Messages

941

General Mach Discussion / Re: Motor outputs????

« on: March 09, 2010, 01:18:17 AM »

Hi Alex,

The LEDs on the diagnostics screen don't show the motor pins activity. First make sure you defined the right pins and right port (port 1) in the ports and pins. Also make sure the parallel port address is defined correctly, as described in the manual (I think it's there...)

Daniel

942

General Mach Discussion / Re: A Little Help Please.

« on: March 08, 2010, 03:00:35 PM »

If you push it and it starts moving then, it sounds like only one phase of the stepper is working. Either a bad connection of the motor wired to the drive or a bad drive. Also, maybe a bad connection on the drive board itself.

Daniel

943

General Mach Discussion / Re: A Little Help Please.

« on: March 06, 2010, 09:32:44 AM »

I agree with Hood. It is most probably a loose connection by your description.

Daniel

944

SmoothStepper USB / Re: Smooth stepper loses com. when spindle button pressed or M03 S given

« on: March 05, 2010, 02:06:22 PM »

Hi Woffler,

Try grounding the SS board to the PC ground with a good heavy gauge wire. It solved the problem for me and many others.

Daniel

945

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: End mill recommendation

« on: March 03, 2010, 01:44:20 AM »

Basically, you want to take the biggest depth of cut you can, still maintaining good results. You'll have to experiment with this to find the optimal roughing depth of cut that works for you.

The end mills you found should do, but see if you can get single flute end mills. Make sure the end mills you get are not coated - pretty obvious for a single flute end mill as it is designed for cutting plastics, but far not obvious for a 2 flute end mill.

Daniel

946

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: End mill recommendation

« on: March 01, 2010, 11:44:57 AM »

You should use new, sharp end mills. 45 degrees helix, 3 flute end mills for aluminum should work fine, but a 2 flute end mill or even single flute end mill would provide better chip evacuation. Use your maximum spindle speed and increase the feed until the material doesn't melt.

Daniel

947

General Mach Discussion / Re: Chinese Digital Caliper Magnetized

« on: February 20, 2010, 01:18:08 AM »

Glad it worked out fine for you, Al. And now we have an answer to this question as well

Daniel

948

General Mach Discussion / Re: Chinese Digital Caliper Magnetized

« on: February 19, 2010, 02:09:54 AM »

Usually they have capacitive sensors (some have resistive I think), so I don't think a magnetic field can harm it. Only way to know for sure is to try it

Daniel

949

General Mach Discussion / Re: Chinese Digital Caliper As Encoder?

« on: February 18, 2010, 01:13:55 PM »

Just as a note, digital callipers (not only Chinese, but also many of the expensive ones) are not as accurate as some people believe they are. Most of the manufacturers declare an accuracy of 0.02mm, but in practice the error can easily get as high as 0.05mm with temperature change that causes for the expansion or contraction of the PCB mount. Just be aware of the limitations of a digital calliper.

Daniel

950

General Mach Discussion / Re: Lathe motor question "Variable Speed"

« on: February 15, 2010, 09:53:54 AM »

You may be right saying that at very low speeds an AC motor has very low torque, but then please note that I said that I was looking for a 6 pole motor, which means that its rated speed at the rated 50Hz is about 900RPM. Then I can decrease the frequency about 50% to 25Hz before the torque starts dropping significantly and get 450RPM, which is almost low enough for me. And then for the high speeds the frequency can be increased up to 400Hz which would give me around 8000RPM.

Daniel