Mach 3 help needed

[steve_g]

I’m hoping someone in the Dallas area can help me… I’m trying to help a young man set up a CNC router that runs on Mach 3, I’ve worked through many mechanical and electrical issues but think my lack of Mach 3 experience is keeping me from complete success… The unit in question is a used homebrew unit running off gecko drives and a smooth stepper USB interface.
I’m offering financial remuneration, pleasant conversation and likely even lunch! If you can help, Please contact me! steve dot glassel at s g m f g dot com
Thanks!
SG

[srwtlc]

Hi Steve,

Not nearby, but if you need some email help, feel free to ask. Email in profile/about.

[steve_g]

Thanks Scott and others who have emailed me!
I guess I’ll detail a little bit of my travails with Mach 3 here on my favorite forum… The ShopBot one!
I’m sure (maybe) that my issues are configuration ones.


The fastest I can get the gantry to move is 30ipm (.5 ips) in fact, it’s the only speed I can get it to move! I can’t get any speed or acceleration changes to work.
The Z axis needs to be about 6000 pulses/inch. I can’t get the machine to work with any more than about 4000. Right now, I’ve told it that 3000/unit is correct and tell it to go 2X the desired amount.
I don’t have a clue where to hook up prox/micro switches for homing
Same for a Z zero setup.

I’m sure I’ll have more questions as anytime I get one issue resolved with this machine, I discover 2 more!
SG

[srwtlc]

While your feed/rapid rate will also be hardware/electronics dependent, some things to look at in Mach3 under Config/Ports & Pins under the port setup and axis selection tab, is kernel speed. The higher the value, the higher you can then set your velocity in Config/Motor Tuning. I believe this also allows for higher steps per. Don't forget to hit the 'Save axis settings' for each axis.

Prox switches are set up under the 'Input signals' tab in Config/Ports & Pins. The hook up of the switches is going to be dependent on the control board in use. Should be able to find some documentation for it somewhere. It would be set up something like Port #1 Pin #11. One lead to ground and one to the connection that corresponds. Connections can be verified on the diagnostics page.

Z zero setup is a bit involved. Stock Mach3 setup, it's not available and needs to be setup with a screen button and a macro. It would probably be much better to spend a little and buy the Mach 3 2010 screenset (http://home.comcast.net/~cncwoodworker/2010.html) which I believe has it built in. Years ago, I wrote a macro for z zeroing which has been added to and modified by a number of users and I've even seen it in partial form in some other manufactures screensets (I can tell by looking at some of the code and parts of it are an exact copy of my original 9 years ago).