Messages

71

General Mach Discussion / Re: Elapsed Time counter bug?

« on: November 13, 2013, 07:35:23 PM »

Yes.
It appears you may be correct.
A simple program like.
G1 X 1000 F1
runs but no timer action.

This is not good.
Begs the question then what part of a LONG program is actually being timed.

I've had issues with this timer in the past in that it keeps running during M1's which I hate because it does not reflect the actual time the cutter is doing something - or more that it includes the time I choose to do nothing before pressing the start button again. But I was out voted because I guess some people like to consider time as money and want to know how much time the program takes in all.
But this isn't good. If one has a large buffer then if a  very time consuming portion of the program is at the end then it is not even timed.

I would consider this something that needs to be re-vamped in Mach 4 - NO???

Sage

72

General Mach Discussion / Re: Elapsed Time counter bug?

« on: November 13, 2013, 07:26:33 PM »

Hmmm.
If that's true then I guess that would make the counter pretty useless.

Not sure if that's true. I write a lot of short programs and I've never noticed the time stops. But then I may not have paid much attention. I'll have to search down a few and try them.

(did so in next post)

Sage

73

General Mach Discussion / Elapsed Time counter bug?

« on: November 13, 2013, 07:11:26 PM »

Could someone else please try the program below.
I find that the elapsed time counter only progresses during the rotary move (which is about 2 seconds on my machine). After that it stalls for the rest of the program.
I'm using V3.042.040
Program works fine other than that. It's a simple program to take the drudgery out of cutting a gear.

G1F1
G1Y0
M1 (RELEASE ROTARY LOCK)
G91
G1A1.5F1
G90
M1 (LOCK ROTARY LOCK)
G1Y-.02F1
G1X0
G1X2F10
G1Y-.04F1
G1X0
G1X2F10
G1Y-.06F1
G1X0
G1X2F10
G1Y-.08F1
G1X0
G1X2F10
G1Y-.083F1
G1X0
G1X2F10
G1Y0F1
M30


Thanks
Sage

74

General Mach Discussion / Re: The bugs keep coming ??

« on: October 12, 2013, 05:56:59 PM »

I would have never looked there for the setting.
Ok. I'll check it out.

Thanks for your help.

Sage

75

General Mach Discussion / Re: The bugs keep coming ??

« on: October 12, 2013, 03:50:47 PM »

Ok. So I had a look in the General Config. The only check box I see that seems related is one labeled "Radius Compensation Off" and it is checked (off). But it's  in the section to do with (I guess) what to do on a system stop, M30 etc. so I'm not sure that's it.

Not sure what to put in the settings screen for "Rotational Diameter". Seems to me anything you put in there might only change how fast it compensates based on what you tell it the diameter is. I don't want it to change at all.

Any ideas what I'm missing?

Sage

76

General Mach Discussion / Re: The bugs keep coming ??

« on: October 12, 2013, 03:33:46 PM »

Ok. I guess that makes some sense.
I'll try fiddling with it to see if I can correct the issue. Now that I'm all done with it - 
And try to remember that for the next time.

Sage

77

General Mach Discussion / Re: The bugs keep coming ??

« on: October 12, 2013, 12:16:41 PM »

I'll trust your judgment on this one but I'm not sure why it would be compensating anything. The radius isn't changing. The tool just sits there and the table rotates under it. The only thing changing is the Z axis depth of cut.

I could see if the tool moved toward the center of rotation somewhat then the rotary might want to speed up to adjust the SFM. But that is not the case.

Sage

78

General Mach Discussion / The bugs keep coming ??

« on: October 12, 2013, 07:51:30 AM »

Attention Brian !!
Pretty sure I've discovered another bug in Mach 3. Probably one nobody would ever have noticed. (Then again maybe my code is faulty).

I had a large plate that I needed to chamfer an edge on. I couldn't do it on the lathe so I decided to lay it flat on my rotary table and do it on my mill.
I wrote a simple program to turn the plate and feed down in Z 5thou at a time until I got to .187
I ramped down to each depth by turning 45 degrees while feeding Z down the 5 thou and then leave the Z at depth and continue around to complete the circle.
The code below speaks for itself. It's a very long process but very simple.
About 5 minutes into the process I thought I noticed the rotary table was going faster than when I started out so I adjusted the federate offset to get back to my preferred
2 seconds per revolution of the rotary stepper motor (which translates to 3 minutes per table rev).
The longer the process continued the more I had to slow the process down with the federate offset.
In the end I had the federate offset adjusted for about 1/10 of what it started out at in order to keep the rotary table stepper motor at the same speed.
I couldn't believe what had happened so after the job I ran the process over without a cutter and  let it run without making any adjustments.
Sure enough I started out with a units/min of about 73 on the federate display for units/min.
After 1 hour the units/min had climbed on it's own to more than 600.
The units/rev had also climbed from an initial .04 to .34
I noted that the federate climbs after each part of the code where it performs a Z down feed while rotating 45 degrees. When it goes to the part of the code where it's just rotating around to 360 the speed has increased from what it was last time.

Probably something Brian should look into and be sure it's not a problem in Mach4.

Code is below.
Thanks
Sage

(Uses Z and A axis only - )
G20 (Units: Inches)
G40 G90 G91.1
S1000 (Mill/router, 0.375 in diameter)
T1 M06  G43 H1
S1800 M03

G01 Z0.000 F0.25
Z-.005 A45 (Ramp down 5thou in 45 degrees)
A360 (Do the rest of the circle)
Z-.010 A45
A360
Z-.015 A45
A360
Z-.020 A45
A360
Z-.025 A45
A360
Z-.030 A45
A360
Z-.035 A45
A360
Z-.040 A45
A360
Z-.045 A45
A360
Z-.050 A45
A360
Z-.055 A45
A360
Z-.060 A45
A360
Z-.065 A45
A360
Z-.070 A45
A360
Z-.075 A45
A360
Z-.080 A45
A360
Z-.085 A45
A360
Z-.090 A45
A360
Z-.095 A45
A360
Z-.100 A45
A360
Z-.105 A45
A360
Z-.110 A45
A360
Z-.115 A45
A360
Z-.120 A45
A360
Z-.125 A45
A360
Z-.130 A45
A360
Z-.135 A45
A360
Z-.140 A45
A360
Z-.145 A45
A360
Z-.150 A45
A360
Z-.155 A45
A360
Z-.160 A45
A360
Z-.165 A45
A360
Z-.170 A45
A360
Z-.175 A45
A360
Z-.180 A45
A360
Z-.185 A45
A360
Z-.187 A45
A360 F0.25
Z-.187 A45 (Clean up pass to remove ramp)
A360 F0.25

Z-.15 A45 (Lead out - raise tool while rotating to avoid stop mark)

G00 Z0.01
M05
M05 M30

79

General Mach Discussion / Re: New PlugIn just about done..

« on: April 21, 2013, 08:32:34 PM »

Hmmm. 14ft. There is technical limit to how long a USB cable can/should be. I believe it's 6ft.
If you experience any other odd problems be suspect of the long cable. May not be problem since the data rate over the cable is pretty low.
I'm not surprised you found the problem where I suggested. You can expect it to go bad there again in the future. Not unlike a lot of equipment with cables.

Good show.

Sage

80

General Mach Discussion / Re: New PlugIn just about done..

« on: April 17, 2013, 05:54:03 PM »

I don't remember any difficulty getting it apart. It has six screws on the bottom that are visible. Possibly one more under the sticker in the center and maybe a couple under the rubber feet at the bottom. You may also have to remove the central rotary knob. It's been a while but I think after that the bottom just comes off easily. Maybe yours is different.

Sage