Machsupport Forum
Mach Discussion => Mach Screens => Works in progress => Topic started by: HimyKabibble on February 27, 2009, 10:58:18 AM
-
I'm making myself an all-in-one milling screenset, containing *all* the functionality I ever use in one screen. The first very crude first "Mach-Up" of my screen is below. Keep in mind, this is a quick mock-up, to get a feel for the functionality, and see how things fit, using existing graphics. The real graphics will be completely different (and hopefully more pleasing...). Where you see a colored ring around a button, that ring is an LED that lights up behind the button when the corresponding function is active, much like the yellow blinking ring around the Spindle CW button on the standard screen set. The over-ride controls are sliders only right now. That seems good enough to me. The graphic in the lower left works like the one on the offsets screen, and invokes macros that, for me, will perform all the edge-finding and tool-touch-off functions through macros.
The functions included are:
Axis Information:
X/Y/Z DROs w/Red/Green Ref'd LEDs
X/Y/Z Zero
RefAll Home
X/Y/Z GoTo Zero
X/Y GoTo Zero
User/Machine Coordinate Select w/LED
Program Control:
Open G-Code
Close G-Code
Edit G-Code
Set Next Line
Stop
FeedHold
CycleStart
Rewind
Single Block
4 TBDs
Elapsed Time
Touch-Off Controls: (all handled through macros, via graphic buttons)
Edge-Find X+
Edge-Find X-
Edge-Find Y+
Edge-Find Y-
Tool Touch-Off
Spindle/Coolant Controls:
Spindle command (S-Word) DRO
Spindle Speed Over-ride DRO
Actual Spindle Speed DRO
Spindle OVR slider w/OVR LED
Spindle CW On/Off
Spindle CCW On/Off
Flood On/Off
Mist On/Off
Feedrate Controls:
Feedrate command (F-word) DRO
Feedrate OVR DRO
Actual Feedrate DRO
Feedrate OVR slider w/OVR LED
Feedrate OVR Reset
Toolchange Controls:
Tool Number DRO
Big-A$$ Blinking Toolchange LED
Set Toolchange Position
GoTo Toolchange Position
Other:
Reset
MDI (lower left of screen)
Status (lower right of screen)
Modes (not in there yet)
Config? (not in there yet)
So, what have I missed? Any comments on the functionality, layout, sizing, etc?
Regards,
Ray L.
-
Here's another version, re-arranged some, with a 4th axis.
Regards,
Ray L.
-
Oh, forgot to mention: clicking the center of the circle on the touch-off graphic does auto-center finding on holes and paockets.
Regards,
Ray L.
-
This is sooooooo buggy!!! I created two buttons, assigned to OEM codes 113 and 114. I created two LEDs, assigned to OEM codes 12 and 13. Clicking EITHER button turns on BOTH LEDs!! What is going on here??
Regards,
Ray L.
-
Double check the codes, and check how your output pins are assigned. My "buttons" are the LEDS, with transparent buttons on top of them. They both work fine for me.
If you copy and paste buttons, you have to be careful. When making changes in the button dialog, I've noticed that if you change too many things at once, that all the changes don't take place. So I make my location changes and click OK, then go back and make the OEM Code changes.
It's possible that the OEM codes stayed the same when you thought you changed them.
-
Double check the codes, and check how your output pins are assigned. My "buttons" are the LEDS, with transparent buttons on top of them. They both work fine for me.
If you copy and paste buttons, you have to be careful. When making changes in the button dialog, I've noticed that if you change too many things at once, that all the changes don't take place. So I make my location changes and click OK, then go back and make the OEM Code changes.
It's possible that the OEM codes stayed the same when you thought you changed them.
Gerry,
I have absolutely seen the problem of changes not "taking", more than once. But, in this case, the correct codes are absolutely there, but it still behaves irrationally. It's incredible - I setup a button or LED identically to the way it's setup in 1024.set, and it behaves differently! And it's baffling the odd assortment of buttons/LEDs etc. available. When there are similar functions, there are not necessarily similar buttons or LEDs available. And it seems in many case when there are, one of them simply doesn't work. I found this writing macros as well - There are two LEDs that, supposedly, indicated G90 or G91 in effect. But, in reality, only one of them actually works - the other is ALWAYS zero. There just seems to be an awful lot of stuff that simply doesn't work, and that makes the job very frustrating.
Regards,
Ray L.
-
Good Grief! This is the most bug-ridden, indeterminate application I've ever used! It keeps disappearing my button scripts! I write them, exit Mach, re-start Mach, and they're there. I exit again, re-start, and they're gone! What the hell is going on?? *WHEN* do the scripts actually get saved? It appears to be a totally random event at this point.
Regards,
Ray L.
-
There are two LEDs that, supposedly, indicated G90 or G91 in effect. But, in reality, only one of them actually works - the other is ALWAYS zero.
