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Hi shine,


I have a five axis machine with Mach4/ESS and Delta B2 servos. I homed the fourth and fifth axis three weeks ago, and never had to do it since. I never bother turning my machine off...

Hi Callum,
I looked very closely at a Mach4 Ethercat solution 3.5 years ago when I was building my mill. At that time the Kingstar package (PC+Kingstar Ethercat license+RTX64 runtime...

Hi,
the connection from my breakout board to each servo drive is a nine core flex cable (6mm diameter) less than 600mm long....Ethercat is saving me very little. For a modest three four or five...

Hi,
if a Gcode program is running and you hit <FeedHold> the machine will stop, and depending on how you set up the defaults the spindle will stop. If you hit <CylcleStart> the machine will resume...

Hi pipppin,
you are 100% correct. I am very familiar with the B2 manual which definitely does not have general purpose inputs. The A2 and the A3 have four transition sensitive Event pins, and also...

Hi pippin,
I certainly will read the manual.

You still have not answered the question.......what is it that Ethercat brings to the party that a regular motion board does not?

Craig

Hi,



As has been explained, this button is an EMERGENCY STOP.......it is not in anyway concerned with what might happen if you restart the machine incorrectly.



There is a procedure...

Hi,
looking at the pinout I would guess the pulse Ste/Dir inputs are differential. You need to confirm voltage level. Single ended digital inputs tend to be 12V or 24V but differential inputs tend...

Hi,
the only thing I am aware that Ethercat can do that my Ethernet Smooth Stepper (ESS) cannot; is the number of motors.

As you know Mach4 can have up to 12 motors, 6 coordinated and another 6...

Hi arturod,



Why...what does it do that makes it better?

Craig

Hi,
fine your limits and home switch, if you need one, go direct to the drive....but what about non-servo specific IO, say a probe input or inputs, or various pump outputs?



Those inputs...

Hi pippin,
yes Ehtercat for free.......but what do you get with Ethercat? You still have to pay a premium for Ethercat servos but the what about non-servo IO? For that you need Ethercat IO...

Hi,
Mach4 can be run as Ethercat.

There are two solutions:
1) Mach4 communicates with a motion control board that has Ethercat realtime comms, Vital Systems offer a board of this description....

Hi,
if you are using Mach4 then you need a Mach4 compatible motion controller, of which there a a half dozen manufacturers with probably 20 models all up. As I stated earlier I use an Ethernet...

Hi,
just as a by-the-way; you can now see why I recommend looking very closely at the availability of ALL the components of a servo system. I have personal experience of buying what I thought was a...

Hi,
the real question is what CNC software do you want?

I use Mach4 and an Ethernet SmoothStepper and have done for nine years. I would avoid Mach3, all development ceased on it nine years ago,...

Hi,
some years ago I bought a remanufactured 3kW Vickers AC servo from cicra 95. Its in perfect condition. Once I got it I realised that I could not find an affordable drive for it. It is equipped...

Hi,
I was imagining the coolant travelling right down the center of the drill to the tip.....but that would make fragile tools unusable. The coolant coming out of holes in the shank is the next...

Hi Dave,
looks like this servo Ebay listing sold yesterday.....was it you?

Craig

Hi,
depending on what you read ISO 10mm bolts are 17mm across the flats, but If I go the the nut and bolt shop just over the railway line, all their 10mm ISO bolts/nuts are 16mm across the flats....

Hi,
the detail of those slots in the link you posted is that the Tee is 32mm wide????? Do you need such huge slots?

Mine are much smaller. They are 16mm wide, just right to slide a 10mm ISO nut....

Hi,



Marginal. Either decrease the depth of the T slots or increase the thickness of the plate.

My preference would be one solid plate, the thicker the better, at least 60mm (with 26mm...

Hi,
Fusion starts a cutting toolpath above the material surface and works down ito the material. Sounds like its ramping in.

Try experimenting with Fusion Heights tab. As You can see there is a...

Hi,
I just got this offer from EBay. Makes this servo about cheap enough to try, at $100USD including cables its bloody good value.

Craig

Hi peteeng,



I am not disputing that you build machines, but they are CNC routers, not a steel capable mill. They are sufficiently different to be an entirely different animal altogether.
...

Hi,
M40????? M40 and M41 open and close a probing data file. That has always been the case in Mach3 and are native to it. M40 and M41 are not native to Mach4. I wrote my own m40 and m41 to
open...

Hi,
cant imagine there'd be such a thing as a through coolant drill of only 0.027" diameter. That would make a thin walled tube at best, and that fragile as to be useless.

I have and occasionally...

Hi,
Its not that Peter is wrong but this BS will stop you from ever making a machine.

Surface grinding is excellent and fairly cheap. If you wish to avail yourself of it...do so. Do you suppose...

Hi,
no; that is feasible. It depends om how deep your T slots are. Obviously the deeper they are the less material remains and has a negative influence on rigidity.

My own T slots are 20mm deep...

Hi,
to my knowledge m41 and m42 are not native to Mach4. You would have to code them yourself. How would Mach know how to change gears on your machine??

Craig