Hello xray man,

  Can you help me with wire info for motors,  please.

Thanks,

wulkan

CONTACT ME THROUGH MY EMAIL ADDRESS SHOWN IN MY PREVIOUS POST.

Mike,
Nice looking little machine! I think you are going to like the CV of Mach on the machine it shoudl go a bit faster then it did in the past!

Thanks for the pics (looking forward to the video )
Brian

Mike,
Nice looking little machine! I think you are going to like the CV of Mach on the machine it shoudl go a bit faster then it did in the past!

Thanks for the pics (looking forward to the video )
Brian

Thanks Brian!  Actually, I never did run the engraver with the original dedicated controller. It wasn't working, so I immediately disposed of it and added the Xylotex driver and Mach3. I was experiencing some mis-stepping with the old (slow) laptop, so I replaced it with a much faster one, and now the mis-steps are history!

So, you want to see a video?!  I'll consider it. 

A few people have Emailed me asking for my Mach3 setup (.xml) file, so I'm posting a link to it here that you can download: 

http://www.airstreamcomm.net/~mike/Mach3Mill.xml

Keep in mind that the setup parameters will need to be tweaked, because your system will likely be wired differently, and your motors may need to be tuned differently, but this will at least get you in the ballpark.

Xray,

Well this is a very late posting on this subject, but here goes.   I recently got a New Hermes 3400 engraver, free!!   I ended up using parts of the original controller,  the motor driver board and the power supply. Everything else in the EP controller was deleted.

 I had to hand trace the motor driver board and develop a schematic, then rewired it to accept the parallel port inputs from Mach3. 
Very cheap conversion,   I am running upwards of 250 ipm.

Arnie

Xray,

Well this is a very late posting on this subject, but here goes. I recently got a New Hermes 3400 engraver, free!! I ended up using parts of the original controller, the motor driver board and the power supply. Everything else in the EP controller was deleted.

 I had to hand trace the motor driver board and develop a schematic, then rewired it to accept the parallel port inputs from Mach3.
Very cheap conversion, I am running upwards of 250 ipm.

Arnie

Hi Arnie,
Congratulations on getting that free engraver! That doesn't happen very often!  I hope that you got it working well with the Mach 3 software.  Are you up and running now, or are you still in the process of putting it together? Let me know if I could be of any help to you. It's been quite a while since I've done any engraving because of other personal and professional commitments, but I still have my machine and I still use it occasionally.

Good job!

Mike

Mike,

Yes it is up and running.  The only thing left to do is figure out the limit switch wiring.

The limit switches can be a little tricky because some of them can also be configured as HOME switches. That's how I configured mine. Also, you may get some stepper servo noise into the limit switch inputs which can cause erratic operation. I solved that problem by placing a capacitor across each digital input to Ground.

After getting all the functions to work (motors and limit switches) you can then have some fun tweaking the system for maximum performance. I did that by engraving some basic shapes (squares and lines) on a piece of scrap, then playing with the motor tuning parameters and running the shapes again. Try to get the fastest possible speed without distorted lines and squares caused by overshoot and mis-stepping. Also keep in mind that your computer makes a huge difference on the performance of the system. The faster your processor is, the less likely that it will cause erratic problems with the servo system.

Have Fun!!!

Hey XrayMan,

I have a Vanguard 3400. Tossed the EP, bought a iso board and added Mach3 with an XP comp.

Everything seems fine exxcept I missing steps in all 3 axis over longish runs. Any thoughts? Could The steppers be bad? Or maybe the set-up is not quite right. Any thoughts would be appreciated!


Thanks,

SpicySkier.

Hey XrayMan,

I have a Vanguard 3400. Tossed the EP, bought a iso board and added Mach3 with an XP comp.

Everything seems fine exxcept I missing steps in all 3 axis over longish runs. Any thoughts? Could The steppers be bad? Or maybe the set-up is not quite right. Any thoughts would be appreciated!


Thanks,

SpicySkier.

Hi Spicy,
Sounds to me like something is over-heating, possibly your stepper driver board.