Hi Andy,
I just saw your post (I’m in the Pacific time zone). I’ll try to help. But I’m afraid that the type of help I can offer is probably not what you are hoping for…. I sense that what you want is for someone to be able to tell you how to get your machine running again. That’s a very hard task since no two mach CNC machines are the same. You’ll need to realize that there is no such thing as a generic mach CNC machine.
So the best I’ll be able to do, is to point out to you the topics that will be involved so that you can start learning what’s needed to get the machine running.
hi this is my first post.
im andy from essex uk and a recent owner of a CNC running mach3
now the storey goes...
i purchased a CNC mill completely working with mach3 running MSM, i know nothing about CNC or mach3 so have been learning lots.
You did not say what type of machine it is - I'll assume it is a vertical mill as that is the most common situation.
This is good, and as I mentioned above, you will have more learning to do. It will not be easy, but many have accomplished learning mach from scratch and you probably can too. The reward will be that when you are done, you will understand your CNC machine in much more detail that you do now.
hi then the computer started to play up and after a while the motherboard went. it was cheaper to buy a new desktop than a new motherboard, so i took all the mach3 stuff off the hard drive.
When you say “…i took all the mach3 stuff off the hard drive.”, do you mean that you erased all of the working installation and don’t have any of that information any more?
Is so, you really are in trouble – as recreating all the configuration information for a CNC mill, including an ATC when you know nothing about how the mill is designed, is wired or is supposed to work is a hard problem.
I suspect this is why you did not get a quick response to your post…. Since there is no such thing as a “standard/stock” mach control configuration, no one reading you post is likely to be able to help you (they can’t know what you mill is and you did not provide any information for them to work with).
If you wiped the HDD, then you don’t even have the license information for mach (or MSM, but we’ll leave the MSM topic for later in this response).
If instead you mean you copied the contents of the old hdd to the new PC, then you may have some of the info you will be needing.
hi now i know nothing about mach3 or how it works or how to install it, so the chap i got the machine from helped reinstall it on the new machine.
This was a wise approach. Frankly, you really need the help of someone that understands the details of your machine. The preferred person would be the one that put the machine together, as they have the knowledge that you’ll need to configure mach from scratch.
I do not mean to be snide (I really don’t), but when you say “now i know nothing about mach3 or how it works or how to install it…”, this is the core of the problem you currently face. I applaud the honesty of your statement, and realizing that you don’t know some things is the best first step. Alas, it will be probably be impossible for you to get the machine running until after you learn about more CNC topics. CNC controls and mach are not an “off the shelf, standard configuration, anyone can use it” type of product. There is no short cut here.
A good place to start learning about what is involved in configuring mach is the mach install and config manual.
but there was a problem, the signal the parallel ports were giving out were rubbish and the machine was running very rough, so in order to solve this i purcahsed a ethernet smoothstepper.
but things just arent working properly.
so ESS is connected, ZYX run off port 1 and these three are working fine and home fine. they hit the limit switches.
At this point, I can’t say what problem you encountered or why you concluded that a ESS was the best solution for you. What I read here is that you choose to significantly change the CNC Control hardware from a parallel port based system to a ESS based system. This will require that you reconfigure mach (and configure the ESS) to get a working system. The control system you now are playing with is not the one that the fellow that sold it is familiar with…. he is now in the same situation you are in from the other side of the fence.
When you say “but things just arent working properly.”, I don’t know what that means. It sounds as if you have axis motion ( this implies that either you re-tuned mach’s axis setting when you installed the smooth stepper or that you are running with velocity and acceleration settings that just happen to be close enough to cause movement).
but the ATC runs off port 2 on the ESS and this isnt working properly.
ATCs are run by mach scripts. In a stock mach software system (without MSM) this is usually the M6start macro. In a system with MSM, the ATC script logic is placed in a different macro name (this covered in the MSM user manual).
if i go into the config on mach3 and ouput click on an active low nothing happens.
I don’t know what this means to you or what you expected. Changing the definition of the active state of a mach input signal will not cause a machine action. It just changes the state that mach looks for when using that input signal.
if i give mach the command m6 t2 the ATC works.
OK, I sense this is with MSM running – correct?
