Hi there, I'm using build 5.36 of SC2007 with a roland mdx-540 milling machine and for the most part the code generated by the postprocessor is perfect. However, I've noticed that the postprocessor seems to just ignore pauses in drilling operations, so they don't get translated into code. For example, if using the drilling with chip break operation the dwell time parameter has no effect on the final code generated, which comes out looking like this;

%
N0001 G17 G98 G80 G40 G21 M9
N0002 G90
(HOLE MACHINING)
N0003 (DRILL L7, D0.5, A120)
N0004 S11459 M3
N0005 G00 G43 X8.15 Y11.9 Z2. H1
N0006 G73 Z-3. Q0.5 F100. P0500
N0007 X10.45
N0008 X12.75
N0009 X15.05
N0010 X17.35
N0011 G80
N0012 M30 M5


I assume the "P" parameter for N006 is supposed to be the pause, but no value from 5 to 500 seems to have an effect. Have I grossly misjudged the scale of the units used, or is somethingt else at play here? Cheers everyone =)

I'll take a crack at this...

According to page 176 of the CNC Programming Handbook (http://books.google.com/books?id=JNnQ8r5merMC&pg=PA184&lpg=PA184&dq=g73+drill&source=web&ots=PXPBRU0NuQ&sig=WbOYGBJw08ExBBeHth7jGlFkrLc&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=8&ct=result#PPA176,M1), the dwell command might not be accepted during the G73 canned cycle. If your machine does not pause, that just may be because it won't pause in that canned cycle.

The book suggests that only the G76, G82, G88, and G89 cycles accept dwell, but then it confusingly offers that technically all canned cycles accept it...

Try the Dwell command, e.g. "G04 P500" to see if it will pause at all, and maybe read the manual for your machine to see if P is allowed in the G73 cycle.

I think I would also try rearranging the line and put the P address before the Q and F addresses to see if that helps.

By the way, the units for P are milliseconds, so 500 would be a dwell of one half second.

Good luck,

- Just Gary

Thanks for the fast reply. I'll try the above and see if it helps :)

You might also want to upgrade to the latest version - I think that Sprut is at Build 5.48 or so now.

Mike