Upgrade? Chinese CNC Machine

[Swarfing]

Straight lines

God knows where that came from?

[Carlb1058]

Yaki Da carl

Before you go wasting more money on controllers similar to what you already have. Tell us more about your machine. Straight lines could be down to that and not the electronics. You could probably do with some settings changing if your loosing steps etc. pics are good

Sorry, I was bein' a sarcy clever dick re the straight line reference I've attached another pic as to what it does. I thought if it can't engrave something, surely it should be able to cut out a 52mm diam hole a 39mm diam hole and a rectangle around the pair so I could make a vacuum hose mount - boy was that a total failure. My son-in-law's da used to work in the tool industry and knows his way around g-code so I showed him the g-code to make sure I didn't have any errors and to the best of his knowledge it should do just what it's written for which is making me lean toward the controller not doing what it's bloody well told which is probably Karma comin back for me for bein' the same as a kid

The blue line in the image is where the rectangle is SUPPOSED to be, as for the holes well they're just plain outta shape. Oh and that was a scrap piece of MDF so try and ignore all the other lines at the bottom of the image and the upside down letter in the top right etc and you will see what happened to the rectangle

Cheers
Carl

[Carlb1058]

Hi,

Unfortunately, all that came with the machine was a teeny disk with a manual on that when printed tells you nothing in regards to tech specs, essentially it's just an overbloated example of how to find the power button.

My biggest problem is when it comes to electronics I have the IQ of a door knob, if the thing was powered by a Meriden twin I'd have it torn down, rebuilt and running as sweet as nut but it's not so it's back to being as bright as a blown bulb for me How many of those m542 drivers would I need, three - one for each axis or is my thickendum sowing again?

Cheers
Carl

Ignore the last question John S pointed out I'd need three *slaps forehead*

[John S]

Looked at the pic and the steps are out on the setup.
You probably don't know what that means which proves you are thick but no sweat for a Welshman living in OZ we all feel sorry for you.

OK we need a DECENT picture of the stepper board in the controller box from vertically down, hell take 3 or 4.
then we need a screen shot of the setup page in Mach.

That's Config > Motor Tuning

Next double check it does have ball screws and the pitch is 4mm

If you get stuck, shout up we need a good laugh.

[Carlb1058]

Looked at the pic and the steps are out on the setup.
You probably don't know what that means which proves you are thick but no sweat for a Welshman living in OZ we all feel sorry for you.

OK we need a DECENT picture of the stepper board in the controller box from vertically down, hell take 3 or 4.
then we need a screen shot of the setup page in Mach.

That's Config > Motor Tuning

Next double check it does have ball screws and the pitch is 4mm

If you get stuck, shout up we need a good laugh.

Last things first, short of tearing the machine down to measure the screw I got no idea if it's 4mm or not but going off appearance it's def a ball screw. The Config > Motor Tuning is set to machine manufacturer specs as shown in the manual that came with the machine.

As for images and screen caps here goes...

[John S]

Mach setup looks OK

Pics don't really show anything.

010.jpg is the best shot, I'm looking for dip switches that set microstepping. X and Y should be the same if the screws are the same and the motors are both direct drive.

On the picture of the circles, is the wide diameter X or Y ?

If it's X change the steps per on Y from 400 to 200
If it's Y then change X from 400 to 200 and run the file again.

Remember to click save settings, then OK and reboot.

Off to bed now, it's half past dark here, can you play quietly with yourself until morning ?

[Carlb1058]

Mach setup looks OK

Pics don't really show anything.

010.jpg is the best shot, I'm looking for dip switches that set microstepping. X and Y should be the same if the screws are the same and the motors are both direct drive.

On the picture of the circles, is the wide diameter X or Y ?

If it's X change the steps per on Y from 400 to 200
If it's Y then change X from 400 to 200 and run the file again.

Remember to click save settings, then OK and reboot.

Off to bed now, it's half past dark here, can you play quietly with yourself until morning ?

Def no dip switches anywhere, I'll have a muck about with changing the steps and see what happens and post results - and I never play quietly, the volume is always set to 11

[martin54]

If it were powered by a meridian twin it wouldn't have come from China would it lol,

[Ricardoco]

Hi there, try and slow things down a bit 200 steps per and velocity 200 accel 100 and see if you get different results, also what are you using to Generate your G-Code. Also have you run the driver test for mach to see if it is running as should be. Is the machine dedicated to CNC or are you running other stuff in the background..

Rick

[Carlb1058]

If it were powered by a meridian twin it wouldn't have come from China would it lol,

Good point although the Hinkleys are made in Thailand