Sieg X1 cnc advice please

[fizzy]

Had a nice bargain for my brother for Christmas. An Axminster mini mill Sieg clone. Converted to cnc. Quite a nice job.
Mill is a lot better than I expected. Perfect for home users.
We can't get it working with Mach 3 unfortunately. Perhaps a driver problem? Got it working with Drufel CNC which is some Russian software not very well supported. Only got it working in manual mode so far.
Our first CNC machine so a steep learning curve although my brother is good with 3d printers and design.

 

[Duck]

What software is the mill's controller using? GRBL may be best as it's open Source and tons of support available for it.

You're very lucky to find this.

 

[fizzy]

What software is the mill's controller using? GRBL may be best as it's open Source and tons of support available for it.

You're very lucky to find this.

Young chap sold it to me. Works as an engineer very enthusiastic. Bit of a gamble as I didn't see it running and hid it for 3 months to suprise my brother for Christmas. Came with all the stuff to convert back to manual.
Driver comes up as RNR motion control?
One weird thing. On 100 to 300mm feed rate it is fine. Over that the motors make a hell of a noise. But then at 1000mm feed they are smooth again.

 

[Duck]

I'm no CNC expert, but it might be worth Converting to GRBL just to get the support and so that you're learning to use something more universal and futureproof.

My little CNC uses a £30 Controller with the stepper motors connected directly to it, but bigger machines need more hardware to drive the more powerful motors. Unfortunately I don't know much about those setups.

 

[fizzy]

Really need someone who knows Mach3 well. Do the driver version numbers need to be the same as the software? Or will a slightly older driver work with the newer versions?

 

[m_c]

That was a bargain for a reason!

Have you got a photo of the control board?

 

[fizzy]

That was a bargain for a reason!

Have you got a photo of the control board?

He has just gone to a bigger machine.
Price I paid couldn't say no!

 

[Agroshield]

Really need someone who knows Mach3 well.

Mach 3 was originally made to drive a breakout board directly from the parallel port. To work with a dedicated controller, it needs a (software) plug in. If the plug in has not been written, it won't work.

Please read 'software requirements' here: https://www.machsupport.com/software/mach3/

RNR motion control would be an 'external motion controller' in the terminology of that page.

It appears the subject has been covered already:

RNR Motion Card English Manual

RNR Motion Card English Manual

www.machsupport.com

BuildYourCNC - Mach3 USB Interface Board

This Mach3 USB Controller will run Mach3 through a standard USB port on a PC. You can use Windows 10 and older Windows version 32-bit or 64-bit.

buildyourcnc.com

 

[m_c]

Have you found this thread yet - https://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php?topic=41002.0 ?

As for the stepper motors making noise at midspeed. It's probably a combination of electrical resonance (I'm guessing it's some cheap stepper drives with nothing to control/dampen resonance), and mechanical resonance (those mounts are far from robust!).

Personally, I'd bin the lot and start from fresh.
For a few hundred pound in hardware you could actually create a reasonable machine.
Some modern Nema 23/4 steppers (those old round and what I'm guessing are Nema34 size are antiquated in terms of stepper motors!).
Mount the motors more robustly, and use some oldham/lovejoy couplings (can't really see from the photos, but it looks like just straight couplings with no flex).
I'm going to guess the control box also contains some of the cheapest drives available? Might not be that bad, but it would be good to know what's been used. Modern digital drivers can make a big improvement, but not always as much as you'd think.
A decent controller.

 

[Tony Brazier]

Hi that is the same board I am running Mach3 on, I brought a https://www.cnc4you.co.uk/UC100-USB-Motion-Controller and it works great. Suggest you fit some Oldham couplers as well.

 

[fizzy]

Hi that is the same board I am running Mach3 on, I brought a https://www.cnc4you.co.uk/UC100-USB-Motion-Controller and it works great. Suggest you fit some Oldham couplers as well.

Can you find the mach 3 and rnr dll version numbers for me please?

 

[Tony Brazier]

The Mach3 version number is R3.043.062 this is run on a dedicated computer using windows 7. The first picture is of my spare board, I am not sure of the number of the board I am using but it is top left on the second picture.

 

[fizzy]

The Mach3 version number is R3.043.062 this is run on a dedicated computer using windows 7. The first picture is of my spare board, I am not sure of the number of the board I am using but it is top left on the second picture.

View attachment 378187 View attachment 378188

Thanks for that. Do you know the driver version? File is called RNRmotion.dll
Cheers

 

[m_c]

There were some changes in Mach3 (I want to say around version .057) which broke various things, meaning various plugins had to be updated, but the plugin should still show up in Mach3.
Is the plugin showing up at all in Mach3?

I would check where it should show, but I've not had Mach3 installed for years.

 

[julianf]

I actually made my first break out board for mach... id just buy one now, but, really, all you need it to buffer the pins on the parallel output.

Im assuming youre using xp and a parallel port? I know nothing about usb to parallel stuff.

Mach3 has to be configured to use whatver pins you want to on the parallel interface, and if it should be high or low for each of those pins. Have you got that far?


edit - just seen your photos - usb stuff.... beyond me.

 

[Newlands]

I think that one of the mods on the Model Engineer forum (JasonB) is a bit of an expert on the Sieg cnc machines. Pretty sure he runs one, and had something to do with the development of them when first launched by arc-euro.

 

[m_c]

I think that one of the mods on the Model Engineer forum (JasonB) is a bit of an expert on the Sieg cnc machines. Pretty sure he runs one, and had something to do with the development of them when first launched by arc-euro.

This isn't a genuine Sieg CNC. This is a Sieg X1 that's been 'converted' to CNC.

I say 'converted' as although it's got some stepper motors on it, the conversion standard doesn't exactly look high.

 

[fizzy]

This isn't a genuine Sieg CNC. This is a Sieg X1 that's been 'converted' to CNC.

I say 'converted' as although it's got some stepper motors on it, the conversion standard doesn't exactly look high.

Doesn't look too bad to me. Pretty rigid for such a small machine. Wiring and limit switches need sorting though.

 

[fizzy]

My first ever cnc code lol.
Supposed to be a 1" diameter circle. Need lots more fiddling.
Why do loads of my pics come out vertical on here
Holes are much better than the pics show.

 

[Duck]

I think that one of the mods on the Model Engineer forum (JasonB) is a bit of an expert on the Sieg cnc machines. Pretty sure he runs one, and had something to do with the development of them when first launched by arc-euro.

I just looked him up, he's very knowledgeable. I'm personally trying to decide between converting my mini mill or buying a larger SX3 and converting that, or buying a high quality CNC router that can do steel.