Messages

191

General Mach Discussion / Re: Unipolar stepper motor with ULN2003?

« on: August 05, 2010, 03:06:31 PM »

If you wish to drive the motor windings with the maximum current of 0.5amps with a 12v supply you willl require 11ohms in series with each winding.

(12-(0.5x13)) / 0.5

The motors will not have much speed or power driven like this tho.

Sage

192

General Mach Discussion / Re: Fixtures, Offsets, Origins & Suchlike

« on: March 03, 2010, 07:58:05 PM »

Someone may have a more sofisticated answer but basically you need to understand the program you want to use. The program will have an expected place to start. It might be spelled out in the program comments or setup instructions. Most programs I write are set to start at x,y,z zero and that point might be in the middle of a hole in the part or a corner or such like.
 Once you know where that point is, and what it's co-ordinates are you can move the machine manually to there and set the DRO displays to those values.
 For my programs I spell it out in the comments at the top. I usually program the start point as 0,0,0 as I said then it's just a mater of placing the cutter there and zeroing the DRO's. If it's a hole or an edge you can use a center or edge finder manually then zero everything and off you go.

The toolpath display may give some sort of indication as well as to what it's going to do but if nothing else you'll need to be able to read the gcode and see what it's trying to do.


Sage

193

General Mach Discussion / Re: Anyone Here Have Experience Milling 6061-T651 Wrought Plate?

« on: January 24, 2010, 10:01:33 PM »

Hmmm. They look almost the same except for the rolling vs extruding. Amazing that rolling the aluminum can can make that much difference in the machining characteristics of the finished product.

Sage

194

General Mach Discussion / Re: Anyone Here Have Experience Milling 6061-T651 Wrought Plate?

« on: January 24, 2010, 09:32:09 PM »

SO all the digits are important to note. I'll have to investigate that more.
Thanks for that. I hope I never need to machine it.

SAge

195

General Mach Discussion / Re: Anyone Here Have Experience Milling 6061-T651 Wrought Plate?

« on: January 24, 2010, 09:23:25 PM »

And more than double the trouble by the sound of it because I've never had any trouble whatsoever machining the "regular" stuff. So the question is, why is the wrought stuff so difficult.

Sage

196

General Mach Discussion / Re: Anyone Here Have Experience Milling 6061-T651 Wrought Plate?

« on: January 24, 2010, 08:34:29 PM »

Sorry to jump in here so late. It's been very interesting though.
When you refer to 6061 T651(1) "Wrought Plate" I assume you are talking about something other than your common 6061 everyday aluminum plate? Maybe someone can explain. I would have assumed 6061 T6511 would all be the same given the numbers pretty much dictate it's characteristics - no (?)

Thanks
Sage

197

General Mach Discussion / Re: Idea for CNC Mach controlled Quilting Machine (No costly stitch regulator)

« on: December 10, 2009, 01:51:33 PM »

I have no idea how Mach turn works but it seems to be able to adjust the spindle speed of a lathe in relation to the X/Y feed rates to regulate cutting surface feet per minute. Could the spindle speed signal from mach turn be used to control the sewing machine motor speed or am I way off base here.

Sage

198

General Mach Discussion / Re: change color of indicators

« on: October 21, 2009, 09:54:33 PM »

Excellent, thanks. Yellow is much better.

Question though. The original location box  was pointing to a directory for the bitmap images and in particular one for a blue light. Just for the heck of it I went to look at what else might be there but I didn't see the particular bit map it was pointing to.
 In any case, as you suggested I deleted the contents of the location box and ithe indicator works fine although the image of the indicator when off looks slightly different (I think). Maybe you can enlighten me for my better understanding what this is all about.

Thanks

Sage

199

General Mach Discussion / Re: change color of indicators

« on: October 21, 2009, 01:03:06 PM »

Seems that's for the toopath colours. I'm looking to change the coloured "lights" next to the single block and optional block buttons. I can't tell if they are on or off.

Sage

200

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach memory cache annoyance

« on: October 21, 2009, 11:42:01 AM »

As metioned Im seeing the problem on my G-code development laptop which doesn't even have a parallel port. I don't want to bog it down with a driver that does nothing.

Enough said on this topic. I'll just keep pressing the regen button.

Sage