Tonight I released the latest version of HSMAdvisor and the plugin for Mastercam 2022, 2021 and 2020

Most of the issues reported by our users have either been fixed or otherwise addressed.

It has bug fixes and an improved tool creation routine.

Additionally, the Tool Path Write dialog now has an option to disable the toolpath regeneration and the actual values that will be written in the toolpath:

The Save button saves the current state of checkboxes as default.

Mastercam plugin can be downloaded here: https://hsmadvisor.com/hsmadvisor_for_mastercam

The latest standalone HSMAdvisor version is available here: https://hsmadvisor.com/download

It has some back-end improvements plus additional materials.

Please let me know if you have any feedback or questions!

Ever since getting my benchtop CNC running, I have not been very happy with the lack of manual control over overrides and buttons.

This DIY Engineering video gave me a great idea: build one myself.

I wanted the smooth speed and feed overrides, so I decided to not go with HID device, but instead with a full serial control paired with a custom plugin on the UCCNC side.

Here is the Fusion design of the enclosure:

And here it is 3D-Printed.
Acrylic face engraved from the back side and painted.
And all buttons and controls mounted:

All I have to do now is wire the Arduino board, program the plugin, and test it!

Update:

Here is the video of the pendant in action:

1. PCB Design

Design notes:

• All resistors used were 10K
• Speed and Feed potentiometers are 10K
  Their pinout goes Wiper->ground = 0%, Wiper -> +5V = 200%
• Axis and Handwheel Increment rotary switches are 4-position and their pinout goes like this:
  Axis select 1-X, 2-Y, 3-Z, 4-A, C-Common (+5V)
  Handwheel Increment 1-0.0001, 2-0.0010, 3-0.0100, 4-0.1000, C-Common (+5V)
• All function buttons such as Jog +/-, M1, M2, etc are sending +5V signals to the digital pins D2-D12
• D13 digital pin is connected to a LED indicator and is used to tell the user that the Pendant is allowed to send signals to the plugin.

Design files:

• Electronics Design: https://a360.co/3NGWRTP
• https://a360.co/3NLhfDk
• https://a360.co/3JObaVh 

2. Enclosure Design

https://a360.co/3fG3jgI 

If you don't have a 3D printer and/or a CNC Mill, please contact me and I will send you a 3d-printed enclosure and the 3d-printed or milled acrylic face plate:

• 3D-Printed Black PLA Enclosure (shown in pictures): 30$ + shipping
• 3D-Printed Black PLA Face Plate (optional): 15$ + shipping
• CNC Milled and Engraved unpainted (clear) acrylic Face Plate (shown in pictures): 30$ + shipping

3. Arduino Setup

• Install the Full Firmata library onto your Arduino Nano (Or any other Ardiono that supports USB Serial Communication): StandardFirmata sketch used for Arduino NANO is also added to the release package

• Please note that you might need to install Arduino USB Driver in order for your Arduino to work on the target computer!

4. UCCNC Setup

• Download the latest LEETArduinoPendant from the releases and extract it to your PC.
  https://github.com/swindex/LEETArduinoPendant/releases
• Copy the LEETArduinoPendant.dll plugin file to the C:\UCCNC\Plugins directory!
• Copy the Solid.Arduino.dll file from the Solid.Arduino release folder to the C:\UCCNC directory.
• Please note that you might need to install Arduino USB Driver in order for your Arduino to work on the target computer!
• Launch UCCNC.exe, go to Settings->Configure Plugins, and mark the LEET Arduino Pendant plugin as Enabled and Call startup
• After everything is installed, Arduino is connected and UCCNC is running, press the "Enable" (+5v to D2-B-ENABLE ) button that will tell the plugin that the pendant is ready to send signals! D13 (LED+) will then have a continuous +3.3V signal alerting you of that!

Hardware Acquisition (Amazon)

Fusion F360 desing files Size:2.55 MB

Just found a very good video of testing a table-top gantry router cutting mild steel.

YouTuber named "Breaking Taps" used speeds and feeds generated by HSMAdvisor to get a starting point.

To see where exactly he was in the calculations I decided to reproduce all of cuts in HSMAdvisor.

A couple of assumptions i made:

1. Tool Type: Solid End Mill. It is not recommended to use the HP/Roughing tool type on such light machines, so i assumed this is the tool BT used.
2. Tool Stick-out looked like about 3/4" so I used that number.
3. Material was set to A36 Hot rolled steel.

Test 1) Minute 4:52

Good, slow and very safe starting point.

Test 2) Minute 6:20

Twice as aggressive as before, but we can still push it further.

