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Help for a newbie please.....
« on: May 04, 2008, 11:49:39 AM »
Hi, just starting to get to grips with mach3 for both turn and mill. I have a boxford 15tcl converted by another guy called cncdoctor (cheers Jonathan) and it works fine up to a point as does my Sieg X3 cnc converted mill (thanks to spg tools Hinckley) but two questions....

1 It appears that mach3mill and mach 3turn interfere with each other when you try and run them on the same PC but controlling both the machines via a switch box. The steppings for whichever is started up first seem to stick; so I start mach3turn and the steppings are 407 for the x and 800 for the y but if I then start mach3mill the movement is wrong and it appears that it does not pick the steppings up correctly and as it is 800 on both x and y the x axis is out of step, conversely if i start them the other way the boxford is wrong. Why does not mach3 pick up the correct settings from the XML file. I am starting the program from the launcher?

2: In mach3turn the Strue speed readout seems very wrong. I have set the pulleys for the correct speeds (320 - 3000 rpm) and to be honest they look pretty good, however the Strue speed dro is stuck at ~350 rpm when running at 1000rpm spindle speed. I have tried changing the ratio but that just makes it stuck at some other arbitrary figure, for instance, if I set the ratio to 1 @1000 rpm then the Strue readout is ~60. What am i missing as I understand this is need for thread cutting.

Thanks for your help in this

Tony

Offline SimonD

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Re: Help for a newbie please.....
« Reply #1 on: May 04, 2008, 12:52:46 PM »
Tony,

What version of Mach3 are you running? I am experiencing a similar speed readout problem on my 160TCL but I suspect mine is more to do with a configuration problem as I have not had it running properly yet. I am running Mach3 vR2.63

Simon
Re: Help for a newbie please.....
« Reply #2 on: May 04, 2008, 01:02:23 PM »
V2.63  and yes, I'm sure its a config problem as well......was just angling after pointers as to where to config it.
Re: Help for a newbie please.....
« Reply #3 on: May 04, 2008, 01:09:17 PM »
Tony,

Make sure that the speed range for each pulley is entered properly in mach3. 

Calibrating the spindle.

1.   Go to calibrate spindle
2.   Select the pulley that you are on.
3.   Turn the spindle on.
4.   Press Autocal.
5.   Let it finish.

Remember to select the pulley that you are using.  If this is still wrong the calibration will be wrong.

Please let me know about your progress.

Jonathan
Re: Help for a newbie please.....
« Reply #4 on: May 04, 2008, 01:28:25 PM »
in spindle configuration there is a box for pulses per revolution....how many for my machine and how do you enter the figure?
Re: Help for a newbie please.....
« Reply #5 on: May 04, 2008, 01:35:33 PM »
Tony,

Mach3 works it out.

Jonathan,

Offline SimonD

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Re: Help for a newbie please.....
« Reply #6 on: May 04, 2008, 02:01:17 PM »
Tony,

Try changing the index debounce level down to 0 from the normal 100 and see if that gives you better readings.

Mach3 works out the number of slots in the disk. On my machine it appears to have got it wrong though as the dialog states that it should say zero for 1 slot but mine says 1 and the machine only has 1 slot!

Simon
Re: Help for a newbie please.....
« Reply #7 on: May 04, 2008, 02:51:41 PM »
Tony,

This machine was working perfectly before you bought it.  There is a video on youtube of this machine (and my other machine) working and fully calibrated you must have been altering the settings.  Through many phone calls and emails I have offered to recalibrate it for you.

Please let me know about your progress.

Regards,
Jonathan
Re: Help for a newbie please.....
« Reply #8 on: May 05, 2008, 01:16:45 PM »
Can I just make it clear that I don't think Jonathan is any way responsible for this as I have probably cocked something up by clicking a box or setting I shouldn't. Anyway just to make that clear and that Jonathan is being very helpful and supportive just thought someone might know an answer to help me out.

Offline SimonD

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Re: Help for a newbie please.....
« Reply #9 on: May 05, 2008, 01:23:19 PM »
Tony,

The similar problem on my machine was cured by changing the debounce level to somewhere between 0 and 5.

What is yours set to?

Thanks
Simon