Hi,

where can I find the latest version of Engrave plug-in for MACH3 (v.2.0) ?
I am currently using the (v1.1).

Also, where can I buy a inpact solenoid? Or are there a drawings so I can build one?

Thanks!

Hi Skartalov,

Rather than me repeating everything all the details you have asked for are contained in this thread. 

Tweakie.

Hello all!
first thanks to Andrea and Tweakie, not forgetting all that helped one way or other.
Maybe it's a dumb question, but will a stepper motor fully conected to a driver made with a lever system conected could achieve higher pulses so that it could short work time?
Any suggestion on how could that be achieved?
(sorry for my english)
By the way I used a professional solenoid from a pneumatic valve and worked quite well.

Hi Jan,

I think that is one of those things you will just have to ‘try it and see’.

Basically, physics limits the speed in relation to the mass of the moving parts but I am certain we have not yet come up with the best possible design so I would be most interested in hearing the results of your experimentation.

Tweakie.

Thanks twealie,one of the things that I discovered is that you can use an unexpensive solid state relay to power up the solenoid, that in this case was 220 ac,like this one-https://www.futurlec.com/Pictures/Solid_State_Relay_300.jpg.
Here it cost about 8 dollars,but can output 25 amps ,and the 5 vcc can make it work, but I could not see the hz limit of it's on/off .
A pneumatic solenoid water cooled (I put resin around it and mount the axis encapsulated) coud bend a more strong spring.
Soon posting photos.
anyway I'd like to give a try on Andrea coil-I have a crazy Idea on etching tombstones on it's site,I would go with a generator and a small machine that could be placed directly on the granite or mable.

I have a crazy Idea on etching tombstones on it's site,I would go with a generator and a small machine that could be placed directly on the granite or mable.

Brilliant - there are a number of professionally made machines that do this task but they are not at all complicated so I think you could easily better their performance and design. 

The problem with SSR's is that they only switch at the 'zero crossing point' of the a.c. waveform so switching speed is limited to the frequency of the a.c. (here in the UK it is 50Hz and that is not really fast enough to be of any use).

Tweakie.

I see, so the best is to make the scheme shown in the previous pages, one other question: when i do the process ,Mach doesnt show the drawing being made, is that correct or am i missing something?
Is there any other plugin or soft (best free)that could generate the g-code, so that it would be visible om mach?( my mach is licenced).
I translated the plugin to my language, but could not translate the menu that appears on Mach menu,is there a way to do it?
Yes , I know it is a lot of questions,but i am  52, and I want to make a little money on something I can do at home and can do outside.
I would even buy a professional one, but the price for transport and taxes would triplicate the price.
How can I get one of those heads that you and Andrea uses,that would be easier to transport.
Of course I would pay the part and the transport.
Please be patient, englishis not my language!
One last question again...I use Leafboy board to comunicate from my laptop to the machine.
my machine has 3 servo drivers and three servos.
I put one stepper driver to emulate the trigger , and put the trigger output to output 10 , conected the output 10 to the stepper driver , that is powered by an opto coupling.
So that now I use Z axis to aproximate the tol to the stone,and when the probe reaches the stone i know that the point of the tool is enough near the stone to start to engrave, in the other side of the probe I put a sphere screw that follows the surface so that I could switch the Z axis to THC , i guess that could allow me to engrave on a non flat surface..
What do you think about it?
Is that the correct or even good point to follow?


Again thanks for your answers and time!

Running the Impact / Laser engraver takes much of the system resource so displaying the picture during operation would perhaps not be practical.
There are a number of different programs that will produce similar results. DotG comes to mind and this can be found here http://dotg.weebly.com/download.html
The start-up menu for the Impact / Laser plugin is written within the source code so you will not be able to make a translation of that part easily.
The electro-magnet Andrea and I have been using can, I think, still be obtained from him - check out his website or possibly drop him a line http://www.robotfactory.it/
I have never really thought about THC and engraving non-flat surfaces but that sounds like an excellent idea to me.

Tweakie.

thanks tweaki!
But now I have a new problem!
I made a trigger based on a irf 640 to make the magnet work, I am still using my door car magnet that is 12 vcc.
All goes well in my test machine,that has a 25 pin interface.o a test on my big machine,that is
Well,all working,time to put it to my 'big' machine, that has a interface that is usb,
I seted the digital trigger to output 7 ,before running the plugin I tested the circuit as 'mist' toggle, it was ok.
But when I put to digital trigger and run the impact plugin, a message appeared that the plugin can run only in 'printer mode'......
All functions on USB work well on my mach, that is updated and licensed, I think it is a compile problem on the plugin.
Any ideas how to solve this?

Here the trigger: