Puruvesi MyCNC-ET7 Controller first look.

[Neale]

Fixed my broken wire and the ET6 can now see the touchplate. I've also tracked down a sample macro showing touchplate use (it was under "surface mapping" which is why I had problems finding it) and I think I can use it as a basis for my touchplate macros. The router has movable and fixed touchplates and I use a set of three macros for simple touch-off, touch-off with secondary reference to fixed touchplate, and tool height setting from fixed touchplate. However, once you can figure out how to use probing/touch-off techniques for a particular machine, record fixed touchplate position, etc, actually putting the macros together is relatively easy.

I also mentioned problems with identifying output connections. There's a bit of inconsistency here, although there might be good reasons for it. Sometimes you go to a defined page to set particular input pins. For example, this is how limit switches are defined. Sometimes you define a sensor input pin when creating a macro, as for the homing macros. But for the motor output, the pin number is defined in a separate "pins.h" file (which will be familiar to any programmers out there) which is then "included" in various bits of PLC code. As I say, I can see why there might be reasons to do things this way but it makes it all a bit tricky for a newcomer to the system. (Edit - the contents of this file can be edited within the myCNC environment under "Hardware PLC templates" - again, the name didn't really help find it but it is all there).

At that point, I couldn't think of any more good reasons not to cut something, so I downloaded the myCNC postprocessor for Vectric (there's one for Fusion 360 plus a couple of other CAM packages that I don't use) and created a quick bit of Vcarve engraving. I just used a bit of scrap ply that was lying around but here's evidence that it's working! Well, I could be faking it but trust me, I'm a doctor!



Image is slightly distorted but that's just camera angle.

Might take a little rest now before starting out on the tool height macros.