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Mach3 CNC Controller Software Installation and Configuration
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1. 5 6 6 3 General Logic Configuration Column 3 Lss 5 6 6 4 General Logic Configuration Column 4 o o oooooooooooo o o Su How The Profile Information Is Stored o oo oooooooooooooooooooo 5 8 Documentino Y Our SCUD asieran ke ed ROC bo SO ice S RR TRUE de Appendix A Torch Height Controls in Mach3 Figures 1 1 Main Parts ota CNG Systemi dae bere Ub x oe ba AA 2 Select Program Components Screen eras EAR ERRARE EA EVE S 2 2 Create a Custom Profile Screens ved wo tos ot b d amd b nx EXER EREREELS 2 3 Create DUI o q tage wma dette acon att ect Suse aye Sig dies ans Eid rue esu e 2 4 The Running DriverTest Program o oo ooooooooooooor 2 5 Protile Selection WindOW a Rao opa Onda e umet Le ed cem de oes 2 6 Create Profile WIHOOW Je sesenta rn dar acer 2 7 Shortcut to MyM a ste o psc apt acu ES p A RR S 3 Select Control Device Screens ii deas 3 2 Screen Selection LADS ti St da 3 3 Control Buttons FIV OWN au uitae ae root RP greg is 3 4 MDI Eximp va EE esed A at c roter d ees 3 5 Teeachine a Rectan ele uiua eu I noU EAE ER ER O E S 3 6 Taught Program RUNDING 5 6 22 93 acer vota hi iaa dated ues 4 Parallel Port Female Connector seen from back of PC o o oooooo o o 4 2 Three Examples of Commercially Available Breakout Boards 4 3 Example of Servo Motor with Encoder o oooooooooooooonooo ooo 4 4 Step Pulse Borm Active L0 nica d t re i rne Ra e ur d Nd Ae
2. If you know some GCode commands you can try them out Or you can try GUO X10 X243 Figure 3 4 MDI Example Jog ON OFF Ctri Ait J EUN hae a Units R GOO X1 6 Y2 3 _ Elapsed 0 00 00 00 E That command will move the tool to coordinates X 1 6 units and Y 2 3 units It is G zero not G let ter O You will see the axis DROs move to the new coordinates Try several different commands or G00 to different places If you press the up or down arrow keys while in the MDI line you will see that Mach3 scrolls you backward and forward through the history of commands you have used That makes it easy to repeat a command without having to re type it When you select the MDI line you will see a flyout box giving you a preview of this remembered text An MDI line or block as a line of GCode is sometimes called can have several commands on it They will be executed in the sensible order as defined in the Using Mach3Mill manual not neces sarily from left to right For example setting a feed speed using a command like F2 5 will take effect before any feed speed movements even if the F2 5 appears in the middle or even at the end of the line block If in doubt about the order that will be used enter each MDI command on a separate line 3 3 1 Teaching Mach3 can remember a sequence of lines that you enter using MDI and write them to a file This file can then be run again and again as a GCode program On
3. Three Examples of Commercially Available Breakout Boards 4 3 z e npe p AS his Ho nnn m dk I A M i Y T T t 4 LO 2 a m iE E dis E Jui UM cum ad ci LI x a ls T T ij LT r3 1 ig d Ls E 1m M di Nm 4 4 q bo ge CP Lid Pars om LOI LJ 4 ajir dots eos 1 4 IE LA hisz La j Ja de E at AI r T T ae deu e mt aa d MIT dish T1 L a i Li E m 3 1 rs x mmm e gt im EN 3 ir i i NN pif RI z de ua JE p PRESB E o sd gt uu pus m s 7 ODA Rs ELI E a a a Boards not necessarily to same scale The EStop Control Every machine tool should have one or more Emergency Stop EStop buttons usually with a big red mushroom head They should be fitted so that you can easily reach one from wherever you might be when you are operating the machine This is particularly vital on a CNC machine Each EStop button should stop all activity in the machine as quickly as is safely possible The spindle should stop rotating and the axes should stop moving This should happen without relying on software so we are talking about relays and contactors The circuit should tell Mach3 what you have done and there is a special mandatory input for this It will generally not be good enough to just turn off the AC power for an EStop event because the energy stored in DC smo
4. choice of direction is entirely up to you Noth ing will prevent you in either case from jogging farther onto the switch and possibly crashing the axis into a mechanical stop Take great care 4 5 4 Home Referencing in Action When you request referencing by button or GCode the axis or axes that have Home switches defined will travel at a selectable low speed in the defined direction until the Home switch operates The axis will then move back in the other direction so as to be off the switch During referencing the limits do not apply When you have referenced an axis then zero or some other value which is set in the Home Off set column of the Config gt Homing Limits dialog can be loaded into the axis DRO as its absolute machine coordinate If you use zero then the Home switch position 1s also the machine zero position of the axis If the reference goes in the negative direction of an axis usual for X and Y then you 4 14 might get referencing to load something like 0 5 into the DRO This means that the Home is half an inch clear of the limit This wastes a bit of the axis travel but if you overshoot when jogging to Home you will not accidentally trip the limits See also Software Limits as another way of solving this prob lem If you ask Mach3 to reference before you jog off the switch then it will travel in the opposite direction from its reference direction because the machine already on the Home switch and s
5. e Ifyou implemented configuration two from Section 4 5 you will probably have Home switches on the X Y and Z axes Enable the Home switches boxes for these axes and define the Port Pin to which each is connected If you are combining limits and the Home switch as one signal then you should enable Limit Limit and Home for each axis and allocate the same pin to Home Limit and Limit If present also configure axes A B and C Input 1 1s special in that it can be used to inhibit running a part program when safety guards are not in place The other three and 1 1f not used for the guard interlock are available for your own use and can be tested in the code of macros Input 4 can be used to connect an external pushbutton switch to implement the Single Step function You may wish to configure them later Enable and define Index Pulse if you have a spindle sensor with just one slot or mark Enable and define Limits Override if you are letting Mach3 control your limit switches and you have an external button which you will press when you need to jog off a limit If you have no switch then you can use a screen button to achieve the same function Enable and define EStop to indicate to Mach3 that the user has demanded an emergency stop Enable and define OEM Trigger inputs if you want electrical signals to be able to call OEM button functions without a screen button needing to be provided Enable and define Timing if you have
6. forces and the torque available from the motor to calculate what acceleration can be achieved with a given error Ballscrew and linear slide manufacturers catalogues often include sample calculations Unless you must have the ultimate in performance from your machine however ArtSoft USA recom mends simply setting the acceleration value so that test starts and stops sound comfortable That may not be very scientific but it usually gives good results It is also a lot easier than doing all the calcula tions 5 5 4 Saving and Testing Axis Finally don t forget to click Save Axis Settings to save the acceleration rate before you move on You should now check your calculations by using manual data input MDI to make a defined GO move and check the results For a rough check you can use a steel rule A more accurate test can be made with a Dial Test Indicator DTI and a gage block Strictly the DTI should be mounted in the toolholder but for a conventional mill you can use the frame of the machine as the spindle does not move relative to the frame in the X Y plane Suppose you are testing the X axis and have a 4 gage block Select the MDI screen Figure 5 16 Figure 5 16 Selecting MDI Fa Mach3 CNC Controller File Config Function Cfa jew _ Wizards Operator PlugIn Program Run Ait 1 MDI Te Path Alt4 Offset R eral Sx 2 5500 Click in the Input box Figure 5 17 and enter commands G20
7. tion of the switch It is often possible to use one switch for both limits by providing two ramps or vanes as shown in Figure 4 11 4 12 Figure 4 10 Mill with Tool at X 0 Y 0 Position Note the Dog Is on Limit Switch 4 5 2 Where to Mount the Switches The choice of mounting position for switches 1s often a compromise between keeping them away from swarf and dust and having to use flexible rather than fixed wiring For example the switches in Figure 4 6 and Figure 4 8 are both mounted under the table even though they need a flexible cable as they are much better protected there You may find it convenient to have one moving cable with the wires in it for two or more axes e g the X and Y axes of a gantry router could have switches on the gantry itself and a very short cable loop for the Z axis could then join the other two Do not be tempted to share a multi way cable between motor and switch wiring You may want to run two separate cables together This will not cause trouble if both are shielded with braid or foil and the shields are grounded to one common point at the elec tronic drives 4 13 Figure 4 11 Ramps Operating One Switch X Table gt X X and P X ramp Reference ramp X X amp Ref switch Frame You may find it helpful to look at commercial machines and pictures of examples on the ArtSoft USA Yahoo group for more ideas and technique
8. 25 of the parallel port are connected to the 0 volt side of the computer s power supply All signals inside and outside the PC are relative to this If you connect many long wires to it especially if they run near wires carrying high currents to motors then these wires will have induced currents flowing in them that can create voltage noise and can cause errors The interference might even crash the computer The axis and perhaps spindle drives which you will connect to Mach3 through your parallel port are likely to work at between 30 and 240 volts and they will be able to supply currents of many amps Properly connected they will do no harm to the computer but an accidental short circuit could easily destroy the entire computer motherboard and even the CD and hard drives as well For these two reasons ArtSoft USA strongly advises you to use an interface board called an isolating breakout board This will provide terminals that are easy to connect to a separate 0 volt common for the drives home switches etc and will avoid exceeding the permitted current in and out of the port This breakout board your drive electronics and power supply should be neatly installed in a metal case to minimize the risk of interference to your neighbors radio and television signals If you build a rat s nest then you are inviting short circuits and tragedy Figure 4 2 shows three representative commercial breakout boards 4 3 Figure 4 2
9. 4 2 2 Testine The EnstalldLOB dis eye Eon ce bee aed Senatui s dete a i defit oe Bes Sa es 2 4 2 2 1 If You Are Using the Default Parallel Port Driver o o ooooooooo 2 5 2 3 Ea AAA e N 2 7 25 L Crealing arrolla is as dd 2 7 2 4 Installation Problems usas iem e Prices a cared eh om da A 2 0 2 4 1 Running DriverTest After a Mach3 Crash llle 2 0 2 4 2 Manual Driver Installation and Uninstallation llle 2 0 Chapter 3 Introducing the Mach3 Screens and Com mands 3 1 SETAS a Seine dats rr til coa 3 1 Sl TypesorbODIeCls OB CIee Hs ed red aa 3 2 S42 Wsine Buttonssand SHOMCUIS s du eese a rSh E EP dn tr cR ns 3 3 lo Data EMO DROS uds tyre ar EE oe awe dude Tata iba au aired 3 3 3 2 A A m 3 3 3 3 Manual Data Input MDI and Teaching llle 3 5 Devel E A AN Delos pw acta Shah Erst D oes Recta 3 5 Chapter 4 Hardware Requirements and Connecting the Machine Tool 4 The PC Parallel Port and its History 0 0 0 0 eens 4 4 2 LOCC 3190315 ecce d abere ated e outer despecta ate E wet D E ET 4 2 42d Isolate Breakout Boards rca Vut purple re Rows RS ENERO eee EU eqs 4 3 4 3 The ESOP Control iia DP ek EE R RA A qs 4 4 4 4 AXIS Dye ODLDOS utente died e Pea beu d PS ades deme uita dades qa dese PEN EL 4 5 AAA Steppers and SetVOS Vitae re ed deba Net este d 4 5 4 4 2 Determining Axis Drive Requirements 0 000 cee eee eens 4 6 4 4 2 1 Example 1 Mill Table Cro
10. G90 to select inch units and absolute coordinates 9 23 Figure 5 17 Manually Entering G20 G90 Commands E JU vnmvrr Soll EA Elapsed Set up a clamp on the table with 1ts surface perpendicular to the table and to the table travel Jog the axis so the DTI probe touches it See Section 3 2 Jogging for information about jog control buttons and jog mode settings Ensure you finish by a move in the minus X direction Rotate the DTI bezel to zero the reading This is illustrated in Figure 5 18 Figure 5 18 Establishing a Zero Position as vite Silt all 1 iD mme Using the Mach3 MDI screen click the Zero X button to zero the X axis DRO Move the table to X 4 5 by entering the command GO X4 5 in the MDI screen s Input box The resulting gap between the block and the DTI should be about 4 5 If it is not then there is something badly wrong with your calculations of the Steps per Unit value Check and correct this Set the gage block against the stop block on the table recall that in this example we re assuming a 4 block and move to X 4 0 by using the command GO X4 This move is in the X minus direction as was the jog to zero the DTI against the block so the effects of backlash in the mechanism will be elim inated The reading on the DTI will give your positioning error It should be only up to a thousandth of an inch or so Figure 5 19 shows the gage block in position 0 24 Figure
11. MOLOE COMOL 35e E CUR UA edo he uoo e dU V e oU AS da 5 11 5 3 6 4 Modbus Spindle Control o ooo o o ooo o ooooo ooo 5 12 IIOS General PaRatme e Ds todita volare SP Sed 4 bibet brad 5 12 A Ule V RAMOS idu d cor 6 8 Po b Pact ae E a ann alte dG top eee Pod he pium BUR ae s 5 12 3 5 Tq peciak Ilo HON ds aen uta eus te e ae se dani 5 13 Moet AAA orat CARD Ur des QUE ee in ados A abe rot o ds 5 13 SS Italo TP A E eS 5 14 5 4 Deine the Setup Wats Vota ete dE Sirene d op ck os 5 14 5 5 Tarte MOS A AS A ls 5 15 35b Caleulatine the Steps Perlita A 5 15 5 5 1 1 Calculating Mechanical Drive 0 0 0 5 16 5 5 1 2 Calculating Motor Steps Per Revolution 0 0 ccc cee 5 18 5 5 1 3 Calculating Mach3 Steps Per Motor Revolution oooooooooooooo 5 18 Sd Macho Steps Per U Bit said Que eee E phous beu d gaudet ia 5 18 5 5 2 Setting the Maximum Motor Speed 0 0 5 19 3 9 241 Practical Trials of Motor Speed ads eer ERU EU EIERIA A wowed Mee sane 5 19 5 5 2 2 Motor Maximum Speed Calculations 0 0 ooo oo 5 20 5 5 2 3 Automatic Setting of Steps per Unit o ooooooooonnnnnnnoooooo o 5 21 5 5 3 Choosing an Acceleration Value o o ooooooooooooooooo rr 5 22 3 25 91 Mera and FOCOS tau ii Ei dede ded des 23 27 5 5 3 2 Testing Different Acceleration Values o ooooooooooonooooo ooo 5 23 5 5 3 3 Why You Want To Avoid a Big Servo Error ooooooooooooooonoooo 5 23 5
12. Ports amp Pins is Mill Options See Figure 5 8 Figure 5 8 Mill Options Tab of the Ports and Pins Dialog Engine Configuration Ports amp Pins nZ Inhibit Compensation G41 G42 Z Inhibit Or Max Depth D were v Advanced Compensation Analysis Persistant Digitizing gt Loop Control 4 Axis Point Clouds Allow Servo Hold on Inputit1 Add Axis Letters to Coordinates Max CL Closed Loop Emulation La A A THC Options r General Options Allow THC UP DOWN Control Homed true when no home swithes even if not in THC Made G28 1 No Initial Move Set OUTPUTS when in THC G73 Pullback 0 1 Z inhibit The Z inhibit On checkbox enables this function Max Depth gives the lowest Z value to which the axis will move The Persistent checkbox remembers the state which can be changed by a screen toggle from run to run of Mach3 9 13 Digitizing The 4 Axis Point Clouds checkbox enables recording of the state of the A axis as well as X Y and Z The Add Axis Letters to Coordinates prefixes the data with the axis name in the point cloud file THC Options Additional options for plasma torch control Compensation G41 G42 The Advanced Compensation Analysis checkbox turns on a more thorough look ahead analysis that will reduce the risk of gouging when compensating for cutter diameter using G41 and G42 on complex shapes Homed true when no Home switches This option will
13. Step amp Direction Downloading Mach3 2 1 Driver parallel port manual installation 2 9 test program 2 5 DRO cancelling entry in 3 3 caution when changing axis 3 3 control on screens 3 2 entering data to 3 3 DROs locked to initial units 5 35 Dwell time for spindle 5 12 E Editor program configure filename for 5 36 Emulated input signals 5 7 Encoder inputs defining 5 9 Encoder MPGs tab 5 9 Engine frequency Index 1 choice of suitable value 5 3 defining 5 3 Enhanced pulsing processor requirement for 5 38 EStop button emergency stop 1 4 function 4 4 lockout until reset 4 5 not involving software 4 4 F Fault finding port addressing and connections 5 14 Flash Errors and comments 5 38 Flood coolant 4 20 G G04 dwell units of P word in 5 38 GCode window control on screens 3 2 Gouge checks 5 38 Ground signal 4 3 H Hi Res Screens 5 37 Home Slave with Master Axis 5 37 Home switch not near axis limit 4 15 purpose 4 9 Home switch See also Limit switches Hotkeys configuring 5 31 defaults for jog 5 32 Ignore M calls while loading 5 37 IJ Mode defines how G02 G03 are interpreted 5 36 Include TLO in Z from G31 5 37 Index defining pin for pulse 5 7 interface for spindle 4 22 Initial state configure 5 35 Initialization string 5 36 Input pins shortage of 5 7 Input signals interfacing 4 23 Input Signals tab 5 5 Inputs defining which to be used 5 4 Installation errors after 2
14. Target r System Statistics Parameter Control CPU Mhz 932 25Khz Shortest time 141 435 uS Longest Time 42 498 uS Apic Timing Constant 5592 Khz 45 Khz 60Khz 75 Khz 100Khz Stop Timer Exit e 5 gt a du i E Interrupt Used 0 Average Int 41 999514 ee Start Timer Max Variation 1 063 us Longest Int 44 849 C You can ignore all the boxes with the exception of the Pulses Per Second It should be fairly steady around your chosen kernel pulse frequency 25 000 Hz 35 000 Hz etc Your pulse rate may vary however even quite wildly This is because Mach3 uses the Windows clock to calibrate its pulse timer and over a short time scale the Windows clock can be affected by other processes loading the com puter So you may actually be using an unreliable clock the Windows one to check Mach3 and so get the false impression that Mach3 s timer is unsteady DriverTest evaluates the pulse stream and displays a Pulse Rating below the Timer Variations graph In Figure 2 4 the pulse rating 1s Excellent If your system has more variation the pulse rating may be good fair or poor If you see a screen similar to Figure 2 4 with only small spikes on the Timer Vari ations graph a steady number of pulses per second and a good or excellent rating everything 1s work ing well Close the DriverTest program and proceed to Section 2 3 describing Mach3 Profiles below If you have problems
15. and MPG modes In Continuous mode the chosen axis will jog for as long as you hold the key down The speed of jog ging is set by the Slow Jog Percentage DRO You can enter any value from 0 1 to 100 to get whatever speed you want The Up and Down screen buttons beside this DRO will alter its value in 5 steps If you depress the Shift key then the Jogging will occur at 100 speed whatever the override set ting This allows you to quickly jog to near your destination In Step mode each press of a jog key will move the axis by the distance indicated in the Step DRO You can cycle through a list of predefined Step sizes with the Cycle Jog Step button Movement will be at the current Feedrate Rotary encoders can be interfaced via the parallel port input pins to Mach3 as Manual Pulse Genera tors MPGs It is used to perform jogging by turn ing its knob when in MPG mode The buttons marked A t A Alt B and Alt C cycle through the available axes for each of three MPGs and the LEDs define which axis is currently selected for jogging The another option for jogging is a joystick con nected to the PC games port or USB Mach3 will work with any Windows compatible analog joy stick so you could even control your X axis by a Ferrari steering wheel The appropriate Windows driver will be needed for the joystick device The MPG MODE m m CA gt Mode MPGFeedrate 100 00 Shuttle Mode
16. any given time so you the machine operator are responsible for supplying that information to Mach3 The information is given in two steps When the system 1s configured 1 e what you are doing now you define up to fifteen available pulley combinations These are set by the physical sizes of the pulleys or by the ratios in the geared head Then when a part program is being run the operator specifies which pulley 1 to 15 is in use The machine s pulley ratios are defined to Mach3 using the Config gt Spindle Pulleys dialog Figure 5 2 shows a sample dialog window The dialog lets you define up to fifteen pulley sets 0 26 Figure 5 21 Config gt Spindle Pulleys Dialog Pulley Selection B x Current Pulley Min Speed Max Speed Ratio Pulley Number 4 v o 8000 1 Reversed The maximum speed Max Speed is the speed at which the spindle will rotate when the motor is at full speed Full speed is achieved by 100 pulse width in PWM and at the set Vel value on Motor Tun ing Spindle Axis for Step and Direction If a speed greater than the Max Speed is requested Mach3 will display a warning and use the Max Speed value If the Min Speed feature is used its value for each pulley should be calculated as a percentage of the maximum speed with the percentage determined by the minimum speed rating of the motor or control ler It is of course also the minimum percentage PWM signal ratio For example if a PWM
17. axis can be at any coordinate position and you define this location Thus the Home switches do not have to be at Machine Zero 4 9 4 5 1 The repeatability of the operating point particularly with mechanical switches 1s very dependent on the quality of the switch and the rigidity of its mounting and actuating lever The setup shown in Figure 4 6 would be very imprecise Repeatability 1s very important for a switch used for the Home function Each axis could therefore need three switches 1 e two Limit switches at the two ends of travel and a Home switch Even a basic mill would require nine parallel port inputs for them This is not practical as a parallel port has only five inputs The problem of insufficient inputs can be solved in three ways 1 Connect the limit switches to external logic perhaps in the drive electronics and use this logic to switch off the drives when a limit 1s reached rather than interfacing them to Mach3 Separate refer ence switches would still be connected inputs to Mach3 2 Useone pin to share all the inputs for an axis and make Mach3 responsible for controlling both limits and detecting Home For example if Mach3 was instructed to move to Home on a milling machine it could move the X axis to the left table to the right until a switch was triggered In context that would be interpreted as Home If that same switch was triggered while machining however it would be interpreted as excee
18. be used to control valves or pumps for flood and mist coolant These are activated by screen buttons and or M7 M8 M9 Knife Direction Control Rotary axis A can be configured so it rotates to ensure that a tool like a knife is tangential to the direc tion of movement in G1 moves of X and Y This allows implementation of a vinyl or fabric cutter with fully controlled knife Digitize Probe Mach3 can be connected to a contact digitizing probe to make a measuring and model digitizing sys tem There is an input signal that indicates that the probe has made contact and provision for an output to request that a reading is taken by a non contact e g laser probe To be useful the probe must have an accurately spherical end or at least a portion of a sphere mounted in the spindle with its center accurately on the centerline of the spindle and a fixed distance from a fixed point in the Z direction e g the spindle nose To be capable of probing non metallic materials and many models for digitization will be made in foam MDF or plastic the probe requires to make or break a switch with a minute deflection of its tip in any XY or Z direction If the probe is to be used with an automatic toolchanger then it also needs to be cordless These requirements are a major challenge for the designer of a probe to be built in a home workshop and commercial probes are not cheap A development feature is implemented to allow the use of a laser
19. calculate and set a value for each axis you are using as they may not be the same To avoid forgetting later click Save Axis Settings now 9 18 Figure 5 11 Motor Tuning Dialog Motor Tuning and Setup E E X 1000 120 4 0 010360 lo o Cancel if Axis Selection X AXIS MOTOR MOVEMENT PROFILE EY 187 5 X Axis 168 75 amp 150 Y Axis 131 25 pt 112 5 Axis 93 75 je 75 5 5625 c S 33 qi gt 1875 0 2 0 4 0 6 0 8 1 1 2 1 4 1 6 1 8 2 Time in Seconds Accel Velocity Acceleration Step Pulse Dir Pulse Steps per In s or mm s per min in s or mm s sec sec G s 1 Sus 0 5 5 5 2 Setting the Maximum Motor Speed 5 5 2 Now set the maximum motor speed The Config gt Motor Tuning dialog gives a graphical display showing of velocity against time for a short imaginary move using the currently selected parameters The axis accelerates perhaps runs at full speed then decelerates You can click and drag the Accel and Velocity sliders to see how changes affect the performance Set the velocity to maximum for now Use the Acceleration slider to alter the rate of acceleration deceleration these are always the same as each other As you use the sliders the values in the Velocity and Accel boxes are updated Velocity is in units per minute Accel is in units per second The acceleration value is also given in Gs to give you a subjec tive impression
