help with gcodes

[turmite]

I am almost ready to move into full gcode programming and I am sure I will need some help. The only experience I have with gcodes is G00, G01, G02 and G03. That is all my machine was able to use. I have down loaded the beta of Mach2 which is limited to 1000 lines. Due to the limited nature of my gcode files I can't get any of them to run. Is it because there needs to be specific info in the first few lines i.e., absolute or incremental, toof offset, tool length comp, etc. As you can tell I have a lot of work to do but any help would be appreciated.

If some one has a sample hundred line file that I could run that would be appreciated and I could see how it is set up. TIA

turmite

ps I am also going to post this in the Mach forum. If that is a problem someone delete one of them.

[coldplugs]

We have a FAQ at:

http://www.nfrpartners.com/cncfaq.htm

that includes some info on basic G-codes. Also, following are 2 programs that create the same design, which is a very simple bird-like shape that we use for testing. The first version uses absolute (G90) coordinates and the second uses incremental (G91) moves.

% Bird
(ABSOLUTE - G90)
N10 G20 G40 G80 G90
N20 T1 M6
N30 S3000 M3
N40 G1 X-1.2509 Y1.25 Z0. F15.
N50 G2 X-.2607 Y1.1429 I.5009 J0.
N60 G1 X-.4811 Y.136
N70 G3 X.4465 Y-.2251 I.4811 J-.136
N80 G1 X1.3035 Y1.4751
N90 G2 X2.1718 Y.9816 I.4465 J-.2251
N100 G1 X.4218 Y-1.7684
N110 G2 X-.4824 Y-1.6316 I-.4218 J.2684
N120 G1 X-1.2324 Y1.1184
N130 G0 Z5.
N140 X-1.5 Y1.25
N150 M5
N160 M30
%

% Bird
(INCREMENTAL - G91)
N10 G20 G40 G80 G91
N20 T1 M6
N30 S3000 M3
N40 G1 X-1.2509 Y1.2500 Z.0000 F15.
N50 G2 X.9902 Y-.1071 I.5009 J.0000
N60 G1 X-.2204 Y-1.0070
N70 G3 X.9276 Y-.3611 I.4811 J-.1360
N80 G1 X.8570 Y1.7002
N90 G2 X.8683 Y-.4935 I.4465 J-.2251
N100 G1 X-1.7500 Y-2.7500
N110 G2 X-.9042 Y.1368 I-.4218 J.2684
N120 G1 X-.7500 Y2.7500
N130 X-.3000 Y.1300
N140 M5
N150 M30
%

I hope it's useful.

[turmite]

Thank you John. I think that will be very helpful. I will put this into the Mach2 and do a couple of dummy runs to get a feel for the controller. Then comes the wiring and testing.

Thanks again.

turmite