I’d love to see 2 things fixed in the tool path sim showing on the screen.
When thread milling, the tool path does not show a helical Z move. Instead it shows a circle and abrupt jump to the finished height. I have dry run a few thread cycles to make sure the machine was going to actually make a helical move before letting the tool touch the part.
Another thing I’ve noticed on interpolations is when programming and using a G91 (incremental) interpolation, it doesn’t show up at all on the tool path sim. I know most home gamers probably aren’t going to get into G91 vs G90 in their programs, but when cutting the same feature in multiple locations I find it much easier to give it a quick G91 G03 X0 Y0 I-3.0 rather than calculating my starting an ending point for each move.
Oh yeah! It’d be handy to have a check in place that makes sure the spindle is turning before allowing feed movements. I was working the little fella pretty good the other day and the spindle drive decided it needed a rest. Luckily the key seat cutter was only running at 3ipm so once I heard it stop cutting I was able to stop the machine before it pulled itself out of alignment. I haven’t paid enough attention to the spindle to know if it has this capability, but if so, it would be a nice addition the software.
Otherwise it’s humming along nicely and making chips.
A warning would be nice but I still want to be able to run programs without the spindle for drag engraving. Cutcontrol should check that M3 is actually called in the program before the warning or error message.
I could see the uses for having moves without spindle motion. Most production oriented machines have a G or M code that will enable it.
I’ve watched a brand new Haas VF5 take a feed without spindle rpm and start heading toward a part at 190ipm. It also wouldn’t recognize the reset button at this time either. The Haas tech that came to check it out had no explanation and just did a factory reset on the control. That’ll make you pucker a bit when looking at the price of a current gen VF5. At least if the MR1 runs into something it’s not as expensive to get lined back out.
I don’t think our machines have any feedback from the spindle, If the G code says it needs to be at 3000 RPM the controller shows 3000 RPM regardless if the spindle on.
WorkNPlay is correct. The spindle supports it and the controller appears to have pins for it, but encoder (for speed and position) is not wired up on current MR-1s.
? Those are the codes to start and stop the spindle. What I’m refering to are codes that allow feed without spindle rotation on machines that have the requirement of a spindle turning in order to feed. Often used for broaching operations or back spot face tools.
Something like M130/M131 for Okuma: Okuma Mill G and M Codes - Helman CNC
M184/M185 for Doosan, M48/M49 for Cincinnati etc.
These are hand-holding mcodes for inexperienced operators who are too absent minded to check that the spindle is turning on their brand new pre-programmed turn-key cnc machines.
Its for operators who mistake the spindle override for the feed override controls and blame it on the machine.
Perhaps Haas machines need this feature so that negligent operators wont blame the machine for their mistake and cause the Haas techs additional labour.
I could agree (for several operators I’ve seen - more so “button pushers”) except for the instance I mentioned above.
The program was written like any other at this particular shop:
The machine just didn’t pick up the S1500 M03 for whatever reason.
I’ve also seen Haas machines read a spindle speed and decide to double it or multiple by some random number with no explanation. Again the Haas techs just reset some variables and said to keep an eye on it.
If it were my shop to run I’d honestly never let another new Haas through the door lol.
the Haas tech told us to steer clear of the newest generation of VF5s due to bugs and poor craftsmanship. There’s a reason they are the cheaper option for production machines.
I digress
Could we make it to cut from other zeros, Idk if it suppose to but i like to cut multiple parts on different fixtures at once, Usually i get all of the zeros but if i where to go to g55 or g56 and begin to cut it goes straight back to g54, and Can we also get a program que, so i can have multiple programs loaded in order.
Agreed! I found it kind of odd that I cant add or subtract from the machine position. Would if I probe with a shim and want to offset the WCS 200thou? I have to jog to zero then make the change. Time consuming.
Has there been any word on this becoming a reality? I haven’t been able to find anything talking about this other than right here. Hopefully it is somewhere on the development roadmap.
@KnightSteel I haven’t seen a roadmap or feature item backlog shared publicly. There are just small hints leaked here and there (like that tool changing is coming).
Honestly if you want more advanced features now I think the way to get them is to change your control hardware and software package to something more advanced. CutControl is a great easy to use out of the box package, but it’s limited in functionality and unfortunately is also poorly documented (like we don’t have a supported G/M code list).
