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Re: custom application
« Reply #30 on: October 26, 2010, 06:17:43 PM »
OK - So I am back at the shop today... Got to give props to Hood - that M11/M10 worked a treat once I had Z axis enabled... set G4P0.00001 and it fires my air cylinder like a paintball gun.... Thanks Hood - your the MAN !!!

We did some testing - no problems... exactly the way we need it. We then had to shut down to do some electrical hook ups... fired back up and now a huge problem ! lost the former setting even though we saved at exit... now on the diagnostics screen our pins/ports are not lit up even thought we have settings on that page? is this a hardware problem?

My controllers are lit and my parallel port is lit... is it possible there is a communication problem with parallel port?

I have rebooted and I still can't seem to home the system... I can jog and zero but it won't home - I think I can get all my home and limits back but I was under the impression that those LEDS on that diagnostic screen had to be lit up... if the motors are moving I should have LEDS on pins n ports on the diagnostic page - no?

Any help appreciated...

This seems to be our last hurdle - I got my screen minimized to a run only screen and locked out so if I can get back all my former setting it will probably run good again.

« Last Edit: October 26, 2010, 06:19:44 PM by oldmechano »
Re: custom application
« Reply #31 on: October 26, 2010, 10:24:37 PM »
Well... getting pretty good at solving my own problems... I reloaded Mach and used my last know XML with the "good" settings from "latest documents" file on the PC - that got me back to having the LEDs on my Pins N Ports current state in diagnostics. Now it is running like a champ again but it seems like it needs frequent reboots - I have no idea if this will be stable enough for a real plant environment... we will see, after Friday it's out of my hands  ;D

I would still like it to fire faster as any move laterally (X direction cross table) puts my staple slightly off because the tables are moving faster than the head can fire causing the pattern to shift. I either speed up the fire rate or slow the tables down to get them in sync... the problem is the patterns I am doing are 900 code lines long - about 1 min 20 secs, which is a pretty long cycle time in a manufacturing plant... so there is no choice but to fire faster.

To fire this faster I went from G4P1 to G4P0.00001 - this made a big difference... but I tried P0.000001 and there was no difference... should I just keep adding decimal places? or is there another setting I should tweak?

Offline Hood

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Re: custom application
« Reply #32 on: October 27, 2010, 02:59:38 AM »
I dont know what the minimum is for a dwell but I suspect is will likely be 1 millisecond, so going more on the decimals is unlikely to help.
Hood
Re: custom application
« Reply #33 on: October 27, 2010, 05:52:27 AM »
Yes, I had a feeling that was all there was... I guess I has found the machines limits - normal when combining machinery with electronics.

Thanks for all your help.

Cheers, Alex.

Offline Hood

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Re: custom application
« Reply #34 on: October 27, 2010, 07:29:15 AM »
Wonder if adjusting your motor tuning may help a bit here, what rapids and accel do you have and what feed are you running in your code?

Hood

Offline kf2qd

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Re: custom application
« Reply #35 on: October 27, 2010, 10:33:22 AM »
You might need to put what I call a reset circuit between Mach and the stapling machine. As it is flywheel driven and will repeat if the solenoid is held in. It would need 2 relays, with the second 1 wired as a latch. Relay 1 is just on off from Mach, Relay 2 is latched by a switch that is tripped as the staple head starts down. Use a noramlly open contact on the first relay in series with a normally open contact from the second relay.

    signal from MACH             Coil from Relay 1
|------| |----+----------------------------------( )-----|
|             |                                                       |
|             |   Switch on Head         Relay 2           |
|             +---------| |--------------+---( )----------|
|             |                                  |                    |
|             |     N/C on Relay 2        |                    |
|             +----------|/|-------------+                    |
|                                                                    |
|           N/O Rel 1      N/C Rel 2      Solenoid      |    
|---------------| |-------------|/|---------( )-------|
« Last Edit: October 27, 2010, 10:38:24 AM by kf2qd »
Re: custom application
« Reply #36 on: October 27, 2010, 11:42:15 PM »
WELL... We had a surprise visit from the machine owners today at our humble two man shop... we did a trial sample run and they are very satisfied with the machine and the product output - I can't divulge the real product output because of liability issues, but they have been in business for 100 years and were surprised by the output they have gained thru the Mach3 software... we had the machine running at the limit that is possible with 30 year old hardware hooked up to new generation software...

I am not sure at this point they seemed to be worried about the speed - 7 seconds for the small sample and 50 second for the big sample... they are more worried about the complexity of the software and who they can trust to operate it... again, they are going from a manual input to a computer controlled repeatable output - no comparison in there eyes... they are not worried about the machine, but they seem to be worried if the operator can keep up with the product loading demand !

I am running the recommended speeds and feeds, at this time the trigger speed and flywheel output are almost matched on the product samples. I am running point to point with only minimal "phantom staples" - start to finish (M11 start with X,Y lines then M10 end) dragged extra staples into the sample which were undesirable to the customer.

I may play with the motor tuning if I have time... they are planning to ship it out 2000 km East of me in 2 weeks time, and as a designer/programmer I will not have any further direct contact with the machine past tomorrow. I might only be called on to produce programs from my basement office half a Continent away...

I would like to thank everyone who replied to my humble pleas for help and congratulate Mach on supply low cost competitive multipurpose software.

In the future I hope I can post a results thread on this project, but at this time I am limited contractually not to disclosure any information for legal purposes.

Cheers and a toast to all forum members and hosts !

Thanks, Alex.

PS - Hope to post on another project soon...

Offline Hood

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Re: custom application
« Reply #37 on: October 28, 2010, 02:54:57 AM »
Sounds like it worked out :)

Look forward to the next project.

Hood