Manual machining with a PM45 CNC mill

you cannot use mach3 as a dro in any manual mode with steppers, I'm not sure about servo motors if the axis is disabled. but for steppers if mach3 didn't move the motors it has no idea where they are.
manual use would require its own dro or direct reading the hand-wheel dials.
I purchased a hand held pendent on ebay for about $39 and run the machine with the buttons for quick operations
steve
 
Controller does increment when in manual mode and using handweels with my servo driven sharp knee mill.

For the pm45 why not just use MDI?
 
zr8cnc said:
thanks everyone for all the input. I just purchased a VistaCNC controller and will most likely just use the Pendant to do manual mill ops
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They look very good. Which model did you get? Let us know how you like it.
 
I've got a Tormach, which doesn't even bother with the handles, and I use the manual entry and the pendant for "manual" mill operation. It works pretty well, and the wizards can speed up other simple operations. Once you get used to it, you probably won't miss those handles much.
 
In mach, what happens when you guys press reset? Do your steppers disable? Are you using a charge pump configuration (meaning mach must be active and configured correctly for your parallel port or controller) before it will enable the holding on teh steppers?

I don't think you will be able to use the dro at all running manual as it really is not a true measuring dro with steppers. Mach only "hopes" your steppers move the distance (pulses and direction) that was sent to the stepper motor drives and displays those regardless if anything moved or not.

(BTW - my birthday this week so I took my own advice from this thread and ordered a 100-step MPG for my mill. I never had handles on its servo setup. I do have a control pendant already but not one with a MPG, so my movement has been all push button. I retrofitted my knee mill with Centroid controls in Sept 2013. The MPG wheel will be sweet. I am also adding the drive for a 4th axis - some day I want a rotary 4 axis servo setup. Thanks for the push)
 
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