Hi folks, I have an Emco 120p lathe that I converted to Mach3.  This is the one with the pneumatic chuck and tail stock. Being that it's getting older (like me), the chuck will lose it's holding power after a couple minutes. I usually stand by and give the chuck a quick shot of air and all is good for another two minutes or so. I could leave the solenoid on continuously, but, the constant hissing of the air is kind of annoying.

My question is, would it be possible to have mach3 control the holding solenoid, through one of the outputs, in a timed manner?? Such as, when the spindle is turned on, Mach3 activates the output every 2 minutes for 1 second.

thanks
pete

Most functions are disabled whilst code is running but you can switch coolant |(mist or flood) on or off whilst code is executing. So looks like that may be your best bet although a mechanical timer may be better.
Anyway if wanting to use software then you would have to use a Brain or the macropump to look at the spindle LED and switch on the coolant output for 1 second and switch off for the time you want then on again.
I am not sure if the timers in Brains work correctly or not though.

Personally I would be getting the chuck fixed as it could   be very dangerous if the chuck lost pressure and threw the material at you or someone else and I personally would not be relying on software to stop that happening.
Hood

Thanks Hood, I'm going with an external interval timer...one second on...60 seconds off. As for the safey aspect, again thank you for the concern. I have another EMCO/Rohm chuck that is also a candidate for rebuild. I'll look around for someone to rebuild it....

pete

Mechanical is better than relying on software, thats for sure.
Hood