapid speed to keep it from stalling. I used to have 55"/min rapid on the Z axis, now all I can get away with is 35"/min. SO, I was thinking of going to a larger stepper motor on the Z axis. It has a NEMA34 640oz/in now, I could easily go to the longer 1200 or so one. I know, more voltage is the answer but I am stuck with the 42 volt system I have now. Question is, will the larger torque stepper give me more speed on the same 42 volt supply? Thanks to all.
                                        DaveA.

35

General Mach Discussion / Re: losing steps - hot motors

« on: March 18, 2011, 07:17:02 PM »

I fabricated them myself, just .063" sheet aluminium shells welded together. The router has a watercooled spindle anyway so I just plumbed lines to the Y axis jackets from the pump.

36

General Mach Discussion / Re: losing steps - hot motors

« on: March 18, 2011, 01:17:25 PM »

My Chinese CNC router has hot steppers, you couldn't touch them. Runs 90 volts, rapids very fast, a DSP control runs it all. I solved the overheat problems with a watercooling jacket on them gantry ones, pic attached.

37

General Mach Discussion / Reprap 3D printing machines

« on: March 06, 2011, 11:49:16 AM »

Have been looking at the Reprap 3D printers. Really a 3 axis CNC with a 4th axis to drive the print head stepper, this advances the plastic filament material. Anyone consider adding some code to Mach to run one of those machines?

38

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach 3 Upgrade issue - for a frustrated Aussie

« on: March 05, 2011, 11:14:41 PM »

You didn't specify if this is three phase or not, here in the US we have more options with 110VAC. I think you are working with single phase 240 VAC from the sounds of it. Thinking that the Perske spindle motor is 3 phase, you might swap any two wires there to reverse it. In any case, M3 shouls start the spindle forwards, the regular direction, and M4 starts it in reverse. If you cant figure it out then just use M4 for now to get you by.

39

General Mach Discussion / Re: Keygrabber improvements

« on: February 17, 2011, 11:58:53 AM »

Keygrabber works great here.
It does take some proper typing to get it to work.

Every time I setup a new computer it takes a few tries to get it to work properly.

Mike

I wish I could say that, when you start it, it usually comes up, then when you go back to Mach, it dissapears, and is not on the lower Windows toolbar, like it has closed again. Sometimes an icon appears on the right side, you click on that and that makes it close also. When you FINALLY get it to open and stay open, the first time it just does nothing as far as making the keys you have selected, work. You mess with it a couple more times and it will finally work right. IMHO, just does not work professionally as Mach always does.

40

General Mach Discussion / Re: Keygrabber improvements

« on: January 28, 2011, 01:00:01 AM »

Not really sure you guys are understanding where I am coming from. I don't see why Keygrabber is a different program and can't be intergrated into mach as a permanent part of the whole program. I did try changing the target as Hood showed me in another thread but it didn't work as it should have. I guess what I am trying to say here is that Mach works very well, and is practically painless to use, but Keygrabber works like, and for all intents and purposes, a sidebar add on with operating bugs. I know someone here is going to throw tomatoes at me now but just please take them out of the can first.