[Robot Dude]

Hiya, getting kinda frustrated. New k2 machine setup using provided profile. Display in inches works fine until I load aspire generated gcode. Very simply part, just cuts out a circle. After I load and run the z goes up till it hits the limit, then I notice the numbers don't move very much when I jog. I restart mach3 and all is normal again. I removed this

N100G00G20G17G90G40G49G80
N110G70G91.1

from the G code and it no longer screwed up the display but it made some unplanned moves in a spot on the circle.

Please help me.

[Robot Dude]

I used the Mach2/3 ATC arc post processor so I could combine two toolpaths even though the machine does not have ATC.

[Robot Dude]

I changed it from mm to inches. I did it in two places. I don't understand why the g20 or g21 wouldn't just take care of this automatically. I read I was supposed to change steps per unit, velocity, and acceleration. One thread said to divide, multiply, multiply by 25.4 and one thread said divide them all by 25.4. I divided them all, but they changed back to what they were and it's still working. I'm running in inch mode and the values are 10160, 199.98, and 30. I will do all of my gcode in inches and hopefully I will never have to mess with it again. What a confusing mess.

[mactec54]

Hiya, getting kinda frustrated. New k2 machine setup using provided profile. Display in inches works fine until I load aspire generated gcode. Very simply part, just cuts out a circle. After I load and run the z goes up till it hits the limit, then I notice the numbers don't move very much when I jog. I restart mach3 and all is normal again. I removed this

N100G00G20G17G90G40G49G80
N110G70G91.1

from the G code and it no longer screwed up the display but it made some unplanned moves in a spot on the circle.

Please help me.

Taking this out would not of changed very much, nothing in this will make the Z go up to the limit switch, you would have to show the whole program to see where the problem is

%
G17G80G40G91.1
G20 or G21
Then the rest of your program

The G20 or G21 did not work because it wants to be on it's own line, not mixed up with a bunch of code

If the number is metric like 20mm and you want inches 20/25.4=.78740"

If the number is Inch .750 x 25.5=19.05mm

[Robot Dude]

Hi Mactec, Yes in fact it will and did. What was happening is the machine was moving 1" for every unit it was interpreting as mm. The result is it tried to move the Z axis up to .8" which would have been .8 x 25.4 = 20.32" and it hit the limit switch. I sit here still confused about this even after I have fixed it. My biggest angst is that after all these years of evolution of Mach3 this is still a problem. Why on earth is a machine control program brought to it's knees by a simple conversion from inches to mm and vice versa? It should read the g20/g21 and make all appropriate changes transparent to the user. If the problem is as you have mentioned you might want to let the creators of Aspire know, because that code is generated that way. Another issue is it generated a g20 and in the second line it generated a g70 which does the same thing. And there is no mention of needing to be on a separate line in the Mach3 gcode reference manual.

[mactec54]

Hi Mactec, Yes in fact it will and did. What was happening is the machine was moving 1" for every unit it was interpreting as mm. The result is it tried to move the Z axis up to .8" which would have been .8 x 25.4 = 20.32" and it hit the limit switch. I sit here still confused about this even after I have fixed it. My biggest angst is that after all these years of evolution of Mach3 this is still a problem. Why on earth is a machine control program brought to it's knees by a simple conversion from inches to mm and vice versa? It should read the g20/g21 and make all appropriate changes transparent to the user. If the problem is as you have mentioned you might want to let the creators of Aspire know, because that code is generated that way. Another issue is it generated a g20 and in the second line it generated a g70 which does the same thing. And there is no mention of needing to be on a separate line in the Mach3 gcode reference manual.

It was nothing to do with the control, the code that your post processor puts out, can be control by you, the code needs to be like what I said, or the control can't read it, this, code may work on another control, but I doubt that, the post processor in most cases needs adjusting to the user's requirement, why Aspire write them like this I don't no, A G70 is a cnc lathe code, not a mill or router code, so should not even be in there

If your machine is set up in inch and you want to run a metric program, G21 and the control will do this, if you have the program correct, just the same if you have the machine setup with metric units, and have a program in inch you would have a G20 that will tell the control to run the program in inches, how a Program is formated/Laid out, is the key to reliable running of your program, this all starts by knowing how a program should look before you press the button

Contact Vectric and see if they can write a decent post processor for Aspire

[ger21]

I read I was supposed to change steps per unit, velocity, and acceleration.

Did you change the Native Unit setting? If not, than that's the source of your problem

My biggest angst is that after all these years of evolution of Mach3 this is still a problem

For the most part, it does. I believe your issue is due to setup.

Mach3 stopped evolving many years ago, when it got too complex to fix anything without breaking anything else.

As for the post processor, it works fine just the way it is. Thousands of people are using it.

I just tested a file with just these two lines:

N100G00G20G17G90G40G49G80
N110G70G91.1

And yes, it does change a mm setup to inches.

[Robot Dude]

Hi guys thanks for your replies.
It's good to know it is supposed to work. I had a problem with the computer so I replaced it with another. It's also running XP. I also downloaded the latest version of Mach3, I was running 2.62. I ran the test program and it works well. So I'm starting over tomorrow with a new install. I have a config file provided by K2 and it makes everything work correctly, but could it have incorrect settings? I will try different files in inch and in mm modes and post what happens. Thanks

[Robot Dude]

So a new pc and upgrading to the latest version on Mach3 solved all the problems. I load the gcode with no changes and it moves properly.