Messages

1151

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 device error triggered when homing

« on: June 11, 2021, 09:59:49 PM »

Hi,
I'm not a fan, and never have been, of using one switch as a Limit switch AND a Home switch.

My machine has dedicated Home switches, and where fitted, separate Limit switches, each on separate inputs.

The reason I prefer this is that when Mach is 'Homing' or 'Referencing' it treats Limit switch events as Home events, and in all
other operating modes it treats them as genuine Limit events and EStops as its supposed to. I suspect the reason that so many Mach users combine
Limit and Home in one switch is that was the practice which dates back to the Parallel Port which had so few inputs that you effectively had to combine
switches in creative ways. Nowadays with external motion controllers having many spare inputs there is no need to combine them, but the practice persists.

Your issue sounds like Mach is interpreting the switch event not as a Home event but a Limit event, even though its not supposed to.

May I suggest that you (in Ports and Pins) disable the Limit switch on that axis in the Inputs page but retain the switch as a Home switch only.
If you do this as an experiment it should prove whether Mach is mistakenly reacting to the switch event as a Limit. It may also suggest to you a solution.

Craig

1152

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mapp input to output?

« on: June 01, 2021, 07:49:21 AM »

Hi,
I posted a while back a Signal Script description and should give you an overview of how you can
do that.

https://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php?topic=40051.msg267764#msg267764

Craig

1153

SmoothStepper USB / Re: Rigid taping

« on: May 25, 2021, 08:37:55 PM »

Hi,
can you run your spindle as a C-axis, that is to say do you have position control of the spindle?

If so you can do rigid tapping and it does not require any special features of the controller.

Craig

1154

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: wine

« on: May 24, 2021, 11:37:30 PM »

Hi,

But I also dislike windows greatly.

Running Mach4 does not really involve Windows, or rather you can quietly ignore that it is a Windows machine. The only time you really encounter any Windows
features is if you back out of Mach4 to do some file keeping or other maintenance. Does that matter?

Frankly I'd love a version of Mach4 that runs under linux realtime. And yes I know there was a version at one time a long long time ago that natively ran under linux.

Windows is not a realtime computing system, thus the output of Machs trajectory planner must needs be buffered by the motion controller. If you were to run
Mach on a realtime computing system, of which Linux with RTE is a very close facsimile, then the trajectory planner always receives timely CPU service and therefore
the motion controller would not NEED to buffer motion commands. Really Mach does not care or change if its realtime OR buffered, however it makes a huge difference
to the motion controller.

One area that Mach4 is weak is that because its never had a realtime environment in which to run it has never had any feedback handling code or APIs.
Its a bit like saying that Mach will never run in Germany and so Mach has no German instructions.

smurph had indicated that Mach has run on Linux and that there was interest in releasing a Linux version. He did warn however that any move in that direction
would be for OEM manufacturers only, ie there would be no support should a hobbyist decide to use it. That was a year or so ago.....what the status is now I have
no idea.

Craig

1155

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: wine

« on: May 24, 2021, 08:09:46 PM »

Hi,
Mach4, as released is a Windows application, is there any particular reason to try to run it under Wine?

Mach4 is a relatively small and lightweight application and can be run very successfully on VERY modest PCs, including
Atom boards. Why don'y you use a cheap and cheerful Winodws10 PC to run the machine but then you could use
your Linux PC for CAD/CAM etc.

Really the PC running ypour machine should NOT run ANY other software.....so what matter if its a Windows PC?

Craig

1156

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: How do I make "Go to Work 0" work?

« on: May 21, 2021, 05:15:02 PM »

Hi,

Unable to save file C:\Mach4Hobby\ScreenScript.lua; access is denied

thosj is correct, you cannot edit ScreenScript.lua directly. ScreenScript.lua is a file that is put together from all the lua fragments
throughout Mach at runtime. It is compiled and run. The combined source file is for you to view but you cannot edit it.

If you wish to edit the ScreenScript what you must do is edit the lua fragment that generated the code in the combined file, which
in this case is the screen load script accessed in the screen editor file tree.

Craig

1157

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: independent z axis.

