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Author Topic: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions  (Read 1245452 times)

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Offline Sage

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Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions
« Reply #1090 on: November 17, 2017, 08:35:08 AM »
I won't beat a dead horse. If your done with it then so be it. The frequency is not the issue for me. When the signal is issued it works. (read previous post for full explanation) The problem is Darwin starts sending the signal out just until the screen is fully up then it quits. It requires a toggle of the enable / disable screen button to get it going again then it's fine. But if you hit a limit or something it drops out and requires the toggle again to get it going.
 I've concluded you are probably not receiving any complaints because nobody is using it. A shame really because except for this problem it works really well and got me going trying Mach4 well before any of the external motion controllers were working. But I needed to switch between 3/4 because of all the bugs (initially) with Mach4. But the charge pump was not acceptable. So I've just stuck with Mach3. It's been a couple of years now and I guess there are bug free (?) solutions available but...
 I wasn't expecting any more development. Just a bug fix.
Enough said. Back to work with Mach3.
Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions
« Reply #1091 on: January 13, 2018, 06:31:32 AM »
I previously posted the below as a separate post but want to add it here as I suspect that the extra deceleration when probing may be caused by Darwin. Does anyone know if this is the case?

Quote
I am setting up Mach4 for probing and have found that the axis takes a longer time to decelerate to a stop after a probe strike than it does normally (as setup in motor configuration), this is very obvious as you can hear the difference.

I do some milling of circuit boards and want to probe the board with the actual cutter for height mapping. I have done this in Mach3 and it works well but due to the extra deceleration in Mach4 the feedrate needs to be a lot lower to prevent the cutter pushing into the board.

I am using the latest version of Mach4 and the Darwin printer port plugin and have been looking in both Mach4 and Darwin but cannot find any settings that affect this. Does anyone know if there is a separate setting anywhere for the deceleration when probing?

Alastair

Offline ART

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Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions
« Reply #1092 on: January 13, 2018, 08:51:15 AM »
Hi:

  Checking the source I see its hardwired to .25 seconds. Probing wasnt used much in Darwins time.
Ive attached a build I just did today.  My development system has changed alot since last build of
darwin and I no longer run XP so I cant test this. Can you let us know if this plugin

a) works
b) fixes the probe to a faster stop.

Thanks,
Art


Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions
« Reply #1093 on: February 05, 2018, 02:47:32 PM »
Hi Art

Sorry for the delay replying, life got busy for a while. Thank you for posting the version to try, I was only hoping for confirmation as I know you are no longer actively developing Darwin.

Unfortunately the version you posted does not load. There are two dialogs when Mach4 is loading.

1) Message dialog that is blank.
2) Error dialog - Failed to load shared library 'mcDarwin.m4pw' (error 0; the operation completed successfully.)
 
Now that I know it is hard coded I will try to find a way to live with it for the time being.

Thanks again for taking the time.

Regards
Alastair

Offline ART

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Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions
« Reply #1094 on: February 24, 2018, 02:59:01 PM »
Hi Alister:

  I happened to be in XP this week, and recompiled Darwin for a probe stop time of .1 seconds instead of .25

 Cant promise this runs, as the other attempt didnt, but was in Win7, but this was compiled under XP in the MAch4 system, so it should. If yourstill trying to speed up probing, you may want to try this plugin..

Thx
Art
Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions
« Reply #1095 on: March 02, 2018, 10:15:02 AM »
Hi Art

I just had a change to test and this version works. The response to the probe strike is now much better.

Thank you very much for taking the time to compile and post this version.

Alastair

Offline ART

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Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions
« Reply #1096 on: March 02, 2018, 10:38:29 AM »
No Problem, glad it helped.
Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions
« Reply #1097 on: December 04, 2018, 08:41:43 AM »
I bought Mach 4 recently and has installed it on my new laptop running Windows 10. How do I connect my laptop USB 3 to my gecko 540 DB25 LPT connector? Do I need to buy UC 100 and purchase any plugin for Mach 4? Thanks to provide the same on.
Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions
« Reply #1098 on: December 04, 2018, 08:49:00 AM »
Since your laptop does not have a parallel port, you will need an external
device to interface to the G540. The UC100 and other devices such as
the PoKeys57CNCd25  and the PMDX-411 serve this purpose. You do
not need the Legacy Parallel Port software plugin for Mach4. Each of
the devices listed above will include its own plugin for Mach4.
Steve Stallings
www.PMDX.com
Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions
« Reply #1099 on: December 04, 2018, 08:52:11 AM »
or a smoothstepper. basically any board that is supported with Mach4 drivers that will convert a USB/ethernet signal into a LPT signal. Personally I use Warp9TD's smoothstepper. Do try and stay away from the cheap chinese stuff. Tends to not be as supported and buggy as well.