Afraid I cant find where you said the oem code, possibly you can link me to that?
 You can zero your machine coords at any point you wish IF you dont have home switches set up in Mach, to do this simply press the Ref All button or the individual Ref buttons. I use this feature to zero the machine coords on my lathe as the homing is done internally in my servo drives.
As for the accuracy of the machine I wont comment further  other than to say even if it was capable of 0.005mm then that is almost a 5 fold increase in what you are worrying about.

Hood

Hood,

Buttons utilizing SetMachZero(). You can use (0),(1),(2),(3),(4) which refer to x,y,z,a,b. This function zero's the machine coord for the particular axis. IMO it isn't working as it should. I understand the dilemma with the steps per unit, but disagree with the only solution being to say I need to fins a means of increasing my steps per unit.

I use homing switches they zero the machine coords, but the button won't. It just seems odd that you press the zero button and the computer says sorry I can only get close to zero.

You made that sound like you didn't think the machine could make parts with that repeatability.  Some of these microfluidics/waveguide users seem have the optical equipment that say they can achieve that.  I don't have a means of verifying it in my shop but herea a little mold i cut and I can get some real nice tiny parts..

Brian

 

If you disable the HOME switch in Ports n' Pins like Hood said in reply #50, will it then read all zeros ? May need to Home/Ref one way or the other only.
RC

I use home switches so that's no good.

Hi, All

This is a bazaar issue, with ver prior to .012-.015, M3 & M5 would Hang req. cyc start to proceed, But no Home/Ref axis Issues. It seems to be that Mach doesn't allow quite enough time to finish the DRO's updating fully. (no home sw's)

One other thing I've noticed after getting the Ref. to re-set Current Position to 0000 & Machine Position to 0000 and running some Test G-code. The Current & Machine Position will show a -0.0010 when finished. The initial Ref.error was +0.0010, Something isn't being Updated

I now others are having Some Similar Issues,  As Brian stated It's hard to fix something, If he can't duplicate it

Thanks,Chip

Chip
are you saying that if you have no Home switches enabled in Mach that when you press the RefAll button the DROs dont set to zero?
 I am doing similar on the lathe  and they always set to zero for me, well X sets to my home off distance but Z always zeroes. I have extra VB in my Ref All button to start the homing externally in the drives but the last part of each axis VB is to DoButton(2*) so in effect I am doing the same as I think you are saying.

Hood

OK I gues I have to ask, IF you are using Ref home at startup why do you need to reset Machine zero again? Is your machine drifting off of position?

 I run all day and at days end do a verify and always return to within a few 10ths to the original machine zero. IF I have to do a Estop,etc of course you would always rehome to make sure you have not drifted off of zero.

Just curious as to why you need to rezero, (;-) TP

Hi, Hood

Yes, Also with "ref all home" The 'Ref. x,y,z" just eliminates the VB DoButton(2*) code calls.

I haven't ever seen this on earlier ver's of Mach3, Testing on 2 computers that have tested many versions.

One computer has very stable Driver Test's and the other is multi use (not as stable).

Chip 

Strange on Chip, my Ref All button has the following in it

 DoOemButton (240)                     'De-Reference All axis
 Sleep(10)
 If GetOemLED (809) Then               'Check that Ref Z LED is RED
  Do
   Call SetModOutput (20,1)             'Activate ModOutPut 20
    If GetInput(18) Then Exit Do       'Loop until ModInPut 18 is seen
    Sleep (10)
    Loop
    End If
    Call SetModOutPut (20,0)            'DeActivate ModOutPut 20
    DoButton (24)                       'Set Z axis Home
   
   
 If GetOemLED (807) Then
  Do
   Call SetModOutPut (21,1)
    If GetInput(19) Then Exit Do
    Sleep (10)
    Loop
    End If
    Call SetModOutPut (21,0)
    DoButton (22)

So ignoring the Mod stuff basically it is DeReff'ing the axis then pressing the zero buttons, wonder if you put the DeRef at the start of your RefAll button if it would make a difference?

Another thing is I know my VB stopped working on one of the Dev versions and putting the DoButton(2*) twice solved the problem but Brian soon found the bug and solved it.

Hood

Hi all,
Just took a look at Swarfboys machine on the internet. I don't relate very well to submicron machining, heck the numbers sometimes don't seem practical in terms of machining. Are the machine movement numbers realistic? How do you know and by what absolute methods?
My two engraving machine tables if purchased new would exceed the miin mill cost. Even got certified papers stating that repeatability is  0.000012" /  0.0003 absolute accuracy over 6" / resolution 0.000004", little chart and all. Whatever that all means in the machining world.
Now, your are not going to use an indicator to even try and measure that kind of movement. I tried using a microscope
at 400x along with a 20x fical micrometer eyepiece using a submicron calibration standard ( it has little spaces and lines down to 0.000020") but I was only able to get to the 0.000040" inch one ( not enough light). And after all the setup and trial and error I am not sure what was measured. Hmm ....were a few steps not recieved or true of the out 253360 steps / inch?
Funny thing is that i will darned for the life of me to be able to get the cutter running true within .001" at about 1" away from the collet. Can't even hone a  point down to .0005". So, about the min engraved line width will be about .003" using a point and that's at almost Z=0. 

So Swafboy I believe what you say your machine can do but as far as confirming it, well that's a different story in my basement shop. There is a difference in my mind if your using a machine to measure something and to machine something. Don't know how to electronicaly confirm or what is needed to totalize and confirm 253360 of them.
Now havn't tried V*********.015 but when i zero the axis's they go to 0000 in V*********.012 ( no limit switches used).

RICH