Messages

5511

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Manual touch plate probing after manual tool change

« on: January 22, 2018, 05:43:48 PM »

Hi Daz,
kool,and so straight foward.

I take it that 'cycle stop' state is suspended, not actually ended?

Craig

5512

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Button OFFLINE

« on: January 22, 2018, 04:32:02 PM »

Hi,
then how would you recommend that you manually jog/MDI and Machs DROs keep track and yet have no motor movement?

Clearly there needs to be some code that re-aligns the controlled point in such a manner that the homing again makes
sense before the servos are re-enabled.

Craig

5513

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Manual touch plate probing after manual tool change

« on: January 22, 2018, 04:27:33 PM »

Hi Daz,
very well put and explained.

There are a couple of threads on the forum at the moment which pose exactly this problem.

While I understand its not possible to run Gcode AND jog at the same time, is it possible to suspend a Gcode job,
manually jog and/or MDI and THEN return to where the Gcode job left off?

Craig

5514

Mach4 Videos / Re: Mach4 and Coroutines

« on: January 22, 2018, 02:55:04 PM »

Hi Daz,
yes I could easily use registers to communicate data between the two.

More importantly can say the Gcode interpreter be suspended while control is assumed by the GUI?
The interpreter would need to be 'massaged' before it was resumed.

Craig

5515

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Is Mach4 really Hobby Material?

« on: January 22, 2018, 02:50:34 PM »

Hi Reinhard,

Quote
My contention is that once a coordinated move is dispatched to the controller it is no longer possible to change the A axis rotation rate, it would break the move.
Well, that probabely depends on what communication is possible betwenn mach4 and the motion controller - and of cause it depends on the communication refresh rate.

I don't think that is the case. The trajectory calculated by Mach and the position/velocity/time data once its dispatched to
the controller cannot be altered. The controller may do so, THC is an obvious example where the controller adds or subtracts pulses
from the Z axis pulse stream. In general though it can't be done...if you attempt to change the pulse rate of one axis say, then
the eventual endpoint of the move will be different than Machs assumed endpoint. Unless the controller can report back to
Mach and Mach can accommodate moves that don't go where they are supposed to then Mach has no chance of controlling
the machine. That requires an out of band axis which can be altered WITHOUT affecting a coordinated move of the remaining
axes.

Craig

5516

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Button OFFLINE

« on: January 22, 2018, 02:39:13 PM »

Hi,
cool, that behaves as I expected and this should be pretty straight forward.

May I suggest using a macro like the one I posted yesterday to enable/ disable the servo rather than disconnecting
the wire. I suspect it will work the same but you will need to be able to do it with software. Try it out.

Craig

5517

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Is Mach4 really Hobby Material?

« on: January 22, 2018, 04:57:21 AM »

Hi,
Mauri and I have had a conversation about how this might work.

My contention is that once a coordinated move is dispatched to the controller it is no longer possible to change the A axis rotation rate, it would break the move.

My suggestion was that the A axis be temporarily assigned as an out of band axis, Mach4 Hobby allows only one out of band axis and it is always the spindle.
Because the A axis is ansynchronous  the speed of rotation can now be changed during a coordinated move of the other axes. In particular if the Z axis is equivelent
to radius then the speed of the A axis can be calculated and repeatedly updated by a short PLC script.

During this time however the main spindle is uncontrolled, it is a shortcoming of Mach4Hobby. Mach4Industrial allows up to six out of band axes.

Craig

5518

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Button OFFLINE

« on: January 22, 2018, 04:41:41 AM »

Hi,
yes that was what I was proposing from the very start.

You still need to experiment what happens when you re-enable the servo after jogging/MDIing. How it responds will determine the kind of code you need.

Start your machine, reference it and drive it to some reasonably central location. Disable one of the axes. Now jog away but ending some distance from where
you started. Re-enable the servo. What happens? Do the machine coordinates reflect its actual position or do they reflect the position when you disabled the
axis? Experiment with it so that you are 100% sure that you know how it behaves. Once you have that sorted generating some code to 'send it back' to where it was
should be pretty easy.

I don't think you'll need a relay or any other output.

The broad outline is:
1) When the 'offline' button is pressed the machine coordinates of the axes are remembered
2) The servos are disabled by sending the M0 and M1 enable outputs low
3) MDI/jog to your hearts content
4) When the 'offline' button is activated again
    a) Issue G53 G0 to the machine coords saved in step 1)
    b) Re-enable the servos by setting M0 and M1 enables high

Craig

5519

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Button OFFLINE

« on: January 22, 2018, 03:15:30 AM »

Hi,
you can de-assert SI1 by disconnecting it or you can have Mach set it to zero.
These two little macros give you the chance to turn the servo enable signal on  and off and will help while your experimenting.

Code: [Select]

function m210()
local inst=mc.mcGetInstance()
local hsig,rc=mc.mcSignalGetHandle(inst,mc.OSIG_ENABLE0)
mc.mcSignalSetState(hsig,0)
end
if (mc.mcInEditor()==1) then
    m210()
end
Craig

Code: [Select]

function m211()
local inst=mc.mcGetInstance()
local hsig,rc=mc.mcSignalGetHandle(inst,mc.OSIG_ENABLE0)
mc.mcSignalSetState(hsig,1)
end
if (mc.mcInEditor()==1) then
    m211()
end

5520

Mach4 Videos / Re: Mach4 and Coroutines

« on: January 21, 2018, 10:25:05 PM »

Hi Daz,
still struggling with coroutines.

Is it possible to switch back and forth between the Gcode interpreter and the GUI?

The reason I ask is because there is a thread on the forum where the OP wishes when an M6 is encountered in
a Gcode job, ie Gcode interpreter is in control, he wishes to manually jog and/or MDI ,ie GUI in control then
revert back to the interpreter to continue the job.

Naturally would require some coding so that on resumption of the job that the machine coordinates remain in sync.

Can a coroutine work across the two instances of Lua?

Craig