« on: May 20, 2021, 05:11:38 AM »

Hi,
if thinking of using Mach4 then this post probably belongs on the Mach4 General discussion board, no doubt tweakie will shift it there
if needed.

Mach4 as six coordinated axes with up to four slave on each, and six out-of-band (OB) axes again with up to four slaves on each.

One of the OB axes is nominally the spindle axis, that is to say it has the regular Mcodes like M3,M4,M5 and speed code Snnn.
As such this nominal spindle axis is ideal for a free running spindle in either drilling or routing. The other OB axes can all be accessed using
jog APIs, and so while not as convenient as the 'spindle' axis, can still be used as a free running or indexing axis or spindle.

There is no need for a SwapAxis instruction, all axes can remain live, just each is called as required while the reminder are idle.

Mach4 has a low bandwidth script based THC feature which would be useful, particularly if you choose the 57CNC, as the 57CNC does not
support realtime (high bandwidth) THC. The Ethernet SmoothStepper has direct support for a TMC plasma module which provides
realtime (high bandwidth) THC with sophisticated anti-dive strategies and is preferred for Plasma ops.

Craig

1158

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Pressing Stop button during move loses position

« on: May 17, 2021, 07:10:56 AM »

Hi,

Mach4 knows where it is at all times. Even if the planner has to be interrupted, Mach4 will still know what it has sent as a request to the ESS. Mach4 and the ESS are synchronised in as much as they both agree what commands have been sent.
Once Mach4 stops sending commands, it knows what it has sent to the ESS. The ESS knows this too. The ESS may not have output all of the Steps necessary to complete that command, but it DOES know how many it has output. Therefore it can go back to Mach4 and tell it that out of 2000 pulses that were requested, it only output 1000. Simple.

Simple indeed, all you need it access to the proprietary code of two different manufacturers and you could do it. Or you could try the solution you have
alluded to, Kflop and Kanalog, perhaps you could post what you find, and good luck with it.

Craig

1159

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Pressing Stop button during move loses position

« on: May 17, 2021, 05:26:53 AM »

Hi,

Answering as if on behalf of Mach4 is misleading, and you should refrain from doing so if you're not intimately involved in the management of the code.

Have I ever claimed so?

There's no realtime control needed to keep the ESS in step. All you need is for Mach4 to know what it's told the ESS to do, and the ESS needs to tell Mach4 how much of that has been done. They can both agree when the motion has stopped, and the ESS can tell Mach4 where it is. That's VERY simple to do, and Mach4 only has to make note of that for when it restarts.

If it were simple why do you suppose it has not been done? You certainly seem to think its simple...so how would you go about it?

Craig

1160

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Pressing Stop button during move loses position

« on: May 17, 2021, 04:50:45 AM »

Hi,

Thirdly, it only stops that in the way you describe because that's the way you've designed it.

I designed it?
I have nothing to do with the design or development of either Mach or the ESS.

I have taken the effort to understand why Windows CNC software is necessarily buffered and the consequences of that buffering.

I'm sure it's easy enough to keep Mach4 in step with the steps output if you were interested in doing that

Well...no as it turns out, that would require that Mach would deliver movement instructions that are enacted immediately, and Windows
is not realtime so there would be gaps in the stream of instructions which would stop the machine.
LinuxCNC is a realtime sytem, or rather has Realtime Extensions, which amount to the same thing in practical terms, and thus motion
cnotrollers in LinuxCNC do not need to be buffered, perhaps you could do some research on that possibility.

Personally, calling it a 'crash stop' is misleading, because it infers a loss of control.

<Stop> and <Estop> button effectively do the same thing, they stop the machine dead still without any attempt at deceleration and often
result in loss of reference, rather than loss of control. To my knowledge <Stop> and <Estop> have behaved identically in Mach3 and Mach4
since Mach3 was invented way back when.

Whatever my expectations were, or even still have, must be tempered against the reality of what is and what is possible with Windows.
I can of course buy a genuine realtime controller like a Fanuc21i or a Siemen840D, but I don't have $20,000 to spare, I just have to make do with
what I can afford.

Craig