Hello,

I'm reasonably new to CNC, however, the codes we run for our parts are very minimal.

Currently we have 2 HAS CNC machines that we outfitted with 600W lasers for laser welding of aluminium, titanium, and stainless steel parts. The HAS machines have been connected to the laser controller that turns over controls of its relays to the program, allowing us to do things like open/close the shutters, and to turn the gas on with gcode in the programs.

Now we are looking to outfit this sherline 4 axis mill (it is actually a x-y table that we added a z post, as well as a rotary stepper motor for the r axis) with a 70W laser for welding of smaller parts that do not require a lot of weld penetration.

For the sherline I have hooked the motors up to the Sherline controller that came with the x-y table. When using it with the linux software Sherline supplies, all 4 axis work on their own with gcodes. I decided to switch over to mach3 for its customization and ability to handle more relays than the stock sherline program.

I can not seem to get the computer to communicate with the motors. I'll attach the XML file I'm using, it is the Sherline Mill (inch) XML on the mach3 website.

All I've written is a little test program to see if I could get the computer  to talk to the motors.:

G00 X2 Y2 Z2
G04 P2.
G00 X-2 Y-2 Z-2

When I run the program, I can see the tool path change as expected in the tool path window, but no response by the motors.

I've also tried to go through the tutorial for the program set up and motor tuning on the mach3 website, with no success. In the motor tuning set and setup window, the motors do not respond when the velocity/acceleration bars are moved.

Any troubleshooting help would be greatly appreciated.

I ran the driver test program, and it is saying that the computer is pulsing too fast. It shows a yellow bar, then even that disappears.

I'm using an HP Desktop with:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4200+  2.2GHz
2GB of Ram
32-bit operating system

Are there any ways to slow down the pulse rating? I'm thinking that may be my issue with motor communication.

Fixed the pulse rating issue. Still not getting any motor response though.

I don't think I've defined my address correctly for the serial port. Its COM7, but I can't seem to find the hex address to input it...

I don't think I've defined my address correctly for the serial port. Its COM7, but I can't seem to find the hex address to input it...

Not sure I fully understand exactly what you are doing.
The hex address relates to an LPT (parallel port) not a serial port so it is unlikely to be COM7.

Tweakie.

I had to install a serial port card in the computer because it did not originally come with one. Once it was installed and the drivers were installed, they showed up as COM7 and COM8 on the device manager list.

Sorry, my fault, I did not explain properly.

Mach3 operates from an 'LPT parallel port' or an 'external motion controller' (using Ethernet or USB) or an 'internal to PC' motion controller. As far as I am aware there is no COM serial port option.

Tweakie.

I am sorry, I guess I wasn't very clear in my email I sent you. Mach3 can only take LPT, not serial. You will need drives that take commands from whatever device you are using to output the signal(IE: Smooth Stepper and Parallel Port will only send out step/dir commands).  You can replace the drives, or look into something like this:
http://salecnc.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=138&osCsid=vtr4tvh3tnihcnnroe67q79re2


Someone here on the forums may know of a better or suitable solution for you.
Thanks

Andrew,

Reading back you did state that mach3 uses LPT. I must've overlooked that fact. Thanks, I'll go get a couple LPT PCI cards later today and try it out.

Sounds like I might have been banging my head against the wall for no reason.

Are your drives capable of taking step/dir commands? If they are not then the LPT cards wont help until you get drives that do.