Are you using 48 and 49? They work fine for me.
I must be pretty lucky, or your unlucky, because I haven't seen too many problems at all. :)
If you 'd like, I'll check it out and see if I can see what's wrong for ya.
-
I just use Operator>Edit button script, and do a File>Save in the script editor.
I think doing a View>Save Current Layout will save the whole screenset.
-
There are two LEDs that, supposedly, indicated G90 or G91 in effect. But, in reality, only one of them actually works - the other is ALWAYS zero.
Are you using 48 and 49? They work fine for me.
I must be pretty lucky, or your unlucky, because I haven't seen too many problems at all. :)
If you 'd like, I'll check it out and see if I can see what's wrong for ya.
The problem is, there are non-obvious dependencies. Earlier, I was trying to get the Flood/Mist buttons and LEDs to work. No matter what I did, clicking either button would turn on BOTH LEDs, even though everything was setup correctly. The problem turned out to be that I didn't the pins properly assigned! I assigned the pins, and suddenly the buttons and LED now work.
I still have no idea what's going on with the scripts. I edit them, get them working, and then sometime later they simply disappear. It's very frustrating. The whole process seems REALLY fiddly and error prone. Scream crashes at least 10 times a day as well.
Regards,
Ray L.
-
Not what you want to hear, but I've used it for probably 50-70 hours in the last year and have never had it crash. good luck
-
Not what you want to hear, but I've used it for probably 50-70 hours in the last year and have never had it crash. good luck
There is some interaction between Mach3 and Scream4 that I am just not getting. I closed Scream4, started Mach, loaded my screenset, and put the spindle control scripts into their buttons for about the 10th time. Worked find. I could exit, and re-start Mach, and the buttons were fine. I then closed Mach, and re-started Scream, and added a new button, without changing any of the old ones. I re-start Mach, and my scripts are gone. And, the new button is not there, until I explicitly load the new screenset. It appears Mach keeps a copy of the screenset internally somehow?
I just don't get:
When/where/by whom are the scripts saved?
When/where/by whom is the .set file actually read?
When/where/by whom does the .set file get written?
I must be missing something, or doing something wrong, because the behavior seems totally random. I neve know what's going to change, or when. Actually creating the screens is easy, but getting them to actually work is another matter entirely....
Regards,
Ray L.
-
Somethings not right there.
Where is your .set file? In the Mach3 folder?
Where are your bitmaps? In Mach3\bitmaps\screenset\ ?
Where is Screen4.exe? In the Mach3 folder?
I've never seen any of your problems.
I've even ran Screen4 and Mach3 at the same time. Screen4 will now when you edit scripts in Mach3 and prompt you to reload the screen with the updated scripts.
The way I see it, the scripts are saved by Mach3 when you save in the script editor window. They are part of the .set file.
The .set file is read when you start Mach3, and when you use View>Load Screen.
the .set file should be in the main Mach3 folder.
-
Gerry,
You've just solved one problem for me! I did not have the .set file in the MAch3 directory - didn't know you HAD to! You can open a .set file located anywhere, but if you modify it in Mach3, by, for instance, editing a button script, it will silently write a NEW one to the Mach3 directory, and THAT is the one it'll load next time you start up. Needless to say, that's really bad practice to do something like that with no notice to the user. So, I'll move mine to the MAch3 directory, and I expect that will solve several of my problems.
Thanks! That one was driving me nuts!
Regards,
Ray L.
-
Gerry,
That one tip saved me a HUGE amount of grief! Once I moved the .set file into the Mach3 directory, things started behaving MUCH better, and I now have most of my new screen up and running in just a few hours. Thanks again!
I've also figured out how to make a kinda cool new combo button/LED that I'll be making extensive use of. I just wish I was more adept at the graphics editing part - It's something I've always sucked at....
Regards,
Ray L.
-
I've also figured out how to make a kinda cool new combo button/LED that I'll be making extensive use of.
Glad you're getting along better now Ray, I was feeling your pain but was helpless.
Anxious to see how you did the button.
I put a button in an LED but it is behind it. It works, but you can't see the button till you put the cursor over it.
Thanks,
RC
-
I've also figured out how to make a kinda cool new combo button/LED that I'll be making extensive use of.
Glad you're getting along better now Ray, I was feeling your pain but was helpless.
Anxious to see how you did the button.
I put a button in an LED but it is behind it. It works, but you can't see the button till you put the cursor over it.
Thanks,
RC
I've also figured out how to make a kinda cool new combo button/LED that I'll be making extensive use of.
Glad you're getting along better now Ray, I was feeling your pain but was helpless.
Anxious to see how you did the button.
I put a button in an LED but it is behind it. It works, but you can't see the button till you put the cursor over it.
