Messages

3151

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 issue?

« on: January 29, 2019, 12:47:55 AM »

Hi,
sounds like your steppers are gaining or losing steps and therefore departing from the tool path you have
programmed. Doing any useful machining when the axes drift off on their own is hopeless.

You are going to have to tune your motors such that they stay 'in the groove'.

Craig

3152

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Can OB1 and OB2 be used inside the G-code ?

« on: January 29, 2019, 12:43:16 AM »

Hi,
Gcode it simply a long series of movement instructions, it does not have the  ability to be 'programmed'.
Lets take an example. Lets say you are surfacing a piece of material. You do one complete pass and then measure
the height of the material with a G31 code. Now if the height of the material is 5mm you wish to take another complete
cut of 2mm over the surface. If however the height is only 4mm then we want to leave it alone.

As you can see it would require Gcode to make a decision and do one thing if...so and so....and do something else
if not. Gcode can't do that, at least Gcode that is commonly supported by Mach3 and Mach4Hobby. Mach4Industrial
supports Macro B Gcode which does have some capacity but that is a side issue at the moment.

What Mach, or rather the Gcode Interpreter can do however is execute a macro, a so called M code. You will be familiar with
the likes of M3, M4 and M5 which turn the spindle on and off or M6 for changing tools. You can however write your own
macros. Macros with names under 100, ie M99 and lower are considered as belonging to Mach and therefore best left
alone. Macros named M100 and higher are suitable for personal use. Having said that there are some macros that ship
with Mach in that range. Two which come to mind are m162 and m163 which are for laser operations. Before you go writing
your own scripts it may pay to have a look and make sure you are not overwriting something which may be useful later on.

The real advantage of a macro is that, at least in Mach4, is written in Lua which is a very capable programming language in its
own right. In order for a program, ie your script or macro, to affect the behavior of your machine it must use API's.
API's (Application Program Interface) are the means that you have to control the inner workings of Machs core and therefore
affect machine movements, set outputs, display data communicate with other devices.....and the list goes on.

As an example:
rc = mc.mcCntlConfigStop(Inst)

If you included this statement in your macro the Gcode interpreter would stop. Lets say you have a temperature sensor in
your spindle and if it goes over 90⁰ then you would or could execute this API.

To gain control of OB axes this is the approach you will have to take.

You can also write scripts which reside in the GUI which can be used to effect all manners of behavior but for OB axes
this is an added complexity that need not concern you....yet!

The complete list of API's are in API.chm which is in Mach4Hobby/Docs folder. There are hundreds of them.

Craig

3153

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: My LUA Tool changer script Needs to run twice to change tool number, How to fix?

« on: January 28, 2019, 12:39:10 PM »

Hi,
sounds like your Mach setup has the wrong toolchange mode selected.

There are two modes.

The first, and most logical to you and I, is where M6 T4 say would cause the tool to be changed to T4 then resume machining.

The second mode, which is common on production machines, is where M6 T4 and tool 4 is prepared in the toolchanger
for the NEXT toolchange. Having the tool carousel pre positioned is faster.

The setting for the toolchange mode is on Configure/Control/Tools page.

Craig

3154

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Un-Supported wxNumberEntryDialog

« on: January 28, 2019, 12:47:11 AM »

Hi,
yes Daz that was well spotted.
It was my intention to edit each cell to update the data but I could not edit the cells onscreen.....here was me
thinking %$FFR%&*(*&^%!!!! wxFB.....these guys are sending me up the garden path!

But despite me having checked Editing Enable and that setting apparently propagating through to code
the syntax was just not quite right.

I think smuphs quote was 'Lua syntax......is syntax only a mother could love'.

Craig

3155

General Mach Discussion / Re: Problem with stepper motor

« on: January 28, 2019, 12:41:29 AM »

Hi,
then you will have to reduce both the velocity and acceleration to bring your machine torque demands
back to within the specs of your motor.

Craig

3156

General Mach Discussion / Re: z height and machine 'parking" - mach3

« on: January 28, 2019, 12:39:21 AM »

Hi,
it sounds like you have your Z axis set up funny.

Most CNC's are setup so that the very top of the Z travel is machine coordinate zero, ie Z axis Home.
Any real Z axis moves 'within' the machining volume will occur at negative values (Machine Coordinates) of z.
Your Work Coordinates are usually set to zero at the surface of the material, so a cutting move will be negative z but
a positive z will be above the work, note.....Work Coordinates.

Is this how your CNC is setup?

Note that the Safe Z Setup page allow you to choose Machine coordinates, Work coordinates and Incremental.
What have you set? Why did you choose that setting?

Craig

3157

General Mach Discussion / Re: Problem with stepper motor

« on: January 28, 2019, 12:30:12 AM »

Hi,
sounds like the X axis motor is missing steps and/or stalling. Losing steps,either intermittently or continuously,
is a result of overload. In your case it sounds like the X axis is binding at a couple of locations. Disconnect the shaft
of the motor and turn the ballscrew by hand throughout its travel to detect binding or tight spots.

Craig

3158

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: G-Code bad character used

« on: January 28, 2019, 12:24:33 AM »

Hi,
I have Eagle 6.6 and it works. I have heard that it works with Eagle 7 also but I can't personally confirm that.

Note there is an active pcb-gcode  forum (Google Groups), if you are starting out with pcb-gcode it is recommended.

Craig

3159

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Can OB1 and OB2 be used inside the G-code ?

« on: January 28, 2019, 12:19:56 AM »

Hi,
Mach4 allows up to six coordinated axes. Each axis may have one or more slaves.
Mach4 also allows up to six OB axes, but these are NOT coordinated with either themselves OR the six primary
(coordinated) axes.

Further they cannot be controlled with Gcode in the normal way. They must be 'jogged' into position. That could be
done manually with buttons but for your purposes you will require macros to handle 'programmed jogging', sort of
similar to MDI motion commands.

The jogging API's that have been provided are:

Jogging
mcJogGetAccel
mcJogGetInc
mcJogGetRate
mcJogGetVelocity
mcJogIncStart
mcJogIncStop
mcJogIsJogging
mcJogIsStopping
mcJogSetAccel
mcJogSetInc
mcJogSetRate
mcJogSetTraceEnable
mcJogSetType
mcJogVelocityStart
mcJogVelocityStop


Craig

3160

General Mach Discussion / Re: Slow milling

« on: January 28, 2019, 12:09:28 AM »

Hi,
sounds like your mill is running in exact stop mode, that is the mill will come to a complete stop at the end
of each and every move.

You should be in CV mode (constant velocity) where Mach tries to blend moves together so it doesn't have to stop.

Craig