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Author Topic: So n00b it hurts! Help please...  (Read 10202 times)

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Re: So n00b it hurts! Help please...
« Reply #10 on: February 28, 2008, 07:31:09 PM »
Greetings Larry,
I don't have a Taig but here is what I've learned with my limited experience.

If I leave my PC on, and leave all of the CNC goodies powered up, I can close the Mach program with the DRO's persistant and all is OK.
  It will restart just where it left off.

Anytime I power the PC down or cut the power to the CNC goodies, I ALLWAYS reference the axis's.

Theres always that little 'clunk' when powering up....that's when stuff moves.

It's good practice to ref. anytime something is turned of/on or a limit or e-stop is hit.

Good luck,
RC

Offline Hood

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Re: So n00b it hurts! Help please...
« Reply #11 on: February 28, 2008, 07:44:31 PM »
I ran my first mill for long enough without referencing until I eventually got limits hooked up. Just means you have to be carefull and you cant really use the softlimits. BTW you dont need to move to an axis extreme to reference, you could have marks on the table that line up and you call that your reference, then you use the Home Off for setting the extreme of each axis as your machine zero and then define you soft limits from that point.
Hood
Re: So n00b it hurts! Help please...
« Reply #12 on: February 28, 2008, 08:19:54 PM »
Well.. at this point.. if the dots are very far apart, I can't connect them. I am trying to read the manual and watch the videos.. and not just come here and ask for free guidance. Still.. I am not there yet.

OK...
"First you will need to disable all your limits and home switches in Ports and pins."

  I found under Ports Pins    Input Settings   tab...  there was a check mark by each X home Y home Z home,  so I unchecked them, hit APPLY  then OK

Then I found under  the Config  Homing Limits  what appeared to be X-- X++ which I took to mean max and min settings for each axis

 SO, I drove the table to the forward left, and spindle to the highest point, and clicked on Reference All  saw the green leds. Went back and checked and is showed the X min 0    Y  min 0  and  Z max 0.  I also got the flashing Abnormal indicator at the same time and it says :Axis not refed to normal condition"

I drove the table to the opposite limits and noted the DROs.   which were   X 11.5369   Y 5.6025    Z 4.9082
I went back to the   Motor Home/ Soft limits  screen and entered those values (Z as a negative)

I still have the flashing  Abnormal indicator.   

 Did I get even close to doing what was needed?     The top of the screen of the homing page says    entries are in setup units and they were all 100 125  or 0.  etc. not exactly in inches.. but then.. I don't know how the program could have known the values.

Thanks in advance.
Re: So n00b it hurts! Help please...
« Reply #13 on: February 28, 2008, 09:13:06 PM »
Hey Larry,
Just like Hood said:
 Pic 1-    Jog to the lower left of the machine travel limits..Z up.   And hit Ref all Home.

Pic 2-     Jog to the  opposite extents, Z dn and record the dro values in the Homing/limits setup. Pic 3

Pic 4-    jog to the PART zero and zero the axis's. UNclick Mach Coords and you are now in Part coords ready to take off.

Turn your soft limits on and Mach will not leave the area.
RC
« Last Edit: February 28, 2008, 09:18:27 PM by Overloaded »
Re: So n00b it hurts! Help please...
« Reply #14 on: February 28, 2008, 09:24:42 PM »
OK...  jog to the part and  unclick Mach Coordinates.. I am guessing that means  Machine Coordinates... and then zero the x and Y I am guessing you do that by clicking on them.  OK... I will go give that a try.

 What about where I UNclicked the X home Y Home Z home under the Ports and Pins.. was that correct? Leave that alone? Go back and change it to how it was? 

 What about the Abnormal flashing?

 Thanks
Re: So n00b it hurts! Help please...
« Reply #15 on: February 28, 2008, 09:36:17 PM »
OK...  jog to the part and  unclick Mach Coordinates.. I am guessing that means  Machine Coordinates... and then zero the x and Y I am guessing you do that by clicking on them.  OK... I will go give that a try.                                       YES
                         YES
What about where I UNclicked the X home Y Home Z home under the Ports and Pins.. was that correct? Leave that alone? Go back and change it to how it was?   NO                                                                                                                                        YES

What about the Abnormal flashing? Should go away
Re: So n00b it hurts! Help please...
« Reply #16 on: February 28, 2008, 11:35:53 PM »
OK,  I did all that... and it seems to work alright. I am still nervous about setting the Z and letting it go, I keep my fingers on the alt-s  trigger just in case.  The Abnormal light is still flashing... but it's working correctly.

Does anyone feel generous enough to walk me through a lazycam drawing to Mach 3 file?  I need a simple rectangle out of 1/8th inch aluminum roughly 2"x7" with about 5 holes down the middle on and one bolt hole in each corner.  Hopefully,  if I can see how that works, I will be able to handle the other pieces on my own. I have drawn them in Corel Draw, and imported them to Lazycam, and looked at them there.. but I am still not sure I have it all correct.

 Thanks

 Larry

Offline Hood

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Re: So n00b it hurts! Help please...
« Reply #17 on: February 29, 2008, 02:55:16 AM »
For the abnormal flashing, clcik on it and it should tell you why its flashing, then if you clcik on the Ok it will set that as a normal condition and shouldnt flash again.
 Sorry cant help with LAZYcam, dont use it, keep saying I am going to but just never get the time :(

Hood
Re: So n00b it hurts! Help please...
« Reply #18 on: February 29, 2008, 07:06:47 AM »
LazyCam ? ? ? ?
You're probably better off with one can of worms open at a time.
The little part you describe would be an EXCELLENT exercise in "Writing a Gcode Program by Hand".
And probably faster, LCam can be brutal.  :P
RC
Re: So n00b it hurts! Help please...
« Reply #19 on: February 29, 2008, 01:10:41 PM »
Oh great....   well.. I know nothing about Gcode at all. As in, nothing.  What software is required to construct it etc. Lazycam didn't look that hard, probably because I don't know what I am doing. I drew the part and several others in Corel Draw, and then imported them into Lazycam, and thought I had set the number of laps around the piece to cut it out, and the holes (first of course) and then tried to import it into Mach 3, but it didn't work. I have been going through the tutorials, but haven't crossed the finish line yet.

I have had this mill for almost 18 months, and it has done nothing so far, and I need the parts desperately. I have customers that need them, so I really need to solve this.

 Thanks