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Re: New people welcome !! Come in here and introduce your self!
« Reply #940 on: October 26, 2010, 11:15:44 AM »
Hello

I'm sorry if I am in the wrong topic of discussion, I am new to this forum.

My name is Tullio, and I am currently trying to get our company Plasma cutter table to run properly, and I have been having some issues, as I am about list bellow.

Basically I load the program in, hit the start button, the machine zeros itself, it plunges the torch slowly until it hits the material, then pulls up about 1/8 inch, then tries to fire and all that happens is a large spark. At this point the "torch on/off" led is lit red, and the THC button is blinking. If I hit the "torch on/off" button to turn it off, then the machine resumes its path.  The machine is equipped with a THC controller. 

Also, as a side note; if the machine is not running any program and I manually jog the Z about an inch from the material and hit the "torch on/off" button to turn the torch on, the torch fires for about 5 seconds and then shuts off.  If I try jogging the lit torch down to the material, it just sparks and snuffs itself out when it gets too close to the material.

I'm sorry if I am rambling, I've been trying to get this to work for about a week now and this is the only thing that’s holding me back. Thank you for your time!!!

Best

Tullio

Offline Smtl

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Re: New people welcome !! Come in here and introduce your self!
« Reply #941 on: October 26, 2010, 07:25:24 PM »
I everyone

My Name is Simon I am from Montreal.
I am a hobbyist and I just finished building my first CNC.

I bought plans from David K. Steele A long ago and finally, the CNC is moving 2day. I free jog it for the first time about 1 hour ago!
So far I am very satisfy by the tutorial videos I found on the MACH3 website.

I am very excited to join you and talk about CNC .

CHEERS
Re: New people welcome !! Come in here and introduce your self!
« Reply #942 on: October 28, 2010, 10:33:00 AM »
My name is Benjiman, I'm From good ol' North Dakota.  I just acquired a plasma table that needed a new control, So That's why I'm here.  I normally run Okuma Machines, but am really excited to get the plasma table up and going.  So I should be on here quite a bit.  We run BobCAD for our software, Some of our equipment includes, Okuma MC40H horizontal machining center with pallet change and rotary axis (1 degree),,  Okuma LC20 4ST 4 axis simuluturn Turning center with upper and lower turrets (but the bottom is dead right now)  a Wiedemann S4050 40 ton Turret punch,  We are going to retrofit this machine as the Micon 80 control is a PITA to do programming on..  ABB IRB2000 welding and plasma Robots..  just a few of the machines we have..   I enjoy my job, when things go as planned....  I enjoy snowmobiling and cars, and I really enjoy my family.. 
Thats all.. 
Nice to meet all of you.
Re: New people welcome !! Come in here and introduce your self!
« Reply #943 on: October 31, 2010, 10:34:30 AM »
Hello my name is Mel I work  for a steel producer for 30 years and counting. I am an Industrial Electrician by trade but since all our Electronic techs that know what a mag amp or selsyn are have long since retired, I and two Electronic techs with 25 years of combined experience have to maintain the 1960 vintage analog electronics. As for why I joined the forum I have a Supermax with a bandit 3 control that I am converting to Vipers and Mach 3
Re: New people welcome !! Come in here and introduce your self!
« Reply #944 on: November 03, 2010, 01:42:57 AM »
howdy do, and how are you?

chris be the name, and trade? iunno. idiot? gofer? all of the above :D

cnc, utter noobie besides watchin the screens on the machines at the old job. always too scared to do that sort of thing for production...for a hobby, when its my own time money and tools...its different, isnt it? so im learning, and learning fast... mmmm, helical interpolation..

my main reason for going cnc is for the autofeeds...damn im sick of handles...

Offline Jennifer

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Re: New people welcome !! Come in here and introduce your self!
« Reply #945 on: November 05, 2010, 07:52:27 AM »
Hi there,

i am a new Mach3 user and new to the CNC world. My hobbies include the Lapidary arts, Goldsmithery and Stringed musical instrument making - particularly inlay work. I also am the proud new owner of a CNC router which i have been having a lot of fun with trying to learn the Mach3 application as well as setting the darn thing up. Other facets of my life include Flying, riding my motorcycle and amateur radio (N3GPA). All of this on top of being a business applications developer for the last 30 years.

If anyone actually reads this i do have two questions:

1) without investing in an expensive datascope, how can i check to see what activity is actually happening on my parallel port?

2) the ability of a CNC router to create the recesses for my inlay work is a "gimme" but i am at a loss to come up with a solution for holding the small pieces of material i use to fill those holes. pieces of abalone, oyster shell @ etc... they are preformed into somewhat random sized pieces of "rough" possibly one or at the most two inches square about .050" thick and quite brittle. If i can come up with a way to hold them i may be able to eliminate some of the tedious work i do with a jewelers saw and concentrate more on my design rather than its execution.

actually i have a third question, I can get the router to respond to the "setup the travel units" function within Mach3 but i cannot get the jog (tab key) function to respond. no matter which way i set the jog enable button - green light on or off. Has any of you ever experienced this condition?

