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Author Topic: 1st Run on MACH3MILL  (Read 23807 times)

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Offline kolias

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1st Run on MACH3MILL
« on: July 19, 2009, 05:43:16 PM »
After a long wait, yesterday I was able finally to fire up MACH3 for the 1st real try. After setting the pins etc. I was able to jog the 3 motors and that was enough for me. Now I need some adjustments on my CNC router which I was expecting. All settings I did on MACH3 were saved under my Profile.

Today, after some adjustments on the machine and the controller (that is the console housing all the electronics), I fired up MACH3 again but now I could not jog the motors at all. Pressing the arrow keys did nothing.

I noticed on the diagnostic screen under “Port1 Pins Current State” that no green lights were lit wheres yesterday I had a few lights ON. Also noticed a new message “No Shuttle Detected of Type Selected”

The only adjustments I did on the machine were to align the bearings on the 3 axis, and change the step mode on the 3 drivers.

Any idea why I can’t jog the motors now?

Thank you


Nicolas

Offline Hood

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Re: 1st Run on MACH3MILL
« Reply #1 on: July 19, 2009, 06:02:51 PM »
Changing the step switches on the drives will mean you have to reset your Steps per unit and also retune your accel and Velocity.
 Do the numbers in X Y and Z  DROs change when you Jog?
Hood

Offline kolias

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Re: 1st Run on MACH3MILL
« Reply #2 on: July 19, 2009, 06:22:02 PM »
Changing the step switches on the drives will mean you have to reset your Steps per unit and also retune your accel and Velocity.
 Do the numbers in X Y and Z  DROs change when you Jog?
Hood

That is my 1st run with MACH3, and obviously I have no experience with the software. Thanks for pointing out that I have to reset some parameters.

Yes the DRO's change when I jog the motors
Nicolas

Nicolas

Offline Hood

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Re: 1st Run on MACH3MILL
« Reply #3 on: July 19, 2009, 06:25:52 PM »
Check to make sure you are using the same profile that you did the first time, also check to see if the xml is set as read only.
Hood

Offline kolias

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Re: 1st Run on MACH3MILL
« Reply #4 on: July 19, 2009, 06:40:10 PM »
Check to make sure you are using the same profile that you did the first time, also check to see if the xml is set as read only.
Hood

 i know that the profile is the same, I can see it at the bottom right of the screen.

I dont know about the XML. Where do I check this out? Does MACH3 makes an XML when I input my parameters? I know that XML is a config file but I did not use one when I started MACH3.  I just input my parameters like pin numbers and ports
Nicolas
Nicolas

Offline Hood

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Re: 1st Run on MACH3MILL
« Reply #5 on: July 19, 2009, 06:43:23 PM »
Mach stores all the config settings in a xml, it is associated with the profile you use and will be named as such. If you are using the standard Mill profile then it will be called Mach3Mill.xml you will find it in the Mach3 folder.
Hood

Offline kolias

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Re: 1st Run on MACH3MILL
« Reply #6 on: July 19, 2009, 07:44:11 PM »
Mach stores all the config settings in a xml, it is associated with the profile you use and will be named as such. If you are using the standard Mill profile then it will be called Mach3Mill.xml you will find it in the Mach3 folder.
Hood

I found the file with my profile name and it is not read only.

Thank you for the excellent info
Nicolas
Nicolas

Offline Hood

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Re: 1st Run on MACH3MILL
« Reply #7 on: July 19, 2009, 07:49:08 PM »
The info doesnt get saved to the xml until you shut Mach down so if it didnt shut down properly then any settings you changed would not be stored. Rev4 of Mach will do things differently so that wont be an issue in the future.
 If you still have problems just shout and hopefully someone will have an answer :)
Hood

Offline kolias

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Re: 1st Run on MACH3MILL
« Reply #8 on: July 20, 2009, 02:16:39 PM »


I tried today to jog the motors again with no success.

Then decided to delete the XML file and start from scratch. Now it worked but I discovered along the way that my problem was with the dip switches which are setting the motor steps. Although I have 8 possible combinations to set, the motors respond only when the setting is at “Full Step (Mode 8 Fixed)”.

The other combinations are: Full Step (Mode F Fixed), Half Step, Half Step (Mode F Fixed), Quarter Step, Eighth Step, Sixteenth Step, and Sleep.

I asked the manufacturer about it and waiting for an answer
Nicolas

Offline Hood

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Re: 1st Run on MACH3MILL
« Reply #9 on: July 20, 2009, 02:22:18 PM »
Hopefully you will get an easy answer.
Hood