OmioCNC report

[Mmpie]

I think what you guys are saying is starting to make sense.
The 3 limit switches are only there to home on, but if the soft limits button is on, then the axes will never reach their full travel.
Is this right?

Is there a way to set the Machine Co-ordinates to zero when its in the home position?
cheers
Nick

Yes that's right, soft limits will prevent over travel on the OMIO in its default set up.

There are two coordinate systems, machine coordinates (g53) and work coordinates (g54, 55, 56 etc). Your machine coordinates are the machines actual location relative to the home position, when you click ref all home on start up the machine will hit the switches and know that it is at home, the machine will be in its X0 Y0 Z0 position.

Work coordinates are where you set up your work piece, so you move X, Y and Z to the reference point for your work piece and click zero x/y/z that is setting the zero point for the job, so the machine knows where the work is within it's working envelope in reference to the machine home point.

The default coordinates you will see on your screen are the g54 work coordinate system, unless you either click 'machine coords' button they will display the machines actual position, or you change to one of the different work coordinate systems (g55, g56 and so on).


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[NickB00]

Gotcha, thanks for that!

When you home it should then set machine zero at the same time. Soft limits will then prevent the machine from inadvertently trying to travel beyond the available travel from there... that is assuming that a)the soft limits are set correctly, b)the machine is homed correctly, and c)that the stepper motors don’t skip any steps and lose position.

[NickB00]

Thanks. I have now officially passed home positions #101.
Got everything working now and have started some Mach 3 wizard machining on wood. These Omios are marvellous!
cheers
Nick

Yes that's right, soft limits will prevent over travel on the OMIO in its default set up.

There are two coordinate systems, machine coordinates (g53) and work coordinates (g54, 55, 56 etc). Your machine coordinates are the machines actual location relative to the home position, when you click ref all home on start up the machine will hit the switches and know that it is at home, the machine will be in its X0 Y0 Z0 position.

Work coordinates are where you set up your work piece, so you move X, Y and Z to the reference point for your work piece and click zero x/y/z that is setting the zero point for the job, so the machine knows where the work is within it's working envelope in reference to the machine home point.

The default coordinates you will see on your screen are the g54 work coordinate system, unless you either click 'machine coords' button they will display the machines actual position, or you change to one of the different work coordinate systems (g55, g56 and so on).


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[NickB00]

With the Omio Supplied Mach 3 program, already setup for our particular machines, the quality of the Mach 3 screen on a monitor is second rate.
I can barely read some of the writing on the buttons etc. I have tried different screen resolutions and even different monitors but the results are the same.
Have any of you had similar problems, or been able to fix this?
Nick

[Mmpie]

Nick the OMIO version of Mach3 is just preset with all the values like motor steps, velocity and acceleration rates etc etc

The program itself is plain old Mach3, which is as old as it looks and optimised to run on windows XP age machines. I have a cheap and nasty PC and monitor running it which has a screen resolution comparable to a game boy colour, it looks a little blocky and old school but it does the job and I can see everything fine.

I was running it on a modern laptop before that which had a resolution a bit above 1080p, can't remember what it was exactly, and it still looked crap but I don't remember it being difficult to see anything so you should be ok. If you're on windows 10 I think there's an option now to upscale programs which might help.


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[NickB00]

I emailed Omio about the crappy Mach 3 screen and they said it should be good on a 1024 x 768 screen which I tried but made no difference.
I am running Windows 7 on an old emachine laptop which is a wide screen so I plugged in an old monitor for XP computers and made no difference.
No matter what I do I get a crappy looking screen. Oh well, I think..
cheers

Nick the OMIO version of Mach3 is just preset with all the values like motor steps, velocity and acceleration rates etc etc

The program itself is plain old Mach3, which is as old as it looks and optimised to run on windows XP age machines. I have a cheap and nasty PC and monitor running it which has a screen resolution comparable to a game boy colour, it looks a little blocky and old school but it does the job and I can see everything fine.

I was running it on a modern laptop before that which had a resolution a bit above 1080p, can't remember what it was exactly, and it still looked crap but I don't remember it being difficult to see anything so you should be ok. If you're on windows 10 I think there's an option now to upscale programs which might help.


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[Sterob]

Is your monitor set to its native Resolution and Refresh rate?

Steve

[NickB00]

Hi Steve,
Yeah tried that and all other resolutions. The Mach 3 screen is long and narrow and even on a big monitor its average quality.
Bit of a pain but doable.
thanks..

Is your monitor set to its native Resolution and Refresh rate?

Steve

[Sterob]

Worth posting a pic so we can see whats going on?

[NickB00]

Here is a pic of the diagnostics screen, it looks clear initially but hard to actually read the writing.
I struggle to read the input signals and similar sized writing, and it is all at the native resolution of 1024 x768 as recommended.