20. can transfer files between PCs attach copy protection don gles connect peripherals such as scanners and Zip drives and of course control machine tools using it The USB interface is taking over many of these functions and this conveniently leaves the parallel port free for Mach3 The parallel port connector on the PC is a 25 pin female D connector The connector as seen from the back of the PC is shown in figure 4 1 The arrows give the direction of information flow relative to the PC Thus for example pin 15 the second pin from the right on the bottom row is an input to the PC 4 1 Figure 4 1 Parallel Port Female Connector seen from back of PC 4 2 gees UTI as LEER mo common Note Convertors which plug into a USB port and have a 25 pin connector will not drive a machine tool using Mach3 even though they are perfectly suitable for the simpler task of connecting a printer Logic Signals On first reading you may wish to skip to the next heading and return here if you have to get involved with the nitty gritty of interface circuits It will probably be useful to read it with the documentation for your axis drive electronics All the signals output by Mach3 and input to it are binary digital 1 e zeros and ones These signals are voltages supplied by the output pins or supplied to the input pins of the parallel port These volt ages are measured relative to the computer s O volt line which 1s connecte
21. components of a CNC system are shown in Figure 1 1 These are l A Computer Aided Design Computer Aided Manufacturing CAD CAM program The part designer uses the CAD CAM program to generate an output file called a part program The part program often written in GCode describes the machine steps required to make the desired part You can also create a GCode program manually 2 A file transfer medium such as a USB flash drive floppy disk or network link transfers the output of the CAD CAM program to a Machine Controller 3 A Machine Controller The Machine Controller reads and interprets the part program to con trol the tool which will cut the workpiece Mach3 running on a PC performs the Machine Controller function and send signals to the Drives 1 2 4 The Drives The signals from the Machine Controller are amplified by the Drives so they are powerful enough and suitably timed to operate the motors driving the machine tool axes 5 The machine tool The axes of the machine are moved by screws racks or belts which are powered by servo motors or stepper motors Figure 1 1 Main Parts of a CNC System 2 Part Program link 1 User s CAD CAM computer 6 Operator 4 Axis amp spindle drives Although a milling machine is illustrated the machine could be a router or a plasma or laser cutter If the interfaces exist in addition to controlling tool position the Machine Controller can start and stop the
22. control contactor does not trip the no volt release cir cuitry that is you may want to switch the motor leads after the main machine contactors Do not share contacts on a given contactor between the AC supply and the stepper servo DC supply because of the greatly increased risk of a short circuit between those supplies Seek advice if you are unsure especially before working with 220 440 3 phase circuits The catching diodes across the relay and contactor coils are needed to absorb the back emf when switching the current off in the coils Contactors may come with suitable coil suppression circuits built in 4 25 This is a blank left hand page for two sided printing 4 26 D l Chapter 5 Configuring Mach3 for Your Machine and Drives If you have bought a machine tool already interfaced to a computer running Mach3 then you will probably not need to read this chapter except out of general interest Your supplier will probably have installed the Mach3 software and set it up and or will have given you detailed instructions on what to do ArtSoft USA recommends that you keep a printed copy of how your version of Mach3 is configured The information will be extremely helpful if you ever need to re install the software from scratch Mach3 stores this information in an XML file in the Mach3 folder that you can view and print If you created a custom profile for your configuration as recommended in Section 2 3 Mach3 Profi
23. just stopping it Step and Direction Motor This can be a variable speed drive controlled by step pulses or a full servo drive You can use the Mach3 pulley configuration see Section 5 5 5 1 to define a minimum speed if this is needed by the motor or its electronics 5 3 6 4 Modbus Spindle Control 5 3 6 This block allows the setup of an analog port on a Modbus device e g a Homann ModIO to control spindle speed For details see the documentation of your ModBus device 5 General Parameters These let you specify a delay after starting or stopping the spindle before Mach3 will execute further commands that is a Dwell time These delays can be used to allow time for acceleration before a cut is made and to provide some software protection from going directly from clockwise to counterclock wise spindle rotation Enter the dwell times in seconds Immediate Relay off before delay if checked will switch the spindle relay off as soon as an M5 com mand 1s executed If unchecked the spindle relay will stay on until the spin down delay period has elapsed 5 3 6 6 Pulley Ratios Mach3 has control over the speed of your spindle motor You program spindle speeds through the S word The Mach3 pulley system lets you define the relationship between these for 15 different pulley or gearbox settings It is easier to understand how this works after going through the process of tuning the spindle motor so pulley ratio setup 1s described in Sec
24. make the system appear to be Home refer enced 1 e LEDs green at all times It should be used only if no Home switches are defined under Ports amp Pins gt Input Signals tab 5 3 8 Initial Testing 5 4 The software 1s now configured sufficiently for you to do some simple tests with the hardware If it 1s convenient to connect the inputs from the manual switches such as Home then do so now Run Mach3Mill and display the Diagnostics screen This has a bank of LEDs displaying the logic level of the inputs and outputs Ensure that the external Emergency Stop signal is not active Red Emer gency LED not flashing and click the red Reset button on the screen Its LED should stop flashing If you have associated any outputs with coolant or spindle rotation then you can use the relevant but tons on the Diagnostics screen to turn the outputs on and off The machine should also respond or you can monitor the voltages of the signals with a multimeter Next operate the home or the limit switches You should see the appropriate LEDs glow yellow when their signal is active These tests will let you see that your parallel port is correctly addressed and the inputs and outputs are appropriately connected If you have two ports and all the test signals are on one then you might consider a temporary switch of your configuration Connect one of the home or limit switches through the other port so that you can check its correct operation Don t forg
25. may opt to allow Mach3 to do nothing with it to only turn the spindle on and off or to have total control of its speed by using a Pulse Width Modulated PWM signal or a step and direction signal The dialog is shown in Figure 5 7 Refer to Section 5 5 5 Spindle Motor Speed Control Setup for a description Figure 5 7 Spindle Setup Tab of the Ports and Pins Dialog Engine Configuration Ports amp Pins I BM Port Setup and Axis Selection Motor Outputs Input Signals Output Signals Encoder MP fs Spindle Setup Mi Relay Control Motor Control Special Functions Disable Spindle Relays Use Spindle Motor Output Use Spindle Feedback in Sync Mode Clockwise M3 Output fi D PACA Closed Loop Spindle Control CCw M4 Output i pa P os i D o3 Dutput Signal s 1 6 1 Spindle Speed Averaging Flood Mist Control gt PWMBase Freq 5 Minimum PwM z Iv Disable Flood Mist relays Delay Mist M7 Output 4 o Flood M8 Output 3 fo Output Signal s 1 6 CCW Delay Spin UP 1 Seconds ModBus Spindle Use Step Dir as well CW Delay Spind DOWN y Seconds Enabled Reg 64 64 127 CCW Delay Spin DOWN fi Seconds Max ADC Count fi 6380 Immediate Relay off before delay Special Options Usually Off Hotwire Heat for Jog Laser Mode freq Torch Volts Control General Parameters Cw Delay Spin UP 5 3 6 1 Coolant Control Code M7 can t
26. ms Use WatchDogs Debug This Run Iv Enhanced Pulsing Allow Wave Files Allow Speech Set Charge Pump to 5Khz Laser 5tndby Use QUTPUT20 as Dwell Trigger NoFRO on Queue 10 Tum Manual Spindle Incr 10 Spindle OV increment pO Cont Plasma Mode CV Dist Tolerance 180 Units G100 Adaptive NurbsCV Stop CV on angles gt lo Degrees i Axis DRO Properties Tool Selections Persistent v Optional Offset Save v Persistent Offsets v Persistent DROs Copy G54 from 659 253 on startup DK G20 G21 Control If Lock DROs to setup units 1s checked then even though G20 and G21 will alter the way X Y Z etc words are interpreted inch or millimeter the DROs will always display in the Setup Unit system Tool change If gnore Tool Change 1s checked M6 tool change requests will be ignored If unchecked M6 will call the M6 tool change macro If Stop Spindle Wait for Cycle Start is checked an M6 tool change request will stop the spindle and wait for manual restart If Auto Tool Changer is checked then the M6Start M6End macros will be called Angular properties An axis checked as angular 1s measured in degrees that is to say G20 G21 do not alter the interpretation of A B C words If A B or C is unchecked that axis will be measured in linear units similar to X Y and Z Program end or M30 or Rewind Defines action s to take place at end or a rewind of a part program Check t
27. of less than 2096 gives unacceptable motor performance then the minimum speed should be calculated as 20 of the maximum speed If a speed lower than the minimum is requested by the S word etc then Mach3 will display a warning and use the minimum acceptable speed For example if there is a maxi mum speed of 1600 rpm on pulley 4 and a minimum speed of 320 20 of 1600 an S200 command would display a warning and the minimum speed of 320 would be used This feature is to avoid oper ating the motor or its controller at a speed below its minimum rating If you do not want to set up the Min Speed feature enter a value of 0 for each pulley s Min Speed Mach3 uses the pulley ratio information as follows 1 When the part program executes an S word or a value is entered into the Set Speed DRO then the value is compared with the maximum speed for the currently selected pulley If the requested speed is greater than the maximum then an error occurs 2 Otherwise the percentage of the maximum for the pulley that has been requested is used to set the PWM pulse width or Step pulses are generated to produce that percentage of the maximum motor speed as set in Motor Tuning for the Spindle Axis For example suppose the maximum spindle speed for Pulley 1 is 1500 rpm 81600 would be an error S600 would give a PWM pulse width of 40 600 1500 If the maximum Step and Direction speed is 3600 rpm then the motor would be stepped at 1440 rpm 3600 x
28. of the forces that will be applied to a massive table or workpiece The maximum velocity you can display 1s limited by the maximum pulse rate of Mach3 For example if you have configured this to 25 000 Hz and 2000 steps per unit then the maximum possible Velocity is 750 units per minute This maximum is however not necessarily safe for your motor drive mechanism or machine It is just Mach3 running flat out You can make the necessary calculations or do some practical trials Section 5 5 2 1 tells how to do trials Section 5 5 2 2 tells how to do the calculations l Practical Trials of Motor Speed You saved the axis after setting the Steps per unit If you didn t do so now Click OK to close the dia log and make sure that everything is powered up Click the Reset button so 1ts LED glows continu ously 9 19 Go back to Config gt Motor Tuning and select the axis to test Use the Velocity slider to set the graph to about 20 of maximum velocity Press and hold the cursor Up key on your keyboard The machine axis should move in the Plus direction If it moves faster than seems desirable then choose a lower velocity If it moves too slowly then choose a higher velocity The cursor Down key will make the axis move the other way 1 e the Minus direction If the axis moves in the wrong direction Minus when it should move Plus there are three ways to fix the problem Click the Save button to save the axis settings then do
29. setup dialog is defined in Section 5 The Relay Activation outputs not used for the Spindle and Coolant can be used by you and controlled in user written macros And a final thought before you get carried away with implementing too many of the features in this chapter remember that you do not have an unlimited number of inputs outputs Even with two parallel ports there are only ten inputs for supporting all functions and although a keyboard emulator can give more inputs these cannot be used for all functions You may have to use a ModBus device to signifi cantly expand custom input output 4 23 4 14 Sample Schematic of EStop and Limits Using Relays Computer or breakout 5 Volts From Enable or charge pump circuit active Hi To EStop input active Lo RLB 1 Computer or breakout O Volts Control positive 12 Volts Limit Limit Limit Limit Interface Reset EStop1 RLB 2 Limit Limit Limit Limit EStop2 8200 e 53 Interface OK LED M Control 0 Volts Contactor positive could be same as Control supply RLA 1 le i EET C1 1 C2 1 C3 1 C3 2 1N4001 Contactor O Volts 4 24 Circuit Notes This circuit represents only one possible configuration for externally connected limit switches If you require reference switches then those should be separate and connected to Mach3 inputs Relay contacts are shown in their de energized position Limit switches and pu
30. spindle motor control its speed turn coolant on and off and check that a part program s commands or the Operator are not trying to move any machine axis beyond its limits The Machine Controller can also have controls such as pushbuttons a keyboard potentiometer knobs a manual pulse generator MPG wheel or a joystick so that the Operator can control the machine manually and start and stop the running of the part program The Machine Controller has a display so that the Operator knows what is happening Because the commands of a GCode program can request complicated coordinated movements of the machine axes the Machine Controller has to be able to perform a lot of calculations in real time e g cutting a helix requires a lot of trigonometric calculation Historically this made it an expensive piece of equipment 1 3 1 3 1 4 How Mach3 Fits In Mach3 is a software package that runs on a PC and turns it into a very powerful and economical Machine Controller to replace 3 in Figure 1 1 To run Mach3 you need a PC running the Windows 2000 Windows XP or Windows 32 bit Vista operating system Windows Vista may require a registry patch available at www machsup port com ArtSoft USA recommends at least a 1GHz processor with a 1024 x 768 pixel resolution screen A desktop machine will give much better performance than most laptops and be considerably cheaper You can use this computer for any other functions in the works
31. the extension XML You can view and print the contents of Profile files with Internet Explorer or other web browser XML is a mark up language used on web pages The Mach3 program installer sets up shortcuts to run Mach3 exe with default Profiles for a Mill and for Turning 1 e Mach3Mill and Mach3Turn You can create your own shortcuts each with a differ ent Profile so one computer can control a variety of machine tools This 1s very useful if you have more than one machine and they require different values for the motor tuning or have different limit and home switch arrangements You can either run Mach3 exe use the Mach3Loader shortcut and choose from the list of available profiles or you can set up extra shortcuts that specify the profile to use In a shortcut the profile to load is given in the p argument in the Target of the shortcut properties To see an example inspect the Properties of the Mach3Mill shortcut This can be done by right click ing the shortcut and choosing Properties from the menu 9 39 An XML file for a profile can be edited by an external editor such as Notepad but you are very strongly advised not to do this unless you are fully conversant with the meaning of each entry in the file Some users have encountered very strange effects with mis formatted files Notice that some tags e g the screen layout are created only when a built in default value 1s overridden using Mach3 menus It is much saf
32. the screen is displayed is the same as clicking the button with the mouse You might like to try using the mouse and keyboard shortcuts to turn on and off Jogging to turn on Flood coolant and to switch to the MDI screen Notice that letters are sometimes combined with the Control or Alt keys Although letters are shown as uppercase for ease of reading do not use the shift key when typing the shortcuts In a workshop it is often convenient to minimize the times when you need to use a mouse Physical switches on a control panel can be used to control Mach3 by use of a keyboard emulator board for example the Ultimarc IPAC This connects in series with your keyboard and will send Mach3 pre tend key presses to activate buttons using the keyboard shortcuts If a button does not appear on the current screen then its keyboard shortcut is not active There are certain special keyboard shortcuts which are global across all screens Chapter 5 shows how those are set up 3 1 3 Data Entry to DROs You can enter new data into any DRO by clicking in it with the mouse by clicking its hotkey where set or by using the global hotkey to select DROs and moving to the one that you want with the arrow keys Try entering a feedrate like 45 6 on the Program Run screen Click in the feedrate box and type the numbers You must press the Enter key to accept the new value or press the Esc key to revert to the previous one Backspace and Delete are not ac
33. this screen Automated Setup of Inputs Notice the scroll bar at the right side ofthe window Table 5 1 gives the complete list of input signals 5 5 Table 5 1 List of Possible Input Signals Signal ATE Xa X Home b E V Y Home LAR a Z Home A Az A Home B B B Home Corr Cal C Home Input 1 Input 2 Input 3 Input 4 Probe Index Limit Ovrd EStop THC On THC Up Meaning Signal Meaning C axis limit switch hit Timing Spindle rotation sensor with more than one slot or mark C axis limit switch hit og X 0 Move X in direction C axis Home switch hit Jog X Move X in direction Safety guards not in place or Jog Y Move Y in direction user defined Usordofined joey Move Vin direcion Single step or user defined log Z MoveZin direction Spindle rotation sensor with one Jog A Move A in direction slot or mark Limit override enable Emergency Stop bution pressed Plasma torch control Plasma torch contol THC Down Plasma torch control E This discussion assumes you have chosen one of the home limit switch configurations described in Section 4 5 Limit and Home Switches If you implemented configuration one from Section 4 5 with the limit switches connected together to trigger an EStop or disable the axis drives through the drive electronics then you do not need to select any of the Limit inputs X X etc 9 6
34. to be a good compromise value to choose A value of 10 micro steps means that Mach3 will need to send 2000 pulses per motor shaft revolution for a stepper axis drive assuming a stepper motor with a basic resolution of 200 steps rev Some servo drives require one pulse per quadrature count from the motor encoder thus giving 1200 steps per rev for a 300 CPR encoder Others include electronic gearing where you can multiply the input steps by an integer value and sometimes then divide the result by another integer value The multiplication of input steps can be very useful with Mach3 as the speed of small servo motors with a high resolution encoder can be limited by the maximum pulse rate which Mach3 can generate 5 5 1 4 Mach3 Steps Per Unit Now that we know the required motor revs per unit of travel we can finally calculate Mach3 steps per unit Mach3 steps per rev X Motor revs per unit Figure 5 11 shows the dialog for Config gt Motor Tuning Click a button at the right of the dialog to select the axis that you are configuring and enter the calculated value of Mach3 steps per unit in the box labeled Steps per This value does not have to be an integer so you can achieve as much accuracy as you wish Whatever the number if is a specific calculated number determined by the drive config uration It is NOT a tuneable quantity If you don t get the correct machine travel when testing you have made an error in your calculation Be sure to
35. with your profile name in the command line as shown in Figure 2 7 Figure 2 7 Shortcut to MyMill MyMill Properties E ajx General Shortcut Security Ml Target type Application Target location Mach3 Target C Mach3 Mach3 exe p MyMill Iv Runin separate memory space Run as different user Start in DWac3 Shortcut key None Run Normal window y Comment Mil Operations 5 Find Target Change Icon tes a 2 8 2 4 Installation Problems Two things may occur when running the test that indicate a problem 1 The display reads Driver not found or installed contact Art This display will appear if the driver did not install into Windows This can occur on XP systems that have a corruption of their driver database The fix 1s to reinstall Windows Or you may be running Win2000 Win2000 has a bug feature that can interfere with loading the driver The driver may need to be loaded manually See Section 2 4 2 2 Ifthe display reads Taking over 3 2 1 but then reboots one of two things has occurred Either you didn t reboot when asked during the installation of Mach3 Told you See Section 2 1 3 or the driver is corrupted or unable to be used in your system In this case follow the instruction in Section 2 4 2 and remove the driver manually then re install Mach3 If the same thing happens please notify ArtSoft USA using the e
36. 0 4 The Ratio value can be set if the actual speed of the spindle is for any reason different than the speed being seen by the spindle speed sensor This may occur if because of physical constraints the speed sensor must be mounted at a point in the spindle drivetrain that has additional gearing between its loca tion and the output spindle Check Reversed if because of gearing spindle rotation of a pulley setting is opposite to the rotation of other pulley settings As an example consider the Bridgeport Series 1 step pulley J head It provides a total of eight speeds through a four step pulley and a two speed internal gear reduction Because of the design of the J head the only reasonable place to mount a spindle speed sensor 1s on the spindle pulley When the gear reduction 1s used in its high position this causes no difficulty The ratio between the spindle pulley 5 27 speed and the actual spindle speed is 1 1 The speed seen by the speed sensor on the spindle pulley will be equal to the speed of the spindle When the gear reduction is set to its low position however two things happen One the speed seen by the speed sensor will be approximately 8 3 times the actual speed of the spindle because the spindle speed will be reduced by the gear reduction Two when the motor is running forward the spindle will turn in reverse because of the interposed gear reduction These discrepancies can get compensated for in M
37. 5 19 Gage Block in Position 2 5 4 a E 1 A A Remove the gage block and issue the command GO XO to move back and check the zero value Repeat the 4 test to get a set of perhaps 20 test values See how reproducible the positioning is If you get big variations then there is something wrong mechanically If you get a consistent error then you can fine tune the Steps per Unit value using the technique described in Section 5 5 2 3 to achieve maximum accuracy Next you should check that the axis does not lose steps in repeated moves at speed Remove the gage block Use the MDI screen to issue the GO XO command and check the zero on the DTI Click the Start Teach button Click in the Input space and type in the following program F1000 i e faster than possible but Mach3 will limit speed G20 G90 Inch and Absolute M98 P1234 L50 run subroutine 50 times M30 stop 01234 G1 X4 G1 X0 do a feed rate move and move back M99 return The commands will be executed as you type them but they will also be saved When you have typed in all the program commands click the Stop Teach button Click the Load Edit button Select the Pro eram Run tab Click the Cycle Start button to run the program Check that the motion sounds smooth When it finishes the DTI should of course read zero If it does not adjust the maximum velocity and acceleration of the axis downward and try again If the program does not run properly check
