Mach3 2020 Screen Sets

[MontanaAardvark]

I bought this screen set from the CNC Woodworker after having it recommended to me back in April. I built a little touch plate like the one on the first page in this thread. and wired it into my BoB. That works: I can see the indicator in Mach3 turn on and off when I touch the plate to the spindle.

I've tried this a few times, and I can't get the simple autozero routine to work right. Can anybody here help?

The quick zero routine is supposed to lower the probe in the spindle until they touch, then back off a small distance, like .050". Then it's supposed to probe for the touch plate at a smaller rate (1 IPM), set zero, and retract to the clearance plane.

What happens is that the spindle lowers, finds the plate, then retracts about an inch. It lowers the spindle at 1 IPM for a while, about 0.2", then stops, goes through a couple of moves and says it's zeroed, but it's not. It's off by a LONG way. I can put a shop square base that's 0.72" thick between probe and the touch plate. I don't have 0.72" offset anywhere, so I don't have a clue why.

The docs with it say "It hasn't been tested, but it should be possible to use this without a Z axis home switch. To do so, edit the homing script used so that it only home's X and Y. Jog the Z axis to it's highest position, and Ref (Home) the Z axis. This should set the Z axis Machine Coordinates to 0.0."

Since I don't have limit or home switches, I put the Z axis up to the upper limit of its travel and zero and reference the machine coordinate there. I've referenced all three axes, then use the current DRO settings.



I thought this was the most important screen. This is after telling the mill to go to Z0.000. The probe is about 0.72 above my test plate, which is shown as 1.082" thick in the top box on the right. That tells me where the probe is now should be getting set to 1.802.


Bob

 

[MontanaAardvark]

Doing more reading, I convinced myself the reference plane should be above the touch plate, not the final zero, so I moved it up to 1.5". When I re-ran the routine, it still told me it had zeroed the Z and it was at 1.500", but it was about 3-3/8 over the base.

After checking another few things, something told me to restart Mach3. I did, and now it works.

The universal software fix. Turn it off and back on again.

Onward to trying to zero all three axes!


Bob

 

[Boswell]

Good to here that you figured it out.

 

[spumco]

Sweet. I really like my version of the screen set and touch plates. I'm not using Mach3, but I'm sure the basic features are the same as with UCCNC.

Note of caution - ensure the plates are clean if you're using the two-plate auto-zero method for tool changes in the middle of a program. I've had a few hiccups where enough chips and coolant built up to short the stationary plate and the tool change routine threw up when it started while the fixed plate was triggered. A quick blast of air before pressing the cycle start button to zero the next tool takes care of this.

And spring-loaded touch plates are much more friendly to tool tips, enabling a rather fast (50ipm) initial probe to speed up the deal.

-S

 

[MontanaAardvark]

Mine looks like a very crappy copy of the one TomS posted in my old thread on ease of use mods for my G0704. I used some left over plastic from my build of the mill enclosure, which is only .078 thick. His looks like 1/4". No room for countersunk screws with .078 plastic, so I superglued it.

Nothing like playing with one of these things to really understand it. I was reading the macros in the 2010 screen set to make sure it was working properly. I need to do that with the three-axis zero macro.

I don't understand how it does what it does. I'd guess you have to give it a rough starting point and it goes a few inches until it touches.

 

[spumco]

On mine, there's a settings page for the auto-zero functions. You can set the distance it will move while 'looking' for the touch plate, as well as the speed. There's also feature that does a second probe right after the first one - that one is generally set very slow and with a very short back-off. For example, I have my Z search distance set at 14", initial probe at 40IPM, back off distance to 0.1", second probe search distance at .250", and second probe speed at 2IPM.

My screenset has a probing function for X/Y as well, but I haven't used it. I'm waiting for an actual 3-axis touch probe (mentioned in other thread) to be available that I trust, and I'll just skip the touch plate thing you guys are using.

As I mentioned above, coolant and chips are miserable with these things. I just about had a fit in the middle of a program last night when the tool change Z-zero started. The probe LED was unlit when I was about to press the button, but a stray chip grounded the plate when the macro started to move the head. This triggered the E-stop because the head tried to retract and ran to the limit switch, and of course the z-reference was lost.

Had to re-post the program at the start of that operation because I haven't figured out how to do the 'run from here' function without everything going haywire. One of these days I'm going to figure out how to set my tool heights and use the TTS system properly.

 

[MontanaAardvark]

On mine, there's a settings page for the auto-zero functions. You can set the distance it will move while 'looking' for the touch plate, as well as the speed. There's also feature that does a second probe right after the first one - that one is generally set very slow and with a very short back-off. For example, I have my Z search distance set at 14", initial probe at 40IPM, back off distance to 0.1", second probe search distance at .250", and second probe speed at 2IPM.

