I found that I have not been getting 5v on the parallel port on my NT system.

I have been getting 3.1v, but using a voltmeter, I could see the level switch from hi/low and back when triggering the cooresponding jog command in Mach3.

Now in order to get the 5v level, I set the parallel port to EPP in the BIOS. That does seem to make the hi level 5v, but Mach3 no longer commands the hi-low switch on any of the pins.

Would I need to reinstall Mach 3 and the driver after switching the EPP setting?

Originally Posted by bigjohn

I found that I have not been getting 5v on the parallel port on my NT system.

I have been getting 3.1v, but using a voltmeter, I could see the level switch from hi/low and back when triggering the cooresponding jog command in Mach3.

Now in order to get the 5v level, I set the parallel port to EPP in the BIOS. That does seem to make the hi level 5v, but Mach3 no longer commands the hi-low switch on any of the pins.

Would I need to reinstall Mach 3 and the driver after switching the EPP setting?

I tried reinstalling Mach 3, it didn't seem to help..

I got nothin - still working out which pins do what here

Sry.

BJ

Whats your board ?

rds

Mine... or Big Johns?

I'm running a Hobby CNC 4AUPC Rev 0 board...

BJ

Still having a problem setting up Mach3 so that it goes to the same place on X/Y and A/B every time when I tell it to "go home".

I'm not running any cut-off switches etc, but I'd like to be able to square-up the horizontal and vertical axes up correctly once at a given point on the cutter - then call this place "home" (somewhere in the software?).

I plan to use some aluminium strips to border-in a little 'cradle' on the cutting floor so that my foam blocks will always be in the same place relative to the cutter..

So when I'm ready to start my next cut, I press 'home' on the Mach1 screen and the axes got back to that point, ready to cut something new that is already sitting in the same spot as where the previous block of foam was...

BJ

BJ,

The machine may be loosing some steps, is there a function in Mach3 to account for lost steps? GMFC had a function in it to account for lost steps from the machine having some loose tolerances.

Eric B.

Don't think is has a lot to do with 'lost steps' so far, AirX - I still need to find a way to tell it where "home" is to start with.

I saw a vid that tried to explain 'machine co-ordinates' versus 'software co-ordinates'.

Apparently, there's some settings somwhere that you can dial in so that Mach3 always remembers where it's 'base' readings relate to. (excepting 'lost steps', of course). Something to do with the different co-ordinate systems.

As I said before, I have no hard axis cut-off switches, but I get the feeling that I may be able to emulate that kind of thing via software. Maximum axis movement kind of thing - but it still needs a software 'home' reference IMHO.

Now that I think about it a bit more... without hard-wired limit switches, the software would never be able to know where 'home' is once the computer has been powered-down and turned back on again (??).

Assuming no axis has been moved in any direction between power-off and power-on again, a software solution should still work - the big proviso being that no axis has been manually moved between turning the 'puter off and on again.

I also read that if Mach3 goes past the axis dead-point, it will keep searching in the opposite direction until if finds one.

i.e. I may need axis terminating micro-switches at each end of each axis?

That would mean 8 limit switches in total (each end of X/Y = 4 + each end of A/B = 4 . Total = 8)

I don't have an issue with that, as I can get the switches pretty easily and they won't cost the earth - but then I have to deal with trying to tell the controller-board which pin = which switch yadda yadda yadda.

Was hoping that there's a fairly reliable software solution...

BJ

try clicking on zero X Y A B then type in
G0X200Y200A200B200
G0X150Y150A150B150
then click home and see if it go to o,o,o,o

some times when it is going away from you it will go to limit switch then go back home

BJ,
Does this help page 11 et. seq.?
ftp://machsupport.com/Docs/Mach3%20Setup%20Tutorial.pdf
please let me know how you get on I am about a month off this.
Chris

P.s give the link a bit of time it's quite slow

Originally Posted by dpot

try clicking on zero X Y A B then type in
G0X200Y200A200B200
G0X150Y150A150B150
then click home and see if it go to o,o,o,o

some times when it is going away from you it will go to limit switch then go back home

Yes - that's what I'm worried about.

From what I understand, if it's already past home when you hit the 'home' switch', it will keep going in the other direction until it either finds a limit switch, or crashes that axis

And since I don't have any limit switches, it's the crashing bit that I'm concerned about.

And thanks Fubar for the link

I think I may already have that Tutorial....

BJ

Originally Posted by BJ64

Yes - that's what I'm worried about.

From what I understand, if it's already past home when you hit the 'home' switch', it will keep going in the other direction until it either finds a limit switch, or crashes that axis

And since I don't have any limit switches, it's the crashing bit that I'm concerned about.

And thanks Fubar for the link

I think I may already have that Tutorial....

BJ

As I understand it BJ the home switch on the different axes are placed near to the end of travel, and you define within Mach3 which direction the axes are going to travel to reach those home switches [within the set up], when they are reached the motors will stop and then reverse to take the axis off it's switch and then stop. Then it will home on the next defined axis, eventually when the 4 axis have been homed the machine can then go on and be programmed to work between the home switches and the limit switches.I have not looked hard enough yet to find out if their are defineable software limits yet.
Chris

I'm running a 3 axis BluMax CNC Router/Mill and I don't have any limit switches As long as I home the 3 axises before starting it has always returned to home. If I have to do an emergency stop, then I need to issue a G28 command to return home.

I was actually looking at possibly purchasing Mach3 but for now I'm using EMC2 V2.4. It's going to be interesting to see what the final solution is to this problem.

That's just it!

I'm trying to define where "HOME" is... and I don't have any limit switches...

BJ

Hi BJ,

Without limit switches, for me each mach3 session I just use MDI interface with the G0 X0 Y0 Z(home height) and use the repeat (Up Arrow) to replay when I need Home.. The software I use will always home anyway.


Andy