38. 5 3 4 Choosing an Acceleration Value ooooooooooooomorrrrrano 5 23 S54 Savins and Testo Axis iii Sida aia 5 23 5 5 4 1 Repeat Configuration of Other Axes o o o ooooooooooooooorrraaan 5 25 5 5 5 Spindle Motor Speed Control Setup o o ooooooooooooooo nee 5 26 5 5 5 1 Motor Speed Spindle Speed and Pulleys oooooooooooooo 5 26 5 5 5 2 Pulse Width Modulated Spindle Controller o o ooooooooooo oo 5 28 5 5 5 3 Step and Direction Spindle Controller o oooooooooooomooooo 5 29 5 5 5 4 Teste the Spindle DEVE tds wie art d ii e eate A dae ae 5 29 5 6 Other ConfiguradlioIt A san s PR EE Rai EIS da RA s 5 29 5 6 1 Configure Homing and Soft Limits 5 5 29 5 6 1 1 Referencing Speeds and Direction ooooooooooorrnnno ee eens 5 30 3 0 1 2 Posttionor Hore SWESS uo Decorate Danos e oral aia 5 30 5 6 1 5 Contioure Soft Limits 6 6 A ONE OU E ERA Ua ee s 5 30 5 61 4 GZS Home E96alolbb a 25 54 ey is e A UE ded Ra ORC E R XH 5 3 5 62 Configure System Hotkeys o oooooooooornoo rs 5 3 5 55 Contieure Baeklash 260 8 e drops Pee a ERES TRES dd s 5 32 304 COmMoure SlavIB9 e aa ee Am ota ER ete eR s 5 33 3 0 3 Contiseure ToOlpatli sitiar 25 00 General C ODTIDUEOUIOTI e vaccae ie ace Se Rae eee ee e oA s oleis 5 6 6 1 General Logic Configuration Column 1 o oooooooooo o o o 5 6 6 2 General Logic Configuration Column 2 sss
39. 9 Installation of Mach3 2 1 Interlock Index 2 switch for guards 5 36 J Jog Follow Mode 5 34 Jog step setting size 3 4 Jogging See Axis jogging K Keyboard shortcuts 3 3 Keyboard emulator for additional input signals 5 7 L LED control on screens 3 2 Light Emitting Diode See LED Limit switches 5 7 cabling 4 13 defining override switch input 5 7 external implementation 4 10 logical OR for electronic switches 4 11 manual override 4 14 microswitches accuracy of 4 12 overtravel 4 12 mounting 4 13 purpose 4 9 sharing Mach3 inputs 4 10 4 14 Limits soft Soft limits 5 30 Linear glass scale not part of servo loop 4 22 quadrature interface 4 20 Lock Rapid Feed FRO to Feed FRO 5 37 LookAhead 5 37 MO1 Control 5 36 M30 configure action at 5 35 M9 Execute after Block 5 37 Mach3 charge pump monitor See Charge pump Components of 2 4 computer requirements 1 4 demonstration version 2 1 how distributed 2 1 on laptop 1 4 pulse monitor See Charge pump what features it supports 1 4 what machines it can control 1 4 Mach3 Addons for Mill installed with Wizards 2 2 Manual data input MDI 5 23 Manual Data Input See MDI Manual Pulse Generators MPGs 1 3 defining inputs 5 9 for jogging 3 4 Maximum spindle speed 5 26 Mcalls ignore while loading 5 37 MDI control on screens 3 2 screen 3 5 teaching function 3 5 use of history 3 5 MDI manual data input 5 23 Mill Options tab 5 13 Mist coolant 4 20 Motor reve
40. Mach3 CNC Controller Software Installation and Configuration Version 3 Rev p o Copyright O 2003 2004 2005 2006 2008 ArtSoft USA AII Rights Reserved The following are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation Microsoft Windows Any other trademarks used in this manual are the property of the respective trademark holder Please send queries comments complaints corrections and suggested improvements for this manual to support machsupport com The Mach Developer Network MachDN is currently hosted at http www machsupport com Printed November 6 2008 Contents Chapter 1 Introduction to CNC Systems Before You Begin 20 RR 1 1 1 1 liie asia dista ebria dida 1 2 1 2 Components of a CNC Machining System cis ERRARE TTEEV RES 1 2 1 3 Hoy Macho Elis ies at Edd EXE ATAR E ier SA 1 4 1 4 What Nacho Can DO ours d S utes V oe dE OU ie orte Vete te p s 1 4 Chapter 2 Installing the Mach3 Software 2 1 Tustall3tlollss oou eeu ud A eu c frutti Lou Nun teles 2 2 1 Downlad dud Se Duo a ed es edorbu a oet d ee od 2 O PAI D uer e aos er rarene s E Roo hia iue dat ame ease Grae ES eae eet EA 2 2 1 2 1 If a machine tool is connected disconnect it now o oo ooooooo 2 2 1 2 2 Run the Mach3 software installation package oooooooooooomoo 2 2 2 1 2 3 If You re Using Windows Vista lesser 2 4 235 he Atal ReDOOL ues dd Se RII bade oe ee eed ah aie We eee oe eee eee 2
41. Redes UN Mn 4 5 Inverted Pulse Borm Active HT paris E ra ae Gah ET ATHEN qd qs 4 6 Example of a Mechanical Limit Switch oooooooooooooooroono 4 7 Two Normally Closed Switches Give a Logical OR o o oooooooooooo o 4 8 Optical Switch on Table with Vane on Bed of Machine LLL 4 9 Two Switches Operated By Frame with Overtravel Prevented by Mechanical Stops 4 10 Mill with Tool at X 0 Y 0 Position Note the Dog Is on Limit Switch 4 11 Ramps Operating One Switch 0 0 00 rn 4 12 Example Wiring DIAgram A A rU e OA CE 4 13 A 50 Pulse Width Modulated Signal llli 4 14 A 20 Pulse Width Modulated Signal silii ANS lasssscale BHeodel diu eae aL e oet ERE ROB Edda MU A a Hd dics A 16 gt Omadrature S19 alS ies eee eben ebat aco s SO dae t NU ORO Soo t delo Encoder DROS ise ex RB tede bee dores dom desee du a eee 5 Selecting the Ports and Pins Dialog from the Config Menu 5 2 Port Setup and Axis Selection Tab on the Ports and Pins Dialog 5 3 Motor Outputs Tab on the Ports and Pins Dialog cece eee 5 4 Input Signals Tab on the Ports and Pins Dialog liliis M 5 5 5 6 5 7 5 8 5 9 5 10 5 11 5 12 5 13 5 14 5 15 5 16 5 17 5 18 5 19 5 20 5 2 5 22 5 23 5 24 5 25 5 26 5 27 Output Signals Tab on the Ports and Pins Dialog 0 0 eee 5 8 Encoder MPG Tab on the P
42. a spindle sensor with more than one slot or mark Enable Probe for digitizing Enable THC On THC Up and THC Down for control of a Plasma torch Enable and define Jog inputs if you have separate buttons for Jog control The keyboard arrow keys provide Jog control in any case If you have one parallel port then you have 5 available inputs With two ports there are 10 or with pins 2 to 9 defined as inputs 13 It is very common to find that you are short of input signals espe cially if you also want to have some inputs for glass scales or other encoders You may have to com promise by not having things like a physical Limit Override switch to save signals You can also consider using a Keyboard Emulator for some input signals Response time will be slower than with a parallel port Refer to Section 5 3 3 Click the Apply button to save the data on this tab 5 3 3 Emulated Input Signals If you check the Emulated column for an input then the Port Pin number and active lo state for that signal will be ignored but the entry in the Hotkey column will be interpreted When a key down message 1s received with code that matches a Hotkey value then that signal is considered to be active When a key up message is received then it is inactive The key up and key down signals usually come from a keyboard emulator like the Ultimarc IPAC or Hagstrom that is triggered by switches connected to its inputs This allows more switches to be sensed tha
43. abled Iv Show Tool in Z Bar Colors Red Green Blue Show Tool as above centerline in Turn BackGround Color lo o o Rapid Color 1 o lo Feedrate G1 color o fo 1 G2 G3 Color 0 7 o2 o7 Enhance Color m m o Material Colour o foa ot Colors range from 0 none to 1 Show Lathe Object Stock Size 50 Units Auto Reset Plane on Regen Lines from Last to Current Origin sphere when checked displays a filled circle at the point of the toolpath display representing X 0 Y 0 Z 0 3D Compass when checked shows arrows depicting the directions of positive X Y and Z in the tool path display Machine boundaries when checked displays a box corresponding to the settings of the soft limits whether or not they are switched on Tool Position when checked shows the current position of the tool on the display Jog Follow Mode when checked causes the lines representing the toolpath to move relative to the window as the tool is jogged In other words the tool position 1s fixed in the toolpath display window ShowTool as above centerline in Turn relates to Mach3Turn to handle front and rear toolposts Show Lathe Object enables the 3D rendering of the object that will be produced by the toolpath Mach3Turn only Colors for different elements of the display can be configured The brightness of each of the additive primary colors Red Green and Blue are set on a s
44. accuracy The primary benefits of microstepping are reduced mechanical noise gentler actuation and reduced resonances problems Next look at the possible rapid feed speed Assume conservatively that the maximum motor speed is 500 rpm With our example 0 1 pitch leadscrew 500 rpm would give a rapid feed of 50 inches minute or just under 15 seconds for the full 12 slide travel This would be satisfactory although not spectacular At that speed the micro stepping motor drive electronics would need 16 667 pulses per second 500 rpm 200 steps per rev 10 microsteps per step 60 seconds per minute On a 1 GHz PC Mach3 can generate 35 000 pulses per second simultaneously on each of the six pos sible axes So there are no problems here You now have to determine the torque that the machine will require which will determine the size of motor required One way to measure this is to set up the machine for the heaviest cut you think you will ever make and with a long lever say 12 on the slide handwheel turn it at the end with a spring balance or set of spring kitchen scales The torque for the cut 1n ounce inches 1s the balance reading in ounces x 12 An easier and perhaps more reliable way if the information can be found is to use a motor size and specification that you know works on a similar machine with the same type of slide and screw Since a stepper motor if overloaded can have lost steps and resulting inaccuracy be su
45. ach3 by appropriately configuring the pulley entries that correspond to the low speed range Set the Ratio to be equal to the gear reduction Mach3 will divide the speed seen by the speed sensor by the Ratio and display the correct spindle speed Also check the Reversed box so Mach3 will inter change the notion of forward and reverse for those pulley steps Table 5 3 lists the appropriate settings Table 5 3 Pulley Configuration for Bridgeport Step Pulley J Head Pulley Max Speed Min Speed Ratio Reversed pa CO DAD Nn BR WIN pa mA Re 9 3 X Min Speed values are not given in Table 5 3 because they will depend on the operating characteristics of your particular motor and driver A Min Speed of 0 will always work but you will not get the over load protection offered by a correctly configured Min Speed 5 5 5 2 Pulse Width Modulated Spindle Controller To configure the spindle motor for PWM control check the Use Spindle Motor Output and PWM Con trol boxes on the Config gt Port and Pins gt Spindle Setup tab Figure 5 7 Locate the PWMBase Freq box The value you enter here is the frequency of the squarewave whose pulse width is modulated This is the signal which appears on the Spindle Step pin The higher the fre quency you choose here the faster your controller will be able to respond to speed changes but the lower the resolution of chosen speeds The number of different speeds i
46. ach3 has failed If you delay for two minutes then the Mach3 driver will cause Windows to fail with the usual Blue Screen of Death Running DriverTest resets the driver to a stable condition even if Mach3 disappears unexpectedly You may find after a crash that it fails to find the driver the first time it 1s run In this case merely run it again as the first run should fix things up 2 4 2 Manual Driver Installation and Uninstallation You need to read and do this section only if you have not successfully run the DriverTest pro gram The driver Mach3 sys can be installed and uninstalled manually using the Windows Control Panel The dialog boxes differ slightly between Windows 2000 and Windows XP but the steps are identical 1 Open the Windows Control Panel and double click on the icon or line for System 2 Select Hardware and click 4dd Hardware wizard Windows will look for any new actual hard ware and find none 3 Tell the wizard you have already installed 1t and then proceed to the next screen 2 9 You will be shown a list of hardware Scroll to the bottom of this and select 4dd a new hardware device and move to the next screen On the next screen you do not want Windows to search for the driver so select nstall the hardware that I manually select from a list Advanced The list you are shown will include an entry for MacA1 2 pulsing engine Select this and go to the next screen Click Have disc and on the nex
47. advises you to join one or both of the online discussion fora for Mach3 Links to join are at www machsupport com While these forums have many engineers and machinists with a vast range of experience as participants they do not constitute a substitute for a machine tool manufac turer s support network If your application requires that level of support then you should buy your CNC system from a local distributor or an OEM with a distributor network In that way you will get the benefits of Mach3 with the possibility of on site support The right to make copies of this manual is granted solely for the purpose of evaluating and or using licensed or demonstration copies of Mach3 It is not permitted under this right for third parties to charge for copies of this manual Every effort has been made to make this manual as complete and as accurate as possible but no war ranty or fitness is implied The information provided is on an as is basis The authors and publisher shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss or dam ages arising from the information contained in this manual Use of the manual is covered by the license conditions to which you must agree when installing Mach3 software ArtSoft USA is dedicated to continual improvement of its products Suggestions for enhancements corrections and clarifications will be gratefully received 1 2 Components of a CNC Machining System The main
48. arn a lot even if you do not have a CNC machine tool yet If you do have one then make sure it is not yet connected to the PC Mach3 is designed so that it is very easy to customize its screens to suit the way you work This means that the screens you see may not look exactly like those in this manual if you bought a preconfigured system from a vendor If there are major differences then your system supplier should have given you a revised set of screenshots to match your system 3 Screens If you created your own custom profile as shown in Figure 2 2 and Figure 2 3 Mach3 will have cre ated a shortcut icon on the desktop with the name of your custom profile Double click the appropriate icon to launch the program using that profile You can also double click the Mach3 Loader icon to run the program select from a list the name of the profile to use then click the OK button You did create your own profile as described in Section 2 3 didn t you If not go back and read that section If you have installed more than one driver or third party motion control plugin you may see a screen similar to Figure 3 1 The content of the screen you see will depend on what you have installed Select what you want to use by clicking the appropriate button then click the OK button Figure 3 1 Select Control Device Screen Motion Control Hardware PlugIn sensed l x Your system is showing more than one control device Please pick the one you would
49. ation 4 6 limitation by Mach3 step rate 4 7 minimum possible move 4 6 rapid speed 4 7 Axis Jogging 3 3 by MPG 3 4 joystick 3 4 keyboard 3 3 continuous jogging 3 4 step jogging 3 4 rate override 3 4 rate override by joystick throttle 3 4 slow speed 3 4 Axis slaving purpose and referencing 4 15 B Backlash configure 5 32 try to avoid 5 32 uses Shuttle Accel setting 5 36 Belt or chain pitch 5 17 Block name for a line of GCode 3 5 Blue Screen of Death action to take after 2 9 Boxed DROs and Graphics 5 37 Breakout board 4 3 Button control on screens 3 2 C Charge pump on during EStop 5 37 setting frequency 5 38 Circles display or cut incorrectly wrong IJ Mode setting 5 36 Concavity checks 5 38 Configure acceleration 5 22 action at M30 5 35 action at program end 5 35 angular axes 5 35 backlash 5 32 belt or chain pitch 5 17 DROs locked to initial units 5 35 initial state 5 35 Mach3 steps per unit 5 18 max motor speed 5 19 motor revs per unit 5 16 motor steps per revolution 5 18 permanent DROs 5 39 pulse widths 5 20 referencing 5 29 rotary axis units 5 18 screw revs per unit 5 16 serial output 5 36 slaving 5 33 steps per unit 5 16 tool change action 5 35 Coolant configuring 5 11 Coolant control 4 20 Coordinates of ref switches 5 30 CPR cycles per revolution 5 18 D Debounce configure 5 38 Digital Readout See DRO Digitize probe interfaces 4 20 Direction amp Step interface See
50. ave a ver sion of Mach3 installed on the computer you can install the new version on top of it You do not need to remove the old version first 1 If a machine tool is connected disconnect it now You do not need a machine tool connected to install the software In fact if you are just starting it 1s probably better not to have one connected If a machine tool is connected to your computer note where the cable or cables from the machine tool are plugged into your PC Turn off the PC the machine tool 2 1 and its drives and unplug the 25 pin connector s from the back of the PC Now switch the PC back on 2 1 2 2 Run the Mach3 software installation package When you run the downloaded file you will be guided through the usual installation steps for a Win dows program such as accepting the license conditions and selecting the folder for Mach3 ArtSoft USA recommends that you allow Mach3 to use its default installation folder C Mach3 The background image during installation is the standard Mach3Mill screen do not worry if you are planning to control a lathe as Mach3Turn 1s also being installed You will be asked if you want to install various program components as shown in Figure 2 1 Figure 2 1 Select Program Components Screen U Mach3 Setup Select Packages Please select the program features that you want to install Program Features yl Parallel Port Driver Installs the Parallel Port Driver This is
51. ble efficiency e Provides open loop control which means it is possible to lose steps under high loading and this may not immediately be obvious to the machine user In practice stepper motor drives give satis factory performance with conventional machine tools up to a Bridgeport turret mill or a 12 swing 6 center height lathe unless you want exceptional accuracy and speed of operation On the other hand a servo motor drive e Is relatively expensive especially if it has an AC motor e Needs wiring for both the motor and encoder e Requires maintenance of brushes on DC motors e Allows motor speed of 4000 rpm or more and a practically unlimited torque if your budget can stand it e Provides closed loop control so drive position is always known to be correct or a fault condition will be raised 1f an error occurs It is worth giving two warnings here First servo systems on old machines are probably not digital That is they are not controlled by a series of step pulses and a direction signal as required by Mach3 To use an old motor with Mach3 you will need to discard the resolver which gave the position and install a quadrature encoder and you will have to replace all the electronics Second beware of sec ond hand stepper motors unless you can get manufacturer s data for them They might be designed for 5 phase operation may not work well with a modern chopped micro stepping controller and might 4 5 have a muc
52. bled by the checkbox e Consider backlash compensation as a last resort when the mechanical design of your machine cannot be improved Using it will generally disable the constant velocity features at corners e Mach3 is not able to fully honor the axis acceleration parameters when compensating for backlash so stepper systems will generally have to be detuned to avoid risk of lost steps Figure 5 24 Configure Backlash Dialog Backlash Values E x Backlash Distance in units A AXIS Y Axis Z Axis A Axis B Axis C Axis Backlash Speed of Max TD Backlash Enabled Restart program to save these settings 9 32 5 6 4 Configure Slaving Large machines such as gantry routers or mills often need two drives one on each side of the gantry itself If these become out of step the gantry will rack and its cross axis not be perpendicular to the long axis You can use the Config gt Slave Axis dialog shown in Figure 5 25 to configure Mach3 so one drive say the X axis 1s the main drive and slave another to it perhaps the C axis configured as linear rather than rotary During normal use the same number of step pulses will be sent to the master and slave axes with the speed and acceleration being determined by the slower of the two When a reference operation is requested they will move together until the home switch of one is detected This drive will position just off that switch in the usual way but t
53. cale 0 to 1 for each type of line Hint Use a pro gram such as Photoshop to make a color you like and divide its RGB values by 255 it uses the scale 0 to 255 to get the values for Mach3 The A axis values let you specify the position and orientation of the A axis if it is configured as rotary and the display 1s enabled by the 4 Rotations checkbox Reset Plane on Regen reverts the display of the toolpath display to the current plane whenever it is regenerated by double click or button click Boxed Graphic displays a box at the boundaries of the tool movement 9 34 5 6 6 General Configuration The Config gt General Config dialog shown in Figure 5 27 lets you define the modes that are active when Mach3 is loaded 1 e the initial state of the system The entries are described column by column Figure 5 27 General Configuration Dialog General Logic Configuration r 820 321 Control Lock DRO s to setup units ignore Tool Change C Stop Spindle Wait for Cycle Start C AutoT ool Changer Angular Properties Unchecked for Linear v AAi is Angular v B Axis is Angular V C Axis is Angular Pgm End or M30 or Rewind Turm off all outputs E Stop the system Iv Perform G32 1 Remove Tool Offset v Radius Comp Off v Turn Off Spindle M T Control Iv Stop on M1 Command r Serial Output amp Bit1Stop 7Bit2 Stop F Program Safety Program Safety Lockout This d
54. clared range of the soft limits of the X Y and Z axes These can be set in the range 999999 to 999999 units for each axis When jogging motion gets near to the limit then its speed will be reduced when inside a Slow Zone which is defined for the table 9 30 If the Slow Zone is too big then you will reduce the effective working area of the machine If they are set too small then you risk hitting the hardware limits The defined limits only apply when switched on using the Soft Limits toggle button see Limits and Miscellaneous control family for details If a part program attempts to move beyond a soft limit then it will raise an error The soft limits values are also used to define the cutting envelope if Machine is selected for the tool path display You may find them useful for this even 1f you are not concerned about actual limits 5 6 1 4 G28 Home Location The G28 coordinates define the position in absolute coordinates to which the axes will move when a G28 is executed They are interpreted in the current units G20 G21 and not automatically adjusted if the units system is changed 5 6 2 Configure System Hotkeys Mach3 has a set of global hotkeys that can be used for jogging or to enter values into the MDI line etc These keys are configured in the Config gt System Hotkeys dialog shown in Figure 5 23 Click on the button for the required function then press the key to be used as its hotkey Its value will be displa
55. d depends on the maximum pulse rate you need to drive any axis at its top speed 25 000 Hz will probably be suitable for stepper motor systems With a 10 micro step driver such as a Gecko 201 you will get around 750 RPM from a standard 1 8 degree stepper motor with a 25 000 Hz pulse rate Higher pulse rates are needed to achieve desired motor RPM for servo drives that have high resolution shaft encoders on the motor Further details are given in the section on motor tun ing and in Section 4 4 2 Determining Axis Drive Requirements Computers with a 1 GHz clock speed will almost certainly be able to run at 35 000 Hz so you can choose this if you need a high step rate for example if you have very fine pitch lead screws The demonstration version of Mach3 will run at 25 000 Hz only In addition if Mach3 is forcibly closed then on re start it will automatically revert to 25 000 Hz operation The actual frequency of the running system 1s displayed on the standard Diagnostics screen Click the box next to the desired kernel speed Don t forget to click the Apply button before proceeding 5 2 3 Defining Special Features The Port Setup and Axis Selection dialog includes check boxes for a variety of special configura tions They should be self explanatory if you have the relevant hardware in your system If not then leave then unchecked Don t forget to click the Apply button before proceeding 9 3 5 3 Defining Input and Output Signal
56. d of the steps Drive electronics usually use the Active Lo configuration for Step and Dir signals Mach3 should be set up so these outputs are Active Lo If this is not done the Step signal will still go up and down but the drive will interpret the gaps between the pulses as the pulses and vice versa This often causes very rough or unreliable running of the motor The inverted pulses are shown in Figure 4 5 4 8 Figure 4 5 Inverted Pulse Form Active Hi a Drive will treat this as a pulse rather than as a gap between pulses 4 5 Limit and Home Switches Limit switches are used to prevent any linear axis from moving too far and causing damage to the structure of the machine You can run a machine without them but the slightest mistake in setting up or programming can cause a lot of expensive damage Figure 4 6 shows a Limit switch on a milling machine Figure 4 6 Example of a Mechanical Limit Switch A microswitch mounted on the table is tripped when its lever hits the bed of the machine This setup would not be rigid enough for good position repeatability An axis may also have a Home switch Mach3 can be commanded to move one or all axes to the Home position This needs to be done whenever the system is switched on so that it knows where the axes are currently positioned If you do not provide Home switches then you will have to jog the axes by eye to a reference position The Home switch for an
