2010 screenset

[bcer960]

I have not had an issue with spindle cable, it goes up and over, the printer cable is under the machine on a shelf.
I purchased the ethernet version of the smoothrstepper yesterday, it'll be a bit to get up here to BC. But will install it as soon as it gets here. I did have a problem free day yesterday (ran all day again, craft fare time is upon me) so it seems it was the printer cable, or I just held my tongue in the right position all day.

[rbraeking]

I did not mean the spindle power cable per se. There are other cables going to the same location such as Z limit switch, Y and Z motor cables, etc. It could well be the limit switch cable. (Ir)regardless, I'm glad you had a trouble-free day.

Keep us posted on how well the smoothstepper install goes.

Bob

[CFLBob]

I'm having a problem getting the 2010 screen set to work with Mach3. This is the Simple Auto Zero, the single down arrow.

If I understand the manual, it's supposed to lower the probe in the spindle until they touch, then back off .050". Then it's supposed to probe for the touch plate at a smaller rate (1 IPM), find it, make that coordinate the right distance above the bottom of the touch plate, and retract to the clearance plane, which I've set to 0.500" over the plate. I expect that it will then tell me the coordinates with respect to the bottom of the touch plate (top of the work). My plate is 1.082 thick, so it should end up a half inch above the plate and the DRO should read 1.582. Right?

What actually happens is that the spindle lowers, touches the plate, then retracts much too far - about an inch (by reading the DRO). It lowers the spindle at 1 IPM for a while, then seems to give up and stop. It goes through a couple of moves and says it's zeroed, but it's not. It's off by a LONG way. It's not at the clearance of 1/2" inch, it's 1.3" above the test plate and the Z DRO reads 0.5000. Nothing about that is right.

I DON'T have home or limit switches on my mill, so like page 10 of the manual says, I set my Z-axis to the top of the column, set the machine coordinate to 0.000 and referenced all three axes.

What am I doing wrong here? Is there any info I can get to help? I'm running Mach3 through a Warp9 Ethernet Smooth Stepper, although I don't see why that would matter. It recognizes the contact sensor and responds properly - it doesn't try to drive it into the table. This is on a metal milling machine, so my tool plate has a sheet of polycarbonate glued onto its bottom (which is why it's 1.082" thick, not 1.000") That shouldn't matter either.


Thanks,
Bob

[ger21]

If I understand the manual, it's supposed to lower the probe in the spindle until they touch, then back off .050". Then it's supposed to probe for the touch plate at a smaller rate (1 IPM), find it, make that coordinate the right distance above the bottom of the touch plate, and retract to the clearance plane, which I've set to 0.500" over the plate. I expect that it will then tell me the coordinates with respect to the bottom of the touch plate (top of the work). My plate is 1.082 thick, so it should end up a half inch above the plate and the DRO should read 1.582. Right?

No, that's not correct. The Clearance Plane is the Z position in Work coordinates. A Clearance Plane of 0.5" will move the tool 0.5" above Z zero. With a 1" plate, it would try to plunge into the plate 1/2". You need to set your Clearance Plane to 1.5".

I'm running Mach3 through a Warp9 Ethernet Smooth Stepper, although I don't see why that would matter

Because it's the Smoothstepper that actually handles the probing, not Mach3. But that shouldn't matter, becasue there are hundreds of people using the 2010 Screenset with Smoothsteppers.
What version of Mach3 are you using? Do NOT use 3.043.066, as the recommended version (by Warp9) is 3.043.062

Do you have the Material Offset box checked? And if so, do you have any value entered?

[ger21]

Also, is the machine set up in inches or mm's (Config > Select Native Units)? And is the current mode the same? (G20 or G21)

[CFLBob]

The machine is in inches and has never been run in any other mode.



No material offset. The version of Mach is the .062 that Warp9 recommends. I've been running the combination of the ESS and this version of Mach for hours of machine time. I can see the indicator in Mach3's diagnostics change when I touch the plate to the test rod in the spindle and it does stop and then climb up when it contacts the plate, it just climbs one inch.

I just changed the clearance plane to 1.5", and after going through it's motion the DRO says it's a 1.500". A flexible ruler shows it's 2-1/4" above the touch plate and about 3-3/8" above the vise body the touch plate is sitting on.

I can grab any screen shots you might want.

[CFLBob]

Something told me to restart Mach3. I did, and now it works.

Onward to trying to zero all three axes!


Bob

[ger21]

In General Config, uncheck "Auto Screen Enlarge" and "Boxed DRO's and Graphics", and when you restart Mach3, the screen will look better.

Any time you see something strange, or any time you abort a macro with estop or reset, I recommend restarting Mach3. It seems that when macros get interrupted, Mach3 can sometimes have problems running them from that point onward. Restarting seems to clear up the issue.

[bcer960]

I finally have my new CNC routerparts machine up and running. Not that the machine was an issue, but I made a vacuum table for it, and it took much longer than expected to do so. But, this is not my issue.

Today I tried to run my first program, and used the single chevron z-height setter, even though there are many tool changes in the program. This is because I do not a second z height setter for the machine. However, when after I changed the first tool, and then pushed start, the machine went over to (or at least close to) the home position, and started looking for a second z height setter. At first I did not know what it was doing and stopped it. I then tried to DRO it to X0, Y0. The machine went off to the X+ until it hit the limit switch.

After some playing around, I found it was looking for the second z height setter, and I could simulate it. The machine then started to cut the program, of course the z height is totally wrong.

