The dir low active setting should reverse the direction of the motors.
The dir low active setting should reverse the direction of the motors.
Gerry
UCCNC 2017 Screenset
http://www.thecncwoodworker.com/2017.html
Mach3 2010 Screenset
http://www.thecncwoodworker.com/2010.html
JointCAM - CNC Dovetails & Box Joints
http://www.g-forcecnc.com/jointcam.html
(Note: The opinions expressed in this post are my own and are not necessarily those of CNCzone and its management)
I see, That is good to know for when I finally get it all installed onto the machine.
I do have a quick question about the enable pins though, it’s my understanding that they allow me to enable or disable the drives, so i can allow me to shut off the steppers from Mach, so that I could potentially move the mill around using the hand wheels while Mach is turned on. I can’t find any info about how to hook it up, and set it up in Mach. I get that I would need to hook up 5v for ena+ But where does the ena- go?
Thanks
Just ran my first code, a threadmilling op I made with one of the wizards. I’m pretty damn excited, my fuses and din rails get here tomorrow but I couldn’t wait.
I updated my computer to windows 10, and got mach4 working, I also started disassembling the mill, here is a pic turning the ballscrews ends, that steel is very hard, I used a round ceramic insert that I made a holder for to get the bulk removed, and a CBn to finish. You better make sure you get it on dimension on your last pass, there is no sneaking up on anything with these inserts.
Almost finished, need to install some limit switches, and put the head back on. But here it is running a bolt hole circle, the Z is hooked up backwards, I assume I can just change the dir low active setting to reverse it. I also gave up on the hand wheels, I can order a new longer Y ball screw if I decide I need it.
I guess I can’t post the video, I can’t make it small enough. But I’ll get some pics.
I made my first part today, well, one side of it, still need to face the other side and chamfer it. It’s a rotor guard for a dirt bike. It went very well. I used fusion to post it, and mach4 ran the program, it was all 2d adaptive except the drilling and chamfering, so it is a little rough, I didn’t do any finishing passes.
I do have a problem that I can’t figure out though, the part was cut upside down, despite the tool path showing the part in the correct orientation, so the top left of part actually ended up in the bottom right. All of my axis are traveling in the correct direction when jogging, X+ moves the table right, Y+ toward the column. The part ended up 100% correct, it’s not mirrored. Originally I set the part origin in the top left corner, but i had to move it to the center of the part because when it was in the top left corner, I would set the offset in Mach, and it would try to cut the part out as if I set the origin in the bottom left, I didn’t think it would be this hard to explain, so sorry for that. But any ideas why this would happen? I had to change my X Z direction signals to active high, in order to get everything going the right direction, but I don’t see how that would cause this issue, while the program runs, the dro numbers go the correct direction, it just rotates the part 180 degrees.
So looking at the tool path photo, it shows the part in the correct orientation, but look at the bottom pic of the part in the vise, it cut it out upside down.
The reason it cuts out the part upside down is because you have set the machine to do that... :-) The movements should reference the tool, not the table, so a X+ should move the tool to the right, which means the table should move to the left. Similarly, Y+ should move the tool towards the column, so the table needs to move away from the column.
Really? So would the politically correct thing to do, be change the directions of my X and Y motors in the Mach control settings? Or is that a setting in post processor to tell it to reference the tool or the table?? Is my Z still in the correct direction? Or is that wrong too? Up is positive, away from the table.
Thanks, I guess I was just overly confident that I had them going the right way.
Z is correct. Reverse the X and Y in Mach3, as they are setup backwards.
Gerry
UCCNC 2017 Screenset
http://www.thecncwoodworker.com/2017.html
Mach3 2010 Screenset
http://www.thecncwoodworker.com/2010.html
JointCAM - CNC Dovetails & Box Joints
http://www.g-forcecnc.com/jointcam.html
(Note: The opinions expressed in this post are my own and are not necessarily those of CNCzone and its management)
Thanks guys, reversing those did the trick, I have a couple more minor issues, everything works as it is, but it needs to be watched very closely, because randomly the Z axis motor will alarm out and break a tool when it thinks it raised but didn’t, I don’t know why it’s doing that, it seems completely random, it happens during raising and lowering of the head, it happens while running a program, and while I’m just jogging it. I have tried figuring out if there is something that’s making it happen by running it all the way to one end or the other, then going up and down, but it just seems random. I need to run wires from the drivers alarm? Pins, I believe, to the c11g and ESS, assuming that will send the signal to Mach that it has stopped working and shut it down...
issue number two, is while running a program, it gets pretty jerky while doing radius or even angled cuts where the Y and x axis move simultaneously, I slowed down my acceleration setting in mach4 and it helped, but it’s still there, can someone please explain the proper way to tune my motors? I’ve just been guessing based on pics of other peoples machines and what seems like it’s not too fast or slow. And what is a good way to set the steps per unit? I ran the wizard but I don’t have a long travel dial indicator so I just did one inch and set it that way, but it is off based on my measurements of finished parts.
Yeah I did use the calipers to get it close, but the only way I could figure was to separate a pit of 123 blocks, then edge find them, but that introduces error between the edge finder, the flatness of the table, the squareness of the 123 blocks to the axis, i was hoping there would be a more simple way, with less area for error, I’ll just have to spend a little more time indicating everything in.
Any recommendations for what steps per setting I should use with my drivers? I used the default of I think 1,000 or 10,000 maybe, I’m pretty sure I’m not getting anywhere near 12nm of tourque, which I expected as they’re just Chinese units, but they seem well below that rating.
I am still having problems with my Z axis alarming, it’s not because of binding, as I can turn the shaft by hand in the position it alarmed in, and it does it going up and down. Has anyone had a similar problem? It seems completely random when it happens, maybe running my transformer on 110v is not putting out enough power, but the X and Y do just fine, I tried about 15 different settings in the mach4 motor tuning tab, and none helped. It does it when I set the jog really slow, as well as fast. I’ve tried acceleration anywhere between 2 and 12 and velocity between 20 and 120. Maybe the drive or motor is bad. I emailed stepperonline, maybe they can help. Also, my steps setting in the driver is 1600, which my research shows is pretty standard.