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im new to this site. i need help with a height issue i used big texs macro and when i auto zero the tool comes down and touches the plate. plate zeros the tool.then i hit activate and the tool comes down to 0.65 above the my part and does not cut anything please help me its driving me crazy.
i`ve been messing around with cncs for years and only recently started using mach 3. Its a great program and when i came across Big Tex tool setter version things looked even better. his install went great and everything seems to be working but..... for some reason just the limit/home and probe leds on the diagnostic screen dont light when they are tripped, but the system works totally.
any explanation to fix this bug would be great.
Hello
Somebody know if this touch probe will work with smooth stepper?
I used this before when I run the cnc directly from parallel port and worked perfect. Now I'm using USB Smooth Stepper.
Thank you.
Alex
A simply guide for tool probe in my blog.......PatRelief
Thanks.
I was not sure how to wire things up on my G540, and read thru the manual several times. The 4 inputs available are listed as "general purpose" inputs. I was already using all 4 on mine (since installing my 4th axis). Each of the 4 were wired to homing switches for each axis. However, since the 4th axis rarely gets used, I decided to try and use that one for the probe circuit.Quote:
Originally Posted by Odie9
My thinking was, that I could simply run a wire from the limit switch I was using as the homing switch on the 4th axis, to my probe plate. (the pin assignment for the parallel port in this case, is pin 13). And then disable the 4th axis homing switch, and enable the probe. Touched the wire to the router bit, and observed the diagnositc screen in Mach3 to see the probe LED light up. So, this WORKS!
The trade-off (to be able to use the auto zero function utilizing the probe), is the loss of the 4th axis. And vice-versa (by simply disabling the probe, and enabling the 4th axis home switch in Mach3). AND disabling the M6 in the 2010 screen set! To be able to again use the 4th axis. This is all a temporary fix, until I can afford to purchase a 2nd parallel port (thereby increasing the number of available inputs) which could then be assigned Port 2 Pin 10, or whatever For connecting the probe circuit. In the words of Johnny 5: "NEED INPUT!"
HI everyone,
Excellent piece of program. I am new in Mach and have been playing around it now for 4 days. Installed blue screen probe and works almost perfect but some problems came up:
1. Z does not retract nor does not do the second touch to plate. On both macros - intial zero and tool change zero
2. when the program stops for for toolchange, the router stays where it is but i would like it to raise Z to safe hight and move to change tool location
3. What is this DRO - CALCULATED MATERIAL OFFSET is for? Should it be neg. number?
I am running in METRIC. Checking the button script behind initial tool zero and tool change zero, it has the metric already written in the code. And as i understand - the code turns to METRIC when it changed to metric on settings page, right?
thanks in advance
Taniel
Ok guys I have not been been around for while.
I will try to answer your questions time permitting as I am working on new and updated version of my screen set.
Currently testing. Youtube videos to come as well.
New version is tested and almost ready for release.
Below is video of installation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVX53...ature=youtu.be
TESTING UPDATE: currently running cycle of 1296 of tool changes with no problems
videos
Big Tex - YouTube
New videos uploaded to you tube.
Credit for creating original Blue screen goes to MrBean and SantiniUK.
I have added tool zeroing functionality etc.
New verision is about to be released.
I am hoping this weekend.
new videos are uploaded to youtube and new version 3.4 is officially released
Thank you all
Guys I can not support hardware g540 or smooth stepper but if you got it all working correctly, wired and configured it will work as designed. Yes I tested and works on smooth stepper. G540 can't help you with that.
Lets keep this thread alife so I know of possible future modifications/ upgrades.
As of now version 3.4 is out and prior versions may not be supported.
Thank you for all your help.
Hey Big Tex,Quote:
Originally Posted by Big-tex
I got the screen set installed last night and everything seemed to be working fantastic (on a G540). It was doing initial setup and zero's just fine. I came back this morning and fired everything back up and now it is being crazy. It touches the movable plate, retracts, touches the plate again and then it drives DOWN into the plate instead of retracting. Am I doing something wrong?
edit: I suspect this might have something to do with not have a Z home switch installed?
Thanks,
Mikkel
Are you in Incremental mode? (G91)
Ger I've just been reading through the thread and I think that may be the case. I did an aborted Y axis calibration at some point this morning and I think that may have stuck me in incremental. I saw a mod on page 2 of this thread that calls G90 (absolute?) before carrying out these Z level operations, is that the solution?Quote:
Originally Posted by ger21
I don't know if it's the solution, but the macro should always check to see if it's Incremental mode, and if it is, change to Absolute before probing. It can then return to G91 when finished.
I haven't looked at or used these new macros, so I'm not sure if they do that or not.
I'm not really sure what is going on, I ended up uninstalling/reinstalling the screen set. I also had a version of your 2010 set on there so I uninstalled that. I haven't taken all of your extra macros out of the macro folder, I wonder if that could have anything to do with it? I did reinstate the original m6end file.Quote:
Originally Posted by ger21
It worked well after the reinstall, I'll just keep my fingers crossed.
Spoke too soon. I'm not sure if this is a fundamental misunderstanding I have about how to set/operate the Z without a home/limit switch installed. Do most people have a home switch on Z?
edit: OK. I went in and set Z to autozero in Homing/Limits. I then moved it to it's max up position prior to doing a Ref All Home. I also set this position to zero in the current working coordinates. I then went in and set sane Safe Z and Tool Change Z based on these coordinates. This worked. I'm still not sure if this is what I'm supposed to be doing, I'd like to put a Z home switch on but I don't have a spare input on the G540 and I don't even know how/where I'd mount it.
edit 2: Performed a similar as in edit 1, now it goes down, touches the plate, retracts gets very close to the plate (repeatable distance, don't think it is noise but sure) but doesn't touch it a second time.
edit3: I found another thread where Ger mentioned stopped/aborted macros could cause problems and you need to restart Mach. This helped, I had been aborting a lot when it was driving into the table. I think the table driving may have been a wrong sign on Z safe or something.
Since I made the changes to the software (posted back in this thread for instructions on how to change it) I haven't had any more problems with the bit being driven into the table. It does act funny sometimes if I try to zero it out and the Z inhibit is on.... but at least it doesn't drive into the table and once I turn it off everything works fine so I haven't dug into it to figure out why.
Please check if you have rf noise, I did not have machine drive once in to table or touch off