Construction of a CN lathe

[Steler]

Hi there,

The CN tower project is nearing completion. The mechanical part is almost finished, I'm starting to work on the electrical cabinet and some functions.
If some of you are interested, I could post pictures.

I come back to this post because I would like to integrate an analog joystick (see attached photos) for moving the X and Z axes.
It has 4 5K potentiometers corresponding to each direction. It can therefore control movement on 2 axes at different speeds.

Do you think MK3 and TNg can handle this kind of hardware with the Jog connector? And if so, what settings and connections should be considered?
I ask myself this kind of question because on the Jog connector, we find only one pin for the potentiometer.

best regards

[PlanetCNC]

We will soon post tutorial article on this topic. You will be able to use normal gamepad to jog and control your machine.
Also, tutorial using arduino and such joystick with potentiometers will posted.

[Steler]

Ok, I'm waiting for your tutorial. If however it gives me too much work, I would simply install an MPG.

In the meantime, I'm waiting for connectors and a chain of cables to complete the electrical part. My lathe will be operational in a 2-axis version with turret.

So I start asking about the software. Unless I'm mistaken, the following functions are missing in TNG:
- Roughing and grooving cycles in turning.
- Management of radius compensation in turning (G41/G42). A priori, this function is forbidden in G18.
- Tool table (in relation to radius compensation): no management of tool orientation and insert radius. These functions are useful for G41/G42 calls as well as the papalge tools that I want to develop later.

Do you plan to implement all these features?

Best regards

[Steler]

Goodnight all,

Does my last question bother PlanetCNCN so much? Is there anything planned to improve the use of MK3 on the management of lathe tools?
Would it be possible for you to answer on the possibilities of evolution?

In the meantime, here is a photo of the machine. It remains to put the turret at peak height and repair / install the tailstock.

best regards

[PlanetCNC]

Questions do not bother me. You can ask whatever you want.
All your features ale listed at bottom of ChangeLog.txt file. So my answer is yes, all features are planned.

[Steler]

Good evening,

Ok thank you for the answer. I hope you didn't take my question the wrong way.
I didn't know that the changelog.txt file had this information at the end of the text. Now I would know.
best regards

[PlanetCNC]

I wrote this to changelog so that I don't forget. It does not actually belong there :-)

[Steler]

Hi there,

The mechanical part is, so to speak, finished. There will no longer be the realization of a spacer to put the turret at center height.
I therefore mounted the electrical plate on the lathe and began to wire and test the first electrical equipment.

I will ask some questions as we get started. Here are the first ones:
- In lap mode: is it possible to display the Jog cross with the X and Z axes? Y being not useful as a main axis, it could be displayed with the secondary axes if necessary. Or, to match the cross with the selected plane (XY for G17, ZX for G18 and YZ for G19)?
- In G07 mode (turn by diameter): ISO commands are made by Ø. on the other hand, the X display in the position panel remains on the shelf. is it possible to make the display at Ø also when G07 is activated in all modes (Work, machine, motors, remaining distances, etc..)? If G08 is activated, the display would return to the radius of course.

This is my first time using servo motors for linear axes. I have a slight problem. My rapids top out at around 1650mm/min instead of the expected 5000mm/min. I checked all the speed parameters, everything seems correct, I hope it is not due to a torque limit of the servo motors, at the same time, the 2 are capping at the same speed even though they have not not the same forces to deploy.

Here for tonight :-)

[PlanetCNC]

What is "lap mode"?
G17, G18 and G19 are used for G02 and G03 commands to orient arcs. There is no deeper meaning.
Coordinate display shows coordinates. Even of you are in G07 this does not change coordinates. With G07 you only say that your X input should be multiplied by two.
Perhaps your r step per unit setting is too high and you need to change servo motor gearing?

[Steler]

Sorry, Lathe Mode :-).

So no possible display of the jog cross? Even if we don't use the notion of G17, G18 and G19 planes, the cross could be configurable in the settings, right?

[PlanetCNC]

Currently cross can be configured only for XY and UV axis.

[Steler]

Yes, I know, you have to understand my question in the following sense:
Does Planet CNC accept to modify the configuration of the cross to display axes other than XY or UV in a future version? ZX for example :-)?

[PlanetCNC]

I'll think about it

[Steler]

Goodnight all,

The lathe begins to operate. For my problem of slow Z and X axis speed, it was because the servo motors were stalled at 10000 pulses per revolution, which required a frequency of 500KHz to run the motors at 3000rpm. I reduced their setting to 2500 pulses per revolution, everything is OK. Even limiting the speeds to 4500mm/min, it's fast on a toolmaker's lathe like the LINZ.

I will now focus on adjusting the operation of the tool change on the turret.

I noticed a small bug in the Jog settings, the Shift and ALT2 pin inversions are reversed if I'm not mistaken.

Little question. One more :-). Would it be possible to have the ZX plane displayed on the 3D screen? In order to correctly see toolpaths in turning mode. Like the top view for example for milling with the XY plane.

[PlanetCNC]

ZX jog panel:

[Steler]

Stunning,

As very often, you are very responsive :-).

For the question mentioned just before on the possibility of correctly orienting the ZX view, one could imagine shortcuts to go from one plane to another and thus display the 6 possible faces. Thus, all situations can be displayed correctly. What do you think?

On my side, I finished to develop the rotation of the turret. I admit that I used one of your macros which contained the ACTIVE function during tests containing M2. Without it, the toolpaths were not displayed on the 3D.

[PlanetCNC]

This is not OK?

[Steler]

Good evening,

The display of the machine in 3D can annoy me a little. For the moment, I do not display it.
Most of my parts will be small in size, so just a display of the toolpaths will be more than enough for me as below. I straightened the image a bit with editing software because I can't get the right angle on the TNG display.

The tool could also be visualized differently in relation to these toolpaths. A bit like the second example which represents a screenshot of a turning path with Linux CNC. It would be great, but I know that you have to work on the management of the controlled points in the tool table before realizing it :-).
I may be asking too much, but we notice that TNG is very milling oriented. My requests would improve its interface, both from the GUI point of view and from the capacity point of view. What do you think?

For information, I have an 8-tool turret at the rear and a station at the front which will one day receive rotating tools, so I could have X+ and X- toolpaths.

[PlanetCNC]

But you can set exactly the same view as in your screen.

TNG tries to be best for milling, turning, plasma, laser, foam cutting, ...

Some lathe cycles are not yet implemented but you can easyly do them yourself.

Lathe tooltip is also on todo list.

[PlanetCNC]

I prefer second image where X axis is facing down. At least on my lathe it looks like this.