Chris' Grizzly G0704 Acorn Update

[ChrisAttebery]

You can hit Alt-S right after you press enter.

OK, thanks.

I miss just hitting ENTER but I'm getting used to it.

[ChrisAttebery]

Over the last couple days I finished up the controller, moved it back into place, and cleaned up all of the cabling between the machine and controller. I also mounted the NUC and bundled all of the PC wiring on the back of the monitor and got the monitor mounted to the enclosure.

I tuned the stepper ratios to less than .001" error over 5" on all three axis. I also set the backlash compensation for all three axis.

I installed ProbeApp V2 this morning and measured a few of my tools. According to ProbeApp my TLO setter is repeatable to .0001". I *think* that should be good enough.

I finished another little project this morning. I cut a 3/32" Kydex cover to fit over the leadscrew of my vise. I covered the back of the cover with sticky backed magnetic sheet so that I can stick it onto the vise and keep chips out of the leadscrew and vise body.

[ChrisAttebery]

I made some chips today. I machined a groove and drilled some holes in my probe adapter plate this morning. I had a little confusion setting the part Z. I missed that you have to manually input the tool number that you're using into the part setup screen. Once I figured that out I got the cuts I wanted done. It's soooo nice being able to run Fusion on the machine. I designed the part, did the CAM setup, output the nc file, ran part of the job, went back to Fusion and made a couple minor changes, reran the job, etc all without moving from the machine.

The only issue I noticed is that the RPM is surging. I looked at the VFD's panel and the output frequency was bouncing up and down a few Hz. I'll probably have to redo the wiring from the Acorn to the VFD. I never had this problem before and that part of the wiring really hasn't changed.

[Sword]

I miss just hitting ENTER but I'm getting used to it.

With CNC12 V4.6, you can set it to use "Enter" in the Wizard.

Nice work on the project! We need some part cutting video footage to go with it.

Scott

[swissi]

I made some chips today. I machined a groove and drilled some holes in my probe adapter plate this morning. I had a little confusion setting the part Z. I missed that you have to manually input the tool number that you're using into the part setup screen. Once I figured that out I got the cuts I wanted done.

I like that ProbeApp button on your Virtual Control Panel

When you have your Touch Probe configured and added to the Tool Offset Library trough the ProbeApp-Tool Offsetter, you can use any of the ProbeApp TP probing cycles to set WCS 0 and there will be no more need to enter a tool number.

[ChrisAttebery]

With CNC12 V4.6, you can set it to use "Enter" in the Wizard.

Nice work on the project! We need some part cutting video footage to go with it.

Scott

Thanks Scott. I don't think I'm ready to upgrade the software yet. I'm still getting used to 4.2.

Metal munching footage coming soon. I promise.

[ChrisAttebery]

I like that ProbeApp button on your Virtual Control Panel


IMG_8597.jpg


When you have your Touch Probe configured and added to the Tool Offset Library trough the ProbeApp-Tool Offsetter, you can use any of the ProbeApp TP probing cycles to set WCS 0 and there will be no more need to enter a tool number.

Me too!

Yea, that's going to take a little while longer than I thought. See the next post.

[ChrisAttebery]

I was doing some reading about the MP3 probes on CNCZone.com and found a thread about using them with the Tormach machines. Someone mentioned that they bought one that was DOA. I decided to test mine out and sure enough it's completely dead. The head measures in MegaOhms no matter which pins I measure against. Welllll $#!+!!!!! I'll talk to the guy I bought it from tomorrow. Hopefully he will let me return it. If not I'll be selling the toolholder and inductive pick up on eBay.

So I started looking for another one on eBay and found a brand new head with the inductive pick up and CAT40 taper for $400 with a warranty. That's more than I wanted to spend but I watched it anyway. I got an offer from the seller this morning for $300. I countered their offer at $250 and they accepted. So, I should have a working probe soon.

Another thing that they mentioned in that thread is that the probe really should be used with a probe interface. It is more accurate and will save wear on the contact points inside the head by shutting off the input voltage to the probe when it senses that the contacts are about to be broken. The MP3 will work with the MI5 and MI8 interface units. The MI8 are cheap. I picked one up for under $100.

So, I have a probe head, interface and probe tips all on the way. Hopefully I'll have everything in the next couple weeks.

In the meantime I think I'll finish wiring up my touch plate. I also picked up a light up tool offsetter for $5 the other day. One way or another I should be able to set my Z height now.

[ChrisAttebery]

Really good news. The seller gave me a full refund for the dead MP3 head.

More good news. Last night I got my moveable touch plate hooked back up and figured out how to use it with ProbeApp V2. Setting the WCS Z height couldn't be simpler.

I made some more chips last night. I made a DIN socket holder for the MP3 adapter plate. The adaptive toolpaths were really jerky around the corners. I realized that I was running in absolute mode. I did a bunch of reading on smoothing this morning so I'll try that out on my next part. I added NC1 codes to my Fusion setup to turn it on before and turn it off after the adaptive operations. I ran a test case and it seems to help.

[martyscncgarage]

Nice!