working in simulation mode

[doncaruana]

okay - dumb question about simulation mode...

Watching videos, reading things, etc, I was under the impression that I could pretty much fully simulate a machine, down to the inputs. So I set up my hot keys to act like the home switches - went to diagnostics and watched them light up. Then I started playing with trying to ref home and such. Worked in the video like a champ. But when I press my home 'hot key' - which I watch light up in diagnostics, the reference just keeps going.  As a matter of fact, I even have it tied to the limit switches as well (so all light up, as if the entire axis' limits were tied together), but nothing happens.

Did I misinterpret the way simulation mode works or is there some basic configuration I'm missing?

[Hood]

Please attach your xml and I will have a look at your config.
Hood

[stirling]

Ring any bells Hood? Hint Hint 

[Hood]

Ring any bells Hood? Hint Hint 

Ha ha , no not at all, just a lot easier looking at the config to find the problem rather than asking a load of questions. Must be getting lazy in my old age

Hood

[stirling]

Not sure if you're pulling my leg  

He's in simulation mode i.e. I'm betting he hasn't loaded the driver. THC, probing, limits and homing are all in the driver.

doncaruana: Load the driver (and reboot) even though your not connected to a machine and they'll be "emulatable" with keys. Although the diagnostics show the keypresses, without the driver nothing happens.

Ian

[Hood]

Ha ha, no but you have the answer there, I have never installed without the driver. Just tested by deleting the driver and like you say it wont work. I have always just loaded the driver when installing Mach even though I have not used it for a long time, dont see the point of not doing so.

Hood

[stirling]

I think the problem is that the vids suggest you don't need the driver if you're just emulating which of course is wrong for things like this. In the early days (before I knew about issues like this) I chose not to install the driver on a simulation system because I also had a printer on the PP and thought (wrongly) that they couldn't co-exist.

[doncaruana]

striling - you are right about why the driver wouldn't be loaded. As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure I saw somewhere that not loading the driver would put you in simulation mode anyway, although obviously a limited version.  So I chose not to load it, but...the machine I'm trying to simulate on doesn't have a parallel port, so the mach3 install won't load the driver even when I ask it too! So what do I do in that case? Sounds like I'm just out of luck...?

[Hood]

Mach will load the driver whether or not your computer has a port.
Hood

[doncaruana]

Hm. On this machine, when I tried to install it with the parallel port driver, it says "No driver sensed installed. Run driver test". Get the exact same behavior when I run driver test.

But I did go do it on another machine with no parallel port and this time selected the driver and it's working there.

Not too worried about original machine - think I know what's up there. Thanks guys!