I'm having problems getting spindle timing to work in Mach3. I'm currently running Ver. R3.042.040 under XP. I have a 2.3" disk on spindle with 4 slots (3 - 1/16" and 1 - 1/8") in accordance with formula given in the manual. The output of the optical sensor is a clean 5V P-P square wave with no distortion. I configured the software as specified in the manual and then switched on the lathe spindle but the rpm display counts up to some random value regardless of spindle speed. On the diagnostics screen the timing light does indicate when I turn the spindle slowly. I tried different debounce values under "general config" but did no good(current values are both set to 5). I also tried a different input pin but to no avail. So, I decided to set it up for indexing instead. I put tape over 3 of the slots so I would get the correct rpm,  disabled timing and enabled indexing under the input settings tab and now it works fine. I ran a couple of test threads and it works great. So what's the problem with timing? I originally decided to use timing instead of a single index slot to get better accuracy but apparently there's a problem in the software or a setting that I don't know about. If anybody has any ideas in regard to this problem please let me know, because it really irritates me that I have to put tape on my disk.

Thanks,

~Don~

Timing input no longer works in Mach.
Hood

The single index is accurate and a multi slot provided no advantage in accuracy and was disabled. Also note that the thread diagnostics should be  disabled.  Threading is covered in detail in a write up called Threading on The Lathe.

RICH

"Threading is covered in detail in a write up called Threading on The Lathe."

would you have a link RICH. I tried the seach box but no luck!

thanks

Here ya go:

http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,13017.0.html

 
Dave

Thank you, happy holidays