Messages

271

General Mach Discussion / Re: m3 not always recognized

« on: March 19, 2008, 09:48:12 PM »

one of the lathes did this again  but I didnt have any failure to move but when m3 is called out in the gcode  I get a popup that says "uknown error 1 occured, m3 not recognized" when I click the OK on that popup it opens the VB editor with the DoSpin (cw) command, Require machine reboot to recognize m3

272

General Mach Discussion / m3 not always recognized

« on: March 18, 2008, 11:52:48 PM »

I am running mach on 3 machines, 2 lathes and a mill and at some point on everyone of them the m3 command fails to start the spindle, wont work at the MDI line or in the gcode file. It usually happens later in the day after the system has been running 6-8 hours sometimes not for a couple of days. I am not sure what the common link is three seperate machines, three seperate computers all have the problem at some point. Closing and restarting mach doesnt seem to fix it . Always requires rebooting the computer.

273

General Mach Discussion / Re: Bridgeport Mill

« on: March 02, 2008, 07:50:20 PM »

I did both on mine a few years ago , I unplug the knee and plug in the rotary table from time to time, I generaly use the quill as the z  axcept when swapping from an endmill to the drill chuck on certain files, nice to have the option. The knee is slower but much easier to fit a servo motor

274

General Mach Discussion / Re: Duplomatic lathe tool turret with Mach?

« on: March 02, 2008, 08:53:27 AM »

yes its the number of inputs that would be the issue, need one for every station , two would be better. The proper pic chip I am sure could be programmed to everything I need for about $3 but that would add an entire new learning curve and more time to the project. I downloaded the software to play with tonight from ADirect along with the 524 page manual for the DL06

275

General Mach Discussion / Re: Duplomatic lathe tool turret with Mach?

« on: March 01, 2008, 07:41:33 AM »

I dont have any experience with programming PLCs and am just unsure where to start, It looks like I will need one with at least 12 inputs for the rotary switch . On programing did you find it fairly easy, would you reccomend the Automation direct starter kit that comes with the Think and Do programming software?

276

General Mach Discussion / Re: Duplomatic lathe tool turret with Mach?

« on: February 29, 2008, 08:28:24 PM »

I spoke with the fellow at Duplomatic for almost an hour today, he was very helpful amd I now have a pretty good understanding of how the turret works , just still a little unsure how to control it.

As I understand it the 24v brake needs to energized to release the brake then the three phase motor which causes the turret to turn , this turret only turns in one direction in normal operation, when the proper position is reached the solenoid which drops the lock pin is energized and the pin falls in a notch in the locking cam , at this point the motor needs to reversed which sets the locking cam , then the brake needs to be set by de-energizing the brake coil then the locking pin coil needs to be de-energized. This portion I understand and seem pretty easy to program a basic PLC to handle. The area I am unsure on how to program and what PLC to use for is indexing to the proper pocket on the turret. As you can see in the schematic there are 24 pins on the rotary switch , 2 for each of the 12 positions and a common terminal. The first pin on each station tells the plc when the pocket you are looking for is approaching and the second tels it when its been reached.  I have a pretty good idea how to get the thing to cycle in a simple one pocket at a time jog type mode but the indexing to the proper turret maybe a bit more challenging . Any thoughts or help appreciated, I am sure it can be made to work

277

General Mach Discussion / Re: Duplomatic lathe tool turret with Mach?

« on: February 29, 2008, 08:00:21 AM »

any thoughts on controlling the turret?

278

General Mach Discussion / Re: Duplomatic lathe tool turret with Mach?

« on: February 27, 2008, 01:34:25 PM »

http://www.thompsonmachine.net/img/mhp/dup.pdf

279

General Mach Discussion / Duplomatic lathe tool turret with Mach?

« on: February 27, 2008, 12:04:53 PM »

I have a lathe with a bsv-200 12 station tool turret from duplomatic and I am curios if anyone here has had any experience controlling the duplomatic turret with Mach?
here is a link to the unit I have 

http://www.duplomatic.com/duplomatic/auto/uk/2/frame2_21.html

280

General Mach Discussion / Re: Manual to cnc lathe retrofit? feaseable?

« on: February 23, 2008, 10:39:07 AM »

shouldnt be any problem at all, I retrofitted my 14x40 enco with ball screws and servo motors a few months ago and its working perfectly, I am turning and threading bbls with it no problem. I can cut , face and thread both ends of 65-70 suppressor tubes in an 8 hour shift. I have been very happy with the brakout board and spindle encoder from cnc4pc , pendant is very nice also. Only thing left to do on mine is finish up the 8 station auto tool turret.

I would say go for it , very rewarding outcome