This tells me that the ATC code is actually installed and working then. T2 M6 via mdi will cause the same actions as when mach finds that gcode in a running program. So it sounds as if the ATC is working – thus I don’t know how to reconcile that with the statements that the ATC is not working.
but in the tooling tab of MSM it does not allow me to enter which tool is currently in the machine, if i type a number it goes back to 0 straight away.
This is the correct behavior for MSM. You should NOT be attempting to set the current tool DRO directly. Use the MDI line just as you mentioned above to do a tool change. after the tool change the current tool DRO will show the # of the mounted tool.
Please see the MSM user manual, and you can find more info about why this is the best way to change tool in threads on this support forum. For now it’s easiest if you accept that what you are trying to do when setting the DRO is not what you want to be doing; MSM is protecting you from running into various mach bugs that I’ll not delve into here.
also if i type s1000 or whatever and m3 the spindle starts but stalls straight away,
This is a separate problem from the ATC. I would suspect that the mach motor tuning for the spindle is not set up correctly and/or the spindle setup stuff in the ports & pins dialog.
Again, anyone setting this up or debugging this will need to know what technical info about the spindle, how it’s controlled and how it’s wired to mach etc.
ive not go a clue what im doing as i purchased a ready setup system and i dont really understand the setting up of mach3.
I can sympathize with you, but that’s about all I can do.
To resolve the issues you are seeing, you (or someone) will have to learn about these topics – there is just no technical way around that.
I sounds to me as if you feel that you purchased a turn key CNC system and are now frustrated that it is not working. Was support and maintenance part of the deal when you purchased the machine? If so, the proper place to get help is from the seller.
However, if you purchased a used machine, built by an individual, the situation is probably more like having bought a used car… once you own it, if something breaks, it’s up to you to either know or learn enough to make repairs.
a helpful member on the mach forum remoted into the machine and checked mach3 and said things seem to be ok, but suggested i ask here.
can anyone give me some help?
Before we go on, I have to point out that the things you’ve stated are 99.9% mach configuration issues and they are fundamental to the machines operation – independent of whether you fire up the machine with stock mach or with Mach+MSM.
I’m guessing that someone suggested that you ask here since the machine has MSM installed. That’s a reasonable idea, and so now I’ll turn to the MSM specific aspect of things…
What flavor of MSM is installed on the machine? Look in the upper right corner of an MSM page – what does it say? MachStdMill Professional? MachStdMill Personal? MachStdMill Trial?
If it says personal, then you are running the free (as in no license fee) version of MSM. You are welcome to use that (for personal but not for commercial use), that is why we offer the personal version. However, the personal version is a free product and does not include any support from CVI (hey, it is free!).
If it says trial or professional, you have the paid edition of MSM installed on the machine. I’m happy to help with the MSM Pro aspect of things (and even more than that), but I don’t want to create a misunderstanding here – so excuse me while I get a bit more formal for a moment...
[formal mode on <grin>]
It sounds cold hearted of me to say, but just to make sure we are on the same page, as the vendor of MSM, I have to point out that the purchase of an MSM license does not include machine configuration, trouble shooting, hardware interface debugging, or a custom educational course in mach.
So, I’ll explicitly point out that I’ll offer suggestions as to what the topics are likely to be helpful etc and that I think can help steer you back to a running machine, but I can only help that way on a spare time basis. Calypso Ventures, Inc. can not (and will not) take on the responsibility for making your machine work as a side effect of a previous owner having installed MSM on the machine.
If it says trial, you are running a new MSM professional install that is not licensed. 30 days from the install date, it’s going to start refusing to start unless a professional license is purchased and the PC activated with the license. I figure that you should know this now, as I’d bet you are frustrated and having the MSM trial expire will only increase that frustration.
If it says Professional, then we have a different situation. You then have the paid professional version of MSM installed. However, It appears that you may not have a legal MSM installation….
MSM licenses are issued to the user, not to a machine. If someone sold you a machine with the pro edition of MSM installed and activated, you should know that they did not have the right to do that. If needed, you can take that issue up with the seller.
If you want to run the MSM professional edition on the machine, what I can do is help you reactivate the machine with a MSM pro license that you will need to purchase.
[formal mode off]
Hopefully, this info will be of help to you -
Dave
To resolve the issues you are seeing, you (or someone) will have to learn about these topics – there is just no technical way around that. 