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"Screens General" tutorial video version?
« on: January 20, 2008, 09:24:23 PM »
I'm a spanking newbie at Mach3 and machining... Be kind! I'm working my way through the tutorial videos at the Mach website http://www.machsupport.com/Videos/Mach3%20Video%20Selections/Mach3%20Video%20Selections.html which are uniformly completely over my head....

First I'm try to figure out what the parts of the Mach3 screens are all about. He "Screens General" video looks substantially different from the version of Mach3 I just downloaded and installed. The one in the video looks cleaner, simpler, neater. Is that an older version of Mach3 or one that hasn't come out yet?

I'm finding a lot of the buttons very confusing. My version has a very thin area around many of the buttons when "light up" when the button is ''pressed". Or maybe unpressed. Some are red, green or yellow. Some blink and some don't. I guess this is what is referred to as "LED's"? I can't tell if the color state means that what the button says whenit's off or on state. For example, the "Machine Coord's" button says that whether or not it's surrounded by red or not. It'd be nice if when in one state it would say "Machine Coord's" and in the other state say "Part Coord's".

There're also other buttons on the video which are not on my version ("conversational"), and a very enigmatic button called "To Go" on my version which leaves me wondering. So that's the button you press when you gotta go?    ;-)

So my questions are:

Where can I get a nicer/easier-to-understand interface screen(s) for Mach3? I've seen something on Youtube called "Area 51" which seems much more understandable... but can't seem to find out how to get a version of that.

Is there some written text somewhere of what all the buttons on the screens do?

-- Rich --
Re: "Screens General" tutorial video version?
« Reply #1 on: January 20, 2008, 10:24:06 PM »
Hey Rich...Welcome aboard,
I would suggest that you start with Mach3Turn. It' basically similar to Mill but a bit less complex.
Download the pdf "Using Mach3Turn" from the tutorials/documentation link.
Go through it from the beginning, more than once in my case, and you should pick-up many of the basics.
Once you understand the basics, the screen becomes more "self explanitory" the more you experiment with it.
Have FUN !
RC
Re: "Screens General" tutorial video version?
« Reply #2 on: January 22, 2008, 08:26:22 AM »
I checked out the Mach3Turn pdf but its nearly identical to the UsingMach3Mill pdf. Very thick with technical stuff and very, very little on the basics. There's not even a reference/dictionary of what words/terms mean. Seems to me that one must be a machinist and electronics expert to understand much in that manual. So many people say that CNC is so easy anyone can do it. NOT!

Having the software interface enigmatic for newbies makes things worse for us to get up to speed. For all the talk about interface flexibility/design I haven't been able to find other available ones that are recommended (and virtually all the ones I've Googled are "unavailable").

Can anyone recommend a tutor/site to explain the words/terms and what they do? I didn't even know that "jog" means to "move the motor". Is there any Mach3 user in the Amherst/Greenfield/Noho area of western MA who'd like to come "teach" us some?

-- Rich --
Re: "Screens General" tutorial video version?
« Reply #3 on: January 22, 2008, 08:58:23 AM »
Rich,
 I found this VERY helpful when I was starting out.   http://www.cncci.com/products/newcomers.htm
There's a lot of free stuff there.
RC
« Last Edit: January 22, 2008, 09:00:41 AM by Overloaded »