Messages

441

General Mach Discussion / Re: CNC workshop 2012

« on: June 05, 2012, 08:44:30 AM »

I have been thinking about doing a video to put on the web so everyone can see it. I am not going to do it at the collage but I could make a video here at the shop.

442

General Mach Discussion / CNC workshop 2012

« on: May 31, 2012, 09:10:45 AM »

Hello,
I wanted to tell you guys that I will be at the CNC workshop (never
missed one so far    ) . We will be showing Mach4 at the show and we
will be doing a 2 hour talk on how it all works under the hood. This
talk will be technical but at the same time it will be very good for
learning how to use the software. Here are some of the features I would
like to cover:

1.) Cpu requirements
2.) Scripting
3.) Motion Devices and how they work
4.) Out of Band Axis
5.) How to setup the machine
6.) What is in each level of the software Lite, Pro and Expert
7.) How to make special functions like THC or tangental knife work (they
are no longer in the software)
8.) What needs to be done so we can release the Pro version.

Please tell me if you can think of any other features that you think you
need to know about. That will be more then I need to fill 2 hours   
Also we will my little table top router running on Mach4 at the show.


Thanks
Brian

443

General Mach Discussion / Mach4 pre alpha testing

« on: March 05, 2012, 06:56:18 AM »

Hello,
I am looking to make a mailing list of people that would like to be part of the pre alpha testing. It is not much to test but it will allow you to see the new toolpath code and play with the new Gcode interpreter. This first test is only a test to see how the new toolpath code works on all the video cards. OpenGL is a bit of a pain because it will not work on some machines if you get to far into the special commands. If you would like to do this please e-mail me at brianb@machsupport.com and I will add you to the list. Mach4 can load a 34 MB Gcode file in 50Sec ! We are very pleased with the speed now we need to see if it works for all of you as it works here  LOL... (posted this on the yahoo forum as well but know some of you don't use that)


Thanks
Brian

444

General Mach Discussion / Re: Whose Fault Is ThIs?

« on: February 27, 2012, 12:44:38 PM »

Yes.. There was some work done to CV.. If the code I worked on didn't fix it please feel free to contact me off list and we will see what we can do to make it right

445

General Mach Discussion / Re: Whose Fault Is ThIs?

« on: February 27, 2012, 12:27:21 PM »

Just a note this is fixed in the Dev version..

446

FAQs / Re: New configuration now homing issues.

« on: January 26, 2012, 10:43:11 AM »

Hello,
There is a setting under config General config called Debounce. Please put in 500 for a debounce setting and give it a test!

No need for caps and all that fun stuff
Thanks
Brian

447

FAQs / Re: New configuration now homing issues.

« on: January 25, 2012, 09:16:44 AM »

Hello DWalsh62,
If you can find what you are looking for by decompiling the code go for it! The trouble is that it is not going to help you.. There is NO setting for the pull off amount. I will tell you how homing works and then I will tell you about what is going on with your system.

How it works:
1.) Machine starts by doing a move looking for the home switch
2.) Switch is found and motor decelerates (based on the motor tuning settings)
3.) Motor reverses looking for the switch to open back up at 20% of the home speed (this is what you are calling the pull off move)
4.) Switch opens back up and the motor decelerates
5.) Axis machine position is set to zero

As you can see I never said anything about pull off distance because there is none..

What could be your issue (this is after working on problems like this for over 10 years) :
Electrical noise... How do you know that is what it is .. well I think you are telling me that it is not pulling off the home switch. On the diagnostics page please tell me if the home switch is still active after the homing is done. If the machine is on the switch you need to add some debounce to the inputs. This can be found under config general config, I would start with about 500 and see if that helps.

Now as far as you thinking that we are not responding ... I could see that there where people looking at your post as soon as you put it up.. ALSO we have full time support staff to see that if you contact us you will get taken care of in a reasonable time. I don't see the need for being so nasty, it is okay because I forgive you I know it can be frustrating when setting up a machine and you need to get parts done and you are dealing with software issues. Best of luck and if you need help please feel free to contact me directly.

Thanks
Brian

448

General Mach Discussion / Re: Getting Disillusioned with Mach3.

« on: January 20, 2012, 01:13:03 PM »

I don't know if it will work with the G100... If Gecko is still going to sell them I would think about it but I am not sure if they do or not

Mach4.. soon I hope to tell you all a bit more about what is going on with it.. I want to tell you what is done next, not what we are going to do

Thanks
Brian

449

General Mach Discussion / Re: Getting Disillusioned with Mach3.

« on: January 18, 2012, 02:27:04 PM »

Hello guys I think I see the error.. in the Fix I added for the SS it made an error for the E0P1 type stuff.. but the good news is that the M10P1 and M00P1 should work fine.. I have sent out a rev for testing so we will see what we get

450

General Mach Discussion / Re: Getting Disillusioned with Mach3.

« on: January 17, 2012, 09:50:56 AM »

Hello Guys,
I would love to post more about what we have done in Mach4 but I don't feel that the time is right. We have a few more things that we need to do that are very open ended. As soon as they are done it will allow use to get a very good idea on the date for release or even for me to tell you what the feature set is. I have an API doc for mach4 but it is a little over the top for a regular user ( talks about how to use C# as a GIU and all that junk). the fact is that we are moving at a warp speed on this project and the quality is amazing. We also have taken what I have learned from Mach3 and trying to make it as safe as we can for you the user to make your own customization. The true goal is simple.. Make a simple app that can have items added to make it be what you would like it to be. Having said that there was a question about if we could add Tempest.. Yup.. We can! Can I add a new scripting engine.. YUP! Can you have a new Gcode interpreter? YES! Can we add Canopen YES! Mach4 is built to be more flexible then mach3 ever thought about being.. We may make it so you can run more then one machine at the same time . So as you can see I will post but let us get past the rest of the road blocks. The road block that we just got past was how to pass OpenGL to C# so an OEM could make a new GUI and not know how to program OpenGL.. And yes that could also be changed out

Mach3.. Ron and Steve  talked to me at the show and they have the idea that we should post the bugs that we are working on.. I don't test anymore I have Andrew doing that, so the idea is that I will have Andrew make a webpage where he can post what we will be working on so you can see what the heck it is that we would like to do for the next rev (Bug fixes). Having said that I have no idea how long that will take but that is the plan..

Thanks
Brian