The Big Red Mechmate in Aus

[ozspeedway]

Machine is almost ready to go, structure is complete and control system 99% done. Still need to get the spindle power and cooling buttoned up. I wanted to check that machine would do what I wanted it to so I chucked my sharpie holder into the spindle and had the machine draw a couple of things. It temporarily became a giant plotter :)

Still haven't sorted the touch off stuff yet, have just eliminated the 126 as the problem. It is looking like the ESS is getting in the way somehow.

Anyway, more to do before making dust instead of drawing stuff..

Cheers

[EddyCurrent]

I thought the pen would have run out before finishing that aztec drawing, looks great though.

My setup is like this;

I have two breakout boards, one connects to the ESS Port#1, the other to Port#2

Breakout boards connect to ESS using these; http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/25cm-25-Wi...item5af9b1c491

The Z probe is connected to breakout board 2 (the one connected to ESS port 2), pin 15
Because the Z probe is switching to earth the bob Gnd pin must also be connected to earth otherwise there would be no circuit, I did this by connecting the bob power supply negative terminal to earth.
On the ESS config page Port#2 'pins 2 through 9 direction' is set to 'In'
The ESS driver I'm using is ESS_v10r2d1d (the latest)

These are my Mach 3 settings;

Port#1 = 0x378 enabled = yes (ticked)
Port#2 = 0x278 enabled = yes (ticked)
Ports & Pins page; 'Probe' input = port 2, pin 15, enabled(ticked), active low(ticked).

[ozspeedway]

Thanks for that Eddy, your setup is using only 1 pin for touch off but I am trying to use 2 like I got working on my PMDX 122. What I am trying to figure out now is how to pass one signal in to trigger the right macro and have the touch off signal read on another, in this case (as in yours) pin 15 on port 1.

I got a reply from Steve at PMDX and as indicated above it is not the 126. This is telling me it is the ESS somehow getting in the way of the port selection or being fixed on one port for the digitize signal. Really bloody annoying how I can increase the technology in my machine yet decrease the usability.....

[GEOFFREY]

Your calendar looks great - look forward to seeing a cut version. Well done. G.