More Problems with Chinese 6040

[Rye]

Hi Komatias. Yes. That's what I meant. Be good to have the option to use the SMC or to connect to a PC via a motion controller. After having a chat with Jazz though, I'm not going to bother with a new box. I'll just try get it working again without spending much and save for a more robust machine. Be best in the long-run. Cheers for the help and reply though. It's appreciated mate. Thanks.

[transistor]

Hi, I was wondering if the members of this thread might be able to advise me about the smc4-4-16a16b "standalone controller", please?
I have hooked it up to a home built (MDF kit) router and would like to know which Profile to use in my CAM software? Does the smc4-4-16a16b
"look like" a eg. Fanuc to the software?
I hope I have explained properly? I do the Drawing in CAD make the DFX then go to my Dolphin CAM software to do the tool paths and make the G-code.
But it needs to make the G-Code according to the target machine?
Hope you can advise me, many thanks.

[Rye]

Hey transistor, I've only used V-Carve software and my experience with anything beyond that is limited or next to zero. That said, with V-Carve I just export the g-code using a standard or generic profile that's not machine specific: g-code (mm).tap

[Neale]

As Rye suggests, use a fairly basic post-proc and you will probably be fine. Fanuc and some of the more sophisticated controllers are more likely to use their own gcode extensions. Stick to a generic post-proc, like Mach3 or EMC/LinuxCNC, and you will just be generating "standard" gcode (whatever that is!). I would start with something like "Mach3 mm arcs", or "Mach3 mm arcs ATC" if your controller can handle M6 tool change commands and you are using different tools on one job.

[transistor]

Hi Rye and Neale, many thanks for the replies, I was probably worrying about it un-necessarily.
I'm still trying to get up to speed on the CAM, so want to keep it simple to minimise my mistakes...
thanks again, Roger.

[Neale]

You are probably right to try to keep it simple! I started around 5 years ago and tried to use freeware CAM packages. They might well have improved in that time, but I did find them limited and problematic to use. I did some useful work with them, but was always fighting rather than working with them. I moved to Vectric VCarve and never looked back. It's not cheap, but Vectric have worked hard at making the interface and the options as easy to use as reasonably possible. A lot of people recommend Cambam, but I haven't used it myself. Good luck with Dolphin - again, not one that I have used. The trouble with CAM is that there are usually a lot of options and parameters to tweak, until you eventually figure out the ones that you can ignore and leave as default, while you just change the ones that matter. Good luck!

[magicniner]

Fanuc and some of the more sophisticated controllers are more likely to use their own gcode extensions.

Isn't Mach3 essentially a basic Fanuc controller?

http://www.machsupport.com/software/...st-processors/

Scroll down to find that Newfangled solutions recommend a basic Fanuc POST should work if you don't have a CAM specific post processor, this was the case when Art Fennerty still ran the show so it's not just smoke from the slackers who bought him out and broke the product ;-)
I so bet Art is crying and laughing his socks off at the same time, the Chinese stand alone controllers are giving MACH4 What For and look like being a better bet! :D