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Author Topic: can mach 3 run a sherline from dpp  (Read 3363 times)

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can mach 3 run a sherline from dpp
« on: August 29, 2008, 10:15:53 AM »
I just purchased a sherline cnc mill setup off of ebay  complete with computer and software (bobcad, and mach3). things worked fine until i decided to run the mill off of a different computer. No version of mach 3 seems capable of correctly controlling the mill.  The newest version makes my x axis just creep slowly(no other movements on any other axis) whenever i try to run any gcodes. The older version just cause x and y axis to rapid travel, making a diagonal line (until the x axis reached the end of it's travel and (i think) broke a shearpin. A version that is supposed to come setup for a sherline, from desktopmachineshop.com, doesn't do anything when i try to run gcode, but it will let me control all 3 axis' very well with the arrow keys. I called sherline and they were able to confirm that i was using one of their driver boxes, but they don't know anything about mach3 software.  I called dpp and they said that mach 3 is incapable of running any mill unless the software is specially modified by the manufacturer  to run a specific mill (bull*********) and he would be happy to email me another copy of mach3 set up for my mill for $150. I would rather throw the machine in the garbage and lose my $4000 invested than deal with that company.
so my question is : does anyone have any ideas that i could try (or a version of mach3 that i could load) that might make my mill work?
Is there a configuration file hiding somewhere other than the mach3 folder that i could transfer to the new machine to make it work?

Oh, and does anyone know how to get to the x-axis shearpin? Is there one, or did i just destroy my new toy?

Offline Hood

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Re: can mach 3 run a sherline from dpp
« Reply #1 on: August 29, 2008, 08:38:41 PM »
Any version of Mach3 will work but you will need to set the ports and pins correctly and tune the motors to suit your machine. Also you may need to choose the Sherline mode to get the longer pulse width that the stepper drives on these mills require.This is all done within Mach, might be an idea to watch a few of the videos so that you can get a general idea of how things work.
 If it was running fine on the last computer do you still have it? If you do then you can transfer all of your settings accross by copying and pasting the correct xml, if you need help on how to do that let me know.
 Hood