57. d to execute the M9 last M9 turns off coolant Some postprocessors write a line like M9 G01 X which might perform a cut If M9 was turned off when it was seen not at the end of the block the last cut would be made without cool ant UDP Pendent Control Special OEM option for Ethernet control pendant Most users can ignore Run Macro Pump if checked will on startup look for the file MacroPump m1s in the macro folder for the current profile and will run it every 200 milliseconds Charge pump On in EStop if checked retains the charge pump output or outputs even when EStop is detected This is required for the logic of some breakout boards Persistent Jog Mode if checked remembers the Jog Mode you have chosen between runs of Mach3Mill FeedOveride Persist if checked retains the selected feed override at the end of a part program run No System Menu in Mach3 if checked eliminates the menu selection bar from the Mach3 This may be useful in a production environment to prevent unauthorized changes to the Mach3 setup parameters The option will take effect when you restart Mach3 Use CAUTION when selecting this option It will keep you from making any further changes to the Mach3 setup Be sure you have a way to re enable the menu bar if you need it One way to do so 1s to replace your configuration XML file with a fresh copy but that will reset all the other configuration parameters as well Use Key Clicks if checked enables k
58. d to pins 18 to 25 of the port connector The first successful family 74xx series of integrated circuits used TTL transistor transistor logic In TTL circuits any voltage between 0 and 0 8 volts is called lo and any voltage between 2 4 and 5 volts is called hi Connecting a negative voltage or anything above 5 volts to a TTL input will pro duce smoke The parallel port was originally built using TTL and to this day these voltages define its lo and hi signals Notice that in the worst case there is only 1 6 volts difference between them It is of course arbitrary whether we say that a lo represents a logic one or a logic zero As is explained below however letting lo one is usually more desirable in most practical interface cir cuits For an output signal to do anything some current will have to flow in the circuit connected to it When it is hi current will flow out of the computer When it is lo current will flow into the computer The more current you have flowing in the harder it is to keep the voltage near zero so the nearer to the permitted limit of 0 8 volts lo will become Similarly current flowing out of a hi will make the voltage be lower and nearer to the 2 4 volts lower limit So with too much current the difference between lo and hi will be even less than 1 6 volts and things will become unreliable Finally it s worth noting you are allowed roughly 20
59. ded Limit 3 Interface the switches by a keyboard emulator The first method is best and mandatory for a very large expensive or fast machine where you cannot trust software and its configuration to prevent mechanical damage Switches connected to the drive electronics can be intelligent and only allow motion away from a switch when the limit is hit This is safer than disabling the limits so a user can jog the machine off the limits but it does rely on having a sophisticated drive The second method is suitable for smaller machines with direct operator control With this setup it is possible to use only three inputs to Mach3 for a three axis mill four for a gantry type machine see Slaving Since you or the operator are present and can take appropriate action based on the situation only two switches are required per axis Both Limit switches can be tied together and the Home posi tion can share functionality with one of the Limit switches All the two switches need to do is signal Stop The operator can then figure out what to do for recovery Refer to Section 4 5 3 How Mach3 Uses Shared Switches for more discussion of shared switches The keyboard emulator has a much slower response time than the parallel port but that solution is sat isfactory for limit switches on a machine without high speed feeds For details of the architecture see Mach3 Customization Wiki There 1s a link to it at www machsupport com There is also a fourt
60. e PWM spindle speed signal into a proportional DC voltage the pulse signal must be trans formed In essence a circuit must be used to find the average of the pulse width modulated signal The circuit can be a simple capacitor and resistor or it can be much more complex depending a on how linear you want the relationship between the width and the final output voltage and b on the speed of response you need to the changing pulse width The PWM signal is output on the spindle Step pin You will need to take special precautions to switch off the motor at low speeds using the Motor Clockwise Counterclockwise outputs Refer to the manufacturer s documentation that should come with your controller Further details may be found by using PWM converter or PWM Digispeed as a search term to Google or your favorite search engine Note Many users have found that PWM and other variable speed spindle drives are often a serious source of electrical noise which can cause problems with the machine axis drives limit switch sensing etc If you use such a spindle drive ArtSoft USA strongly recommends that you to use an optically iso lated breakout board and take care to shield cables and run the power cables a few inches away from the control cables You need to take care with the electronics as the inputs of many cheap PWM speed controllers are not isolated from the main power supply 4 19 4 7 4 8 4 9 Coolant Output signals can
61. e mechanism of your machine is like a robot arm or a hexapod then Mach3 will not be able to control it because of the kinematic calculations that would be needed to relate the tool position in X Y and Z coordinates to the length and rotation of the machine arms Mach3 can switch the spindle on rotating in either direction and switch it off It can also control the rate at which it rotates rpm and monitor its angular position for operations like cutting threads Mach3 can turn the two types of coolant on and off Mach3 will monitor the EStop switch and can take note of the operation of the reference switches the guard interlock and the limit switches Mach3 can store the properties of up to 256 different tools If however your machine has an automatic tool changer or magazine you will have to control it yourself Mach3 provides program macro capa bility but you must do the programming 1 5 This is a blank left hand page for two sided printing 1 6 Chapter 2 Installing the Mach3 Software 2 ZI If you haven t done so already download the Mach3 software from www machsupport com and try it out on your computer You do not need a machine tool to be connected Indeed for the present it 1s better not to have one If you have bought a complete CNC system from a reseller then some or all of the installation steps described in this chapter may have already been done for you Installation Mach3 is distrib
62. ee Section 5 6 4 for more details e A switch or switches which interlock the guards on the machine e Controls for the way coolant is delivered Flood and or Mist e A probe in the tool holder that allows digitizing of an existing part e Encoders such as linear glass scales which can display the position of parts of the machine e Special functions Most connections between your machine and the PC running Mach3 are made through the parallel printer port s of the computer A simple machine will need only one port a complex one will need two Connections for control of special functions like an LCD display a tool changer axis clamps or a swarf conveyor can also be made through a ModBus device e g a PLC or Homann Designs ModIO controller Buttons can be interfaced by a keyboard emulator which generates pseudo key presses in response to input signals Mach3 will control up to six axes simultaneously coordinating their movement with linear interpola tion or perform circular interpolation on two axes out of X Y or Z while simultaneously linearly interpolating the other four with the angle being swept by the circular interpolation The tool can thus move in a tapering helical path if required The feed rate during these moves is maintained at the value requested by your part program subject to limitations of the acceleration and maximum speed of the axes You can move the axes by hand with various jogging controls If th
63. efine External Activation signals on the Config gt Port and Pins gt Output Signals tab to switch the spindle motor controller on off if you wish to turn off the motor when the spindle is stopped by MS The motor will not be rotating of course as Mach3 will not be sending step pulses but depending on the driver design the motor may still be dissipating power Now move to Config gt Motor Tuning for the Spindle Axis The units for this will be one revolution So the Steps per Unit are the number of pulses for one rev e g 2000 for a 10 times micro stepping drive or 4 x the line count of a servomotor encoder or the equivalent with electronic gearing The Vel box should be set to the number of revs per second at full speed For example a 3600 rpm motor would need to be set to 60 A high line count encoder may limit maximum speed because the maximum pulse rate from Mach3 will be insufficient to drive it e g a 100 line encoder allows 87 5 revs per second on a 35 000 Hz system The spindle will generally require a powerful motor whose drive electronics 1s likely to include electronic gearing which overcomes this constraint The Accel box can be set by experiment to give a smooth start and stop to the spindle If you want to enter a very small value in the Accel box you can do this by typing a value rather than using the Accel slider A spindle run up time of 30 seconds 1s quite possible 5 5 5 4 Testing the Spindle Drive If you have a tachom
64. en you might try increasing the pulse width to say 5 microseconds The Step and Direction interface is very simple but because it can still sort of work when configured badly it can be difficult to fault find without being very systematic and or looking at the pulses with an oscillo scope 5 5 2 2 Motor Maximum Speed Calculations The trials approach described in Section 5 5 2 1 is likely to be the easiest way to set up motor speed but if you want to calculate the maximum motor speed this section outlines what you need to consider There are many things which define the maximum speed of an axis 1 Maximum allowed speed of motor perhaps 4000 rpm for servo or 1000 rpm for stepper 2 Maximum allowed speed of the ballscrew depends on length diameter how its ends are sup ported 3 Maximum speed of belt drive or reduction gearbox 4 Maximum speed which drive electronics will support without signalling a fault 5 Maximum speed to maintain lubrication of machine slides The first two in this list are most likely to affect you You will need to refer to the manufacturers spec ifications calculate the permitted speeds of screw and motor and relate these to units per second of axis movement Set this maximum value in the Velocity box of Motor Tuning for the axis involved The Mach1 Mach2 Yahoo online forum is a useful place to get advice from other Mach3 users world wide on this sort of topic See www machsupport com for a
65. entries long When stepped to the end it will cycle to the beginning of the list A sequence of values can be duplicated to fill out the ten entries required in the list 3 General Logic Configuration Column 3 Shuttle Wheel Setting Shuttle Accel controls the responsiveness of Mach3 to the MPG when it is being used to control the execution of lines of GCode Shuttle Accel is also used by Backlash General Configuration Z is 2 5D on output 6 if checked controls Output 6 depending on the cur rent position in the program coordinate system of the Z axis If Z is greater than 0 0 then Output 6 will be active You must have a Z axis configured to use this feature but its Step and Direction outputs can be configured to a non existent pin for example Pin 0 Port 0 Home Sw Safety if checked will prevent motion of an axis during homing if the home switch is already active This is useful to prevent mechanical damage on a machine that shares limit switches at both ends of an axis with Home 9 36 LookAhead determines the number of lines of GCode that the interpreter can buffer for execution It does not normally require tuning Ienore M calls while loading disables M call execution while the GCode is being interpreted to draw the tool path Some M calls do things like start spindles turn on oil pumps etc which should execute only when the part program 1s actually run M9 Execute after Block causes a block containing an M9 comman
66. er ArtSoft USA may ask you to enable this option when you request support Enhanced Pulsing if checked will ensure the greatest accuracy of timing pulses and hence smooth ness of stepper drives at the expense of additional central processor time You should generally select this option Allow Wave files if checked allows Windows WAV sound clips to be played by Mach3 This can be used for example to signal errors or attention required by the machine Allow Speech if checked allows Mach3 to use the Microsoft Speech Agent for system information messages and right button Help text See the Speech option on the Windows Control Panel to config ure the voice to be used speed of speaking etc Set charge pump to 5kHz Laser Stndby if checked charge pump output or output s are a 5 kHz sig nal for compatibility with some lasers rather than the standard 12 5kHz signal Use OUTPUT 20 as Dwell Trigger if checked will turn on Output 20 whenever Dwell is active No FRO on Queue if checked will delay the application of feed rate override until the queue of com mands waiting to be implemented is empty This is sometimes necessary to avoid exceeding permitted speeds or accelerations when increasing the FRO above 100 Turn Manual Spindle Incr This box lets you enter the increment to raise or lower the spindle RPM using OEM buttons 350 and 351 Spindle OV increment This box lets you enter the percentage increment to raise or
67. er to use Mach3 s configuration menus to update the XML profiles When a new profile is created then a folder for storing its macros will be created If you are cloning from a profile with custom macros then you must take care to copy any such custom macros into the new profile 5 8 Documenting Your Setup You can use Table 5 5 and Table 5 6 to write down the settings you have made Table 5 5 Document Your Motor Outputs Settings Here Dir Low Step Low Signal Enabled Step Pin Dir Pin Active Active Step Port Dir Port XAis po p FS AR rs AAxis p o op S Barr CAxs fT 0 1 IESO IESO o o Spinde Jo o oo 9 40 Table 5 6 Document Your Input Signal Settings Here Signal Enabled Port Pin Active Lo Emulated Hotkey XH Eoo ee X o T T S S X Home oo Eo o Yn p Ls EM POSO ESOO IESO IESO IE Y Home Eoo FE o Z COo A a O d ee Z Eoo S poo Z Home oo Eoo o At p PAS PAN IO NON A Eoo po Lo Home poo ee B COo A a A d ee B o T T S S B Home Eoo Eo oo CH RARA o T T S Lo LLL C Home ooo s Input 1 OO A a d d i Input 2 PASO es IESO ee ee Input 3 ELLE Input 4 PAM ee ESOO ee OOO Probe ISO IESO IESO IESO IE Index ooo os LimitOvrd o o o EStop PASO IESO IESO IESO ME THC On oo Eo o THC Up nS ee ee See THCDown o o 0 41 This is a blank left hand page for two sided printing 0 42 Appendix A Torch Height Controls in Mach3 There are se
68. et the Apply button when doing this sort of testing If all is well then you can restore the proper configuration If you discover problems sort them out now It will be much easier than when you start trying to drive the axes If you do not have a multimeter then you will have to buy or borrow a logic probe or a D25 adaptor with actual LEDs to monitor the state of the parallel port pins In brief you need to determine if a the signals in and out of the computer are incorrect 1 e Mach3 is not doing what you want or expect or b the signals are not getting between the D25 connector and your machine tool 1 e a wir ing or configuration problem with the breakout board or machine Fifteen minutes help from a friend can work wonders in this situation even if you only carefully explain to him her what your problem is and how you have already looked for it It is amazing how often this sort of explanation suddenly stops with words like Oh I see what the problem must be it s Defining the Setup Units With the basic functions working it s time to configure the axis drives The first thing to decide 1s whether you want to define their properties in Metric millimeters or Inch units This is done using the Config gt Select Native Units dialog This is shown in Figure 5 9 5 14 Figure 5 9 Select Native Units Dialog 2 2 Units for Motor Setup Dialog C MM s Inches The computations for axis configuration wil
69. eter or stroboscope then you can measure the spindle speed of your machine If not you will have to judge it by eye using your experience On Mach3 Settings screen choose a pulley that will allow 900 rpm Set the belt or gearbox on the machine to the corresponding position On the Program Run screen set the spindle speed required to 900 rpm and start it rotating Measure or estimate the speed If it is wrong you will have to revisit your calculations and setup You may want to check the speeds of all the pulley steps in the same way using a suitable set speed for each step 5 6 Other Configuration 5 6 1 Configure Homing and Soft Limits The Config gt Homing Limits dialog defines what happens when a reference operation G28 1 or a screen button is performed Figure 5 22 shows the dialog 9 29 Figure 5 22 Config Homing Limits Dialog Motor Home ySoftLimits hb 5 x Entries are in setup units Axis Reversed SoftMax Soft Min Slow Zone Home Off Home Neg Auto Zero Speed X a 100 00 100 00 1 00 0 0000 f 20 Y Y 100 00 100 00 1 00 0 0000 nf 20 Z 100 00 100 00 1 00 0 0000 at d 20 A Y 100 00 100 00 1 00 0 0000 YX f 20 E at 100 00 100 00 1 00 0 0000 YX eS 20 C Y 100 00 100 00 1 00 0 0000 20 328 home location coordinates x o A Y o E z o C 0 0 0 5 6 1 1 Referencing Speeds and Direction The Speed entry is used to avoid crashing into the stop o
70. ether Figure 5 10 shows components of a typical drivetrain Figure 5 10 Machine Drivetrain Components Leadscrew gear How many teeth A Machine leadscrew and nut What is the screw pitch How many motor steps produce one unit of machine travel otepper motor How many steps per revolution Motor shaft gear How many teeth 5 5 1 1 Calculating Mechanical Drive You need to calculate the number of revolutions of the motor shaft motor revs per unit required to move the axis by one unit one inch or one millimeter This number will probably be greater than one for inches and less than one for millimeters but that makes no difference to the calculation For a screw and nut A you need to know the pitch of the screw that is the thread crest to crest dis tance and the number of starts Inch screws are usually specified in threads per inch tpi The pitch is Bp gU For example the pitch of an 8 tpi single start screw is 1 8 0 125 The pitch of a 16 tpi single start screw is pol 1516 lt 0 06257 0 16 Metric screws are usually specified in terms of pitch so no conversion calculation is necessary You might have for example a 2 mm pitch screw If the screw 1s a multiple start thread multiply the raw pitch by the number of starts to get the effective pitch The effective screw pitch 1s therefore the distance the axis moves for one revolution of the screw For example a 16 tp
71. ets ANS setting Motor Tuning General Config 4 System Hotkeys Homing Limits ToolPath Slave Axis Backlash Fixtures TaalTable Config Plugins Spindle Pulleys Safe z Setup Save Settings 5 2 1 Defining Addresses of Port s to Use Select the Port Setup and Axis Selection tab on the Ports and Pins dialog as shown in Figure 5 2 Figure 5 2 Port Setup and Axis Selection Tab on the Ports and Pins Dialog Ports amp Pins xj Engine Pons Port Setup and Axis Selection Poit 2 Port Enabled 0x278 Port Address MaxMC Mode M Max CL Mode enabled Max NC 10 Wave Drive Program restart necessary v Port Enabled 0x378 Port Address Entry in Hex 0 9 4 F only Entry in Hex 0 9 A F only Pins 2 9 as inputs Restart if changed Sherline 1 2 Pulse mode Pa ModBus InputQutput Support e 25000H3 35000H2 45000Hz C amp 0000hz ModBus Plugin Supported C e5000hz C 75000hz C 100khz TCP Modbus support Event Driven Serial Control Note Software must be restarted and motors retuned if Poo Sn paa kernel speed is changed If you are going to use only one parallel port and it is the one on your computer s motherboard then the default address of Port 1 of 0x378 Hexadecimal 378 1s almost certainly correct If you are using one or more PCI add on parallel port cards then you will need to determi
72. ey click sounds for data entry into DROs and MDI Not imple mented in current version of Mach3 Home Slave with Master Axis if checked homes both motors of a master slave pair at the same time This will not do axis straightening however Include TLO in Z from G31 if checked will include the tool offset in the probe data Lock Rapid Feed FRO to Feed FRO if checked will apply any percentage feed rate override you make to the rapid feed up to 100 of the motor tuning speed as well as to the standard feed rate Rotational Rot 360 rollover if checked will measure a rotary axis modulo 360 0 to 360 then restart at 0 Otherwise it will keep counting up for example two revolutions would be 720 Ang Short Rot on GO if checked makes any rotary axis treat the position given as an angle modulo 360 degrees Moves will be by the shortest route to that position For example if the axis were at 0 degrees and a request was made to rotate to 359 degrees it would rotate 1 instead of 359 Rotational Soft Limits if checked applies software limit switches to rotary axes Screen Control Hi Res Screens if checked will draw the screen twice to help eliminate pixelization Use this only if you have a good video card and a fast computer Boxed DROs and Graphics if checked draws a small border around the GCode MDI and tool path and a small raised edge around the DRO Auto Screen Enlarge if checked will cause Mach3 to enlarge any
73. f an axis at full speed when looking for the reference switch Mach3 will move the axis at the percentage of full speed that you enter here The Home Neg entry determines the initial search direction When you are referencing Mach3 has no idea of the position of an axis The direction it moves depends on the Home Neg setting If the relevant box is checked then the axis will move in the minus direction until the Home input becomes active If the Home input is already active then the axis will move in the plus direction Similarly if the box is unchecked then the axis moves in the plus direction until the input is active or the minus direction if it is already active 5 6 1 2 Position of Home Switches If the Auto Zero checkbox 1s checked then the axis DROs will be set to the Reference Home Switch location values defined in the Home Off offset column rather than actual Zero This can be useful to minimize homing time on a very large and slow axis It is of course necessary to have separate limit and reference switches if the reference switch is not at the end of an axis 5 6 1 3 Configure Soft Limits Most implementations of limit switches involve some compromises Hitting them accidentally will require intervention by the operator and may require the system to be reset and re referenced Soft lim its can provide a protection against this sort of inconvenient accident The software will refuse to allow the axes to move outside the de
74. h lower rated torque than the same size of modern motor Unless you can test them you may find that they have been accidentally demagnetized and so be useless Unless you are really confi dent of your skills and experience buying used drive motors is likely to be false economy and a source of unending trouble Any amount of money saved and more may well be spent in a futile and frustrat ing effort to patch together a working system ArtSoft USA recommends that the axis drives be current products bought from suppliers who will support them If you buy right then you will only need to buy once and you will be up and running sooner Figure 4 3 Example of Servo Motor with Encoder Encoder 4 4 2 Determining Axis Drive Requirements 4 4 2 A full set of calculations for the axis drive requirements would be very complicated and you probably do not have all the necessary data for example what is the maximum cutting force you want to use Some calculation is however necessary for success As a minimum you need to determine how many motor steps it will take to move an axis a specified distance The answer depends on the machine hard ware configuration for example the pitch of the leadscrew and the motor characteristics how many steps it makes per revolution 1 Example 1 Mill Table Cross Slide start by defining the minimum possible move distance desired This 1s an absolute limit to the accu racy of work done on the machine The
75. h option use fewer switches For many applications for example Home switches are of little use If the machine works on a variety of jobs you will almost certainly have to locate a different part zero for each job that will have no relationship to any Home position that might be defined Unless they are meaningful for your particular application there is no point in installing them The Switches There are several choices you need to make when selecting switches If you are going to have two switches sharing an input then they need to be connected so the signal is a logic 1 if either switch is operated 1 e the logical OR function This is easy with mechanical switches If they have normally closed contacts and are wired in series as shown in figure 4 7 then they will give an Active Hi signal if either switch is operated Refer to the schematic in Figure 4 7 4 10 Figure 4 7 Two Normally Closed Switches Give a Logical OR 5 Volts 470 ohm resistor To Mach Input Limit Limit and Ref O Volts For reliable operation you need to pull up the input to the parallel port As mechanical switches can carry a significant current a value of 470 ohms is shown which gives a current of about 10 milliamps As the wiring to the switches may be quite long and liable to pickup of electrical noise make sure that you have a good connection to the 0 volt side of your input the frame of your mac
