[Rhyne]

I have a cnc router with ATC.
I need help with setting up Mach 3 or to upgrade to Mach 4 if recommended.
I am wanting to hire someone to consult.
Please email me with your experience.
Thank
Rich
[email protected]

[joeavaerage]

Hi,
if this is a new build or new installation the do yourself a favor use Mach4.

All development of Mach3 ceased seven-eight years ago, whatever bugs it has it will always have. Mach4 is still actively developed.
Particularly when you come to write the script/scripts for the ATC you'll find that Mach4 structure/Lua/Mach API is vastly superior to VB, the Mach3 scripting language.

https://www.machsupport.com/forum/in...8176#msg278176

Craig

[dazp1976]

I have a cnc router with ATC.
I need help with setting up Mach 3 or to upgrade to Mach 4 if recommended.
I am wanting to hire someone to consult.
Please email me with your experience.
Thank
Rich
[email protected]

Will help to tell people which control board it is using?.
Mach3 is OK but as Craig said. It's old and Mach4 has replaced it so it's Mach4, uccnc or LinuxCNC for options.

[Rhyne]

Thank you for your responses.
the machine is 6 years old, I have maybe 5 hours on it. I just retired so I have more time now. I am not opposed to upgrading to mach 4.
The control board is a C41 PWM Rev.2.2
Thanks for your help
Rich

[joeavaerage]

Hi,

The control board is a C41 PWM Rev.2.2

That sounds does not like an external motion controller but just a PWM converter for the spindle. We really need to know what the motion controller is.
Can you take some pics of all the electronics, even a shot or two of the machine.

Craig

[Rhyne]

[Rhyne]

Hi Craig
hope this helps.
Rich

[joeavaerage]

Hi,

One of the pics you posted shows an Ethernet SmoothStepper (ESS), I excerpted one of your pics and highlighted it. This board is the heart of the motion control system.
Mach, be it Mach3 or Mach4, generates numeric data describing the controlled point trajectory, but its the ESS that turns that numeric data into high speed high accuracy pulse streams
which are in turn consumed by the stepper motor drivers.

The intervening boards are just breakout boards......they are really only buffer amplifiers between the ESS and larger hardware....they don't really do much. For instance the board you listed
earlier, the C41, is a board that accepts pulse streams from the ESS and generates a 0V to 10V analog signal to control the speed of the spindle......an important task to be sure, but not
the highly critical motion stuff.

The ESS is a good board, I use one myself, so unless you feel the need to change it I would stick with it. The ESS requires Mach, be it Mach3 OR Mach4 to run.
It seems that there are an awful lot of other (less important) boards in there as well. I seems likely you could reuse them....although the wiring confusion
may make that tricky. A single breakout board like the MB3 (approx $180) by CNCRoom may save some of that clutter and confusion, not strictly required but
would be a satisfying retro-fit.

I would suggest you do a little research and decide whether you want to carry on down the Mach path or go in another direction like UCCNC or LinuxCNC.
This is the sort of choice you should make now, rather than waste time and/or money by pursuing an idea only to later change tack completely.

Craig

[Rhyne]

Craig can we have a conversation about all this.

Rich
707-975-3536

[joeavaerage]

Hi,
that might be expensive, I live in New Zealand, I don't even know what country you're from, guess is US?

Craig

[dazp1976]

Hi,
that might be expensive, I live in New Zealand, I don't even know what country you're from, guess is US?

Craig

How about WhatsApp. Is that doable?.
I totally agree about getting the MB3.

I went the uccnc route with uc300eth, with ucbb and a few separate isolation boards.
Wish I'd had the £ to get the UB1/UD1.

[mactec54]

How about WhatsApp. Is that doable?.
I totally agree about getting the MB3.

I went the uccnc route with uc300eth, with ucbb and a few separate isolation boards.
Wish I'd had the £ to get the UB1/UD1.