Test 3) Minute 7:10

Here we can see the lack of machine rigidity starting to show. But at 65% feed rate it is still alive.

Test 4) Minute 8:30

This last test did not go well at all.

The machine has finally hit its limit and the endmill broke at all S&F overrides at about 100%

Was this fault of the software? Not really!

If that were a heavier machine, the last cut would not even be considered that difficult.

Here is a full slotting cut on a Matsuura VMC:

And here is the calculation that was done using HP/Roughing End Mill tool type:

If i were using the "Solid End Mill" tool definition, i would have to dial the feed override to 176% to match the 45ipm feed rate!

So what can users of light machines do in order to not break taps end mills?

First of all make sure the spindle torque curve is built and enabled in your machine profile settings.

The easiest solution is to de-rate the spindle. There is "Warning at" level in machine profile settings. Set that to 50% for starters and it should save you from exceeding the machine's capabilities.

Overall this was a great test of this little machine's capabilities and of the great help that software like HSMAdviasor can lend in discovering them.

Please head over to Breaking Taps YouTube account and subscribe.

As unhappy I am to learn that something may be wrong with the software I develop and love, negative feedback is essential in learning whether i am doing everything right.

So a couple of days ago I received an email from a somewhat disappointed user. 

He (lets call him Peter) was complaining that HSMAdvisor calculator gave him "excessively high" speeds and feeds for his 3/4" 4 flute 3.0 LOC  end mill in aluminum.

With the data Peter entered he was getting around 10000 RPM(SFPM 2117) and the feed of 270 inches per minute while usual practice in the shop was side-milling aluminum at that (2.8" axial) depth at only 325 SFM

After double-checking the numbers I replied that in fact his numbers seemed very slow and if for some reason he HAD to run that slow (heck, i machine most steels faster than 325 SFM) due to some conditions, perhaps, he was ought to change the conditions themselves.

This is what I am getting for Peter's end mill setup:

From this point on, all holders of valid HSMAdvisor licenses will be eligible to free Life-Time updates and upgrades to their HSMAdvisor product.
Likewise there is not going to be a big functionality jump between the version 1.99 and 2.0 like in some other software products.

This release model is called "rolling release" and it is becoming the new industry norm.
It offers smoother transition and no steep learning curve for existing users. It also helps prevent unavoidable bugs when a large amount of changes is introduced all at once.

There have been reports of troubles our FSWizard users were having after updating to Android 6.0

I issued some hotfixes before but they did not help.

So I would like to announce that with the latest update all the problems have been fixed. There were also minor updates in the UI, but nothing major.

Cheers!

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V1.47

Every month we are getting a good amount of feedback and suggestions.

Everything is getting prioritized and eventually implemented. Urgent stuff is getting done fast. And other "nice to haves" are getting pushed down according to their usefulness / difficulty (yes, everyone secretly wishes my program could also edit and create HSM g-code :)).

It is amazing, but almost half of HSMAdvisor's features were originally suggested by our loyal users!

The latest update HSMAdvisor 1.213 addresses some of the feedback I have received last couple of months.

So the New features are:

1. Smart Depth and Width of Cut (DOC/WOC) suggestion (user suggested)
2. Compressing of Shared Tool DataBases
3. Display of Stock status on Tool DataBase tables (user suggested)
4. Various little improvements like new Heli-Coil reference, better DOC/WOC calculation better multitasking, etc. (mostly based on user feedback)

Let's go over the most important ones here:

I regularly follow practicalmachinist.com forums.
Especially the cnc machining section of it.

I notice when CNC Speeds and Feeds questions come up people often suggest my HSMAdvisor Machinist calculator.
A referral by a satisfied customer is the best referral in my opinion. Thank you to everyone doing this great favor to me and my prospective users!

Other times users of HSMAdvisor question speeds and feeds it generates and instead of going to me, they ask on forums.
Which is always fine, because extremely often "wrong" results mean something wrong in users expectations or the data he feeds the calculator

In the process of discussion it usually turns out that the calculation results were correct, but because user decided to use a depth of cut or tool length, larger than he should have, HSMAdvisor compensates and gives a very conservative feed rate.

Just like in this forum post over here: Engraving with a 1/32 ball mill machinist wanted

The latest update of HSMAdvisor Advanced Speed and Feed Calculator resets trial clock for all users.

So if you tried it before and were not sure if this is for you, you can use it again absolutely for free for another 30 days.

As usual you can download the latest release over here -> http://hsmadvisor.com/?page=HSMAdvisor