Thanks,
RC
RC,
What I did was created a two-color button graphic (similar to the LED surrounding the Spindle CW button), complete with text, then put an image button with no image on top of it. So, when the function associated with the button is active, the entire button can light up a different color, or blink. Looks nice, but I dont' have any of those in my prototype screenset yet.
Regards,
Ray L.
-
The "alpha" version of my screenset is attached for anyone brave enough to give it a try. It seems to work quite nicely. To install, copy the folder "AllInOneMillScreen" into C:\Mach3\bitmaps, then copy the file "AllInOneMill.set" from that folder up into the Mach3 directory. Open Mach, go to View->LoadScreens, and select AllInOneMill.set. To return to the standard Mach screenset, go to View->LoadScreens, and select "1024.set". Note that there is only one screen in there, not the 6 or so pages in the regular set.
What I really like about this is it's big enough that I can read everything, even from 10 feet away. It's very nice for old farts like me. :-)
Most of it should be pretty obvious. The two buttons next to the DROs do a GoToZero, either on all three axes (respecting SafeZ if enabled), or just X and Y. "Mach Coord" toggles between User and Machine coordinates. The background is RED when machine coordinates are being displayed. The DRO borders are RED if the machine has not yet been homed, or otherwise referenced.
The "SetPos" and "GoToPos" buttons next to the current tool DRO allow you to jog to your desired toolchange position, then click "SetPos" to make Mach remember it (this does not persist after exiting Mach, however). Clicking "GoToPos" will rapid back to that position, respecting SafeZ, if enabled. The dark rectangle under the tool number DRO is an LED that lights up yellow when it's waiting for you to do a tool change (do an "M6 Tx" in MDI, where "x" is the new tool number).
The Spindle and Feed DROs are, from top to bottom, the commanded value (S-word or F-word), the over-ride value (0-100% for feed, 0-200% for spindle speed, and the actual value, with the over-ride taken into account. Click or drag on the blue vertical bars to change the over-ride. On Feedrate, the Reset button returns it to 100%.
In the lwoer right corner, clicking on one of the four probe graphics, the center of the blue circle, or the tool spindle graphic executes the macros to do edge-finding, center finding, and tool length setting, using the Probe input. The dark rectangle in the lower right corner lights up yellow when the probe is grounded, so you can test the probe before running one of the macros. If you don't have a probe hooked up, you can still play with these by going into Ports&Pins->Inputs, and defining an emulated Probe input, mapping it to a keyboard key. That's how I did all the debugging on my laptop.
The MDI line is at the bottom left of the screen.
I don't have a lot of hotkeys wired in yet, but these should work:
Alt-R -> CycleStart
Alt-S -> Stop
Left/Right -> Rapid Jog X
Up/Down -> Rapid Jog Y
PageUp/PageDn -> Rapid Jog Z
F5 -> Spindle on/off
Alt-M -> Mist on/off
Alt-F -> Flood on/off
Alt-H -> Hide/Unhide menu bar
Notice a number of DROs and buttons have green borders. These are LEDs that light up when the corresponding function is active. So, for instance, the one around the Mist button blinks red when the Mist coolant is on. One quirk I haven't worked out yet is that when the spindle is turned on CCW, BOTH LEDs (CW and CCW) blink. When you turn on the spindle, clicking EITHER CW or CCW will turn it, and the coolant, off.
Regards,
Ray L.
-
I like it Ray.
Dont understand the M3 and M4 buttons either....must be in the scripts. Greek to me though.
Also, could use a regen button, sure you have it in mond.
Great work....thanks for sharing it,
RC
-
I like it Ray.
Dont understand the M3 and M4 buttons either....must be in the scripts. Greek to me though.
Also, could use a regen button, sure you have it in mond.
Great work....thanks for sharing it,
RC
RC,
Thanks. Let me know if you see anything else obviously wrong or missing, or have any suggested improvements. I think this does contain every feature I actually use, so I'm pretty happy with it. I'll be using it as my default for a while, and see how it goes.
"Dont understand the M3 and M4 buttons either" - Not sure I understand what you mean. Are you referring to the LED behavior on the CW/CCW buttons? I think I can fix that, but was too lazy on this one.
Notice there are a number of undefined buttons, and will likely be a few more when I'm done. One of those could be made a Regen button. I've never actually used it myself. I rarely even look at the toolpath - I watch the machine! :-)
Regards,
Ray L.
-
Updated screenset attached - CW/CCW LEDs fixed.
Regards,
Ray L.
-
Are you referring to the LED behavior on the CW/CCW buttons?
Yup
I rarely even look at the toolpath - I watch the machine! :-)
Cool....I can add that easily enough.
I'll run it more when I get a machine ready.
Thanks Ray,
RC
-
NOW you know why I called it SCREAM4 . Thing is with some computors it never fails or acts up.
(;-) TP