He does not need to change anything he has the C41 and the other Boards he has will most likely do all he needs the MB3 won't change much

[dazp1976]

He does not need to change anything he has the C41 and the other Boards he has will most likely do all he needs the MB3 won't change much

Yes. What he has will all work with Mach4 just fine.
It's all about whether he can trace all of the wiring, create a wiring diagram, and make sense of it.

Craig was suggesting that a MB3 would simplify it all somewhat.

[Rhyne]

My immediate problems are:
The program does not recognize the saved tool offsets.
I will measure a tool by moving the tool to the top of the material, when I start the program it will drive the tool into the aluminum table.
The post I am using is Mach 2/3 ARCS (inch) (*.TXT) from Vectric

Thank you for all your help
Rich

[mactec54]

My immediate problems are:
The program does not recognize the saved tool offsets.
I will measure a tool by moving the tool to the top of the material, when I start the program it will drive the tool into the aluminum table.
The post I am using is Mach 2/3 ARCS (inch) (*.TXT) from Vectric

Thank you for all your help
Rich

Ok this is more just a setup problem; post the first part of your program this will show how the program should act

Have you homed the machine??

For G54 / G43 to work the machine will need to be homed.

What is in the Tool offset page for the Tool you are using.

[joeavaerage]

Hi,

I will measure a tool by moving the tool to the top of the material, when I start the program it will drive the tool into the aluminum table.

That sounds more like a software/control issue rather than a hardware issue. The suggestion I made (MB3) may well tidy up the wiring and make it easier to fault find
but I would not expect it to change the character of the machine.

I suspect that if you look on the Offsets tab of Mach3 you may find an explanation of whats going on. To be honest I always found Mach3 Offsets to be poorly organised and sometimes
seemingly illogically applied, and I find that Mach4's presentation and application superior.

May I suggest you download a copy as a demo and have a look for yourself.

Craig

[Rhyne]

How difficult would it be to upgrade to Mach 4.

[mactec54]

How difficult would it be to upgrade to Mach 4.

Updating is not going to change what your current programing problems you are having; we need to get that part sorted first. there is nothing wrong with Mach3 and the Smooth Stepper operation

[joeavaerage]

Hi,

How difficult would it be to upgrade to Mach 4.

Given that you already have an ESS, not hard at all. You'd download and install Mach4Hobby. Download and install the Mach4 ESS plugin in the plugins folder, select the ESS as active motion controller,
and start forming your profile for the machine. I would not expect that you'd have to change any wiring.

A cursory glance at Mach3 and Mach4 suggests they are similar....they certainly do the same job, but the internal arrangement of Mach4 is very different to Mach3....and that throws people.
The expectation is that because something worked this way in Mach3 that it should work the same way in Mach4, but often that is not the case. This is a major source of the negative comments about Mach4
and hampered its adoption.

Mach3 'evolved' over a period of years, and often a feature relied on some software work-around elsewhere in the program and so became difficult to maintain. Mach4 was designed from the ground
up, and is modular with a well defined API, a fast and lean scripting language and an editable GUI. All of these things represent a learning curve and can be very frustrating, but once that hump
is mastered Mach4 is easy.

Craig

[Rhyne]

Hi Mactec54
thank you for your response.

I have physical homing switches.
The datum position is set to the center of the part.


( SADIE V CUT5 )
( File created: Friday September 30 2022 - 02:18 PM)
( for Mach2/3 from Vectric )
( Material Size)
( X= 34.000, Y= 13.000, Z= 0.750)
()
(Toolpaths used in this file
(SADIE V CUT2)
(Tools used in this file: )
(5 = V BIT 60)
N100G00G20G17G90G40G49G80
N110G70G91.1
N120T5M06
N130 (V BIT 60)
N140G00G43Z0.8000H5
N150S12000M03
N160(Toolpath:- SADIE V CUT2)
N170()
N180G94
N190X0.0000Y0.0000F100.0
N200G00X0.8238Y-1.5406Z0.2000
N210G1Z-0.0625F30.0
N220G1X0.8296Y-1.4952F100.0
N230G1X0.8361Y-1.4543