My screenset has a probing function for X/Y as well, but I haven't used it. I'm waiting for an actual 3-axis touch probe (mentioned in other thread) to be available that I trust, and I'll just skip the touch plate thing you guys are using.

As I mentioned above, coolant and chips are miserable with these things. I just about had a fit in the middle of a program last night when the tool change Z-zero started. The probe LED was unlit when I was about to press the button, but a stray chip grounded the plate when the macro started to move the head. This triggered the E-stop because the head tried to retract and ran to the limit switch, and of course the z-reference was lost.

Had to re-post the program at the start of that operation because I haven't figured out how to do the 'run from here' function without everything going haywire. One of these days I'm going to figure out how to set my tool heights and use the TTS system properly.

I went looking for a settings page but never found one. How do you get to that? Maybe I have one and just haven't hit it the right keys?

I never got the 3 axis zero routines to do anything. None of the buttons caused it do anything at all.

 

[spumco]

Ok - first, is this the 2010 screenset from CNCWoodworker, or some other screenset that is actually called "2020"?

Assuming you fat-fingered the thread title and it's the 2010 screen, the manual and operations are very similar to the UCCNC version.

There is no '3-axis' routine in the screenset features. There is a simple auto-zero function, an auto-zero tool-change function that uses two touch plates (fixed and movable), and there is a separate X/Y probing routine. If you built a probe thing like in the earlier thread, it may not work with this screen set. If I recall, the other guy built an insulated dingus that slipped over the corner of the workpiece and he had a macro that probed in all three axis and automatically set zeros. That's not necessarily the intention, I think, of the 2010 screen.

Starting on page 9 of the manual available at the CNCWoodworker site, the various settings are in the "Toolchange" tab on the right half of the screen.

First step is to check your touch plate to see if it works. Put a tool in the spindle and pick up the plate and touch it lightly to the tool. The "Probe Active" LED should light up on the main Mach3 screen - it's on the right below the machine DRO's.

If this doesn't work, you have a hardware issue. Mine was flaky until I ran a separate ground wire from my BOB to the mill head - that cured it and it always triggers.

Before I write a bunch more, let me know if this works or if I'm completely missing your point.

-S

 

[MontanaAardvark]

Ok - first, is this the 2010 screenset from CNCWoodworker, or some other screenset that is actually called "2020"?

Assuming you fat-fingered the thread title and it's the 2010 screen, the manual and operations are very similar to the UCCNC version.

There is no '3-axis' routine in the screenset features. There is a simple auto-zero function, an auto-zero tool-change function that uses two touch plates (fixed and movable), and there is a separate X/Y probing routine. If you built a probe thing like in the earlier thread, it may not work with this screen set. If I recall, the other guy built an insulated dingus that slipped over the corner of the workpiece and he had a macro that probed in all three axis and automatically set zeros. That's not necessarily the intention, I think, of the 2010 screen.

Starting on page 9 of the manual available at the CNCWoodworker site, the various settings are in the "Toolchange" tab on the right half of the screen.

First step is to check your touch plate to see if it works. Put a tool in the spindle and pick up the plate and touch it lightly to the tool. The "Probe Active" LED should light up on the main Mach3 screen - it's on the right below the machine DRO's.

If this doesn't work, you have a hardware issue. Mine was flaky until I ran a separate ground wire from my BOB to the mill head - that cured it and it always triggers.

Before I write a bunch more, let me know if this works or if I'm completely missing your point.

-S

I think you answered me already.

Yes it's the 2010 screen set from CNCWoodworker.com and until you pointed it out, I STILL had not noticed I called this thread 2020! Sheesh!

Second, yes I built the insulated, corner piece that looks a lot like the one TomS made, and it works now. Debugging it eventually was resolved, as I said above, by closing Mach3 and opening it again. I've also had it happen once that when I turned on the mill and computer for the day, and ran the zero routine, it screwed up again (retracts about an inch, looks for the block a little, then gives up, sets zero in some odd place and calls it my clearance plane height). In that case, I quit Mach, restart it, and the autozero works fine.

I expected the three axis zero button to do something, but you say there's no 3-axis routine in the screenset. I also did the buttons for zeroing X and Y and they did nothing, but that's probably the same issue. The code didn't look like it did anything, so I guess it doesn't.

 

[spumco]

Hmm. I don't have a 3-axis button in the UCCNC version, and I don't see on in the Mach3 manual either. We've got a 'home all' button that sends everything to the home switches and sets the machine coordinates to zero. This is required before the auto-zero tool change macro is permitted so that the fixed touch plate is in a known position.

I also did the buttons for zeroing X and Y and they did nothing,

Are you talking about the "Zero" buttons beside each of the axis DRO's? If so, those simply change the DRO to zero in the active work offset (G54, 54, etc.) and are not a probing type of thing.

Sorry to hear the Mach3 is flaky for you. UCCNC is rock-solid for me so far.