Messages

2091

Mach3 under Vista / Re: Pulley Ratio Accuracy Problem

« on: August 26, 2019, 06:57:14 AM »

Hi,

Can anyone say if spindle PID is working in Mach4?

Spindle PID is a realtime function and so it must be supported by the MOTION CONTROLLER. Neither Mach3 or Mach4
are realtime controllers however Mach3s parallel port is a realtime motion controller and that's why Mach3 can apparently
'do' spindle PID.

The Ethernet SmoothStepper Mach4 plugin has just been (two moths or so) upgraded to do spindle PID. I imagine also that the Hicon
Integra, when suitably activated, and the CSMIO/A could also do spindle PID with Mach4.

To my knowledge the PoKeys 57CNC, the UC100/300/400 or the PMDX411/424 cannot do spindle PID with Mach4.

So the answer is 'Yes spindle PID with Mach4 is achievable with a motion controller that supports it'.

Craig

2092

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Continuous jogging won't stop

« on: August 25, 2019, 04:44:30 PM »

Hi,
whats happening is that jog moves are being stacked up in the buffer before execution. In essence you are providing
more moves than the machine can keep up with. It is not a fault.

A couple of things you can do are:
1) increase the jog speed by tuning your motors with as high acceleration and velocity as possible.
2) reduce the step size.

I have this problem also if I use a jog increment of 1mm per mpg step. I can spin the MPG fast enough that the machine
lags behind and even when I stop spinning the MPG it will carry on moving until all those moves have been executed,
very un-nerving. I find however if I reduce the maximum step size to 0.5mm per MPG click the problem is vastly reduced.

When jogging in this fashion I'm often trying to find an edge or similar so I want the jog velocity to be low. When jogging at
maximum step size you often want to traverse at speed. It is possible to write some Lua code that will jog fast at max step
size, thereby reducing the over-run, and slow when at less than maximum step size for edge finding etc.

Craig

2093

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Let Incremental jog finish but still shut off Velocity move if button is let go?

« on: August 24, 2019, 06:07:24 PM »

Hi,
is this using the Pokeys or the ESS as input?

I suspect it matters little, neither handle incremental jogs on board or realtime.

A button press will be communicated to Mach with some delay, perhaps a few to maybe tens of milliseconds.
Mach will make an appropriate string of movement instructions and communicate them to the motion controller,
again with a communication delay. The instructions will be queued in the buffer until execution, again with some
delay depending on the depth of the buffer.

Neither the ESS or the PoKeys (to my knowledge) handle jogging on board. Additionally if I understand your
installation you have the ESS as motion controller and the Poekys auxillary data entry. Thus even if the PoKeys
did jogging in real time it would still have to be communicated to Mach and then to the ESS with its attendant
delays.

The delays preclude instantaneous response....they are not the fault of either the input board nor Mach but are
as a consequence of Windows PCs not being realtime....that is to say that Windows CNC solutions MUST be
a buffered (read delayed) control solution.

The only motion controller that does jogging realtime (to my knowledge) is the CSMIO....and I'm not sure but it may
well be the CSMIO/A alone which is capable of it, ie the analogue output board. The CSMIO Mach4 plugin is still
somewhat buggy and has been very slow to develop. Therefore there is not a lot of information about CSMIO and Mach4.

Craig

2094

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: Cnc Id od and thread grinder

« on: August 23, 2019, 03:37:54 AM »

Hi,
OK you have decided on a central X axis home switch then you need to consider how to do it.

Have you read and digested the method I outlined in the link I posted? In particular you need to thouougly
understand both why and the implications of that method:

Should it transpire that your machine axes can or have been moved between sessions this method would fail.

The other alternative which I think you must consider is a non-volatile multiturn absolute encoder. I recommend
you look closely at the Delta A3 series servos. They have a 24 bit absolute encoder that apportions its bits into 'so many
revolutions + so many encoder counts within that revolution'. It has a battery backup so when you turn your machine on
you don't have to home it because the machine can 'remember where it is from the last session'. They are the latest and
greatest and aren't cheap.....but you get what you pay for.

Craig

2095

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: Cnc Id od and thread grinder

« on: August 22, 2019, 07:27:21 PM »

Hi,
then I'd suggest mounting the home switches at or very near the end of the axes then under almost
any circumstance the homing direction will always be toward the home switches...no guessing.....no extra switches....
no tricky coding.

If you are planning to use this widely then you should consider Mach4 over Mach3 as all development of Mach3 ceased six years ago.
Whatever bugs it has it will always have.

Mach4 is, on the other hand, being actively developed. Additionally the structure, API and Lua scripting language offer very distinct
advantages in terms of flexibility and customisation which would be very appropriate if you were considering manufacturing for
non-expert operators.

Craig

2096

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: Cnc Id od and thread grinder

« on: August 22, 2019, 03:33:39 AM »

Hi,
yes a physical switch would work.

How many axes do you need to do this for?

If you put a home switch(es) at or very near to the end of the axis(es) then you would always home in one direction,
there would be no need of extra switches.

Do you use Mach3 or Mach4? I contributed to a thread where a guy had home switches in the middle of his axes and wanted
some means to always home toward the switch. Using Mach4 there is a way to do so, its not all that straight forward but
it does work.

https://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php?topic=41636.0

Craig

2097

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: Cnc Id od and thread grinder

« on: August 21, 2019, 02:41:13 PM »

Hi,
soft limits are effective ONLY AFTER your machine has been homed.

Your description sounds like you want to use a soft limit to turn the axis direction around to find the home switch
ie before the machine is homed. Soft limits are distances from the home position......if the home position is yet to be
defined then the soft limits are likewise undefined.

Craig

2098

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 RnR motion card - problem with plasma relay

« on: August 20, 2019, 08:24:52 PM »

Hi,

You should have the manual with yours.

That's the whole point, most of these boards turn up without a manual.

Craig

2099

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: rs485 VFD Spindle Control

« on: August 20, 2019, 03:16:00 PM »

Hi,
that looks like an early model and probably not Modbus compliant.

If I understand correctly this VFD followed largely the Modbus protocol but differed in a number of details which
therefore required a specialist plugin.

Every other VFD on the market IS Modbus compliant and Huanyang bowed to pressure to comply with their
latest models.

Unless another user has written a plugin for it in Lua you have two choices:
1) Write your own plugin
2) Ditch it and get a Modbus compliant model.

Craig

2100

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 RnR motion card - problem with plasma relay

« on: August 20, 2019, 03:07:32 PM »

Hi,

For 11 you use 1 etc... for the inputs, and the outputs are also messed up.  After getting past that frustration, it works fine. 

Would you post the conversion so that others may also get their cards to work?

Craig