76. he other axis will continue until its switch is detected then positioned off it Thus the pair of axes will be squared up to the home switch positions and any racking which has occurred be eliminated Figure 5 25 Configure Slave Axis Dialog Slave Axis Selection i xi A Axis Y Axis Z Axis Slaved Axis Slaved Axis Slaved Axis A Asis amp Axis A Axis B Axis C B Axis B Axis C Axis C C Axis C C Axis None None None Restart Mach3 after resetting these selections Although Mach3 keeps the master and slaves axes in step the DRO of the slave axis will not display offsets applied by the Tool table fixture offsets etc Its values may thus be confusing to the operator ArtSoft USA therefore recommend that you use the Screen Designer to remove the slave axis DRO and related controls from all the screens except Diagnostics Save As the new design with a name other than the default and use the View gt Load Screens menu to load it into Mach3 5 6 5 Configure Toolpath The Config ToolPath dialog shown in Figure 5 26 lets you to define how the toolpath is displayed 9 33 Figure 5 26 Configure Toolpath Dialog ToolPath Configuration E xi Origin Sphere Rotations v 3d Compass jn of Rotation Use Diameter for Feedrate X Axis Machine Boundaries V Tool Positi sc ool Position ia Jog Follow Mode PRIM A Rotations En
77. he required functions Caution Before checking the items to remove offsets and to perform G92 1 you should be absolutely clear how these features work or you may find that the current posi tion has coordinates very different from what you expect at the end of a program 9 35 M01 Control If Stop on MI Command 1s checked the optional program stop command M1 will be enabled Serial output Defines the COM port number to be used for the serial output channel and the baud rate at which it should output This port can be written to from VB script in a macro and can be used to con trol special functions of a machine e g LCD display tool changers axis clamps swarf conveyor etc Program safety When checked enables Input 1 as a safety cover interlock 5 6 6 2 General Logic Configuration Column 2 5 6 6 Editor Specifies the filename of the executable of the editor to be called by the GCode edit button The Browse button lets you select a suitable file e g C windows notepad exe Startup Modals Initialization String Specifies a set of valid GCodes to set the initial state of Mach3 when it is started These are applied after the values set by Motion Mode Distance Mode IJ Mode and Active Plane of Movement see below so may override them Use the mode selections wherever possible to avoid confusion If Use Init on ALL Resets is checked then these codes will be applied regardless of the way Mach3 is reset e g af
78. hine tool will not be satisfactory and consider using shielded cable with the shield connected to the main ground terminal of your controller If you use electronic switches like a slotted detector with a LED and photo transistor then you will need some sort of an OR gate which could be a wired OR if an Active Lo input is driven by open collector transistors Optical switches if out of the way of coolant should be OK on a metalworking machine but are liable to malfunction with wood dust Figure 4 8 shows an example of an installed optical switch ArtSoft USA recommends against magnetic switches reed switches or Hall effect devices on a machine that may cut ferrous metal because the swarf will fuzz up the magnet Figure 4 8 Optical Switch on Table with Vane on Bed of Machine 4 11 Figure 4 9 Two Switches Operated By Frame with Overtravel Prevented by Mechanical Stops X Table AS X Cal X and X switch Reference Frame Overtravel is the movement of the switch that occurs after it has operated With a limit switch it can be caused by the inertia of the drive On an optical switch like Figure 4 8 there will be no difficulties pro vided the vane is long enough A microswitch can be given arbitrary overtravel by operating a roller on it by a ramp see Figure 4 11 The slope of the ramp does however reduce the repeatability of opera
79. hop such as 1 in Figure 1 1 running a CAD CAM package when it is not controlling your machine Mach3 and its parallel port driver communicate with the machine hardware through one or optionally two parallel printer ports If your computer does not have a parallel port more and more computers are being built without one you can buy a motion controller board from a third party vendor that uses a USB port or Ethernet for communication Use of a motion controller board can remove considerable processing load from the computer so you may want to consider using one to get the performance advantage even if your computer does have a parallel port available Mach3 generates step pulses and direction signals to perform the steps defined by a GCode part program and sends them to the port s or motion controller board The drivers for your machine s axis motors must accept March3 s step pulses and direction signals Virtually all stepper motor drivers work like this as do modern DC and AC servo systems with digital encoders Beware if you are converting an old NC machine whose servos may use resolvers to mea sure position of the axes as you will have to provide a complete new drive for each axis To set up a CNC system to use Mach3 you must install the Mach3 software on your computer and properly connect your motor drives to the computer s ports These operations are described in the fol lowing chapters What Mach3 Can Do Mach3 is a very f
80. how many step pulses must be sent to the drive for each unit inch or mm of movement of the tool or table The choice you made in Section 5 4 determines which units will be used 2 Establish the maximum speed for the motor 3 Setthe required acceleration deceleration rate ArtSoft USA advises you to deal with one axis at a time You may want to try running each motor before it is mechanically connected to the machine tool Connect the power to your axis driver electronics and double check the wiring between the driver elec tronics and your breakout board computer You are about to mix high power and computing so it is better to be safe than smoky 5 5 1 Calculating the Steps Per Unit Mach3 can automatically perform a test move on an axis and calculate the steps per unit as described in Section 5 5 2 3 Automatic Setting of Steps per Unit but that 1s probably best left for fine tuning This section gives the overall theory and tells you how to calculate the valule 0 15 Mach3 rotates a motor by steps The number of steps Mach3 must send to a motor to cause one unit of movement inch or mm as defined in Section 5 4 depends on 1 The mechanical drive e g pitch of leadscrew gearing between the motor and the screw 2 The properties of the stepper motor or the encoder on the servo motor 3 The micro stepping or electronic gearing in the drive electronics We will look at these three points in turn then bring them tog
81. i two start thread has an effective screw pitch of 0 002 0 ky X ut Duce Now you can calculate the screw revs per unit Screw revs per unit 17 effective screw pitch For example for an 8 tpi single start screw screw revs per unit 170 125 8 revs inch For a 2 mm pitch screw screw revs per unit 1 2 0 5 revs mm If the screw is directly driven from the motor 1 1 drive ratio then this 1s also the motor revs per unit If the motor has a gear chain or belt drive to the screw with N teeth on the motor gear and N teeth on the screw gear then motor revs per unit screw revs per unit X N N q For example suppose our 8 tpi single start screw is connected to the motor with a toothed belt with a 48 tooth pulley B on the screw and a 16 tooth pulley on the motor Then the motor revs per unit would be 8 X 48 16 24 motor revs produce 1 inch of machine travel Hint keep all the figures on your calculator at each stage of calculation to minimize rounding errors As a metric example suppose a two start screw has 5 millimeters between thread crests 1 e effective pitch is 10 millimeters and it is connected to the motor with 24 tooth pulley on the motor shaft and a 48 tooth pulley on the screw So the screw revs per unit 0 1 and motor revs per unit would be 0 1 x 48 24 2 02 The calculation is similar for a rack and pinion or toothed belt or chain drive Find the pitch of the belt teeth or chain link
82. ility to ensure that you understand the implications of what you design and build and to comply with any legislation and codes of practice applicable to your country or state If you are in any doubt be sure to seek guidance from a professionally qualified expert rather than risk injury to yourself or to others 1 1 1 1 Introduction This document tells you how to install and configure the Mach3Mill software to control a milling machine or similar machine tool It also describes the hardware components required and how to inter face them to your computer Typical machine tools that can be controlled are mills routers and plasma cutting tables A separate document Using Mach3 Mill explains how to use Mach3Mill after you have installed and configured it YOU WILL NEED TO READ THIS DOCUMENTATION Mach3 is a complex piece of software You will not be successful if you simply start trying to get it to work While that approach may be appropriate for some software it is not appropriate for Mach3 Save yourself a lot of aggravation by taking the time to work through the chapters in this manual taking the installation and configuration step by step An online wiki format document Mach Customization Wiki link at www machsupport com MachCustomize Wiki index php title Main_ Page explains in detail how to alter screen layouts to design your own screens and Wizards and to interface to special hard ware devices ArtSoft USA strongly
83. ine tool to your PC Chapter 5 gives details of configuring Mach3 to use the connected hardware If you bought a machine that is already equipped to be run by Mach3 then you will probably not need to read this chapter except out of general interest Your supplier should have given you some docu mentation explaining how to connect the parts of your system together Read this chapter to learn what Mach3 expects it is going to control and how you can connect standard components like stepper motor drivers and micro switches to construct a CNC system The descrip tions assume that you can understand simple schematic circuit diagrams If not then now is the time to get some help On the first reading you may not want to concern yourself with sections following Section 4 5 Limit and Home Switches and keep in mind the information in Section 1 4 What Mach3 Can Do as you plan you own configuration The PC Parallel Port and its History Mach3 interfaces to the motor drivers limit switches and other hardware through your PC s parallel port s This section describes the characteristics of the parallel port When IBM designed the original PC 160k floppy disc drive 64kbytes of RAM they provided an interface for connecting printers using a 25 conductor cable This is the foundation of the parallel port we have on most PCs today As it is a very simple way of transferring data it has been used for many things other than connecting printers You
84. ion o 0 0000 o 77 AX Y 0 0000 puo Zero Alt Y Z 0 0000 2282 zee uz Mach3 expects logic signals Some glass scales for example certain Heidenhain models give an ana log sine wave This allows clever electronics to interpolate to a higher resolution than 5 microns If you want to use these encoders then you need to square off the waveform with an operational amplifier comparator TTL output encoders will connect directly to the input pins of the parallel port but as noise will give false counts they are better interfaced through what is known as a Schmitt trigger chip The scales require a DC supply often 5 volts for the lights and any driver chips in them Notes e You can not easily use a linear scale as the feedback encoder for a servo drive as the slightest backlash or springiness in the mechanical drive will make the servo unstable e tis not easy to connect the rotary encoders on the servo motor to the encoder DROs although this would be attractive for manual operation of the axes with position readout The problem is that the 0 volt common inside the servo drive used for the motor encoders is almost certainly not the same 0 volt as your PC or breakout board Connecting them together will cause problems don t be tempted to do it e The main benefit of using linear encoders on linear axes is that their measurements do not depend on the accuracy or backlash of the drive screw belt chain etc 4 11 Spind
85. isables program translation while the Startup Modals Use Int String on ALL Resets r Motion Mode G Constant Velocity ComPort 77 BaudRate 9600 Editor GCode Editor NwfindowsN otepad exe Browse Initialization Str sao Exact Stop Mode r Distance 7jr M Mode Absolute C Inc C Absolute Inc Active Plane of Movement C xY C v2 C XZ Jog Increments m Cycle Mode Position 1 1 Enana DO VLA E AAA r Shuttle Wheel Setting Shuttle Accel 0 25 Seconds r General Configuration Zis25D on Output 6 v Home Sw Safely LookAhead 20 Lines Ignore M calls while loading MS Execute after Block UDP Pendent Control Run Macro Pump ChargePump Onin EStop v Persistent Jog Mode Feed verRide Persist No System Menu in Mach3 v Use Key Clicks Home Slave with Master Axis Include TLO inZ from G31 v Lock Rapid FAO to Feed FRO Rot 360 rollover Ang Short Rot on GO v Rotational Soft Limits T Screen Control HiRes Screens v Boxed DR s and Graphics Auto Screen Enlarge v Flash Errors and comments 5 6 6 1 General Logic Configuration Column 1 Rotational 31 Inputs Signal Debouncing N ose rejection Debounce Intervat O ADU Index Debounce o Disable Gouge Concavity Checks G04 Dwell in
86. ive lo selection If the encoders count the wrong way just swap the pins allocated for the A and B inputs 5 3 5 1 Setting Up Encoders The Counts per unit value should be set to correspond to the resolution of the encoder and your selec tion of Native units For example a linear scale with rulings at 20 microns produces a count every 5 microns remember the quadrature signal or 200 counts per unit millimeter If you have Native units set to inches then it would be 200 x 25 4 5080 counts per unit inch because there are 25 4 millimeters per inch The Velocity value is not used 5 3 5 2 Setting Up MPGs The Counts per unit value defines the number of quadrature counts that need to be generated for Mach3 to sense movement of the MPG For a 100 counts per revolution CPR encoder a value of 2 should be suitable For higher resolutions you will probably want to increase this value to get the mechanical sensitivity you want A value of 100 works well with 1024 CPR encoders The Velocity value determines the scaling of pulses sent to the axis being controlled by the MPG The lower the value given in Velocity the faster the axis will move Its value is best set by experiment to give a reasonable axis movement speed when spinning the MPG as fast as is comfortable 5 3 6 Configuring the Spindle The next tab on Config Ports amp Pins is Spindle Setup This is used to define the way in which your spindle and coolant is to be controlled You
87. l 1f a stepper or the servo position error will increase 1f a servo If the servo error gets too great then the drive will probably signal a fault condition but even if it does not the accuracy of the cut will suffer This will be explained in more detail shortly 0 22 5 5 3 2 Testing Different Acceleration Values Try starting and stopping your machine with different settings of the Acceleration slider in the Motor Tuning dialog At low acceleration a gentle slope on the graph you will be able to hear the speed ramping up and down 5 5 3 3 Why You Want To Avoid a Big Servo Error Most moves made in a part program are coordinated with two or more axes moving together Thus in a move from X 0 Y 0 to X 2 Y 1 Mach3 will move the X axis at twice the speed of the Y axis It not only co ordinates the movements at constant speed but also ensures that the speed required rela tionship applies during acceleration and deceleration by accelerating all motions at a speed determined by the slowest axis If you specify an acceleration for a given axis greater than what the machine can deliver Mach3 will nevertheless assume it can use that value If in practice the axis motion lags behind what is com manded 1 e the servo error is big then the path cut in the work will be inaccurate 5 5 3 4 Choosing an Acceleration Value It is possible knowing all the masses of parts moments of inertia of the motor and screws friction
88. l Panel to uninstall the driver manually So please reboot now If you are interested in knowing why the reboot is required then read on If not you can skip to Sec tion 2 2 Although Mach3 will appear to be a single program when you are using it it actually consists of two parts a driver which 1s installed as part of Windows like a printer or network driver and a graphical user interface GUI The driver is the most important and ingenious part Mach3 must be able to send very accurately timed signals to control the axes of the machine tool Windows likes to be in charge It runs normal user pro grams when it has nothing better to do itself Because Mach3 s operation is so time critical it cannot be a normal user program It must be at the lowest level inside Windows that is it handles inter rupts Furthermore to do this at the high speeds possibly required each axis may be given attention up to 100 000 times per second the driver needs to tune its own code Windows does not approve of this it s a trick that viruses play so it has to be asked to give special permission This process requires the reboot So if you have not done the re boot then Windows will give the Blue Screen of Death and the driver will be corrupt The only way out of this is to manually remove the driver Having given these dire warnings it is only fair to say that the reboot is required only when the driver is first installed If you update your sys
89. l Step CydeJogStep 0 0100 Jog Mode HEN NEN Cont Step MPG Ada Fa ads E Sit Jog b Override Jog Mode stick is enabled by the Joystick button and for safety must be in the central position when it 1s enabled If you have an actual joystick and it has a throttle control then this can be configured either to control the jog override speed or the control the feed rate override see Chapter 5 again Such a joystick is a cheap way of providing very flexible manual control of your machine tool In addition you can use multiple joysticks strictly Axes on Human Interface Devices by installing manufacturer s profiler software or even better the KeyGrabber utility supplied with Mach 3 4 Now would be a good time to try all the jogging options on your system Don t forget that there are keyboard shortcuts for the buttons so why not identify them and try them You should soon find a way of working that feels comfortable 3 3 Manual Data Input MDI and Teaching Use the mouse or keyboard shortcut to display the MDI Manual Data Input screen This has a single line for data entry You can click in it to select it or press Enter which will automati cally select it You can type any valid line that could appear in a part program and it will be executed when you press Enter You can discard the line by pressing Esc The Backspace key can be used for correcting mistakes in your typing
90. l be slightly easier if you choose the same system as your drive train for example the ballscrew pitch was made in A screw with 0 2 lead 5 tpi 1s easier to configure in inches than in millimeters Similarly a 2mm lead screw will be easier to configure in mil limeters Otherwise you will need to multiply or divide by 25 4 to convert from one units system to the other when doing the axis configurations The multiplication or division by 25 4 is not difficult but it is just something else to think about You will be able to run part programs using either units which ever option you choose here There is on the other hand a slight advantage in having the setup units be the units in which you usu ally work If the units are your usual working unit you can lock the DROs to display in this system whatever the part program is doing 1 e switching units by G20 and G21 So the choice is yours Use Config gt Select Native Units to choose Millimeters or Inches see Figure 5 9 Once you have made a choice you cannot change it without going back over all the fol lowing steps or total confusion will reign A message box reminds you of this when you use Con fig gt Select Native Units Tuning Motors After all the preliminaries you can finally start setting up the motors This section describes setting up your axis drives and if its speed will be controlled by Mach3 the spindle drive Setup for each axis requires three steps 1 Calculate
91. l drive 5 1 would seem sensible This will also decrease the movement per step and in our example would give a movement of 0 000083 5 or 0 0000167 per step which is much better than that required 0 0001 What maximum rapid speed will we get With 35 000 step pulses per second we get 5 83 revolutions 35000 1200 5 of the leadscrew per second This is OK at about 9 seconds for 5 travel of the slide Notice however that the speed is limited by the pulse rate from Mach3 not by the motor speed This is only about 1750 rpm in the example The limitation would be even worse if the encoder gave more pulses per revolution It will often be necessary to use servo electronics with electronic gearing to overcome this limitation if you have high count encoders 4 7 Finally check on available torque A servo motor requires less safety margin than a stepper motor because the servo cannot suffer from lost steps If the torque required by the machine is too high however the motor may overheat or the drive electronics raise an over current fault 4 4 2 2 Example 2 Router Gantry Drive A gantry router might need a travel of at least 60 on the gantry axis A ballscrew for that length would be expensive and difficult to protect from dust Many designers would opt for a chain and sprocket drive We might choose a minimum step of 0 0005 A drive chain sprocket of 20 teeth with 4 pitch chain gives 5 gantry movement per revolu
92. le Index Pulse Mach3 has an input for one or more pulses generated each revolution of the spindle Mach3Mill can use this to display the actual speed of the spindle In Mach3Turn it can be used to co ordinate the movement of the tool and work when cutting threads and for orientating the tool for the back boring canned cycle It can be used to control feed on a per rev rather than per minute basis 4 12 Charge Pump a Pulse Monitor Mach3 will output a constant pulse train whose frequency is approximately 12 5 kHZ on one or both of the parallel ports whenever it is running correctly This signal will not be there if the Mach3 has not been loaded is in EStop mode or if the pulse train generator fails in some way You can use this signal to charge a capacitor through a diode pump hence the name whose output showing Mach3 s health enables your axis and spindle drives etc This function is often implemented in commercial breakout boards 4 22 4 13 Other Functions Mach3 accepts fifteen OEM Trigger input signals which you can assign for your own use For exam ple they can be used to simulate clicking a button or to call user written macros In addition there are four user inputs which can be interrogated in user macros Input 1 can be used to inhibit running of the part program It might be connected to the guards on your machine Full details of the architecture of Input Emulation are given in the Mach3 Customization wiki The
93. les there will be an XML file MyMi11 xm1 or whatever you named your profile in the Mach3 folder con taining that profile information Although you could edit the XML file ArtSoft USA strongly recom mends that you do not Change the Mach3 configuration only through the program dialogs A Configuration Strategy This chapter contains a lot of detail You should however find the configuration process to be straightforward if you take it step by step testing as you go A good strategy is to skim the chapter then work through it on your computer and machine tool You should have already installed Mach3 for the dry running described in chapter 3 Virtually all the work you will do in this chapter 1s based on dialog boxes reached from the Config ure menu These are identified in this manual by for example Config Ports and Pins which means that you choose the Ports and Pins entry from the Config menu 5 2 Initial Configuration Begin with the Config gt Ports and Pins dialog Figure 5 1 shows this selection on the Config menu The Ports and Pins dialog has many tabs but the initial one is as shown in Figure 5 2 1 The default configuration files are Mach3Mill xml Mach3Turn xml and Plasma xml 9 1 Figure 5 1 Selecting the Ports and Pins Dialog from the Config Menu Fa Mach3 CNC Controller File Config Function CFg s View Wizards Operator Plugin Control Help Select Native Units Pri Sere lt ToolPath Alt4 Offs
