It's been an adventure in non reliability. I bought a used Sherline Mill with servo motors and DeskCNC with a Generation 2 controller. I am planning to use the machine for doing small pearl inlay work, printed circuit boards, small hardware, wooden bridges and saddles (3 D?) for my guitar making shop.
Here's where I'm at:
Machine Velocities Tab
Acceleration 15000000
Scale 20
max velocity 83750
start 8375
fast jog 10
med jog 1
slow jog .1
contouring = 1
Speed Range = 40-125000 SPS
Axes Setup Tab
x home=0 steps/in 112941.17 backlash=0
y home=0 steps/in=-112941.17 backlash=0
z home=0 steps/in=-112941.17 backlash=0
DeskCNC Setup Tab
X min/max 0, 10
y min max 0, 10
z min max -2, 5
Port Com1
Buffer output
Decimal separator = .
Units = inches
Machine Tab
Axes 3
A Axis Rotary
Soft Homing zyx
Slave None
2nd Generation Controller
Encoder CPR 5647
I have managed to post a program to cut pockets for my name logo (for headstock inlay), all nine letters of it. It's pretty much arcs.
I've pulled the motors off the machine to test. No screw or gib loading - one less thing to suspect.
The program will run 2 times, and then will servo fault on run 3.
I have tested other programs
a 1 in. circle pocketed with a 1/32 end mill - I tested it 5 times with a cycle time of about 6min35sec
Some questions I have are:
Does anyone out there have some benchmark parameters that work? The IMSRV site http://www.imsrv.com/deskcnc/setup/ has pdf files that are too small to read and just become pixelated when zoomed in.
If I abandon DeskCNC and the controller, is there a comparable alternative? Should I bother to keep the drivers?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
--carl