Recent Posts

71

MachPro General Discussion / Re: ESS Spindle Setup

« Last post by Sunkistist on July 17, 2026, 12:02:53 PM »

I'd be hesitant to share my ini since I'm wrestling with other problems but I'd recommend looking at your spindle tab in the ESS plugin settings. One thing I noticed right after I migrated was that the spindle settings hadn't been merged into the new MachPro profile. Mach had the default 60hz in the PWM version for spindle control and my VFD/ESS likes 260 Hz, at least for my TECO L510. Next thing I'd look for is what is the spindle speed output signal mapped to in the ESS plugin, I used the standard 0-10v analog dedicated for spindle control and it seems to work fine. After that I would check the spindle speeds in the Mach config settings... after I migrated I had to tweak the table similar to what these instructions say.

One quick sanity check would be to do an M3 S500 or something and then measure the voltage on the ESS analog pins (assuming thats how you're controlling the VFD), then change the speed to say... double what you first chose and see what the new voltage is. If the voltage doesn't follow the M3 commands then it would suggest the VFD doesn't have anything to do with the problem and it's either the ESS or Mach.

72

General Mach Discussion / Re: Newbie trying to get Mach3 Configured

« Last post by fluterly on July 16, 2026, 12:22:40 PM »

Doesn't seem like my images attached.  And doesn't seem like I have the ability to attach images whenever I try to so I am going to try uploading them via 3rd party.





I have the xml file which I will try attaching but that doesn't seem to work when I preview.

I have mostly gotten the xyz stuff working, just got it homing.  But still have had no luck on the spindle start/stop.

Thanks.

73

MachPro General Discussion / Re: ESS Spindle Setup

« Last post by cd_edwards on July 15, 2026, 09:41:14 PM »

Depends on your spindle vfd and how it was setup. I have a hungyuang vfd with for/rev and spindle at speed.. I have both mach4 and MachPro. Both work.

74

MachPro General Discussion / ESS Spindle Setup

« Last post by lmarti13 on July 15, 2026, 08:48:38 PM »

Does anyone have a working ESS/Mach Pro spindle setup that they would be willing to share?  I migrated from an ESS v275 Mach4 installation to Mach Pro and cannot get my spindle to work.  I know that ESS v278+ made a change in spindle configuration, but I cannot figure it out.

Thanks for the help.

Lynn
LM Guitars

75

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: RTCP for a XYZCA (five axes) CNC

« Last post by joeaverage on July 15, 2026, 05:53:41 PM »

Hi Andy,
VERY KOOL INDEED!!!

I look forward with anticipation.

Do you have any thoughts on how you would market it? Would it for instance be included as standard or would you market it as an add-on?
I imagine that releasing it into the hobby market could and most probably would garner a huge demand for support. Do you have any thoughts on how you'd deal with that?

As I've posted in this thread, and other threads on this board, I am willing to pay serious money for RTCP.

I am not especially inclined to subscription software however I've been forced to change my mind as a result of my experience with Fusion. I've come to realise that a subscription allows me
to have access to good, if not industry leading, software which I could not afford to buy a perpetual license outright. One of the corollaries of a subscription model in the the manufacturer gets
a modest but recurring income stream. I'm not overly concerned about supporting Autodesk, but for a vastly smaller organization like MachLabs then a recurring income stream could be
a gamechanger. Other hobbyists might whinge and moan about that prospect, but I on the other hand see that if an organisation or company has a steady income then that same company
with a secure future path to advance and support better products............to my benefit!  If I want Mach4 to continue to grow and evolve in capability and performance then it is incumbent on
me and others to pay for that, its just how the world works.

Craig

76

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: RTCP for a XYZCA (five axes) CNC

« Last post by MachMotion Development Team on July 15, 2026, 05:31:26 PM »

Craig,

We are working on adding RTCP into MachPro.  I would expect we will have it out within the next 6 months.

Andy

77

Probes and Tool Setters / Re: MachPro Probing Wizard

« Last post by lmarti13 on July 14, 2026, 07:00:07 PM »

Thanks Colten,

I renamed, and recompiled the file and was able to map mcTouchOff to the button. Now I get the touch off that I was used to.

Lynn

78

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Loses Z Motion Reference After Idle

« Last post by cncmagic on July 14, 2026, 06:57:51 PM »

possibly... but not always... in some circumstances the actual application has some affect... as in my case... I found an issue that could not be easily resolved.. I did find a way to manage but because of the issue and no help from the developers I told my client to walk away from Mach4 for any future machine. This was not the first mach3 or mach4 I had done but it was a different application and gave a very peculiar problem. Took me over a year to resolve. And that's money directly out of my pocket..

79

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: G54 work offset changes after re-homing

« Last post by cncmagic on July 14, 2026, 06:50:41 PM »

yes, for most applications that is more than sufficient. And it sounds like you did your design based on good engineering practices.. that's probably why you don't have lots of issues with your machinery not doing what its supposed to do. 

80

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: G54 work offset changes after re-homing

« Last post by joeaverage on July 14, 2026, 06:40:51 PM »

Hi,
I use 5mm pitch ballscrews direct coupled to the servos. I have used the electronic gearing feature of the servo drives to effectively have a 5000 count per rev encoder, which in
turn results in a linear resolution of 1um (0.000039"). As a matter of practice I consider the smallest usable resolution of my machine is 5um (0.0002").

I have measured the repeatability of my homing procedure and it is at worst 0.02mm or 20um (0.0008"), and mostly it 0.01mm or 10um (0.0004"). Note that this is just with
good quality snap action microswitches. That I could do better by using Index Homing is not especially relevant as the homing procedure as is good enough.

Every once in a while I will mill a piece of aluminum with a 20mm or 25mm diameter boss and then very carefully measure how 'out of round' it is. The last time I did it was, about six months ago,
 9um (0.00035") out of round. This is a highly practical test, not only measuring the absolute accuracy of your machine but also its repeatability (multiple passes are taken and thus
any irrepeatable deviation would be obvious) while under actual cutting conditions, thus including flexure of the tool, spindle and machine, albeit under lightly loaded conditions but actually loaded.

Craig