94. lexible program designed to control machines such as milling machines lathes plasma cutters and routers Features of these machines that are used by Mach3 include e Some user controls An emergency stop EStop button must be provided on every machine e Two or three axes of motion which are usually at right angles to each other referred to as X Y and Z e A tool which moves relative to a workpiece The origin of the reference axes is fixed in relation to the workpiece The relative movement can be by 1 the tool moving e g the quill of a milling spindle moves the tool in the Z direction or a lathe tool mounted on a cross slide and a saddle moves the tool in the X and Z directions or by 2 the table and workpiece moving e g on a knee type mill the table moves in the X Y and Z directions while the tool remains fixed in the spindle And optionally e Some switches to say when the tool is in the Home position e Some switches to define the limits of permitted relative movement of the tool e A controlled spindle The spindle can rotate the tool mill or the workpiece turning e Up to three additional axes These can be either Rotary i e their movement is measured in degrees or Linear One of the additional linear axes can be slaved to the X or Y or Z axis The two 1 4 will move together at all times in response to a part program s moves and to your jogging but they will each be referenced separately s
95. like this profile to use C DeskPod NcPod Plugln 3 00 4 Fenerty B C SmoothStepper Beta2 D0Bc C No Device C No Device Dont ask me this again OK 3 1 You should see the Mill Program Run screen The other major screens identified on tabs are MDI manual data input Tool Path Offsets Settings and Diagnostics as shown in Figure 3 2 Be sure the Program Run screen is selected its name will be displayed in blue Figure 3 2 Screen Selection Tabs Fl Mach3 CNC Controller E File Config Function Cfq s View Wizards Operator PlugIn Control Help _ Program Run Alt 1 MDI Alt2 ToolPath Alt4 Offsets arts Settings Alte Diagnostics Alt 7 Pill gt ri Notice the red Reset button It will have a flashing Red Green LED simulation of a light emitting diode above it and some yellow LEDS lit If you click the button then the yellow LEDs will go out and the flashing LED turns to solid green Mach3 is ready for action If you cannot reset then the problem is probably something plugged into your parallel port or ports a dongle perhaps or the PC has previously had Mach3 installed on it with an unusual allocation of port pins to the Emergency Stop EStop signal By clicking on the Offline button you should be able to reset the system Most of the tests and demonstrations in this chapter will not work unless Mach3 is reset out of EStop mode 3 1 1 Types of Objects on Screens You will see that
96. link 9 20 5 5 2 3 Automatic Setting of Steps per Unit Section 5 5 1 Calculating the Steps Per Unit explains how to calculate the steps per unit but you may not be able to measure the gearing of your axis drive or know the exact pitch of a screw Provided you can accurately measure the distance moved by an axis however perhaps using a dial test indicator and gage blocks then Mach3 can calculate the steps per unit that should be configured For best results you should get the value approximately correct by calculation even if you have to guess at some val ues before performing the automatic setup Select the Settings Alt6 tab in the main Mach3 CNC Controller window as shown in Figure 5 12 Figure 5 12 Settings Alt6 Tab E mMach3 CNC Controller File Config Function Cfo s View Wizards Operator PlugIn Control Help felocit Rapid OvRd OOOO MPG 1 OC Sinale Sten on input Activation4 MPG 2 in J 0 00 Figure 5 13 shows the Set Steps per Unit button on the Settings Alt6 screen to initiate the automatic settings process You will be prompted for the axis that you want to calibrate Select an axis on the Pick Axis to Calibrate pop up menu and click OK Figure 5 13 Automatic Setting of Steps per Unit Pick Axis to Calibrate TOUN xAxis C Axis C Y Axis C B Axis C Z Axis C C Axis 9 21 Another pop up menu shown in Figure 5 14 asks you to enter a nominal move distance Mach3 wi
97. ll make that move based on its current settings which of course may be wildly incorrect Be ready to press the EStop button if the machine seems about to crash because your existing settings are too far off Figure 5 14 Window to Enter Nominal Move Distance xi How far would you like to Move the X Axis Finally after the move you will be prompted to measure and enter the exact distance that was moved as shown in Figure 5 15 This will be used to calculate the actual Steps per Unit of your machine axis Section 5 5 4 describes how to measure axis travel Figure 5 15 Window to Enter Actual Move Distance x How far did the X Axis move Measured Value JN 5 5 3 Choosing an Acceleration Value 5 5 3 1 Inertia and Forces No motor is able to change the speed of a mechanism instantly A torque is needed to give angular momentum to the rotating parts including the motor itself and torque converted to force by the mechanism screw and nut etc has to accelerate the machine parts and the tool or workpiece Some of the force also goes to overcome friction and of course to make the tool cut Mach3 will accelerate and decelerate the motor at a given rate 1 e a straight line speed time curve If the motor can provide more torque than is needed for the cutting friction and inertia forces to be provided at the specified acceleration rate then all is well If the torque is insufficient then the motor will lose steps or stal
98. lower the spindle RPM using OEM buttons 163 and 164 CV Control P asma Mode if checked controls Mach3 s implementation of constant velocity moves to suit the characteristics of plasma cutters It does anti dive and tries not to round corners in some cir cumstances For the most part ArtSoft USA suggests you not select this option unless your machine has very poor acceleration and poor step resolution CV Dist Tolerance lets you define the permissible tracking error when operating in constant velocity mode This will affect the amount of rounding on corners Setting this to a high value will allow faster movement but increase rounding 9 38 5 G100 Adaptive NumbsCV Obsolete Stop CV on angles gt n CV attempts to maintain constant velocity during all angular or arc moves while obeying the acceleration parameter This is not possible during some moves and this option lets you specify the amount of angular movement permissible in CV mode before automatically switching over to Exact Stop mode Setting to 90 degrees is usually a good compromise Axis DRO Properties Tool Selections Persistent if checked remembers the selected tool at shut down of Mach3 Optional Offset Save if checked will prompt to verify that you want to actually do any save requested in Persistent Offsets Persistent Offsets if checked will save the work and tool offsets in the permanent tables you have selected between runs of Mach3Mill See also Op
99. m its output The Output signals are for use to control a stop start spindle clockwise and optionally counterclock wise the Flood and Mist coolant pumps or valves and for control by your own customized Mach3 buttons or macros The Charge Pump line should be enabled and defined if your breakout board accepts this pulse input to continually verify correct operation of Mach3 Charge Pump2 is used if you have a second breakout board connected to the second port or want to verify the operation of the second port itself Click the Apply button to save the data on this tab 5 3 5 Defining Encoder and Manual Pulse Generator MPG Inputs Use the Encoder MPGs tab to define the connections and the resolution of linear encoders or Manual Pulse Generators MPGs used for jogging the axes See Figure 5 6 9 9 Figure 5 6 Encoder MPG Tab on the Ports and Pins Dialog Engine Configuration Ports amp Pins Port Setup and Axis Selection Motor Outputs Input Signals Output Signs Encoder MPG s Syindle Setup Mill Options Signal Enabled A Port A Pin B Port B Pin Counts Unit Velocity af Encoder1 0 0 0 0 1 000000 100 000000 Encoder2 Y 0 0 0 0 1 000000 100 000000 Encoder3 es 0 0 0 0 1 000000 100 000000 Encoder4 Y 0 0 1 000000 100 000000 MPG 1 a 0 0 0 0 1 000000 100 000000 MPG 2 Y 0 0 0 1 000000 100 000000 MPG 3 0 0 0 0 1 000000 100 000000 This dialog does not need an act
100. mail link on www machsupport com and you will be given guidance A few systems have motherboards that have hardware for the APIC timer but whose BIOS code does not use it This will confuse the Mach3 install A batch file SpecialDriver bat is available in the Mach3 installation folder Find it with Windows Explorer and double click it to run it This will make the Mach3 driver use the older 18529 interrupt controller You will need to repeat this process when ever you download an upgraded version of Mach3 as installing the new version will replace the special driver The file OriginalDriver bat reverses this change Windows experts might be interested to see a few other things The white rectangular window is a type of timing analyzer When it 1s running it displays a line with small variations indicated These variations are the changes in timing from one interrupt cycle to another There should be no lines longer than 1 4 inch or so on an 17 screen on most systems Even if there are variations its possible they are below the threshold necessary to create timing jitters so when your machine tool is connected you should perform a movement test to see 1f Jogging and GO G1 moves are smooth 2 4 1 Running DriverTest After a Mach3 Crash Should you for any reason have a situation when running Mach3 where it crashes this might be an intermittent hardware problem or a software bug then you must run DriverTest exe as soon as possi ble after M
101. n check rapid speeds and torque For example suppose you are designing a mill cross slide Y axis drive and the cross slide has a total travel of 12 You are going to use a screw with a 0 1 pitch single start thread and a ball nut You want the machine to be able to do a minimum move of 0 0001 One full turn of the 0 1 pitch screw will move 0 1 so a movement of 0 0001 is 1 1000 of that This will require 1 1000 of a revolution of the motor shaft if it is coupled directly to the screw Using a Stepper Motor The minimum step with a stepper motor depends on how it is controlled Many commonly available stepper motors have 200 full steps per revolution but controllers also permit micro stepping Micro stepping helps give smooth running over the full range of feed speeds and many controllers will allow you to have 10 micro steps per full step A 200 step motor with 10 micro steps per full step would allow 1 2000 of a revolution as the minimum step In our example above two micro steps would give the desired 0 0001 minimum move This must be viewed with some caution however As the number 4 6 of microsteps per step increases the torque falls off rapidly Depending on the load being imposed on the motor there may not be enough torque to actually move the motor by a single microstep It may be necessary to make several microsteps before there is sufficient torque In brief you should not count on microstepping to achieve fine
102. n spare pins on your parallel ports but there may be significant time delays before the switch change is seen Furthermore a key up or key down message can get lost by Windows Emulated signals cannot be used for ndex or Timing and should not be used for EStop 5 7 5 3 4 Output Signals Use the Output Signals tab to define the outputs you require See Figure 5 5 Figure 5 5 Output Signals Tab on the Ports and Pins Dialog Engine Configuration Ports amp Pins x Port Setup and Axis Selection Motor Outputs Input Signgfs Output Signals Bncoder MPG s Spindle Setup Mill Options Signal Enabled Port Pin Number tive Low al Digit Trig Enable1 Enable2 Enable3 Enable4 EnableS Enable6 Output 1 Output 2 Output 3 Output 4 ANA OE OE OE OE OE OE OE pp j A ee A AA A A AA PA AS eOuoooOuoOouooouoio EE OE X OE OE N OE OE OE OE Pins 2 3 1 14 15 and 17 are output pins No other pin numbers should be used OK Cancel Apply Notice the scroll bar on the right side of the window Table 5 2 gives a complete list of output signals Table 5 2 List of Possible Output Signals Signal Meaning Signal Meaning Eme opa Em ps Eme odo Enabled oo Enables op Enabe opa a You will probably want to use only one Enable output as all the axis drives can be connected to it If you are using the charge pump pulse monitor feature then you can enable your axis drives fro
103. nals serate AA e a 5 6 L istof Possible Output Signals o3 3 add wo E Re RE ASA era ts RAS 5 0 Pulley Configuration for Bridgeport Step Pulley J Head o o oooooooooo ooo 5 28 Detfaults Tor Jos Hotkeys iud erac os Tr rte nat Y qos aon A at a 5 32 Document Your Motor Outputs Settings Here o oooooooooonooo teens 5 40 Document Your Input Signal Settings Here o o oooooooooooooo ooo 5 41 Torch Height Controls m Mac a gue eRREZGGRRIEE RES RARE REOR ERED EERE ROR EES A 1 Vil This 1s a blank left hand page for two sided printing viii Chapter 1 Introduction to CNC Systems This chapter introduces you to terminology used in the rest of this manual and explains the purpose of the different components in a computer numerically controlled CNC system S Before You Begin Any machine tool is potentially dangerous Computer controlled machines are potentially more dan gerous than manual ones because for example a computer is quite prepared to rotate an 8 unbalanced cast iron four jaw chuck at 3000 rpm to plunge a panel fielding router cutter deep into a piece of oak or to mill away the clamps holding your work to the table This manual tries to give you guidance on safety precautions and techniques but because we do not know the details of your machine or local conditions we can accept no responsibility for the perfor mance of any machine or any damage or injury caused by its use It is your responsib
104. ne the address to which each responds There are no standards Open the Windows Control Panel from the Windows Start button Double click on System and choose the Hardware tab Click the Device Man ager button Expand the tree for the item Ports COM amp LPT Double click the first LPT or ECP port Its properties will be displayed in a new window Choose the Resources tab The first number in the first IO range line 1s the address to use Note the value and close the Properties dialog Note Installing or removing any PCI card can change the address of a PCI parallel port card even if you have not touched it If you are going to use a second port repeat the above steps for it Close the Device Manager System Properties and Control Panel windows Enter the address that you just looked up as the first port s address on the Port Setup and Axis Selec tion dialog Do not provide the Ox prefix to say it is Hexadecimal as Mach3 assumes this If necessary check Enabled for port 2 and enter its address in the same way Now click the Apply button to save these values This is most important Mach3 will not remember values when you change from tab to tab or close the Port amp Pins dialog unless you click Apply 5 2 2 Choosing Kernel Speed The Mach3 driver can run at frequencies from 25 000 Hz pulses per second up to 100 000 Hz depending on the speed of your processor and other loads placed on it when running Mach3 The frequency you nee
105. not Y Wizards needed for external motion control devices v XML s 328 KB Lazylam w Screen sets w Standard Mach3Turm screen Standard Mach3Mil screen Standard Mach3 Plasma screen Total space required 38 3 MB Cancel You will need the parallel port driver if you are using the computer s parallel port s to interface with the machine tool If you are using a motion controller board from a third party vendor that uses USB or Ethernet you should uncheck the parallel port driver The Wizards are a set of macros that let you quickly create GCode to do common tasks such a bolt cir cles pockets etc You will almost certainly find these useful Installing the Wizards also installs the Mach3 Addons for Mill although they require a separate license for activation The XMLs are the files that hold Mach3 s configuration information There are three default XML files Mach3Mill xml Mach3Turn xml and Mach3Plasma xml These give you a known starting point for creating your own custom profiles ArtSoft USA STRONGLY recommends you create cus tom profiles of your own instead of modifying the default profile s If you have previously modified one or more of the default profiles however and do not want to overwrite your configuration informa tion you should uncheck the XML s box 2 2 LazyCam 1s a beta release free importer included with Mach3 Its purpose is to import standard dxf cmx and other file types
106. ofiles Mach3Mill XMLI etc will be overwritten with a new version If the old version of Mach3Mil11 XML contained all your laboriously entered configuration informa tion you will not be happy The Mach3 Loader shortcut has no preset profile choice It runs Mach3 with a startup menu asking you to choose which profile to use It also provides a way for you to create your own custom profiles 2 3 Creating a Profile Run Mach3Loader using the preconfigured shortcut The window shown in Figure 2 5 will appear Figure 2 5 Profile Selection Window Session Profile y xi Current Profiles IAE M Create Profile Mach3Turn Plasma Delete Profile Cancel Click the Create Profile button The window shown in Figure 2 6 will appear 2 Figure 2 6 Create Profile Window Create Profile Clone From New Profile Name MyMill Default Profile Values Do not put any extension on the new profile In the left hand list click on the profile you want to clone in this example it is Mach3Mill Type the name you want to assign to the new profile in the New Profile Name box Do not check the Default Profile Values box Selecting Default Profile Values produces a minimal profile Click the OK button You can run Mach3 with your new profile by running Mach3Loader selecting your profile name in the list and clicking the OK button For convenience you may want to create a shortcut to Mach3
107. one of the following e Change the Low Active setting for the Dir pin of the axis in Config Ports and Pins gt Motor Out puts tab and Apply it e Check the Reversed box in Config gt Homing Limits for the axis that you are using e Switch off the power then reverse one pair of physical connections to the motor from the drive electronics If a stepper motor hums or screams then you have wired it incorrectly or are trying to drive it much too fast Reduce the acceleration and velocity We have seen small systems that had a maximum veloc ity of only 4 or 5 inches per minute If that doesn t help check the wiring The labelling of stepper wires especially 8 wire motors is sometimes very confusing You will need to refer to the motor and driver electronics documentation If a servo motor runs away at full speed or flicks and indicates a fault on its driver then its armature or encoder connections need reversing See your servo electronics documentation for more details If you are having any troubles here you will be pleased if you followed the advice to buy current and properly supported products buy right buy once Pulse width is another consideration Most drives will work well with a 1 microsecond minimum pulse width If you have problems with the test moves e g motor seems too noisy first check that your step pulses are not inverted by Low active being set incorrectly for Step on the Ports and Pins gt Motor Outputs tab th
108. ooo ooo mn 4 20 dali pimdleIndex Pulse dads ent EE AA RES UU E SEE Ei 4 22 4 12 Charge Pump a Pulse Monitor o o ooo rr 4 22 Ale SOMMER o S uei mri tea eite Puede PUE sordo od ed uod ede da tear 4 23 4 14 Sample Schematic of EStop and Limits Using Relays o o oooooooo o 4 24 Chapter 5 Configuring Mach3 for Your Machine and Drives 5 As Conio ura on S MIEY is pep Pb IG REP RESCUE LEER MPH NARRA C NS 5 22 Initial Contorno be eRe C RO dea ced inde 5 1 5 2 1 Defining Addresses of Port s to Use o oooooooooooooooo es 5 2 52 2 hoosine Kemer Speed ite fsck ti a iiaa eda sia AS 5 3 52 Defining Special Peat fesS q s vane wher owas ne RE SURE WAR GU b sedora eth 5 3 5 3 Defining Input and Output Signals To Use llle 5 4 5 3 1 Axis and Spindle Output Signals to Be Used ooooooooooooooroooo 5 4 23 2 InpuGSionals Lo Be Used uda aso des aaa 5 5 5 9 9 emulated Input Signals IA A ite eee Deo e does 5 7 59 4 UOUIDULISIOfIJIS eco vet emu ET ETUR ESSE tase Editeur que abes xatd 5 8 5 3 5 Defining Encoder and Manual Pulse Generator MPG Inputs 5 9 5 9 5 1 Setting UP ENCOdE ATA AS A 5 10 5 35 2 pe une Up MEGS sui uud Up ER deb i as ee hunt a 5 10 5 3 6 Contisurine the Spindle 43e x E RERO hee bomen STEEP ONES s 5 10 5 5 T COOC ONTO arsaa eto arena ae Boe ewe Se i a d a di 5 11 3 3 0 2 Spindle Relay Control sss 3 ee XUEEE ea ORE eee Rae EE 5 11 5 910
109. orts and Pins Dialog o oooooooooononoooooooooo o 5 10 Spindle Setup Tab of the Ports and Pins Dialog 20 0 0 ccc nee 5 11 Mill Options Tab of the Ports and Pins Dialog o o oooooooooooooooooo ooo 5 13 Select Native Units Dalon sida da EE rog ia A posses 5 15 Machine Drivetrain Components 0 0 0 00 ccc cee eee eens 5 16 Motor Tune Daloa ea ad Gt eee S IHE Ke ab tert PER tis 5 19 SEIS AMO Lab cartes e did 5 21 Automatic Setting of Steps per Uniti 4 2 dus eee A a eoe e 5 2 Window to Enter Nominal Move Distance 000 ccc es 5 22 Window to Enter Actual Move Distance 4 5 v4 24 eve tae da EPA Eques dake dake es 5 22 Selecting MDL sea y od te diea iUo Eae ee mies ean feed oes ae 5 23 Manually Entering G20 G90 Commands vr A A ES OEE s 5 24 Establishing a Zero POSION oa iii eg AP Eia A MESTRE Melee aa otha ae paite 5 24 Gase Bloc tn POSITIOR ede des oat Ende pete P Sg hes teni di e dd top iue 5 25 SA PC RED DM 5 26 Confio Spindle Pulleys Dialog s as SE AAA 5 27 Conte Honning Limits DIaloS sud eq Pares EERS 5 30 Configure System Hotkeys Dialog oooooooooooororr n 5 31 Contisure Backlash Dialog its ds dia 5 32 Contioure Slaye Axis Dialog ii AAA ica cl de 5 33 Contisure Toolpath Dialog 4 eae edo b db e bbs e p eed nee x 5 34 General Contfieuration Dial g 12 zvsE A ERU RR VERRE NN DES EXISEKS 5 35 Tables 5 5 2 5 3 5 4 5 5 5 6 A I Listof Possible Input Sig
110. othing capacitors can allow motors to run on for some considerable time 4 4 The machine should not be able to run again until a reset button has been pressed If the EStop but ton locks when pushed then the machine should not start when you release it by turning its head It will not generally be possible to continue machining a part after an EStop event but you and the machine will at least be safe 4 4 Axis Drive Options 4 4 1 Steppers and Servos There are two possible types of motive power for axis drives e Stepper motor e Servo motor either AC or DC Either of these types of motor can drive the axes through leadscrews plain or ball nut belts chains or rack and pinion The mechanical drive method will determine the speed and torque required from the motors and hence any gearing required between the motor and machine Properties of a bipolar stepper motor drive include Low cost e Simple 4 wire connection to motor Low maintenance e Motor speed limited to about 1000 rpm and torque limited to about 3000 ounce inches 21 Nm Getting the maximum speed depends on running the motor or the drive electronics at their maxi mum permitted voltage Getting the maximum torque depends on running the motor at its maxi mum permitted current amps e For practical purposes on a machine tool steppers need to be driven by a chopped micro stepping controller to ensure smooth operation at any speed with reasona
111. probe 4 10 Linear Glass Scale Encoders Mach3 has four pairs of inputs to each of which an encoder with quadrature outputs can be connected Typically these might be glass scale encoders Figure 4 15 shows an example Mach3 will display the position of each of these encoders on a dedicated DRO shown in Figure 4 17 These values can be loaded from and saved to the main axis DROs 4 20 Figure 4 15 Glass Scale Encoder Inside the case of the encoder is a glass or sometimes plastic strip ruled with lines often 10 microns wide separated by the same sized clear space A light shining on a phototransistor through the ruling generates a signal of the form shown as A in Figure 4 16 One complete cycle corresponds to a move ment of 20 microns Figure 4 16 Quadrature Signals typically 20 microns Start Another light and phototransistor located 5 microns in this example away from the first one would generate signal B a quarter of a cycle out from A hence the name quadrature Notice that a signal either A or B changes every 5 microns of movement so the resolution of the scale is 5 microns We can tell which way it is moving by the sequence of changes For example if B goes from Lo to Hi when A 1s Hi point x then we are moving to the right of the marked Start whereas if B goes from Hi to Lo when A is Hi point y then motion is to the left away from Start 4 21 Figure 4 17 Encoder DROs Encoder Posit
112. r rotary tables and 40 1 for dividing heads but check yours With a direct motor drive to a 90 1 worm one motor rev would rotate the spindle 4 degrees so Motor revs per unit would be 0 25 A reduction of 2 1 from motor to worm would give 0 5 revs per unit 5 5 1 2 Calculating Motor Steps Per Revolution The basic resolution of all modern stepper motors is 200 steps per revolution that is 1 8 per step Some older steppers are 180 steps per rev but you are not likely to meet them if you are buying sup ported new or nearly new equipment Check yours though to be sure what you have The basic resolution of a servo motor depends on the encoder on its shaft The encoder resolution 1s usually quoted in CPR cycles per revolution Because the output is actually two quadrature signals the effective resolution will be four time this value You will typically see a CPR in the range of about 125 to 2000 corresponding to 500 to 8000 steps per revolution 5 5 1 3 Calculating Mach3 Steps Per Motor Revolution ArtSoft USA very strongly recommends that you use micro stepping drive electronics for stepper motors If you do not and use a full or half step drive then you will need much larger motors and will suffer from resonances that limit performance at some speeds Micro stepping will give smoother operation Some micro stepping drives have a fixed number of micro steps typically 10 while others can be configured In this case you will find 10
