[hollyfeneht]

New to cnc zone, new to cnc machining, new to mach 3, new to just about everything to do with this. I have a taig mill and bought mach 3, but i can not get them to work together.

Is there anyone in the los angeles area that has one of these machines that would be willing to answer questions? Or if your not in the area i still would appreciate any help and guidance.

my email is [email protected]

thank you for your time~

[Stepper Monkey]

I am not in Crazyfornia unfortunately, but I have the same setup - Taig and Mach3. Depending on your control hardware and steppers I may be able to just give you my setup and configuration stuff to get you up and running.
Mechanical setup, well, that is a bit more troublesome to help from a distance, but the Taig is pretty straightforward usually.

Also, try Carter tools. He is amazingly knowledgable and helpful with Taig stuff.

[cartertool]

New to cnc zone, new to cnc machining, new to mach 3, new to just about everything to do with this. I have a taig mill and bought mach 3, but i can not get them to work together.

Is there anyone in the los angeles area that has one of these machines that would be willing to answer questions? Or if your not in the area i still would appreciate any help and guidance.

my email is [email protected]

thank you for your time~

What controller do you have, the Taig one or an aftermarket control?
That matters a lot as different controllers are set up differently.

Your dealer should be able (must be able, ought to be able) to tell you how to set it up with Mach if he sold you an aftermarket control.

Definitely get on the taigtools yahoogroup, everyone with a Taig hangs out there and most common controllers are easy to setup with help from the group.

[speedofsound]

Can't add anything more than what's already been suggested, but I also use the same setup (Taig controller and both Mach 2 and 3).

Holly, I was in your shoes at this very time in 2005. Bought the Taig with zero prior CNC or CAD experience. Lots of good support here, and as Nick stated, on the Yahoo group.

I'll try to help if my knowledge permits!

Alan

[hollyfeneht]

Evening~ thank you for responding!

The control hardware is a stepmaster nc 4-axis le. I down loaded the mach 3 manual and all the vidoes but am still struggling. patience is a virtue im learning. The dealer was over the internet and he has since moved out on contact. He only sent me a few pieces of paper along with the machine and controller.

I just recently registered with the taigtools yahoo group and will do some more searching there, thank you.

I appreciate the assistance with the controller setup if you happen to have the same one.

thanks again~

[cartertool]

Yeah, it sounds like your only hope is to find someone who has the same control - I haven't heard of that one...
Do the pieces of paper show the pinouts for the parallel port connection?

Definitely ask on the taigtools group, if anyone has this control they would be there.

Evening~ thank you for responding!

The control hardware is a stepmaster nc 4-axis le. I down loaded the mach 3 manual and all the vidoes but am still struggling. patience is a virtue im learning. The dealer was over the internet and he has since moved out on contact. He only sent me a few pieces of paper along with the machine and controller.

I just recently registered with the taigtools yahoo group and will do some more searching there, thank you.

I appreciate the assistance with the controller setup if you happen to have the same one.

thanks again~

[awerby]

The person that sold you this rig really should have at least put you in touch with the company that made your control, so you could have a hope of getting this to work. But Google came to your rescue here. Their website is http://www.stepmasternc.com/website121506.htm ;

Their contact info is:

StepMasterNC
C/O Concentric Diversified, Inc.
8345 NW 66th St. #7653
Miami, FL 33166
USA

Telephone: (305) 572-7267

They should be able to give you the pinouts, which you need to enter into the Mach3 configuration/ports and pins/motor outputs dialogue box. These will be in the form of step and direction values (one digit each) for each axis motor. It's possible to figure this out by trial and error, but it's tedious; much better to get the info from the manufacturers. If you get no useful response, let us know either here or on the Taig group, otherwise, happy milling!

Andrew Werby
www.computersculpture.com

[hollyfeneht]

good morning,
I will give them a call and see what they can do for me, the paper work does say a bit about the controller specs. so I will try to find the guy who sold it to me and ask for additional information....... let the game begin. Thanks for the leads and info.
~Holly

[juzwuz]

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29825

It looks like you could contact user: mcpltd and he might be able to help with the controller.

I got a Taig mill from Nick last year, and I finally have my stepper drivers (from ebay) hooked up properly and software configured (EMC2). It definitely is a lot of fun to see the mill under computer control. Now I gotta figure out gcode, feedrates, spindle speed, endmills, etc.......

Justin

[shredaz]

I have the same setup with the stepmaster controller and mach 3 with the Tiag. I am a newbe and it took a while to figure it out. My knowledge is limited but I might be able to help. Is it the ports and pin setup your haveing a problem with? That was my big problem let me know what part and I will e-mail you some details.

Ed in Arizona

[Manley]

Hello everybody,

You could be really REALLY very kind to help me because I MUST make a work this WE and if I don't do it, I will be fire!

I have a TAIG system 2000. It uses MACH3.
The problem = I never succeded in started up the machine.

