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Hi,
I want to retrofit my old lathe to work under Mach3, so I have some questions
The lathe is driven by hydraulic cylinders, two of them is controlled by stepper motors, but the last one has only two switches, to change directions of cylinder, - can I control them by adding an optical encoder, and haw to set them in Mach3?
Perhaps I am not understanding you, but you say your X and Z (turret moving axis), is Hydraulic, BUT the Hydraulic is run by Steppers? if so, you can control X and Z via PP step/Dir.
Optical Encoders: Yes you can use them, you can bring them in to the "Encoder" inputs (there are 4), and use some VB in the macro pump to watch what they do to effect your operation, if for some reason you need a position feedback, it wont be as accurate as the PP. The will not funciton as "true closed loop", but you can use them for following error.
- The lathe has a second Z axe (which I want to use for drilling and tapping) ATC with 5 positions - Haw I can control them?(optical encoder?!)
Use your "C" Axis in mach3 to run and index your ATC turret, from within your M6
- The lathe has a gear with 4 speed changing by relays (electromagnetic gears) - Haw can Mach3 change speed?
- I have additional LPT(2),
Thanks,
Your gear changes will be tied to your Pulley Speed ranges. You can Set the Pulley range by getting the S parameter from your G code, and have the macropump watching it, further you can set that up in your M6 as well, and you can add custom buttons to your screen that would set up a User DRO that the number would equate to a Binary pattern that would equate to your gear position IO of your valves. It depends on just how much work you want to do.
You can also do a lions share of the above with a PLC as hood said as well. The opitons are many depending on your budget, how much you want to dig at it, and the VB.
scott