113. rcuit breaker For safety you need to introduce time delays on the operation of the contactors or use a modern inverter drive which allows you to change direction with a running motor See also the note about the limited number of Relay Activation Signals in Section 4 7 Coolant 4 6 2 Step and Direction Motor Control If your spindle motor is a servo motor with a step and direction drive like the axis drives then you can configure two output signals to control its speed and direction of rotation Mach3 will take account of a variable step pulley drive or gearbox between the motor and the spindle For full details see Motor Tuning in Chapter 5 4 6 3 PWM Motor Control As an alternative to Step and Direction control Mach3 can output a pulse width modulated signal whose duty cycle is the percentage of full speed that you require You could for example convert the duty cycle of the signal to a voltage PWM signal on for 0 of time gives 0 volts 25 gives 2 5 volts 50 gives 5 volts up to 100 gives 10 volts and use this to control an induction motor with a vari able frequency inverter drive Alternatively the PWM signal could be used to trigger a triac in a simple DC speed controller 4 18 Figure 4 13 A 50 Pulse Width Modulated Signal Figure 4 14 A 20 Pulse Width Modulated Signal Figure 4 13 and Figure 4 14 show the pulse width at approximately 5096 of the cycle and 2096 of the cycle To turn th
114. re to use a motor of adequate size with plenty of torque for the application You can also increase available torque by gearing If your rapid feed speed calculation results in a rea sonable value you could consider slowing it down by 2 1 gearing perhaps by a toothed belt drive which would nearly double the available torque on the screw That could permit the use of smaller cheaper motors at the expense of some performance Using a Servo Motor Again we look at the size of one step A servo motor has an encoder to tell its drive electronics where it is This consists of a slotted disc which will generate four quadrature pulses for each slot in the disc Thus a disc with 300 slots for example generates 300 cycles per revolution CPR This 1s fairly low for commercial encoders The encoder electronics would output 1200 quadrature counts per revo lution QCPR of the motor shaft With our 0 1 pitch leadscrew one step would give a minimum movement of 0 000083 which is better than the 0 0001 desired The drive electronics for the servo will usually turn the motor by one quadrature count per input step pulse Some high specification servo electronics can multiply and or divide the step pulses by a con stant e g one step pulse moves by 5 quadrature pulses or 36 17 pulses This is often called electronic gearing As the maximum speed of a servo motor is around 4000 rpm we will certainly need a speed reduction on the mechanica
115. rolled by a pulse width modulated signal On Off Motor Control M3 and a screen button will request that the spindle starts in a clockwise direction M4 will request that the spindle starts in a counterclockwise direction M5 requests that the spindle stops M3 and MA can be configured to activate external output signals which can be associated with output pins on the parallel ports You then wire these outputs probably via relays to control the motor contactors for your machine Although this sounds straightforward in practice you need to be very careful Unless you really need to run the spindle in reverse it would be better to treat M3 and M4 as the same or to allow M4 to acti vate a signal that you do not connect to anything Clearly it is possible in an error situation for the clockwise and counterclockwise signals to be active together This may cause the contactors to short the main power supply Special mechanically inter locked reversing contactors can be obtained and if you are going to allow your spindle to run counter clockwise then you need to use one Another difficulty 1s that the GCode definition says that it 1s valid to issue an M4 when the spindle is running clockwise under an M3 and vice versa If your spin dle drive is an AC motor instantly changing the direction when running at full speed is going to impose very large forces on the mechanical drive of the machine and will probably blow the AC fuse or trip a ci
116. rsing direction 5 20 revs per unit 5 16 steps per revolution 5 18 Motor Outputs tab 5 4 Motor pulleys See Pulleys Motor Tuning dialog 5 19 Mouse using Mach3 without 3 3 MPG See Maual Pulse Generators MPGs N Native Units dialog 5 14 NC machine parts of 1 2 No System Menu in Mach3 5 37 Noise on signal ground 4 3 O OEM Trigger inputs 5 7 OEM triggers configuring 5 31 Offset save dialog 5 39 Output signals interfacing 4 23 Output Signals tab 5 8 Outputs defining which to be used 5 4 P Parallel port D25 connector pinout 4 2 general background 4 1 Parallel port driver manual install 2 9 test program 2 5 Part Program running a sample 3 5 PC configuration required 1 4 Permanent DROs configure 5 39 Persistent feed override 5 37 Persistent jog mode 5 37 Persistent offsets 5 39 Plasma Mode 5 38 Port addresses finding with Windows Control Panel 5 3 Port Setup and Axis Selection tab 5 2 Ports and Pins dialog 5 1 Probe design requirements 4 20 Profiles how stored 5 39 multiple to allow control of several machine tools 5 39 persistence when upgrading Mach3 2 10 selecting on rselected by the p argument in shortcut target 2 4 selecting on running Mach3 exe 2 4 specified in p argument 5 39 Program end configure action at 5 35 Pulleys explanation of 5 26 ratios for spindle drive 5 12 setting max speed of 5 26 Pulse width modulated control of motor speed 4 18 Pulse width modulated spindle See Spindle PWM P
117. s Belts are available in metric and imperial pitches with 5 or 8 millimeters common metric pitches and 0 375 Gia common for inch belts and for chain For a rack find its tooth pitch This is best done by measuring the total distance spanning 50 or even 100 gaps between teeth Note that because standard gears are made to a diametral pitch the length will not be a rational number as it includes the constant 7t p1 3 14159 If you know the diametral pitch dp of the rack you can calculate the tooth pitch tp as tp TT dp If the number of teeth on the pinion sprocket pulley on the primary shaft which drives the rack belt chain is N then shaft revs per unit 1 tooth pitch X N For example with a e g chain and a 13 tooth sprocket on the motor shaft then the motor revs per unit 1 0 375 x 13 0 2051282 In passing we observe that this is quite high geared and the motor might need an additional reduction gearbox to meet the torque requirements In this case you multiply the motor revs per unit by the reduction ratio of the gearbox motor revs per unit shaft revs per unit xN Nw 9 17 For example a 10 1 box would give 2 051282 revs per inch For rotary axes e g rotary tables or dividing heads the unit is the degree You need to calculate the number of motor revs required to produce 1 degree of axis rotation based on the worm gear ratio of the rotary table or dividing head This 1s often 90 1 fo
118. s To Use Now that you have established the basic configuration it 1s time to define which input and output sig nals you will use and which parallel port and pin will be used for each signal The documentation for your breakout board may give guidance on what outputs to use if it has been designed for use with Mach3 or the board may be supplied with a skeleton Profile XML file with these connections already defined 5 3 1 Axis and Spindle Output Signals to Be Used View the Motor Outputs tab of the Ports and Pins dialog This will look similar to Figure 5 3 Figure 5 3 Motor Outputs Tab on the Ports and Pins Dialog Engine Configuration Ports amp Pins E a X Port Setup and Axis Selectio put Signals Dutput Signals Encoder MPG s Spindle Setup Mill Options Signal Enabled Step Pins Dir Pina Dir LowActive Step Low Ac Step Port Dir Port Axis ad 2 6 f d 1 1 es 3 7 ae d Z Axis nd 4 8 d nd 1 1 A Axis ow 5 a d af 1 1 B Axis af 0 0 d nd 0 0 C Axis es 0 O ar i 0 0 Spindle af 0 0 es af 0 0 E Define where the drives for your X Y and Z axes are connected and click in the Enabled column to get a check mark to Enable these axes If any axis 1s enabled that shouldn t be click in the Enabled column to change the green check to a red X If you need to edit any boxes in the Step Pin Dir Pin Step Port or Dir Port columns double click the appropriate boxes and edit the entries If yo
119. s for switches www machsupport com has a link to the Yahoo group 4 5 3 How Mach3 Uses Shared Switches This section refers to the configuration for small machines where Mach3 rather than external EStop logic is controlled by the switches For a full understanding of this you will also have to read the section in Chapter 5 on configuring Mach3 but the basic principle of sharing switches 1s simple You connect the two limit switches to one input or have one switch and two vanes or ramps You define to Mach3 a direction as the direction to travel to move when looking for a Home reference switch The limit switch vane or ramp at that end of the axis 1s also the home switch In normal use when Mach3 is moving an axis and sees its limit input become active it will stop run ning like an EStop and display that a Limit switch has been tripped You will be unable to move the axis unless e Auto Limit override is switched on by a toggle button on the Settings screen In this case you can click Reset and jog off the Limit switch You should then re reference the machine position e You click Override Limits button A red flashing LED warns you of the temporary override This will again allow you Reset and to jog off the switch and will then turn itself and the flashing LED off You should then re reference the machine position An input can also be defined to override the Limit switches Note that although Mach3 uses limited jogging speed
120. s on a high precision machine might have a separate Home switch to achieve the required accuracy 4 5 5 3 Limit Switches of Multiple Axes Connected Together Because Mach3 does not take any notice of which Limit of which axis has tripped then all the limits can be ORed together and fed into one Limit input Each axis can then have its own Home reference switch connected to the reference input A three axis machine still only needs four inputs 4 5 5 4 Home Switches of Multiple Axes Connected Together If you are really short of inputs to Mach3 then you can OR the Home switches together and define all Home inputs to be that signal In this case you can reference only a single axis at a time so you should remove REF All buttons from your screens and your Home switches must all be at the end of travel on their respective axes 4 5 5 5 Slaving On a gantry type mill or router where the two legs of the gantry are driven by separate motors then each motor should be driven by its own axis For example if the gantry moves in the Y direction then axis A should be defined as a linear i e non rotational axis and A should be slaved to Y see Chap ter 5 on Configuring Mach3 for details Both axes should have Limit and Home switches In normal use both Y and A will be sent exactly the same step and direction commands by Mach3 When a Ref 4 15 erence operation is performed then the axes will run together until the final par
121. s the Engine pulse frequency divided by the PWMBase freq For example if you are running at 35 000 Hz and set PWMBase to 50 Hz there are 700 discrete speeds available That 1s almost certainly sufficient on any real system as a motor with maximum speed of 3600 rpm could theoretically be controlled in steps of less than 6 rpm Enter the minimum acceptable percentage PWM signal in the Minimum PWM box Refer to your ven dor s product documentation for guidance Define an output pin on the Motor Outputs tab Figure 5 5 for the Spindle Step This pin must be connected to your PWM motor control electronics You do not need one for Spindle Direction so set this pin to 0 1 May not be correct for all step pulley J heads verify for your particular machine 0 28 Define External Activation signals in Config gt Ports and Pins gt Output Signals to switch the PWM controller on off and if required to set the direction of rotation Don t forget to Apply all changes 5 5 5 3 Step and Direction Spindle Controller To configure the spindle motor for Step and Direction control check the Use Spindle Motor Output and the Step Dir Motor boxes on the Config gt Port and Pins gt Spindle Setup tab Figure 5 7 Leave PWM Control unchecked Define output pins on the Config gt Ports and Pins gt Motor Outputs tab Figure 5 3 for the Spindle Step and Spindle Direction These pins must be connected to your motor drive electronics Apply the changes D
122. screen and all the objects on it if it has fewer pixels than the current PC screen mode ensuring that it fills the entire screen area 9 37 Flash Errors and comments if checked will cause any displayed error messages and comments to flash 5 6 6 4 General Logic Configuration Column 4 Inputs Signal Debouncing Noise Reduction Debounce interval Index Debounce Specifies the number of Mach3 pulses for which a switch must be stable for its signal to be considered valid For example if a system runs at 35 000 Hz 100 would give about a 3 millisecond debounce time 100 35000 0 0029 sec The Index pulse and the other inputs have independent settings General Configuration continued from Column 3 Disable Gouge Concavity checks if unchecked Mach3 will check during cutter compensation G41 and G42 if the tool diameter is too large to cut insider corners without gouging the work Check the box to disable the warning G04 Dwell param in Milliseconds if checked the command G4 5000 will give a Dwell in running of 5 seconds If the control 1s unchecked the dwell value will be treated as seconds G4 5000 would give a dwell of 1 hour 23 minutes 20 seconds Use WatchDogs if checked triggers an EStop if Mach3 seems not to be running correctly You may need to uncheck it if you get spurious EStops on slower computers with operations like loading Wiz ards Debug this Run if checked gives extra diagnostics to the program design
123. shbuttons are in their non operated position Holding the nterface Reset button will allow the Mach3 Reset button to be pressed and the axes to be jogged off their limit switches The Interface Reset button will then latch Relay A RLA needs to have one normally open NO contact It must have a 5 volt coil that 1s at least 150 Ohms so it requires no more than 33 milliamps Omron part number G6H 2100 5 is suitable and has contacts rated at 1 amp 30 volts DC Relay B RLB needs to have one NC and two NO contacts It can have any convenient coil voltage to suit an available power supply The Common of this should ideally not be the PC s 0 volt rail to avoid long lengths of wiring for the limit and EStop switches which can induce noise The Omron MY4 series should be suitable with four contacts rated a 5 amps 220 volts AC The LEDs are optional but useful to indicate what is happening The current limiting resistor for the Interface OK LED will need to be 1 8K ohms if a 24 volt supply 1s used If the coil voltages are suitable then the contactors can use the Control positive and common supply The arrangement of contactors coils shown as C1 C2 C3 depends on your drive power supply arrangements and the wiring of the motors for the machine tool You should aim to switch the DC sup ply to the steppers or servos after the smoothing capacitor to ensure a prompt stop You may want to rewire the spindle and coolant motors so that the
124. ss Slide 0 0 0 0 20 0000 4 6 242 2 Example 2 5 Router Gantry DAYS ood VER RR dower EE 4 8 4 4 3 How the Step and Dir Signals Work o oooooooooooooonnon ee eee eens 4 8 4 5 Limit ano Home Witches irrita ded ou ok CE dere We MERE ps 4 9 TL Tho WIOGLeS 2s oye ached a Sabo Odi ER uero A 4 10 432 Where to Mount the Switches 20d ao toe Ry UE od He 4 13 4 5 3 How Mach3 Uses Shared Switches o ooooooooooornonnnn eens 4 14 454 Home Referencna In Acude Aer 4 14 4 5 5 Other Home and Limit Options and Hints 0 00 ooo 4 15 4 5 5 1 Home Switch not Near Limit Switch llle 4 15 4 5 5 2 Separate High Accuracy Home Switch 0 0 0000 4 15 4 5 5 3 Limit Switches of Multiple Axes Connected Together 4 15 4 5 5 4 Home Switches of Multiple Axes Connected Together 4 15 a A haw de ye cael Bee ae ened ate 6 aed Soe 4 15 AO Summary Wining Dira 4 4 ices A UE RE OE EO eyes 4 17 4 6 Spindle Control PTT 4 18 AG On Or Motor Conteh ree iO awe ees gos 4 18 4 6 2 Step and Direction Motor Control 0 0 0 ccc eee eens 4 18 20 5 UR WIN Voto Control tala d atime Bak bae Eten iud tac oU ded e RUOLI Deb ania 4 18 4 7 COO LAD is fa te tees ey erg is ia ela ds 4 20 4 8 Kale Direction CORPO 526 2s 254 A RE EE RE AE PE ESI det us dada 4 20 4 9 Wisi ze Probe 4450 ak eda re Rma do abd pats 4 20 4 10 Linear Glass Scale Encoders ooooooooo
125. t of referencing which is moving just off the Home switches Here they will move so that each stops the same distance off its own switch Referencing will therefore correct any racking 1 e out of squareness of the gantry which might have occurred when the machine was switched off or because of lost steps 4 16 4 5 6 Summary Wiring Diagram The wiring diagram in Figure 4 12 gives one example of how the various pieces of a CNC system might go together The diagram is not necessarily complete but it shows the main components Note the relationship of the various parts the power supply motor driver boards a breakout board the step per motors and limit switches Your configuration may not necessarily duplicate what 1s shown here but the diagram should give you an idea of what you are trying to accomplish The breakout board will probably have its own separate power supply All grounds including any cable shields should tie to a single point Consult the documentation from the manufacturers for specific details Figure 4 12 Example Wiring Diagram To Computer 4 6 Spindle Control 4 6 1 There are three different ways in which Mach3 can control the machine spindle or you can ignore all of these and control it manually 1 Relay contactor control of motor On Clockwise or Counterclockwise and motor Off 2 Motor controlled by Step and Direction pulses e g spindle motor is a servo 3 Motor cont
126. t profiles When you have created your custom profile s click the Next button 2 3 2 1 2 3 If You re Using Windows Vista Vista may require a registry patch for the Mach3 parallel port driver to run If you are using a third party motion controller board that communicates with USB or Ethernet instead of the parallel port driver you do not need the patch First do the normal Mach3 installation then install the patch The patch 1s available at www machsupport com together with any updated information about using Win dows Vista Download the patch as a Zip file save it and unzip it to extract the file memoryover ride reg Double click the filename to run it memoryoverride reg modifies the registry to allow Mach3 s driver to run Now go to the C Mach3 folder or wherever you installed Mach3 Right click drivertest exe and select Run as Administrator It should tell you to reboot Do so or your computer will crash No question about it Now you should be able to run Mach3 Try drivertest exe again and it should run Note You may get errors reported when running DriverTest In fact it may not run at all the first time then Vista will ask you 1f you want to run it in compatibility mode DO so and it will run 2 1 3 The Vital Reboot 2 2 You must reboot Windows before running Mach3 This reboot is vital If you do not do it you will get into great difficulties which can only be overcome by using the Windows Contro
127. t screen point the file selector to your Mach3 folder C Mach3 by default Windows should find the file Mach3 inf Select this file and click Open Windows will install the driver The driver can be uninstalled rather more simply l 2 3 Open the Control panel and double click on the icon or line for System select Hardware and click Device Manager You will be shown a list of devices and their drivers Mach Pulsing Engine has the driver Mach3 Driver under it Click on the symbol to expand the tree if necessary Right click on Mach3 Driver This will display a short menu that includes the option to uninstall it Click Uninstall This will remove the file Mach3 sys from the Windows folder The copy in the Mach3 folder will still be there There is one final point to note Windows remembers all the information about the way you have con figured Mach3 in a Profile file This information is not deleted by un installing the driver and deleting other Mach3 files so it will remain whenever you upgrade the system However in the very unlikely event that you need a totally clean installation from scratch then you may need to delete the XML pro file file or files 2 10 Chapter 3 Introducing the Mach3 Screens and Commands You are now ready to try a dry run of Mach3 It will be easier to understand how to set up your actual machine tool after you have experimented a bit with the software You can pretend to machine and le
128. tem with a newer version then the reboot is not vital The install sequence does however still ask you to do it Windows XP boots reasonably quickly so it is not much hardship to do it every time Testing The Installation So you have rebooted If you haven t go back and read Section 2 1 3 ArtSoft USA recommends you now test the installed system As mentioned above Mach3 is not a sim ple program It takes great liberties with Windows to perform its job this means it will not work on all systems due to many factors For example the QuickTime system monitor qtask exe running in 2 4 the background can kill Mach3 and there may be other programs you are not even aware of on your system that can do the same Windows can and does start many processes in the background Some appear as icons in the system tray bottom right of screen while others do not show themselves in any way Other possible causes of erratic operation are local area network connections which may be con figured to automatically speed detect You should configure these to the actual speed 10 Mbps or 100 Mbps of your network Finally a machine that has been surfing the Internet may have gained one or more of a host of robot type programs which spy on what you are doing and send data over the net to their originators This traffic can interfere with Mach3 and is not something you want anyway Use a spyware scanner such as Spybot available from www safer net
129. ter an EStop condition Motion mode Constant Velocity sets G64 Exact Stop sets G61 Distance mode Absolute sets G90 Inc sets G91 Absolute 1s typically the normal or conventional mode Use caution if you change it to incremental Having the wrong mode selected in relation to what your GCode program uses can make the toolpath look very weird I J Mode You can set the interpretation to be placed on I amp J in arc moves This is provided for com patibility with different CAM post processors and to emulate other machine controllers In Jnc 1J mode I and J the center point are interpreted as relative to the starting point of a center format arc This is compatible with NIST EMC In Absolute IJ mode I and J are the coordinates of the center in the current coordinate system 1 e after application of work tool and G92 offsets If circles always fail to display or to cut properly especially obvious by them being too big if they are far from the ori gin then the IJ mode is not compatible with your part program An error in this setting is the most frequent cause of questions from users when trying to cut circles Active Plane X Y sets G17 Y Z sets G19 X Z sets G18 Jog Increments in Cycle Mode The Cycle Jog Step button will successively load the values from this list into the Step DRO This is often more convenient than typing a value into the Step DRO Enter the special value 999 to switch to Cont Jog Mode The list is always ten
130. the MDI screen click the Start Teach button The LED next to 1t will light to remind you that you are teaching Type in a series of MDI lines Mach3 will execute each command as you press Enter after each line Mach3 will store the sequence of commands you enter in a named Teach file 3 5 Figure 3 5 Teaching a Rectangle P4 Mach3 CNC Controller File Config Function Cfgs View Wizards Operator Plugin Control Help FRO 100 00 F 100 0 Reset 100 So 109 y 2mm Units Min 0 00 Units Rev on You can type your own code or try gal 100 gl x10 yO Ol SET y5 x0 yO All the 0 are zeros not capital Os When you have finished click Stop Teach Next click Load Edit and go to the Program Run screen You will see the lines you typed displayed in the GCode window Figure 3 6 If you click Cycle Start then Mach3 will execute your program 3 6 Figure 3 6 Taught Program Running Famac h3 CNC Controller File Config Function Cfgs View Wizards Operator Plugin Control Help la xi 5cale mm Scale NENEN If you use the editor you will be able to correct any mistakes and save the program in a file of your own choosing This is a blank left hand page for two sided printing 3 8 4 1 Chapter 4 Hardware Requirements and Connecting the Machine Tool This chapter tells you about the hardware aspects of connecting a mach