So, my question is, where in Mach3, or possibly the 2010 program do I turn off the second z setter. On my old machine it would only look for the second z setter if I hit the double chevron. I went through as many possible screens as I could and did not find it.

Thanks
Ray

[ger21]

Replace the M6Start and M6End macros with the default versions.

[bcer960]

Thanks for the reply Gerry.

I played with it a bit tonight, and here's what's happened, and happening.

I bought this new machine from CNC router parts, they provided the MXD for the Mach3 setup. I then installed your program over it.

So what's happening is that it doesn't matter if i push the Simple auto zero, or the initial auto zero buttons, both go through the initial auto zero program. I checked and the simple auto zero (889 I think) is different and looks good. It's just that the simple button doesn't seem to call it up.

I do not know how to look at what each button does in the background.

at this time I do not have a second z height setter, so I only want to use the simple program for now. Is there any way to see where the simple button is set too?

Thanks

Ray

[ger21]

You need to open the .set file in a screen editor to see what the button is doing. Either Screen4 or MachScreen.

But in order for it to be doing what you are describing, you would have had to edit either the screen, or the macro?

[bcer960]

Thank Gerry,

I did not change anything, but was thinking that it was done somehow in the mach setup that CNC router parts provided.

I will open it tonight after work. The other option is to make the fixed position right below the tool change position, and use the one z-setter I have for both.

[ger21]

The button in the screenset is what calls the macro, so there's nothing in the CNCRP .xml that would have any effect on that.

You might try reinstalling Mach3, and re-copying the 2010 macros to the proper folder.
But the screen button should be calling the M889 macro, and there's nothing that should be able to change that. And what you are describing, is that the M881 macro is running?? I really don't have an answer, as that shouldn't be possible.

[bcer960]

The button in the screenset is what calls the macro, so there's nothing in the CNCRP .xml that would have any effect on that.

You might try reinstalling Mach3, and re-copying the 2010 macros to the proper folder.
But the screen button should be calling the M889 macro, and there's nothing that should be able to change that. And what you are describing, is that the M881 macro is running?? I really don't have an answer, as that shouldn't be possible.

Yes that's correct, both buttons are calling the M881 macro.
I'll take a vid tonight and show you.

[ger21]

The only way this could happen is if the screen was edited.

Add a line like this at the beginning of each macro, to be sure the correct macro is running.

Code "(Running Macro M881)"

This will display a message in the status bar when the macro starts.

[bcer960]

will do, thanks again

[bcer960]

Gerry,

First of all, I really appreciate your time for us people who just don't get it......
As I said before, I have new bigger, faster machine. My old machine, I'm still using it, was a home made, jGro (sort of). I just used a simple tool setter Macro. Now, I have new issues with the new machine, so please bear with me.

Ok, I put the code in as you said, and each button runs the appropriate macro. This doesn't solve my problem, but it does tell me that they work. I have been playing around with it for awhile. Here's the senario:

I put the first bit in, use the simple tool change button, and the spindle goes down and finds the height, then when I push start, the program runs. Now, a M6 comes up in the program, and it goes to the tool change position. I change tools, and give a DRO to X0, Y0. I manually bring down the Z and then hit the simple tool change button. the spindle goes down, finds the Z height, then it takes off to the fixed z setter position and (which i get back to in a bit, cause I don't understand the preset Z height in that command) and starts looking for the fixed z setter. As I said, I can take a vid for you... cause this doesn't make sense. But this is what it does repeatedly.

So, back to the fixed position. Can you tell me why, and if there is a way to change the Z height in the fixed position. The reason I ask is that I now have a machine with a 12" high work area. I have my machine home position at the top of the Z (as it needs to be). So when the tool change goes to the fixed position, it is 12.375" above the table. Now it starts probing, very slowly (10in/m) for the fixed setter, and after 6" (which I know is in your program) it steps up and then continues probing down at 1"/min as if it's found the setter. We both know it hasn't, cause it's still over 6" above my table. So, why can I not program a fixed height at 2" above the table (or -10.00") ? Yes, I can change the 6" to 12" in the macro, but at 10" a min, it's just too slow. (Incidentally, this is why I only ever used one setter on the old machine, too slow to travel across the table to find the fixed setter)
Any suggestions please.....

Ray

[ger21]

OK, I guess I misunderstood what was happening.
What you are seeing is the M6End macro, not the M881 macro.

If you don't have a fixed plate, then you can't use the M6 macros that come with the 2010 Screenset, and you should replace them with the default M6 macros, as I said originally.
But then, when you change tools, you'll need to somehow zero the new tool.
My recommendation in this case, would be to use separate g-code for each tool, until you add a fixed plate.

So, back to the fixed position. Can you tell me why, and if there is a way to change the Z height in the fixed position. The reason I ask is that I now have a machine with a 12" high work area.

I can edit the macro for you to rapid down a certain distance before it starts to probe for the fixed plate. Send me an email, and tell where you want it to rapid to in Machine Coordinates (Z-10?) and I'll send you a modified macro.

[ger21]

If you want to do it yourself, just open the M6End macro, and add the following lines (in red):

Code "G53 G0 Z" & TCZ ' Move to Tool Change Z Position - Should already be there

While IsMoving()
Wend

Code "G53 G0 X" & XPlate & " Y" & YPlate ' Move to Fixed Plate Location

While IsMoving()
Wend

Code "G53 G0 Z-10 ' Rapid down before probing

While IsMoving()
Wend