How do you like FlashCut?

[CNCadmin]

How do you like FlashCut's controller and software?

[richardl]

Flashcut just works flawlessly. It is almost transparent. You just connect to the Flashcut controller, load the G-code, zero things up and run.

Flashcut uses a more conservative architecture in that the software just runs on Windows and communicates via serial port with a dedicated Flashcut Signal Generator box. The Signal Generator box provides the realtime clock that is used to generate control signals for your servo or stepper motor drive electronics. Other solutions often use the computer to generate the realtime control signals. The problem with that is that operating systems like Windows and Linux were not designed to provide realtime device control. Some systems like EMC require running a special realtime version of Linux, but that realtime Linux may not support a broad range of devices such as the Wifi network card I'm using.

Flashcut also doesn't rely on legacy PC hardware like parallel ports to provide realtime control signals. Parallel ports hardware is almost extinct. Flashcut uses a simple serial connection to communicate with the signal generator, and I've found it works fine with a USB to serial adapter. So just about any PC with a USB port should work.

I have a 4 servo Flashcut system driving a 4-axis Taig mini mill. The Flashcut software runs on an older 333MHz P2 IBM Thinkpad with a WiFi card. Because it's all just running under Windows 2000 and uses the serial port to drive the Flashcut controller I'm able to just access the G-code files directly off my CAD/CAM workstation. Also the fact that it's all running on my Windows network makes it easy to do iterrations when experimenting with getting the G-code just right.

The servo tuning software that comes with Flashcut works quite well. It requires a second serial port for feedback from the servo controller. I have that running through a USB-to-serial converter. I've never seen much discussion of servo tuning based on my limited experience with this system it seems like an essential part of putting together a servo-based CNC system.

Of course if you are running steppers that part is not necessary.

[HomeCNC]

I'm also looking at this program too. I just downloaded the manual for the 2.1 FlashCut version. It looks like it will handle my 4 major requirements.

1) 4 Axis simultaneous motion.
2) Homing to machine coord. (G53)
3) Fixture offsets (G54-G59)
4) Tool length compensation in Z (G43)

The pulse rate looks good as well. My 3D tool paths are getting too complicated for the controllers I have now. Even Mach 2.

[ger21]

Originally Posted by HomeCNC My 3D tool paths are getting too complicated for the controllers I have now. Even Mach 2.

I'd email Art and explain why Mach2 is not working for you. From what I've seen of his support, I'm sured he'd fix whatever the problem is. If you need a new feature added, he might even add that.

[richardl]

Note Flashcut doesn't generally move all 4-axis simultaneously. It uses a sophisticated scheme based on the Machine Tool and Homing settings. The manual goes into this in some detail.

[HomeCNC]

Originally Posted by richardl Note Flashcut doesn't generally move all 4-axis simultaneously. It uses a sophisticated scheme based on the Machine Tool and Homing settings. The manual goes into this in some detail.

I thought I read this in the manual and was thinking that is was only in the HOMING that it did not move all axis at the same time for safety reasons.

It better move all 4 while a Gcode file is executing!

I'm going to talk to a rep before I get real serious.

Ger21, I have told Art about the 4th axis problem. He said that Mach 2 is having trouble reading all the very small point-to-point moves in my Gcode file while operating under CV. He said to turn off CV! This is not acceptable! With CV off the machine moves in very jerky start/stop steps.

Art seems to be too busy working on Mach 3 to listen to the problems Mach 2 is having. I guess most people are not creating complex Gcode like I am.

Art is advertising Mach 2 as a professional level controller, but if it will not work with professional level (MasterCam) gcode. Then I'm looking somewhere else!

I did not have any problems with Mach 2 while using it for just 3 axis. But now that I added my 4th, it's now falling on it's face.

[Swede]

In my own limited experience with FC, I have been very impressed, Richard sums it up well. Having the signal generator in the system allows the PC to deal more with interpolation and "looking ahead" rather than timing issues. I run everything at 115K baud serially and have never had a problem with timing or communication.

I do wish FC had a better macro capability, but that may be my own limited knowledge. Specifically, I'd like to set up my system so that when I do a tool swap, it'll do an XY traverse to a fixture (Z touch probe), descend, make contact, reset program Z=0, and resume the g-code file, without manual intervention.

The FC pendant looks nice but is priced very high. I am going to try one of these, recommended by a zone member -

http://www.ymouse.com/

I think a pendant will make jogging and zeroing much simpler than the mouse.
Swede

[Corvus corax]

Swede, which one of the products were you looking at? The joystick thing? I am trying to decide which of the machine control packages to use on my machine. This is the very first time I will be building anything like this, and unforunately, my time and funds are quite limited. I want to make sure whatever I use will be forward compatible with an advanced toolpath generator like OneCNC, Visual Mill, or the like. I also like the idea of the external box controlling timing, as I do not really like asking Windows to do much of anything. If I could run this off of a Macintosh, I would... Also, do the axes have to use equal lead screws for circular interpolation?

[cncalchemy]

Hey, just found this section, I guess its time to contribute.

I have a Flashcut system and am very happy with it. It has worked flawlessly, and has very good documentation. The main reason I bought this system was for the microstepping, and the separate signal controller. I can run this from a pII 166mhz laptop with no problems, the signal controller keeps the machine running, even when windows98 decides to go on a coffee break.

The other reason I chose Flashcut was for the 4 axis simulanious motion. After a lot of research, this was one of the few I found that could do it. I put the system together with a Sherline 5400 w/rotary table, and it has been a helluva lot of fun to learn to run.

CNCalchemy

[Corvus corax]

Does Flashcut require equal lead screws for circular interpolation? My ballscrews are from a variety of sources, and none of them match for lead... My X is 0.25 inch, my Y is 0.2 inch, and my Z is 10mm. All new, precision ground C3 or better, though.

[cncalchemy]

Here is a pic of the config page for flashcut 2. Its really easy to have different settings for each axis/ballscrew. You can also save different configurations as a setup file, and run different machines with just a quick reload of the setup file.
(disregard the numbers in the boxes, this isn't a working config)

Here is a pic of the screw setup page:


Here is a pic of the Jog/control screen:


You can use [ctrl]-[arrow key] to jog, so adding a pendant or hacked up keyboard would be no problem.

[Corvus corax]

Nice. Thanks for the info. What kind of computer setup should I run for best results?