I have to produce a new aircraft (glider) panel again and have finished the design. Normally I first put a pencil in the tool holder to draw the panel. This is the final check before cutting the real panel. But I did not believe my eyes when I saw that Mach 3 was simply skipping drawing some of the partholes. They were clearly visible on the screen in the Toolpath display, but were not reproduced by the machine.
The skipped part was the second one out of a series of 4 identical parts.
How is this possible, What did I do wrong ? How can such a mismatch between Mach-3's own screendrawing and actual drawing develop ?
My machine (Portal CNC, 3*4 feet) normally works without the slightest problem.
I need urgent help in order to deliver the product in time.

Wilfried Oude Vrielink

Hi Wilfried,

As far as I am aware – if it shows in the toolpath window then Mach3 will output the correct step and direction signals to follow that display.

My guess is that you are either loosing communication between your PC and the machine or else that your PC is off doing another task whilst it is running the Mach3 GCode.

Tweakie.

I'm afraid this is not the case. My technical PC runs only one program and that's Mach3. It knows no other tasks. After the "lost part", the rest of the work is completed correctly.
When I repeat the test-drwawing it makes the same mistake exactly the same spot again.

Wilfried

Wow, never heard of this one, can you possibly take a video showing this, or possibly give a step by step detailed picture of what's happening on the machine and what shows in Mach 3 when it is happening?

Is it completely jumping the part to another part altogether? If not, maybe your depth on that particular part is not set properly in the CAM program?

I'm sure one of the pros here will help, but that is definitely first for me.
Dave

I will try to get some pictures to show what is happening. 
The "lost parts" are drawn (or should be) with the same subroutine, without any change in settings.
Here is part of the code that produces 4 holes for circuitbreakers in a vertical row.
"
G00 X-32  Y-210   M98 P90  (Fuse 1)
G00 X-32  Y-190   M98 P90  (Fuse 2)
G00 X-32  Y-170   M98 P90  (Fuse 3)
G00 X-32  Y-150   M98 P90  (Fuse 4)
"
O90 is the sub that draws the Circuitbreaker outline (no tool comp used. I know that that will not work correctly).
Nmbr. 2 circuitbreaker is shown on screen (as expected), but not executed on the machine.

Have a look and shudder !!

I have attached 2 pictures. One from the Mach 3 screen and one of a part of the pencil-drawn part  (tool replaced by pencil).
As you can see on the pencil drawing, the second hole of a vertical series of holes (circuit breakers) is missing, although the screen picture shows that MAch 3 nows its existence. The holes are called for in sequence with nothing happening in between.
Why is Mach 3 refusing to produce that second hole.

Wilfried

Ok, thanks, and there will be others that are a lot smarter than me when it comes to Mach, but you may want to list what your using for your CAM program and the post processor you use as well.

Also, upload your Mach 3 XML file (rename it something like "wilfoude13.xml" when you upload it).

What get's me thinking it's a CAM thing is the fact that you say Mach 3 normally works.

Dave

Hello Dave. thanks for your quick response.
But, I Don't use CAM software or a postprocessor and make all G-code part programs by hand. These panels are relatively simple. So I use I library of components and only have to put them on their right coordinates on a panel. It's very straight forward.
But whatever I try to do, to upload the XML and the part program, I always get the message that there is already a file with that name and I should rename and try again etc.
Wilfried

Hello Dave,
I now try to get the part prgram uploaded.

Hi Wilfied,

I've contacted Graham here on the forum for you as he's a GCode Guru, and will possibly be of some help to you.

Dave