[designit]

:drowning:

I am actually not drowning (yet), but I couldn;t resist clicking on that man to see what happens.....

I run small desktops mills (a K2 and Blacklab) with steppers. I have turned up the feed rates in my setup boxes, and the best speed I get is around 20 ipm of cutting. Is this normal?? It seems slow, but this is my first experience. I have a 2 GHz P4 processor. My general question is: What determines top speed: Is is the stepper motor design, the controller box, the precessor speed, or the software???

Thanks! David Wysen

[ger21]

My general question is: What determines top speed

A lot of things.

Stepper torque, and voltage supplied to stepper, steppers rated voltage. Stepper drives. Screw lead, and gearing (if applicable).

At 20ipm, I wouldn't think it's the software, but it is possible for the software to limit the top speed.

I f you can give us all this info, we can narrow it down a bit.

[designit]

Today i was playing with the mahcine, and I hade the controller OFF and the cables disconnected. I was JUST running the computer--pretending to jog around--and I still could only get 15-20 ipm. I am guessing that this tells me that it HAS to be in the software/computer???? I had the max speed set to 60 ipm, but I could only get the number on the jog screen to move at 15-20.

Anyone have ideas???

David

[ger21]

What software are you using?

[designit]

Hello:

I am using KCAM, and I must use this software (until I find something VERY similar) as I teach design to 7th graders at a middle school, and they BARELY get it. I need a VERY VERY simple control software that has minimum settings and subscreens. MACH2--for example--does not work, I tried it. (It doesn't work for the students, not it doesn't work on the machien). I really need just a 2d plot area so the students can see the work and a simple user-friendly jog control. I have been looking for software like this, but no luck. (By the way, KCAM seems to work perfectly, with the exception of the spped issue and it kinds of makes the motors clunky, which I hope is not hurting them????)

Thanks, David

[ger21]

There's a utility in KCAM that will tell you the max speed you can get, based on the steps/inch that you input. Can't remember where it's at, though. Most likely that's the max that KCAM can do on that PC.