Messages

1191

General Mach Discussion / Re: Opinion and advice - explain relationship of encoder to kernel speed

« on: April 15, 2009, 05:50:33 AM »

OK... Just tried it and it worked perfect. I set the A axis so that one unit is one revolution, and programmed as follows:

G1 Z-20 A20 F150
G1 Z0 A0

Got what seems to be perfect threads. The spindle motor hardly felt any load at all with the M6 tap in delrin. I probably could even go faster than 150mm/min, but didn't have the courage to try

Now I have to find a more intelligent way of doing this, instead of disabling and enabling the A axis under Port&Pins each time.

Daniel

1192

General Mach Discussion / Re: Opinion and advice - explain relationship of encoder to kernel speed

« on: April 15, 2009, 03:46:30 AM »

Yes, I need the tapping soon... I have a job in delrin and I wanted to test this approach. A floating holder is an option, but don't think it's good for my tiny Emco.... remember my tool turret? It has 10mm bores for ID tools. I think a floating holder will be too big for my turret.

As it looks now, Greg is not going to implement rigid tapping any soon

I think there might be simple work around - if I define the same pins to both A and Spindle, then I can use one at a time. Problem is, SS seems to be blocking this kind of setting. If setting so, I can move the A axis, but the Spindle won't rotate. I think it might be an easy fix for Greg...

For now, I'll have to use this same approach of defining same pins for A and Spindle, and disable the A under Ports&Pins each time I need the spindle, enabling it just when needed. It is a pain to do - will have to split the gcode.

But first let's see if I can use this approach of commanding Z and A move to accomplish rigid tapping. I need to tap M6 in delrin.... hope my spindle has enough power for M6 without being synched to the Z. The spindle does lag a bit under load, before it catches up... hope the load will be just small enough and won't affect the tapping. I only have a 4-flute hand tap, I wonder whether to do the tapping in pecks or whole the way down as you would do with a spiral tap.

Daniel

1193

General Mach Discussion / Re: Opinion and advice - explain relationship of encoder to kernel speed

« on: April 15, 2009, 02:20:50 AM »

Hood,

You were right, the SwapAxis doesn't work at all with the SS. I must have tested it with PP before, when I thought it was working. I've just tried to SwapAxis X and Z, and it didn't work. Changed to PP and all was working.

And I was stupid... you don't have to connect both A axis pins and Spindle pins to the drive input. You only have to connect the spindle pins and once you use the SwapAxis, the spindle pins become the A pins. It does work with the PP. I need to find a way to do this with SS though...

Daniel

1194

General Mach Discussion / Re: Opinion and advice - explain relationship of encoder to kernel speed

« on: April 14, 2009, 01:41:23 PM »

SwapAxis, as for itself does work with SS - I can swap Z and X axes for instance, and it behaves as if I swapped their pins under ports&pins.

The problem is, I can't connect both A axis pins (14,16) and Spindle pins (7,8) to same input on the AC driver. It is like if I interconnected those pins between themselves. So what is the idea of SwapAxis?

The easiest way would be to just assign same pins to both A and Spindle, since I'm not going to use them both at the same time, but it doesn't work this way - only the A axis works, but the spindle doesn't rotate...

Daniel

1195

General Mach Discussion / Re: Opinion and advice - explain relationship of encoder to kernel speed

« on: April 14, 2009, 12:24:08 PM »

Different profiles approach is not practical since my goal is not just to rigid tap, but rather do the rigid tapping as part of the gcode program to produce a finished part. I want to turn, drill and tap with the same gcode.

Here is the link to the thread where Terry mentioned he had used this approach successfully:

http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,9582.0.html

Daniel

1196

General Mach Discussion / Re: Opinion and advice - explain relationship of encoder to kernel speed

« on: April 14, 2009, 11:35:53 AM »

I remember Terry once said on another thread here that he had used this approach successfully, that's why I referred to him.

What you suggest is using different profiles, one for rigid tapping with A axis and one for turning operations. I don't think that was what Terry was using, as this is not very practical. I remember he said he was using SwapAxis, but how particularly?

Daniel

1197

General Mach Discussion / Re: Opinion and advice - explain relationship of encoder to kernel speed

« on: April 14, 2009, 05:39:39 AM »

Terry,

How do you use that SwapAxis approach for rigid tapping? I have now a servo motor on my lathe's spindle and I would like to try this approach. I have pins 7 and 8 set as the spindle's step and direction signals respectively.

I tried to set the same pins for the A axis and thought I could program either the A axis to move or the spindle to rotate. But the SS doesn't support setting twice the same pin.

I also tried setting different pins for A (14 and 16) and connecting them to the servo drive as well (in addition to the 7 and , but didn't work neither.

Thanks,
Daniel

1198

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: Just got a Cyclone to retrofit

« on: January 25, 2009, 04:22:26 AM »

Brett,

Glad to see you finally got it.

Will be looking forward to see your progress.

Daniel

1199

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Re: RC helicopter rotor head and mechanics.

« on: October 29, 2008, 08:47:46 AM »

Wow!! What an impressive work! Really liked it!

I rarely visit the forum, mostly on the yahoo group... I think I have to visit here more frequently ;-)

The video is great!

Could you give some details on how did you machined the head button please? I mean it's machined from two sides...
And how about the rotor base? How many operations did it require?

Thank you for sharing!

Daniel

P.S.

Snow in May? Where are you located?

1200

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: Brian's Emco Compact 5 Retro

« on: April 16, 2008, 09:17:59 AM »

Brian,

I'll be looking forward to seeing them.

Thanks,
Daniel