Messages

6051

Modbus / Re: Who can I call to help me setup this automation direct vfd

« on: November 03, 2017, 11:46:57 PM »

Hi,
you were asking about a serial port:
http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,35855.0.html
Did my suggestion work, do you have an active serial port?

Craig

6052

General Mach Discussion / Re: new setup issues

« on: November 03, 2017, 11:42:14 PM »

Hi,
think, and I should have mentioned, that you'll need to restart Mach, in fact you may have to restart your PC for the Parallel Port Driver to read the new axis
assignment.

Craig

6053

General Mach Discussion / Re: new setup issues

« on: November 03, 2017, 11:39:21 PM »

Hi,
just to be sure, when you hit the Estop button Mach is disabled? With the Estop button released you can <Reset> and Mach Enables? This proves that
you have basic communication between the parallel port and Mach.

On Config/Ports and Pins make sure Port1 is enabled and on the Motor Outputs page enter on the X axis Enabled, pin 2, pin3, port1,port1 per the screenshot attached.
Hook your driver to the Step/DIR pins.

On the MDI page hit <tab> and the jog flyout will appear and you should be able to jog the X axis. If The Jog Control LED is light then the arrow button should work
too.

Craig

6054

General Mach Discussion / Re: z axis problem

« on: November 03, 2017, 11:04:50 PM »

Hi,
oops forgot to attach the pic.

Craig

6055

General Mach Discussion / Re: z axis problem

« on: November 03, 2017, 11:03:35 PM »

Hi,
as I alluded to in the previous post I have attached a brief sketch of opto isolated outputs.

The top one, output named CURRENT_SOURCE, will when the opto transistor is active source current direct from Vcc to the load. When it is inactive it will
attempt to sink current via R1 to earth. Excepting a low value of R1 its ability to sink current is modest, the more current it tries to sink the output low
voltage will increase until the load doesn't know whether its low or high.

Conversely the bottom one, output named CURRENT SINK, will when the opto transistor is active sink current from the output pin to earth. When it is inactive
the output will be pulled high by R2. Excepting a low value of R2 its ability to source current is modest.

The Vexta stepper driver I posted earlier required a current of 7-20mA to be active. Thus if we used the output represented by the lower one with a Vcc of
5V then R2 would have to be 5V/10mA=500Ohm to be sure of turning the input on when the opto is inactive. With Vcc of 24V R2=24V/10mA=2.4kOhm

With the non isolated ouptuts that I posted previously they could source or sink currents of 15-20mA easily whereas the opto isolated ones rely on a resistor to source/sink
current in one state. This can be done no problem but it does require some thought and knowledge of the load to be done successfully.

The trick now is to find some way of identifying which of the two types you have.

Craig

6056

General Mach Discussion / Re: A-axis rotary lathe question for Mach 3

« on: November 03, 2017, 10:24:09 PM »

Hi Bob,
sounds like a great hobby or is it a lively hood?

As a lad I lived in a small town and next door for about six months a year lived a middle aged couple who lived in Hong Kong for the remainder of the
year, they were very wealthy. Us kids always considered Mrs Buyers to be mad and treated her as such and no-one wanted to be caught alone by her husband.
No evidence mind, its just what us kids knew.

He died and she rather lost it. I was a few years older then and had been dragooned by my mother and other neighbours to help her with a few chores
and also company, it turns out she wasn't mad after all, but lonely, eccentric and old. Amongst the things I learned was that her husband was a true
craftsman in wood and would hand make violins form timber gleaned from old pianos and other sources. The noises that my brother, sister and I had heard
were not him strangling his wife but tuning and testing the violins he made.

All those years I had shunned him and yet had I known he might have been a friend and a marvellously skilled teacher.

Craig

6057

General Mach Discussion / Re: z axis problem

« on: November 03, 2017, 10:07:43 PM »

Hi,
I've taken these shots from the manual of my BOB from Homan Designs in Austrailia. Note the both pins 2-9, the bi-directional capable
and the regular outputs 1,14,16 and 17 are NOT opto coupled. It should be noted that many BoBs do have opto isolated outputs and these diagrams
will not help you if trying to devise a circuit diagram for those types.

It may be that you have non isolated BoB outputs and therefore this discussion may well be of help to you. Another thing to note is that all outputs
have an LED. They are a Godsend when trying to set your machine up especially if new to Mach. If your going to buy another BoB then look for versions
which have LEDs on the outputs and if possible on the input buffers as well like these MB-02V6's.

Another thing to note is that whether these inputs are pulled high or pulled low is determined by a jumper, it adds flexibility but can also create some
confusion, so its a bit of a wash as to whether it useful or not. The important point here is that if say the pull up resistor is engaged high then at idle
the output will be high but with an impedance of 1.2kOhm. A load of only 4.2 mA would drag the output to 0V. If your driver or whatever you
have attached to the output is expecting a current source of more than a couple of mA with the gate idle it will be disappointed and probably fail.
When the output goes low the output will sink around 15mA, the normal sink current of a TTL gate, plenty adequate. When the gate goes high, ie driven
high by its input the gate can source plenty of current, around 20mA. So the situation is that the output is well defined and can either source or sink
current as required and is only marginal if the gate is unpowered, a most unusual condition, a fault really.

Craig

6058

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Macro help mcCntlGcodeExecuteWait

« on: November 03, 2017, 09:28:33 PM »

Hi RT,
I've gotten into the habit of coding macros with lowercase m and gcodes with lowercase g. Machs interpreter decodes to lowercase and strips out leading zeros.
So M03 gets decoded as m3 etc. In most cases what it gets decoded to is unique and causes no problems but there are times when its not so and an error
results. I now prefer to code in a manner that doesn't require either Mach or Windows to have to interpret what I mean.

Shame of it is that if your trying to explain to someone else what your doing uppercase Ms and Gs are more readable even if m and g are more accurate.

Craig

6059

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Actions verses Events

« on: November 03, 2017, 09:18:47 PM »

Hi smurph,
thanks for that explanation, its gone a ways to demystify things.

I elected to change to Mach4 when I started trying to code in CE for Mach3 which seemed so buggy and confused. Lua, or rather Mach4s structure
with its multitude of API calls and so on has been a challenge. A little while ago I was helping a guy who was wishing to use 'ISIG_SPINDLE_AT_SPEED'
and he was flummoxed that the signal could exist without it having any function. I found myself defending the idea that an Object and its Action are
separate! Me the procedural Fortran whizz defending an object oriented approach! You've heard me claim I'm insane...you can add 'barking' to that
appellation.

I know Mach3 has a whole swag of adherents but they are seriously missing out on the flexibility of Mach4.

Craig

6060

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 takes 30 seconds to start

« on: November 03, 2017, 08:31:10 PM »

But Steve,

And just because you may think you are insane, doesn't mean you are! 

I've got a certificate and everything! LOL

Craig