Intercon feature requests.

[cnckeith]

"Option to NOT RESET tool offsets at the end of the program"
I second this. No idea why it you guys thought it was a good idea to get rid of the offset on a tool at the end of a program? Was this to help increase crashes or something

you must be referring to lathe?

[centroidsupport]

• option to NOT RESET tool offsets at the end of the program

Thank you for your feedback

The default for ALL of our controls Mill, Lathe, Router etc.. is to NOT reset offsets when a job ends.
Current default for all controls Parameter 3 = 0 for Acorn Mill, Router and Plasma and P3 = 4 for Lathe

An explanation of Parameter 3.
Parameter 3 is a bitwise parameter. To set bit 0, add 1 to parameter 3, to set bit 1 add 2, to set bit 2 add 4 etc..

Bit 0 - Mill, Router and Lathe - 0 DON'T reset offsets when job ends, add 1, reset offsets when job ends NOT recommend
Bit 1 - Mill & Router add 2 to use Z home a reference tool. Especially useful on Bed Mills
Bit 1 - Lathe - Unused
Bit 2 - Mill, Router and Lathe - add 4 to NOT reset offset when exiting offset menu

In my opinion for Mill and Router, parameter 3 should be set to either a 4 or a 6 - And nothing else.

In my opinion for Lathe, parameter 3 should be set to a 4 - And nothing else.

I'm looking into hard coding this bit so that it's impossible to set this parameter to allow offsets to be reset when a job ends

[suntravel]

Probably he means

G49 H0 M25

at the end of the program.

Uwe

[lavrgs]

Probably he means

G49 H0 M25

at the end of the program.

Uwe

YES I usually edit it out!!!

[Scary]

Hi all,
Lathe control extras.
If I can add a few options,

Casting option:-
I have requested before. Basically allow you to turn off the roughing passes and only do finishing passes, maybe even give a “surface offset” to quickly adjust the casting thickness.

Tool description:-
Display tool description after the tool number on the main page for easy cross reference

Grooving initial plunge:-
Be able to set feed/speed & style (peck etc) on the initial plunge of the grooving cycle. Some tooling does not have the rigidity to part it’s way in all that quick but once there is some relief the tooling can be sped right up. Would be really awesome if the initial plunge did a peck cycle but between first and second cut coordinates to work it’s way in creating its own relief each peck until the roughing depth is achieved.
FYI, the tool check button seems to reset the grooving cycle back to the beginning, not like other functions where they continue on from last coordinates and can be very frustrating when you are almost done and have to run the whole lot again.

Turn:-
Allow an option for start, end and intermediate finish as in corner radius/chamfer etc. sometimes you just want to turn something basic diameters but you cannot seem to get corner radius or lead in/out chamfers without having to draw a profile.

G-code scrolling:-
Have a display window in the run menu for the g-code that is scrollable and a “run from here” option.

Tool offset look ahead:-
I do not run a dedicated tool change position so it is turned off but it would be nice if the program looked at the next tool when stopped for a tool change and automatically travelled the axis to allow for change. Some of the drills etc are a lot longer and you cannot change them as the manual feed is locked out and it is too close to the work. A simple fix would be to allow jogging while awaiting tool change.

Tool offset probing:-
When probing a drill, allow an option to set diameter of drill to allow correct X offset.

Tool wear offset:-
When updating a tool offset, request to reset tool wear. I have scrapped a few parts from forgetting to update tool wear after resetting tool coordinates. My own fault I know but it would be nice to help dumb proof offsets

Absolutely loving the intercom system though, I will be upgrading my mach3/4 machines soon

[vw_chuck]

So what you guys are saying is that if I have parameter 3 set to 4 on a lathe then when it post processes it won't remove the tool offset just before the G28 move at the end?

[cncsnw]

No, Parameter 3 does not affect Intercon posting at all.

Setting Parameter 3 to a value of 4 only affects what happens when you visit the Tool Library screen.

Centroid would have to change their code for the Intercon post to make it refrain from cancelling offsets at the end of each tool.

[vw_chuck]

I think resetting the tool offsets at the end of a program is what guys are talking about not tool library stuff??? Maybe I am confused though.

[vw_chuck]

tumbleweeds.

[Scary]

Hi All,
On lathe program, it would be nice if we could clean up the process of indexing an existing thread. Perhaps try and get it as simple as jogging to bottom of tooth profile and hit set without having to have spindle on the index stroke and calculate all of the measurements and hope the moon and stars are aligned . The machine should already know all the coordinates of its current position regardless of index stroke etc, you should have entered all of the required thread dimensions, start/finish/depth/lead etc. It would be nice if Intercon could "self calculate" from the given tool position. Even if it wasn't down to 0.0001" I doubt it would matter for most clean up operations.