Worth posting a pic so we can see whats going on?

[Sterob]

It looks like you have 2 problems, that I can see.
First, your 'desktop' does not appear to be aligned to your Monitor correctly,
and your Mach 3 window is not set to 'full screen'.

Fix them and see how it looks.

[RCaffin]

I think you have a FONT problem. The font which the Mach screen is asking for is not on your machine, so a substitute has been used. Unfortunately, the substitute is not a good choice. Normally that screen, and all the other, have quite good displays. Mind you, a better photo would certainly help!

This font problem is especially obvious on the Spindle Toggle button and the ones under it. My font is smaller and fits on the button.

OK, so what font is missing? Um - I don't know. I would have thought it would be included in the Mach3 package. I assume that the screen was generated from VB, but maybe not.

Cheers
Roger

[NickB00]

The only way I can get full screen is to reduce the screen resolution to 800 x 600 and again it is not very clear.
I am running Mach 3 thru a widescreen laptop (emachine) windows 7 32 bit, and because this screen is so small I have plugged in another monitor
to make it physically bigger. So at 800 x 600 it fits the width of the monitor but not the depth. I will take another pic today.
thanks..

It looks like you have 2 problems, that I can see.
First, your 'desktop' does not appear to be aligned to your Monitor correctly,
and your Mach 3 window is not set to 'full screen'.

Fix them and see how it looks.

[NickB00]

I think you could be right. It is really only the writing that is hard to read.
Not sure how to fix this. I am using the Mach 3 setup that came with my machine from OMio.
I will take a better photo today so you can see..
cheers..

I think you have a FONT problem. The font which the Mach screen is asking for is not on your machine, so a substitute has been used. Unfortunately, the substitute is not a good choice. Normally that screen, and all the other, have quite good displays. Mind you, a better photo would certainly help!

This font problem is especially obvious on the Spindle Toggle button and the ones under it. My font is smaller and fits on the button.

OK, so what font is missing? Um - I don't know. I would have thought it would be included in the Mach3 package. I assume that the screen was generated from VB, but maybe not.

Cheers
Roger

[NickB00]

Hey Guys, just on another subject if I may, I cannot seem to work out how to use the tool Presetter.
Once you have done a Z=0 height (say at the top of a job piece) using just the tool bit (no presetter) do you use the Presetter to change tools to get you back to the same zero height or do you use it right from the start?
Can someone can give me a rundown of how to use it.
thx

[NickB00]

Here are some better screenshots so you can see what I mean about the Mach 3 Screen being hard to read.
cheers
Nick

[Mmpie]

Hey Guys, just on another subject if I may, I cannot seem to work out how to use the tool Presetter.
Once you have done a Z=0 height (say at the top of a job piece) using just the tool bit (no presetter) do you use the Presetter to change tools to get you back to the same zero height or do you use it right from the start?
Can someone can give me a rundown of how to use it.
thx

When I used it, I bolted it down to the table (if using metal clamps make sure they don't touch the contact surface) and before each job put a dial indicator in the spindle and measured difference between the touch plate and top/bottom of workpiece (whichever I was using for the job) then put that difference into the offsets page.

I stopped using the toolsetter, I was getting random results, and now just use a feeler gauge instead which once you get the hang of it, isn't really much slower. Just bring the tool down 0.01mm at a time until it just catches the feeler gauge.

Also my Mach3 screen looks almost exactly the same, except not squashed together, I have it maximised. Is there a reason you leave it minimised? I will have a look in the morning at what resolution I use and send a screenshot if it helps.

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[NickB00]

The screen is maximised. It makes no difference if maximised or not. Weird.
With the Tool Presetter, the bit I dont get is that it is supposed to get the end of the tool down to your zero point after you change bits of different length.
How do you do that? I measure the height of the presetter and put that value in. then when I changed tool and made it touch the pad etc, it was 20mm or so too high when I started the job. Am I missing something here?
thanks Mmpie..

[Sterob]

The screen is maximised. It makes no difference if maximised or not. Weird..

I may be wrong, but it appears you may have your windows mixed up ( I've done this....)

I still don't think your Window is Maximised.

[dharmic]

Tool presetter - I tend to set zero on the top of my workpiece (stock) so I know, scanning through G-code, that any moves with a positive Z are safe and any negatives are under the safe retract plane.

Every tool change I pop the tool setter on top of my material and run the auto set cycle to re-zero the tip.

If I can't do it that way, say because I've put the workpiece in a vice and removed all of the z=0 surface in a previous operation, I've hopefully realised this would happen ahead of time and instead zero off the bed on the first tool, then run a G31 down to the top of the workpiece. Take the difference and subtract the tool setter height and I now know how high my Z=0 plane is off the deck. Then I set any tool changes on the deck, and subtract that height after the autoset to get my tool position relative to the top. Lots of words make it sound harder than it is.