131. the Program Run screen is made up of the following types of objects e Buttons for example Reset Stop Alt S etc e DROs or Digital Readouts Anything with a number displayed will be a DRO This may be a more general use of the term DRO than you are accustomed to The main DROs are of course the current positions of the X Y Z A B and C axes but there are also DROs for feed rate spindle speed and other values e Simulated LEDs in various sizes and shapes e GCode display window with its own scroll bars e Toolpath display blank square on your screen at the moment There is one further important type of control that is not on the Program Run screen e MDI Manual Data Input line on the MDI screen Buttons data entry boxes and the MDI line are your inputs to Mach3 DROs can be displays by Mach3 or can be used as inputs by you The background color changes when you are inputting The GCode window and Toolpath displays provide information from Mach3 to you You can how ever manipulate both of them for example scroll the GCode window and zoom rotate and pan the Toolpath display 3 2 3 1 2 Using Buttons and Shortcuts Most standard screen buttons have a keyboard hotkey which may be a single key or a key combina tion This is often shown as part of the name on the button itself or in a label near it For example the shortcut to go to the MDI screen is A t 2 Pressing the named key or key combination when
132. times more current flowing into a lo than you are allowed flowing out of a hi The net result is that it is best to assign logic 1 to be a lo signal Fairly obviously this is called active lo logic The main practical disadvantage of it is that the device connected to the parallel port has to have a 5 volt supply to it This is sometimes taken from the PC game port socket or from a power sup ply in the device that is connected Turning to input signals the computer will need to be supplied with some current less than 40 micro amps for hi inputs and will supply some less than 0 4 milliamps for lo inputs Because modern computer motherboards combine many functions including the parallel port into one chip we have seen systems where the voltages only just obey the hi and lo rules You might find that a machine tool that ran on an old system becomes temperamental when you upgrade the computer 4 2 Pins 2 to 9 are likely to have similar properties they are the data pins when printing Pin 1 is also vital in printing but the other output pins are little used and may be less powerful in a carefully optimized design A good isolating breakout board see Section 4 2 1 Isolating Breakout Boards will protect you from these electrical compatibility problems 4 2 1 Isolating Breakout Boards Even if you skipped the previous section you had better read this one You will see that pins 18 to
133. tion 5 5 5 1 9 12 5 3 6 7 Special Function Laser mode should always be unchecked except for controlling the power of a cutting laser by the feed rate Use Spindle feedback in sync mode should be unchecked Closed Loop Spindle Control when checked implements a software servo loop that tries to match the actual spindle speed seen by the Index or Timing sensor with that demanded by the S word The exact speed of the spindle is not likely to be critical so you are not likely to need to use this feature If you do use it then the P I and D variables should be set in the range 0 to 1 P controls the gain of the loop and an excessive value will make the speed oscillate or hunt around the requested value rather than settling on it The D variable applies damping to stabilize these oscillations by using the deriva tive rate of change of the speed The I variable takes a long term view of the difference between actual and requested speed and so increases the accuracy in the steady state Tuning these values is assisted by using the dialog opened by Function Cfg s gt Calibrate spindle Spindle Speed Averaging when checked causes Mach3 to average the time between index timing pulses over several revolutions when it is deriving the actual spindle speed You may find it useful with a very low inertia spindle drive or one where the control tends to give short term variations of speed 5 3 7 Mill Options Tab The final tab on Config gt
134. tion of the sprocket A stepper motor ten micro steps gives 2000 steps per revolution so a 5 1 reduction belt or gear box is needed between the motor and sprocket shaft to make one step equal to 0 0005 of travel 0 0005 5 2000 x 5 and because of the 5 1 gear reduction one revolution of the stepper motor will result in 1 of travel With this design if we get 500 rpm from the stepper travel will be 500 inches per minute or 8 33 inches per second The rapid feed of 60 would neglecting acceleration and deceleration time take a reasonable 7 2 seconds 60 8 33 7 2 The torque calculation on this machine is more difficult than with the cross slide because with the mass of the gantry to be moved inertia during acceleration and deceleration 1s probably more impor tant than the cutting forces The experience of others or experiments will be the best guide If you join the ArtSoft USA MachlMach2CNC user group on Yahoo or join the General Discussion forum on www machsupport com you will have access to the experience of hundreds of other users 4 4 3 How the Step and Dir Signals Work Mach3 puts out one pulse logic 1 on the Step output for each step that the axis 1s to make The Dir output will have been set before the step pulse appears Figure 4 4 Step Pulse Form Active Lo 1 SIOP PUSS I The logic waveform will be like that shown in Figure 4 4 The gap between the pulses will be smaller the higher the spee
135. tional Offset Save Persistent DROs if checked the axis DROs will have the same values on startup as when Mach3 is closed down Note that the positions of the physical axes are unlikely to be preserved if the machine tool is powered down especially with micro stepper drives Copy G54 from G59 253 on startup if checked will re initialize the G54 offset 1 e work offset 1 val ues from the work offset 253 values when Mach3 1s started Check this if you want to start up G54 to always be a fixed coordinate system e g the machine coordinate system even if a previous user might have altered it and saved a non standard set of values How The Profile Information Is Stored Note ArtSoft USA STONGLY RECOMMENDS that you create your own profile s by cloning one of the supplied default profiles If you do so you will not modify the default profiles when you configure Mach3 That way the default profiles will always be available to you as a known starting point In addition creating your own profiles will help to keep your configuration information from being overwritten if you install an update to Mach3 If you modify the supplied default profiles Mach3Mill or Mach3Turn they will be overwritten by the program update process and you will lose all your settings Refer to Section 2 3 Mach3 Profiles When the Mach3 exe program is run it will prompt you for the Profile file to use Profiles will gener ally be in the Mach3 folder and will have
136. tive when inputting to DROs Caution It is not always sensible to put your own data into a DRO For example the display of your actual spindle speed is computed by Mach3 Any value you enter will be overwritten You can put val ues into the axis DROs but you should not do it until you have read the Using Mach3Mill manual in detail It is not a way of moving the tool 3 2 Jogging You can move the tool relative to any place on your work manually by using various types of jogging Of course on some machines the tool itself will move and on others it will be the machine table or slides that move We will use the words move the tool here for simplicity Whether the tool moves or not the frame of reference used will assume tool movement That is move the tool to the left may actually be achieved by moving the table to the right The jogging controls are on a special fly out screen This is shown and hidden by using the Tab key on the keyboard Figure 3 3 gives a view of the flyout 3 3 Figure 3 3 Control Buttons Flyout You can also use the keyboard for jogging The arrow keys are set by default to give you jogging on the X and Y axes and Pg Up PgDn jogs the Z axis You can re configure these keys to suit your own preferences You can use the Jogging keys on any screen with the Jog ON OFF button on it In Figure 3 3 you will see that the Step LED 1s shown lit The Jog Mode button toggles between Continuous Step
137. to allow those that do not use CAM programs to more easily generate GCode to be run under Mach3 You do not need it to run the Mach3 software The Screen Sets define Mach3 s screen appearance Unless you have created your own custom screens you will want these When you have selected the components you want click the Next button The installation procedure will ask if you want to create a custom profile as shown in Figure 2 2 Figure 2 2 Create a Custom Profile Screen ES Create Profiles and Desktop Icons Custom profiles will help to ensure that your settings do not get accidentally overwritten by future updates It is highly recommend that you create one Mill Profile Create a custom Mill Router profile at this time Turn Profile Create a custom Turn profile at this time EE Bes Create a custom Plasma Waterjet profile at this time As previously described ArtSoft USA strongly recommends that you create custom profiles instead of modifying the default profiles This screen lets you clone one or more of the default profiles assigning your own names to the cloned profiles For example if you click the Mill Profile button the screen shown in Figure 2 3 appears Figure 2 3 Create Mill Profile Create Profile Shortcut f i x O J Mame of your machine Enter the name you want to assign to the profile possibly MyMill and click the OK button If you want you can create several differen
138. to be sure you didn t make a typing error You can edit the program by clicking the Edit GCode button on the Program Run tab l Repeat Configuration of Other Axes With the experience you will have gained configuring the first axis you should be able to quickly repeat the process for the other axes 0 25 5 5 5 Spindle Motor Speed Control Setup Dede If the speed of the spindle motor is fixed or controlled manually then you can ignore this section If the motor is switched on and off in either direction by Mach3 then that will have been set up with the relay outputs If Mach3 is to control the spindle speed either by a servo drive that accepts Step and Direction pulses or by a Pulse Width Modulated PWM motor controller then this section tells you how to configure your system 1 Motor Speed Spindle Speed and Pulleys Step and Direction and PWM both allow you to control the speed of the motor When you are machin ing what you and the spindle speed command the S word in the part program are concerned with is the speed of the spindle The motor and spindle speeds are of course related by the pulleys or gears connecting them This section explains how to define the motor spindle relationship to Mach3 We use the term pulley to cover both pulley and gear drive in this manual Figure 5 20 shows a step pulley system Figure 5 20 Step Pulleys Mach3 cannot know without being told what pulley ratio is selected at
139. top when the machine gets off the switch This is fine when you have a separate Home switch or are on the Limit at the reference end of the axis If however you are on the other Limit switch and Mach3 cannot know this if the switches are shared then the axis will move away from the actual Home point until it crashes So the advice 1s always jog carefully off the Limit switches then reference If you are con cerned about this problem it is possible to configure Mach3 so it will not automatically jog off the home switch 4 5 5 Other Home and Limit Options and Hints 4 5 5 1 Home Switch not Near Limit Switch It is sometimes not convenient to have the Home switch at a limit of travel Consider a large moving column floor mill or a big planer mill The Z travel on the column might be 8 feet and could be quite slow without affecting the overall cutting performance of the machine If however the Home position is the top ofthe column then referencing might involve nearly 16 feet of slow Z travel If the reference position was chosen half way up the column then this time can be halved Such a machine would have a separate Home switch for the Z axis thus requiring another input on the parallel port but still only four inputs in a three axis machine and would use the ability of Mach3 to set any value for an axis DRO after referencing to make machine Z zero to be the top of the column 4 5 5 2 Separate High Accuracy Home Switch The X and Y axe
140. ulse widths configuring 5 20 PWM PWM speed control See also Spindle PWM minimum speed limit 5 12 PWM See Pulse width modulated R Re boot during installation how to manually uninstall driver if you fail to do it 2 10 reason for 2 4 Referencing configure 5 29 details of Mach3 actions 4 14 Retrofitting old CNC machines caution 1 4 4 5 Reversing motor direction 5 20 Rot 360 rollover 5 37 Rotational Soft Limits 5 37 Run Macro Pump 5 37 S Save offsets 5 39 Screen automatic enlarge 5 37 boxed DROs and graphics 5 37 example of LED 3 2 Hi Res 5 37 sample layouts 3 1 Screw revs per unit 5 16 Secondhand equipment a caution 4 5 Serial output configure 5 36 Index 3 Servo motor drives properties 4 5 Setup units choosing between inch and millimetres 5 14 Shortcuts See Keyboard shortcuts Signal ground 4 3 Slave axis See Axis Slaving Slaving configure 5 33 Soft limits See Limits Soft limits rotational 5 37 Special Mach3 sys driver need for 2 9 SpecialDriver bat 2 9 Speech allow 5 38 Spindle control options 4 18 CW and CCW control configuring 5 11 delay dwell time 5 12 drive configuring 5 10 PWM speed control 5 12 5 28 Step amp Direction speed control 5 29 Step and Direction control 5 12 Spindle control clockwise counterclockwise 4 18 interlocking requirements 4 18 Spindle Setup tab 5 10 Spindle speed maximum defined for pulleys 5 26 Step amp Direction spindle drive 4 18 Step amp Direction interface ca
141. ur interface hardware e g Gecko 201 stepper driver requires an active lo signal ensure that these columns are checked for the Step and Dir ection signals If you have rotary or slaved axes then you should enable and configure them If your spindle speed will be controlled by hand then you have finished this tab Click the Apply but ton to save the data on this tab Enable the spindle if your spindle speed will be controlled by Mach3 Allocate a Step pin port for it 1f using pulse width modulated control with relays to control its direction or allocate Step and Direction 5 4 pins ports if it has full control You should also define if these signals are active lo When done click the Apply button to save the data on this tab 5 3 2 Input Signals To Be Used Now select the Input Signals tab This will look like Figure 5 4 Figure 5 4 Input Signals Tab on the Ports and Pins Dialog Engine Configuration Ports amp Pins Port Setup and Axis Selection Motor Outpu Input Signals Gubut Signals Encoder MPG s Spindle Setup Mill Options Emulated HotKey al Signal x y 4 Home Yu y Y Home 2m z Home A Enabled Port Pm Number Active Low Ej 1 0 a Y 1 0 Y Y 1 0 Y Y 1 0 av Y 1 0 a Y 1 0 Y hs 1 0 ar Es 1 0 Y a 1 0 ef hs 1 0 Y AP 1 n a x X X 96 X A 260696 KX 2 0oj 0ojoilocooo o oo uo x Pins 10 13 and 15 are inputs Only these 5 pin numbers may be used on
142. urn Mist coolant on M8 can turn Flood coolant on and M9 can turn all coolant off The Flood Mist control section of the dialog defines which of the output signals are to be used to imple ment these functions The Port Pins for the outputs have already been defined on the Output Signals tab If you do not want to use this function check Disable Flood Mist Relays 5 3 6 2 Spindle Relay Control If the spindle speed is controlled by hand or by using a PWM signal then Mach3 can define its direc tion and when to start and stop it in response to M3 M4 and M5 by using two outputs that you spec ify here The Port Pins for those outputs have already been defined on the Output Signals tab If you control the spindle by Step and Direction then you do not need these controls M3 M4 and M5 will control the pulse train generated automatically If you do not want to use this function check Disable Spindle Relays 5 3 6 3 Motor Control Check Use Spindle Motor Output if you want to use PWM or Step and Direction control of the spindle When this is checked then you can choose between PWM Control and Step Dir Motor Checking or clearing this box automatically checks or clears the Spindle checkbox on the Motor Outputs tab 9 11 PWM Speed Control A PWM signal is a digital signal a square wave where the percentage of the time the signal is high specifies the percentage of full speed that the motor should run For example if
143. uted by ArtSoft USA over the Internet You download the package as one self install ing file which in the present release is about 25 megabytes When installed it will run for an unlim ited period as a demonstration version As demonstration software it places a few limitations on the speed the size of job that can be undertaken and the specialist features supported When you purchase a licence you can unlock the demonstration version you have already installed and configured to give full software functionality Details of pricing and options are available at www machsupport com Downloading Download the installation package from www machsupport com Use the right mouse button and Save Target as to put the self installing file on the Desktop or in a convenient folder You should be logged in to Windows as an Administrator When the file has downloaded it can be run immediately by using the Open button on the download dialog window or the download dialog window can be closed and the installation done later When you want to do the installation run the file you downloaded and saved For example if you saved the installation file on the Desktop just double click it If you saved the file in a folder run Windows Explorer right click Start button and double click on the name of the downloaded file in the folder 2 1 2 Installing Zale This section will guide you through the installation of the Mach3 software If you already h
144. ution about active hi lo 4 8 waveforms 4 8 Stepper motor drives limit of capability 4 5 properties 4 5 Steps per unit 5 16 S word spindle speed command 5 26 System hotkeys configuring 5 31 T Tangential control of knife etc 4 20 Teaching to store sequence of MDI commands 3 5 Testing axis calibration 5 23 configuration settings 5 14 for lost steps 5 25 spindle drive 5 29 THC torch height controls A 1 Timing defining pin for pulse 5 7 Tool change action configure 5 35 Toolpath Index 4 display configuration 5 33 Toolpath display control on screens 3 2 Torch height controls THC A 1 TTL current sourcing and sinking 4 2 signal levels 4 2 U UDP Pendent Control 5 37 Un installation of driver manual 2 10 Use Key Clicks 5 37 V Vista may require a registry patch 2 4 W Wave files allow 5 38 Wizards installation 2 2
145. veral settings LEDs and DROs that affect plasma usage and torch height controls THC in general in Mach3 Table A 1 lists those controls and their effect on program run time behavior Table A 1 Torch Height Controls in Mach3 prosm reens o Lens OO CT oO Dunes mews OOOO Dunes TCOWNdmd BUTTON 379 Turns on THC without THCMODE realtime Z correction BUTTON 380 Turns above mode off Notes e Turning spindle ON sets the THC correction to zero Min Max step counts are then effective from the current Z e Only licensed versions can enable THC mode e When in THC mode motion will not begin until THCON Torch OK signal becomes active Motion may be delayed by Pierce Delay e Pierce Delays tells the system not to move until delay seconds have passed since spindle torch was turned on e Config spindle Torch AutoOff setting shortens delay in takeoff and also turns off torch automati cally if motion stops A 1 This is a blank left hand page for two sided printing A 2 Index A Acceleration 5 22 configuring 5 22 importance of configuration for accuracy 5 23 Active Hi convention 4 2 Active Lo convention 4 2 Active plane configuring default 5 36 Addons installed with Wizards 2 2 Allow speech 5 38 wave files 5 38 Ang Short Rot on GO 5 37 Angular axes configure 5 35 Arcs display or cut incorrectly wrong IJ Mode setting 5 36 Auto Screen Enlarge 5 37 Axis drive design design calcul
146. with the installation refer to Section 2 4 Installation Problems 2 3 Mach3 Profiles Profile files XML files stored in the Mach3 installation folder define the operating appearance and characteristics of Mach3 allowing Mach3 to be configured for use with different types of machines lathes milling machines plasma cutters routers etc All your configuration setup choices are saved in the profile file that you select The installation wizard creates desktop icons for Mach3Mill Mach3Turn Plasma and Mach3 Loader Mach3Mill Mach3Turn and Plasma are shortcuts that run Mach3 with a preconfigured profile for a particular type of machine The profile to use is identified by a p argument in the shortcut target To see this command line right click on one of the desktop shortcuts and select Properties from the pop up menu See also Figure 2 7 While you can use one these shortcuts to start a preconfigured system ArtSoft USA recommends that you do not Instead you should create your own profile s Doing so has two important benefits e The supplied profiles Mach3Mi11 XML Mach3Turn XML and Plasma XML will not be modi fied by your configuration setup They will always be a known starting point for creating addi tional profiles and a recovery point if your own profile s becomes corrupted e Your profile s will not be overwritten and lost if you install an updated version of Mach3 During an update the default pr
147. working org to locate and delete unde sirable software on your machine Because of these factors it is important though not mandatory that you test your system when you suspect something 1s wrong or you just want to check that an install went well 2 2 1 If You Are Using the Default Parallel Port Driver If you are using a third party motion controller in place of the parallel port driver you can skip this section If you are using the Mach3 parallel port driver it is worthwhile to set up an icon for a desktop shortcut to another Mach3 program Use Windows Explorer right click Start navigate to the folder in which you placed the Mach3 installation and create a shortcut to DriverTest exe by right clicking on the DriverTest exe filename Drag this shortcut onto your desktop DriverTest exe tests the opera tion of the parallel port driver Double click the DriverTest icon that you just set up or run the program DriverTest exe from the Mach3 installation folder Running DriverTest exe will install the parallel port driver if it was not installed previously A screen shot of DriverTest 1s shown in Figure 2 4 2 5 Figure 2 4 The Running DriverTest Program Mach3 Compatibility Test Diagnostics Pulses Per Second 2381 0 Timer Variations 7 0 i x o 54 e CL 48 c Qut to m Ew w 15 a E I I I I 1 I I J O 200 400 600 800 1000 Previous 1 25th second Pulse Rating ES Excelent
148. yed on the dialog Take care to avoid duplicate use of a code as that can cause serious confusion This dialog also lets you define the codes for external buttons used as OEM Triggers Figure 5 23 Configure System Hotkeys Dialog xi External Buttons DEM Codes Jog HORS em cm Trigger DEM Code x dps x i Ys ifs ys fo Arual ACU 993 7 Bevel Bv lfes i Lowedfess czw ih a gf1 10 1 11 E 12 E TIT System Hotkeys ScanCode ScanLode MDI Select 399 Load G Code 889 9 31 Table 5 4 lists the defaults used for the Jog hotkeys Table 5 4 Defaults for Jog Hotkeys Function Key Code Function Key Code Xe RihAm 39 x LeAmw 37 Yes UbAmw 38 Y Right Arrow 40 zo rage Up 3 2 Page Down M 5 6 3 Configure Backlash The Config gt Backlash dialog shown in Figure 5 24 lets you provide an estimate of the distance the axis must back up to ensure any backlash is taken up when the final forward movement is made You can also specify the speed at which this movement is to be made Mach3 will attempt to compensate for backlash in axis drive mechanisms by attempting to approach each required coordinate from the same direction While this is useful in applications like drilling or boring it cannot overcome problems with the machine in continuous cutting where changes in direc tion occur Also note These settings are used only when backlash compensation is ena
149. you have a motor and PWM drive with maximum motor speed of 3000 rpm then the signal shown in Figure 4 14 would run the motor at 3000 x 0 2 600 RPM Similarly the signal shown in Figure 4 13 would run it at 1500 RPM Mach3 has to make a trade off in how many different widths of pulse it can produce against how high a frequency the square wave can be If the frequency is 5 Hz then Mach3 running with a 25000 Hz kernel speed can output 5000 different speeds Moving to 10Hz reduces this to 2500 different speeds but this still amounts to a resolution of one or two RPM A low frequency square wave increases the time that it will take for the motor drive to notice that a speed change has been requested Between 5 and 10 Hz gives a good compromise Enter the desired frequency in the PWMBase Freq box Many drives and motors have a minimum speed This is typically because a motor cooling fan is very inefficient at low speeds even though high torque and current generating a lot of heat may still be demanded The Minimum PWM box lets you set the percentage of maximum speed at which Mach3 will stop outputting the PWM signal The PWM drive electronics may also have a minimum speed setting and Mach3 pulley configuration see Section 5 5 5 1 allows you to set minimum speeds Typically you should aim to set the pulley limit slightly higher than the Minimum PWM or hardware limit as this will clip the speed and or give a sensible error message rather than
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