fadal 88 3d speed

[Daniel Boone]

I have a 1990 fadal 4020 and have a couple of parts that require small amounts of 3d. Is there a way to upgrade this machine to run faster 3d, currently I can only get it to run at 100ipm. and at that speed the buffer only shows one or two line look ahead.

[DareBee]

If you have very short moves that require 100s of lines per inch of movement, the CPU/Buffer/baud rate will be maxed out.
IN the same scenario you can turn off "look ahead" G8 (I do) to speed things up.

Obviously - I have no idea what you are trying to do, but I always do "arc fitting" in my CAM software to turn hundreds of minuscule linear moves into arcs to smooth the part and reduce the "blocks per inch of machine travel".

[ASIGuy]

If you have very short moves that require 100s of lines per inch of movement, the CPU/Buffer/baud rate will be maxed out.
IN the same scenario you can turn off "look ahead" G8 (I do) to speed things up.

Obviously - I have no idea what you are trying to do, but I always do "arc fitting" in my CAM software to turn hundreds of minuscule linear moves into arcs to smooth the part and reduce the "blocks per inch of machine travel".

Yes, you are correct and turning off the lookahead with the G8 is about the best you can do without upgrading your 1400-1 or 1400-2 processor with a -4 or -5. You turn it back on with a G9 if you are wondering.

Remember, just upgrading the processor with leaving all the other cards untouched is likely not possible if you have a 1400-1 or -2 processor as your axis cards, among others are likely 1010-1 cards and not compatible with the 1400-4 or 5 processor. The full upgrade, doing the cheap way will still cost you about $3k by the time its done, so you know your options.

Best of luck and have a great holiday!

Regards,
Brian D.
FadalCNC

[carbidecraters]

If you want a -3 upgrade I probly have spare boards laying around

[Delw]

use a g8 like mentioned above.
the older machines dont like to feed very fast anyhow, and using g8 it will slam both ways in the axis( it wont be smooth) it works like a Jack hammer so to speak.
for surfacing
one way to tweak the machine so it doesnt slam so hard is adjust the following error on the drives. in the cabinate on the back, I been tweaking it and it works much better and sounds much better.
the higher the following error the smoother the machine runs, however it will cause some other issues as well like NO 100% rapids above a certain following error number

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/fadal/100379
post 10

My machine is a 1996( with a -5 system) and I can get 150ipm out of it comfortably and have gone as high as 200 but I dont like it. on my older 1990 machine that used to run the crap out of I would never feed above 100ipm ( but that was just me).

Double check with Neal or Brian D if it can be done with a 1990 year machine like you have.

Delw

[ASIGuy]

use a g8 like mentioned above.
the older machines dont like to feed very fast anyhow, and using g8 it will slam both ways in the axis( it wont be smooth) it works like a Jack hammer so to speak.
for surfacing
one way to tweak the machine so it doesnt slam so hard is adjust the following error on the drives. in the cabinate on the back, I been tweaking it and it works much better and sounds much better.
the higher the following error the smoother the machine runs, however it will cause some other issues as well like NO 100% rapids above a certain following error number

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/fadal/100379
post 10

My machine is a 1996( with a -5 system) and I can get 150ipm out of it comfortably and have gone as high as 200 but I dont like it. on my older 1990 machine that used to run the crap out of I would never feed above 100ipm ( but that was just me).

Double check with Neal or Brian D if it can be done with a 1990 year machine like you have.

Delw

You can indeed tweak the following error with the "SIG" pot on the servo amps but like Delw says, on rapids, you may fault our for "Following Error" alarms at 100%. There is a threshold that cannot be exceeded without the control going into alarm, but just put your rapid override to 50% if you require a softer reversal on the axes, and put it back to the standard following error number when you need 100% rapid back.

Alternatively, you can play with the "Ramp" parameter in the control and see if changing one way or another helps, and you can also play with the "Gain" in the survey by using the SV command. You can select a gain for each axis such as High, Medium and Low.

Anytime you change anything, do some test cutting first to be sure the machine is still cutting accurately. Also be aware that increasing the following error makes the axes act a bit sluggish and may have other effects you do not desire, so proceed with caution.

Good luck!

Brian D.
FadalCNC