If you don't mind, let me explain to you my setups and please tell me what could be wrong :
Supply box : The XYZ axis cable of the machine are properly connected to my PC. My PC port has the 378 address and I have choosen port N1 : 0x378.
my parralel cable is OK.

In mach3 :
Imput / outputs
X axis : enable, step pin3, dir pin2, (Dir low active + step low (both non active)).Step port = 1, Dir port = 1 Y axis : same but step pin 5, dir pin 4. z axis : same but step pin 7, dir pin 6.


Jog button is on.


Imput signals : jog X++ and y-- enable port1 pin 11, (active low + emulated + hotkey) = not active. Y++ and Y-- > port 1 pin 12 ( oher settings = identical). z++ and z-- > port 1 pin 13 (other settings = identical).

On Diagnostiscs Alt-7 screen >
port1 pin current state : 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 are in yellow.
Alt-Ejog X+ and - / Ejog y+ and -/ Ejog z + and - are in yellow.
output signals current state > enable 1 is red

Once again, if you help me, you are to me the most important person to me for years!

Many thanks in advance for your help and comments.

Warm regrds.

Manley

[cartertool]

I'm not sure what the problem is, but rather than asking here, get on the taigtools and mach y a h o o g r o u p s, I bet someone will help keep you from getting fired.

[hollyfeneht]

Hi there, my problem is with the ports and pin setup.... ive been playing around with it and after one attempt the machine would only go one direction (even if i pushed the arrows in mach 3 to go in the positive direction) I also have not been able to reference the machine to zero that corresponds with my table zero....

i have some paper work that came with it but inputing in the right parts of mach 3 is the challenge to understand as well.
thanks for your help if you have the same set up Ed~

[juzwuz]

I actually had the same problem with my setup....whichever direction I jogged my second driver, the motor would always turn the same direction. It turned out to be bad wiring on the direction pin from the parallel port.

[hollyfeneht]

i checked out the wiring and its working fine. thanks for the tip
Ed from arizonia thank you for the info and wondering if i could ask you some more questions related to the machine. the last axis im trying to get going is the "x" for some reason?.... i have the other three moving great (had to rearrange some of the configuations).

[Rikp]

Like Holly, I would also like to inquire whether any folks in the San Diego CA area might be interested sharing information and answering questions. My Taig CNC machine w/ Mach is on order.

vr/rik

[hollyfeneht]

evening to all~
thank you Ed, for the info. I sent you a message with the same message but wanted to put this out there to everyone. ive got all 4 directions moving now on my taig 4 axis with stepmaster. YEEEAAAHHH !

my next challenge that im at a loss for is the interference between my mouse and the motors... I lubed the metal on metal threads thinking that would help make it run smoother, strike one. the i discovered when i was jogging in any given direction while moving the mouse it would run very smoothly, but as soon as i stopped moving the mouse the machine would return to the etchy movements. I tried replacing my mouse tot he old school roller ball, i tried moving the box as far away from thecomputer as possible and covered it with a piece of wood and metal..... but to no avail.

any ideas or possible solutions?

[cartertool]

Try a joystick, or at least a trackball.
But for jogging generally I prefer to use the keyboard and jog each axis at a time, there's really no reason to use a mouse for jogging, unless you have some good reason. You normally only jog in order to either set your x/y/z/ zeros, or to raise the spindle for tool changes.

Also you can look into an MPG, but I have no experience with those.
If you want to do "manual" machining, then use the MDI interface and just enter lines of g code one at a time.

Make sure you oil the slides and screws (preferably way oil, but ATF, 30 wt. other oils are fine).

evening to all~
thank you Ed, for the info. I sent you a message with the same message but wanted to put this out there to everyone. ive got all 4 directions moving now on my taig 4 axis with stepmaster. YEEEAAAHHH !

my next challenge that im at a loss for is the interference between my mouse and the motors... I lubed the metal on metal threads thinking that would help make it run smoother, strike one. the i discovered when i was jogging in any given direction while moving the mouse it would run very smoothly, but as soon as i stopped moving the mouse the machine would return to the etchy movements. I tried replacing my mouse tot he old school roller ball, i tried moving the box as far away from thecomputer as possible and covered it with a piece of wood and metal..... but to no avail.

any ideas or possible solutions?

[hollyfeneht]

evening,
I am not using the mouse as the control for moving the mahcine in differnet directions. I was using the key pad to move the motors and it was etchy, when i happened to move to mouse while jogging with the keyboard the machine would run much smoother. then when i stopped moving the mouse it would return to the etchy movements.

thanks for the continud help~

[cartertool]

Is it set to continous jog?
Otherwise it sounds like an acceleration or some other parameter setting...

evening,
I am not using the mouse as the control for moving the mahcine in differnet directions. I was using the key pad to move the motors and it was etchy, when i happened to move to mouse while jogging with the keyboard the machine would run much smoother. then when i stopped moving the mouse it would return to the etchy movements.

thanks for the continud help~