Recent Posts

21

General Mach Discussion / Re: Reawakening a MAXNC-10

« Last post by Tweakie.CNC on December 21, 2025, 03:51:13 AM »

The forum member & creator of the ‘Mach3 & the MaxNC 10’ document is KB7CGA but he has not been active on the forum for the last 13 years or so.
As already mentioned by Arturod the settings etc. in that document will only work with the original MaxNC board when using the LPT Parallel Port and not with any external motion controller such as the UC100.

Tweakie.

22

General Mach Discussion / Re: Reawakening a MAXNC-10

« Last post by john buffum on December 20, 2025, 07:57:45 PM »

OK.  Tractor done.  More work than I thought, but success at the end.
Now, I can get on with the MaxNC!!  The game plan is to use The above cited settings.  If they don't work, Ill search for help.  I'm sorry I don't have the userid of the fellow who posted this.

23

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Touchscreen for Mach4?

« Last post by joeaverage on December 20, 2025, 06:54:08 PM »

Hi,
from time to time I would run my machine with my then Windows8  Laptop, and it had a touch screen.

The only problem I found was that the Mach4 screen is quite tight and filled with buttons etc, and thus if you were not very careful you could touch the screen and some other function would
execute rather than the one you intended, simply because of that buttons proximity to the button you had intended. In the event I stopped using the touch screen, quite aside from the oily
fingerprints all over the screen.

The issue is that the touch screen is a feature of Windows, it does not really have anything to do with Mach4.

If you were to make your own Mach4 screen with a marked reduction in the number of buttons and widgets it is entirely possible that a touch screen would be very effective. It comes down to better
matching Mach4's screen to the reliable resolution of the the touch screen in use. The last thing you want is to press <feedhold> for instance and <stop> actually execute and therefore
have the machine lose reference as an example.

I also came to realise that it would appear that no industrial control like Fanuc21i or Siemens 840 or any others that I've seen ever have a touch screen. I would have thought that these companies would
be well into any features that might distinguish their product in the market....,.and yet I don't know of any that have a touch screen? Why do you suppose that is? Do they know something that we don't?

Craig

24

Mach4 General Discussion / YAD XHCWB04 request

« Last post by cd_edwards on December 20, 2025, 08:22:40 AM »

Any chance we can get multi-line gcode's working with the XHCWB04 plugin. Specifically in the Probe Z spot?

Something like   G31Z-3F10\nG92Z0.2\nG1Z-1

Currently I seem to only be able to have G31Z-3F10  in there but of course that's not the whole story. Using a gauge block or a touch plate, it would be nice to set the Z coordinate to material top and then move Z up. I tried a semi-colon as well. What I posted above seems to want to drive into the table instead of providing what I was looking for.And yes I know about the User G Code. I added those three lines to a user gcode, but that also requires you to use the Fn button to use it. If it's already possible, maybe some documentation? just saying.

25

General Mach Discussion / Re: Motion controller with analogue outputs

« Last post by arturod on December 20, 2025, 06:51:39 AM »

Are these the old DC Servos?  Nowadays, it is just better to go with AC servos or closed-loop Steppers.  Those motors are high-maintenance and probably old, with a lot of wear.  Get something that is brushless, uses new technology, and is easy to connect to.

Arturo Duncan
https://cnc4pc.com

26

General Mach Discussion / Re: Motion controller with analogue outputs

« Last post by Charlie_M on December 20, 2025, 06:37:26 AM »

Have a look at CNC drive motion controllers. I have the uc100 and the eth400 and have not had issues with either. you can use the uccnc software or there  is a plugin for mach3. you can ask questions on the forum to make sure it will do what you want.

27

General Mach Discussion / Re: Motion controller with analogue outputs

« Last post by Graham Waterworth on December 19, 2025, 10:01:17 PM »

A lot of drives have both 10-0-10 volt input called analogue and also TTL step and direction input you need to find or check the manual for the drives you have.

If the drives can take TTL(0-5V) then any mach3 breakout board can drive the machine.

Sometimes you need to tell the drive the input type but some detect is automatically.

 

28

General Mach Discussion / Re: Spindle trips limit switch on every Gcode start

« Last post by Graham Waterworth on December 19, 2025, 09:53:08 PM »

Turn off safe Z move and make sure your initialisation string is something like "G20/G21" inch/metric plus " G40 G00 G90 G99 G43 G80 G54"

 This should be a safe start.

29

General Mach Discussion / Spindle trips limit switch on every Gcode start

« Last post by alchantelois on December 19, 2025, 04:37:46 PM »

I'm trying to get my machine up and running again after replacing the computer.  I have it mostly set but still have an issue.
Every time I try to run G-code, the spindle moves up (in the Z-axis direction) until it hits the limit switch and then it stops.  There is no code in my G-code telling it to do that so it must be a machine configuration setting, but I don't know what setting needs to be changed.  Any help?

Allen

30

General Mach Discussion / programing mach 3

« Last post by chefrc on December 19, 2025, 10:37:05 AM »

My compter died and had to reprogram but having difficulties can anyone check my dll and advise