Hi gtsan,
I've got a question for you (or anyone). First, I am a newbie (read: inexperienced) when it comes to dealing with cnc. I do know computers though.
I've recently purchased a Liberty cnc mill and I'm having some trouble. My problems deal mainly in that I don't have a full blown version of dos (I think) to operate the included programs in. The best I have been able to come up with so far is a Windows 95 boot disk which boots me to a command prompt.
When I try any fast movements, either via G code or the jog menu (fast) in the enclosed software, all I get is a high pitched whine from the stepper motors. If I use the liberal (I think this is it) movement G codes (G1) or slow speeds (jog menu) then the motors move fine. I am able to cut at slow speeds but anything requiring (or asking for) fast movements of any of the axis results in a whine.
I will note that while the manual shipped with the mill states that it will take about 20 minutes or so to complete the calibration my computer takes nearly 2 hours to run the full calibration.
My computer specs are an Abit TH-7 Raid motherboard, P4 1.4 cpu, 1 GB ram (rambus), 2 80GB Western Digital 8MB cache HD's in raid, 1 40 GB Western Digital HD (for cnc operation only, as C drive in floppy boot) and a Nvidia G-Force 2 AGP video card. Any extra's on the motherboard have been disabled and any add in cards (network, etc) have been removed.
Is my problem a lack of full blown dos? I'm still looking for a full version of dos but since it is about 8 years old (and with no support) I'm having very little luck.
That the machine operates at slower speeds tells me that this problem is probably because it is looking for an msdos driver (or something) that is non-existant on a Win95 bootable floppy.
I'm still looking for a full version of MS-DOS but am having no luck finding one. I'd like to be able to switch to a Windows XP based software but I'm unsure of what settings to use (newbie again) and figured it would be better to learn the machine (and hobby) under the shipped software.
Thanks for your time. I apologize if this is not coherent as I have had a few drinks (and for me one anymore might be too many).
Marc