Swifty 600 Help

[nbman]

Friend of mine bought a Swifty 600 table...the software is unfamiliar and seems like I can't access any settings..it runs on G-Code it appears..

I'm somewhat familiar with Sheetcam and Mach..was hoping I could set him up with that but it is giving me some grief. FIrst thing I notice is that when it homes, X movements are positive from home, but Y movements are negative..so when I load g code produced in sheetcam, it tells me y movements set beyond soft limits...

Any advice on either getting it to work with sheetcam or how to access actual table settings in the Swifty CNC software?

Thanks

[djreiswig]

Can you swap the direction of travel on the Y motor itself?

[nbman]

Can you swap the direction of travel on the Y motor itself?

Not sure how..in Mach there's a way to reverse it but I can't figure out how to do it in this Swifty CNC software..

[weldguy]

So are you using Mach to control the machine or the Swifty software?

[tcaudle]

Any steeper motor can be reversed by swapping the polarity of ONE coil on the motor.
If the "swifty" runs on g-code that all you need to use SheetCAM is a POST that sends the correct G-code. G-code typically uses the same base level commands (like G1 and G0 for motion calls. it starts to vary when it come sot turning on the torch or other outputs and to enable/disable the THC (if there is one) . If you can get a sample of a code that works you can read it to understand what calls its making and either find a POST that will work OR modify one that mostly works.

It looks like Swifty is a lower end table built by SwiftCut (based in the UK), They started out using MACH3 parallel port (even long after there were Ethernet options available) and then switched to custom software that was from Italy (or at least used to be) its really not made to be able to be changed by mere mortals.

There HAS to be some form of settings I would think unless that software is ONLY made to runt THAT table. I would bet there is at least an INI file or some form of settings file but it may not be in human readable format.

Good luck. You probably won't get any support or help from SwiftCut or SwiftCut USA. Hopefully you got a good enogh deal on the table that if you need to replace the Controller/Computer/Software than it wills till be less than a new machine of the same brand. the good news is at its core any table boils down to the motors and the Inputs and Outputs . I would bet those are standard stepper motors . The next questions the Z and how it handle the torch and detecting a touch off.

[nbman]

I don't think he paid a lot, Its definitely a lower end, or what I'd call a hobby table.

It uses what appears to be some bastardized version of Mach 4, but the screens are very limited. No torch height control from what I can see. It does have a magnetic breakaway head, and some form of Z touch off since the head does float up/down..just haven't gotten that far yet.

The odd thing is, when you home the x and y axis, you would think that all movements from that point should be positive? If I were to reverse the polarity, it would reverse the travel direction, which would actually make it try to travel in a direction it can't because it's already against the home limit?

I'll fiddle with it some more next time I'm over there.

Thanks

[tcaudle]

If your home is lower ;left then moves towards it should be lower numbers while moving away form it should be higher numbers (both positive.

when setup in the upper right quadrant with X+ and Y+ numbers there is no negative number .
The jog keys on MACH (at least the older version are defined so you can make them do whatever you want.