Come to think of it that brings to mind a fourth question: I am trying to decide which CAD application best suits my needs. most of them have user interfaces not well suited to drawing complex curves. the best i can find so far requires me to plot endless points around a sketch i import. it would be nice if there was a product that could turn a line drawing directly into the instructions to create a shape. especially if it could be "scaled" in size once imported. I am leaning towards VCarve-Pro, any suggestions of other products i could look at would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks all, i am looking forward to expanding both my luthier efforts and my "simple" inlay work as well Through the use of Mach3 and CNC.

Jen


 
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Offline Tweakie.CNC

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Re: New people welcome !! Come in here and introduce your self!
« Reply #946 on: November 05, 2010, 09:27:48 AM »
Hi Jen,

Welcome to the forum.
You need to post your questions under the General Mach Discussion area for maximum exposure.
You can download 'Parmon' from here http://www.geekhideout.com/parmon.shtml this is an easy to use parallel port monitor.

Tweakie.
PEACE

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Re: New people welcome !! Come in here and introduce your self!
« Reply #947 on: November 05, 2010, 09:30:51 AM »
Thanks Tweakie! That helps,i will check it out.
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Offline Jennifer

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Re: New people welcome !! Come in here and introduce your self!
« Reply #948 on: November 05, 2010, 12:56:55 PM »
This is a post I found on another site called “do it yourself christmas.com”.

I thought this may be useful for other “newbies” like me for figuring out if their parallel port is functioning physically and programmatically.

Pretty neat considering the only hardware tool required is a VOM capable of reading +5V DC.

You will require the following software:

Parallel port monitor: (or use « parmon » described by tweakie above)

http://www.doityourselfchristmas.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=7779&stc=1&d=1287369784

Dll for Vixen Software :

http://www.vixenlights.com/plugins/output/BasicParallel.dll

Vixen itself :

http://www.vixenlights.com/releases/Vixen%202.1.1.0.zip

here is a nice Parallel port diagram :

http://www.vixenlights.com/releases/Vixen%202.1.1.0.zip



Step one:
Download the parallel port monitor program (PPM). Unzip and extract the .exe file.
Open the port monitor program and familiarize yourself with it. The most important feature of this program at this point is the ability to manually turn on the first 7 pins (pinout 2 - 8) by clicking on the first port and manually changing the 0's and 1's. 1 means its on, 0 means its off.

Now, take your Cat5 cable, and strip the wires at both ends. at this point, it does not matter what pattern you use, only that you know what wire is in what port. You can use the following chart if you like

Orange Pin 24
Orange/White Pin 2
Blue Pin 3
Blue/White Pin 4
Green Pin 5
Green/White Pin 6
Brown Pin 7
Brown/White Pin 8

Now, using the PPM, change the value of the parallel port to 11111111.

With this done, it is time to get out the multimeter. Check each of the wires on pins 2-8 for voltage. Ground to the orange wire, hot to the numbered wires. you should get approx 4.5v on each wire. If this works, then your PP is working properly. If not, make certain of your pinouts. You may have them upside down, in which case you need to redo them all and test again.
(sorry I dont have the experience and knowledge to determine problems with non-functioning parallel ports, if you cannot get your port to read with the wires and the PPM, I cant help you.) you could use the LED method I have read about, but this way is a lot cheaper and easier.

Now we have figured out that our PP is working, its time for Vixen.

Download the Vixen 2.1.1.0 program. Open the folder, and find the folder named Output. Open the Output folder and look for a file named BasicParallel.dll. If that file is not in your folder, then download it (link above) and place it in the Output folder.

Now open up vixen and set up a profile.

Create a name (test?) and say ok. Now on the bottom of the setup page is a button named Output plugins. Find the Basic Parallel plugin and add it. now click on the BP on the right side. Set the channels and click on the plugin setup and verify you have the proper port selected. Then click ok, then done, then add your channels and finish creating the profile.

now create a new Vixen standard sequence. no need to add a song, but you can if you like. I created a 30 second blank sequence.

Now, you can create a pattern that will turn on each pin in turn for about 5 seconds each. (I only have 6 channels) Once you have finished that, resize your window so that you can have the PPM visible outside of Vixen. Then run your sequence. You should see each light in the PPM turn on in time with the sequence in Vixen.

If your PP is working, and you set up vixen properly, then you should be set and ready to go at this point. All you need to do now is verify your pinout and run the wires to your setup.

i hope this helps someone else who is having as mych "fun" setting up their new CNC as I am... Jennifer
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Re: New people welcome !! Come in here and introduce your self!
« Reply #949 on: November 06, 2010, 04:02:13 PM »
Hi.
My name is Bjorn and i live in Norway. My dayjob is at a papermill, and whenever i`m off work i play with my homemade cnc router :D
I`m just abaut to start building my third machine, the first one was a small one abaut 400 x 400 mm table, my second is a 900 x 800 x 150 mm.
The one i`m building now will be 1400 x 800 x 150 mm metalframe driven by a kit from Probotix and a Freud 1100w router, The same as i use now.
My other hobbies are modeltrains and playing bass in a bluesband and American vans

Bjorn.