I have been using the SmoothStepper since the start of the Beta testing days on my mill and also have the original Beta board on a coil winding machine. Both machines work great with the SS but they are really not a good benchmark for how good the SS can be. I have had one lying around for a couple of months now waiting for the spindle sync to be done so that I could fit it to the Lathe, I do a fair amount of threading so couldnt even contemplate using the SS on the lathe until the sync was done.
 I got a test version of the PlugIn a few days ago, along with a few other of the original Beta testers. Today was the first day that I had time to test things out and to say I am very happy would be a vast understatement.
 
First off the threading, it is working perfect for me and produced a very clean well spaced thread as near to perfect as I can tell. I however have a large lathe and the spindle  is around 20HP at the 1000RPM I cut the thread at so there is no chance of the spindle slowing even if I took the thread in one pass So my results may not be the best test for the SS and threading but it does show that the SS is definitely not having a problem starting the thread at exactly the same point each pass.
 
Now the next bit, previously the max rapid speed I could get on my lathe was 3,300mm/min as the encoders are 2,000 line or 8,000count, this meant that at 45KHz kernel and 2:1 electronic gearing in the drive I was limited on the rapids.
 Today I decided to crank things up a bit, I went from 3,300mm/min velocity and 200mm/sec/sec Accelleration to 6,600mm/min and 400mm/sec/sec. It ran very well so I decided to again double the Velocity to 13,200 but kept the Acell at 400, everything went well so I cranked up the Accell to 600 and again things went well. Then put the accell up to 800mm/sec/sec and initial tests seemed fine but testing further I found my Z axis would fault out occasionally. I turned it down to 700mm/s/s and all was well.
  For my drive to fault the position has to be out by 20 counts so on my lathe that is 0.0125mm or 0.00049" so its not much
 The saddle on my lathe weighs in at approx 400Kg and I just didnt have the courage to test any further on the velocity, in fact I will more than likely turn it down to 10,000mm/min and then maybe as I get used to it I will crank it up a bit further and see how things perform. I have attached a pic of the thread I did today with the SS, pic quality is not the best but it shows a 16mm dia thread with a 2mm pitch and the material was mild steel.

Hood

Thats very impressive, I cant wait for this to be released. I havent put the SS board on my lathe for the same reason , need to cut threads daily. I am having to use electronic gearing currently 6:1  on my big lathe to get 800IPM rapids (aprox 20000mm per min) and will be very happy to set it back to 1:1

I dont have the courage to crank mine up to 20m/min LOL, the original was 5M/min and twice that will do for now

Hood

Hello,

That's very good news, can´t awaite to modify my lathe  . Since more than a year i´m waiting for an affordable pulse generator with the ability for threading (Threadind is my everyday's work and the PP is on the limits). . IMO this is also a small, but very important step for the usability of Mach.


BTW: My first SmoothStepper is running on my mill without any troubles

Greets,
Helmut

thanks for the updates guys.
i would like to see some videos of the machine running by SS.can u post them.

IMO this is also a small, but very important step for the usability of Mach.

I agree,

thanks for the updates guys.
i would like to see some videos of the machine running by SS.can u post them.

I will try and take one doing the same job as I already have on You Tube. Dont know if I will manage today as I have a lot of work on but will do it as soon as possible.

Hood

Managed to get a quick vid done of the first op of the pullstud I showed in the last video so you will be able to compare the rapid speeds. I wont be able to get it uploaded until I get home as I forgot to bring the USB lead for the camera LOL

Hood

HOOD,
I assume that you were using a MACH test version. Did the SS plug-in have spindle sync or a form of backlash in it yet?

It will be interesting on how well the punny lathe's ( like mine ) will do.

Look forward to when a complete backlash and  threading will be available with the SS. Till then, it's the old computer with a test
version of threading ( which by the way works great but of course not with the SS).

RICH

 

Rich,
 yes test version of Mach, previous versions wont work with the test plugin. It has spindle sync, although at this point in time its just reading the index pulse.
Not sure how the other testers are doing with regards threading but its working well for me.
 Backlash is not implemented yet and neither is softlimits although I did test a version a while back that had softlimits, they worked fairly well and were just needing some tweaks.

Shouldnt be too long before Greg gets all the niggles smoothed out.
Hood

Heres a link to the lathe with the SmoothStepper fitted. Its doing the same as the first op in my last video posted ie the threaded section of the pullstuds I am making for the Beaver mill.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=8J9q0NqoHhg


Hood