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Adjusting the speed of idle movements in Mach3

How to adjust the speed of idle and working movements in the Mach3 program, that is, adjust the idle and working stroke to move the milling machine?

Dealing with the Mach3 setup problem

Full settings for Mach3 are described in this article. Here we will briefly consider the setting of the main and idle speed in the program.

To set the base movement speed with Mach3

To set the basic speed of movement of the machine in the settings of the Mach3 program, go to:

In the "config" menu, select the "Motor Tuning" item:

Basic setup comes down to prescribing "Steps per" calculated for your stepper motors

Velocity - we indicate the working speed of movement along the axis (the speed depends on the technological capabilities of the machine - that is, as a rule, machines with ball screws work up to 2500 mm/min, and machines with a caprolon nut work up to 1500 mm/min, is given here just as an example).
Acceleration / deceleration "Acseleration" - that is, here we write with what acceleration the movement will start and stop. In fact, it looks something like this - with small indicators (50-100), the movement will start slowly and stop slowly, that is, it will have a large inertia. With indicators of 400-600 (as an example), the movement starts quickly and stops quickly. On medium machines (600x400 is acceptable), this parameter is set to 300-400, and can be selected manually (this also depends on the technological requirements and machine configuration).
The setting of "Step Pulse" and "Dir Pulse" are base values specifically dependent on the stepper motor drivers used (i.e. the control board). This can be compared with the ignition timing - in the car, the ignition spark should appear a little earlier than the dead center. Here, on the contrary, the impulses supplied by the driver may “not have time” to be processed by the stepper motor, and these indicators set a small delay (in the basic settings, it ranges from 2 to 5) from 1 to 15. At low rates (1-2), it can cause you to skip steps. The indicator is selected individually, usually this indicator is indicated either by the machine manufacturer, or is in the characteristics of the board with drivers.

Before setting the settings, you need to click on the button indicating the specific axis (Y-axis, X-axis, Z-axis). After setting the speeds (each axis is configured separately), be sure to save by pressing the SAVE AXIS SETTING button.

You can also adjust the speed of movement with sliders - this does not change anything in the end, but simply serves as a parallel or additional tool for the basic setting of stepper motors in the Mach3 program.

These are the basic settings for milling movement to set the MAXIMUM specified speed in Mach3, in fact the base.

How to adjust idling (idling)

How to adjust the speed of movement of the machine in idle mode, that is, how to increase or decrease the speed of approach or retraction of the cutter:

In the open Mach3 program - press the TAB button on the keyboard, the control panel for moving along the axes appears:

Clicking on + and - sets the movement speed in % of the Base. That is, if the Basic travel speed was set to 1500 mm/min, then a value of 50% would be equal to a speed of 750 mm/min (idle motion). That is, if you need to make a slow and accurate approach (let's say along the Z axis) - you need to specify a small value here (10-20% is acceptable). The setting can be changed in the operating mode, that is, let's say approach to point 0 in X and Y can be done quickly (at a value of 100%), and approach along the Z axis can be done with a value of 10%.

How to adjust the speed of the machine in work

In order to adjust the speed of the machine in operation, Mach3 has a hot setting that allows you to speed up or slow down the movement (in % of the specified base value):

Let's say you want to run your machine at low speed for ramping in, at the beginning of milling (so as not to break the cutter during a quick entry into the workpiece material). We set the value to 20% of the base, that is, if the base speed was specified as 1500 mm/min, then now the machine will move at a speed of 300 mm/min. After successful penetration into the material and 3-5 passes (counting from the minimum point in Z), you can increase the working speed to the required values.

These are almost all the basic settings for the movement (and movements) of a CNC milling machine controlled by the Mach3 program.