Machsupport Forum

Mach Discussion => Mach4 General Discussion => Topic started by: cncmachineplans on July 09, 2015, 08:15:09 AM

Title: Mach 4 Axis Calibration solution
Post by: cncmachineplans on July 09, 2015, 08:15:09 AM
Hi Guys
I am a long time Mach3 User but since upgrading to mach4 I noticed a little feature missing that I found quite handy and that was the Axis Calibration, Anyway I have done up My own axis calibration Found in the link below, This will help those who want to fine tune the steps on there machines.

For those who have already got there machine moving and just want to fine tune you can go straight to "Steps Optimizer" without having to fill in the rest of the information, There is a video there that explains how it works

http://www.cncmachineplans.com/steps-calculator/ (http://www.cncmachineplans.com/steps-calculator/)

Hope this help
Regards
Chris
Title: Re: Mach 4 Axis Calibration solution
Post by: Screwie Louie on July 09, 2015, 02:33:56 PM
That is really cool! Thanx!  If you care to share the formula for the steps optimizer, I'll program it into a wizard and post if for everyone to use...whatcha think? And of course, your website and contribution will be credited in the code and in the File / About menu of the window. This would be a good project for me and added value to the community in addition to your post.

--josh
Title: Re: Mach 4 Axis Calibration solution
Post by: cncmachineplans on July 09, 2015, 06:07:42 PM
Hi Screwie Louie
Sure thing, Just send me an email to sales@cncmachineplans.com and we can work it out

Cheers
Chris
Title: Re: Mach 4 Axis Calibration solution
Post by: Tweakie.CNC on July 10, 2015, 04:18:11 AM
Excellent work Chris.

Well done guys for the active teamwork - I look forward to seeing the outcome.

Tweakie.
Title: Re: Mach 4 Axis Calibration solution
Post by: Ya-Nvr-No on July 10, 2015, 05:51:19 AM
Chris this idea might work for you if you know how to edit your screen sets, lot less coding and its handy, thanks for the idea and the cool tool you made.

http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,27162.msg211532.html#msg211532
Title: Re: Mach 4 Axis Calibration solution
Post by: Chaoticone on July 10, 2015, 06:39:10 AM
I love the calculator and the video Chris. I despise the button in Mach3 though. There is no way to account for lost steps. The people that know all that is needed to take advantage of it do not need the button. The people that could benefit the most from it do not know the other half of the story (velocity and acceleration) and it often sends them on a wild goose chase. It is really hard and time consuming to explain to someone their steps per are off even though they have clicked that magic button. I am all for calculators that help with the math. Above all, anyone configuring Mach3, 4 or any other controller needs to understand the math. Many view the set steps per button a good excuse to avoid learning the math.

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."

Brett
Title: Re: Mach 4 Axis Calibration solution
Post by: dude1 on July 10, 2015, 07:05:21 AM
your bang on brett step per mean bugger all if your going to fast or the acc is to high or low

best way to do it calibrate, test over a 100 movements in what ever axis then slow down try again
Title: Re: Mach 4 Axis Calibration solution
Post by: cncmachineplans on July 11, 2015, 09:16:32 PM
Thanks everyone for there positive feedback, its nice to hear and also be able to help.

Chaoticone, I agree about the button to, people just generally want to automate the process and not have a full understanding so therefore it makes it harder to diagnose future issues,

With regards to the acceleration and velocitiy, do you have a guideline that you follow? For example should acceleration be 50% of of the velocity? etc etc or a certain % of the velocity as a guideline. I have generally just played it by ear and gone for something thats not taking off like lightning then jerking to a halt.

Thanks
Chris
Title: Re: Mach 4 Axis Calibration solution
Post by: Chaoticone on July 11, 2015, 11:30:24 PM
Thanks everyone for there positive feedback, its nice to hear and also be able to help.

Chaoticone, I agree about the button to, people just generally want to automate the process and not have a full understanding so therefore it makes it harder to diagnose future issues,

With regards to the acceleration and velocitiy, do you have a guideline that you follow? For example should acceleration be 50% of of the velocity? etc etc or a certain % of the velocity as a guideline. I have generally just played it by ear and gone for something thats not taking off like lightning then jerking to a halt.

Thanks
Chris

Yeah, it can be one of those throwing the baby out with the bathwater kind of things.

I do not usually design the machines so yeah, usually limited to working with what you have to get the best you can out of it. A high acceleration value is often given less credit than it deserves I think. The higher the acceleration the closer you can run to a true path in CV mode. Lots of times it will help more with cycle times than a higher velocity would. All depends on the machine and the job but other things are usually the limiting factor on how fast a machine can actually do the job (tool load for example). But, plasma's have no tool load and most would benefit from higher accelerations but they have to be rigid enough to pull it off. Lasers are the same but I say accel. is even more critical.

If your designing a machine the only way that I know to size the motors is to do the math using spread sheets, some of the online motion calculators, motor sizers etc. With steppers you should have 100% safety factor and the acceleration for machines is the same as cars........... the better the acceleration the better I like it. The beating and banging doesn't bother me if the machine is designed to handle it. Backlash is a no no for sure though.
Title: Re: Mach 4 Axis Calibration solution
Post by: Screwie Louie on July 13, 2015, 01:17:01 AM
Working it...shall I continue?
Title: Re: Mach 4 Axis Calibration solution
Post by: dude1 on July 13, 2015, 01:20:30 AM
yes it up to the people to use the thing between there ear`s if you wont put a note on it

     This will calibrate your machine only
Feeds and Speeds are up to you to double check
Title: Re: Mach 4 Axis Calibration solution
Post by: cncmachineplans on July 13, 2015, 01:32:37 AM
That looks pretty sweet, I cant fault it. Very good work.

i am not sure of the dark grey back ground thou as it doesnt seem to fit the whole mach4 white theme :) but thats just personal preference.

I cant see my website link anywhere haha

Chris
Title: Re: Mach 4 Axis Calibration solution
Post by: Screwie Louie on July 13, 2015, 01:41:17 AM
Intent is:

About menu has three parts...1. Instructions (as described below), 2. Calculations (how the calculations are made), 3. Coding (Contributions and acknowledgments)

Calling wizard will pull user's current motors 'CountPerUnit' from their profile's Machine.ini file and display their [motor0-3] current values.

Enter distance to travel = a. check if axes are homed --  b(?). Z axis to machine pos 0.0 -- c. execute gCode

User inputs actual distance traveled and new motor counts per unit is calculated and displayed.

Save = write profile's Machine.ini file with new motor's 'CountPerUnit' in order to update the user's config settings automatically (Easy Button = user to copy / paste new calculation and input into motor config menu)

Update = update the axis calibration window to reflect the new motor's 'CountPerUnit' as the current motor's 'CountPerUnit' so the user may repeat the process until satisfied.

Exit = DESTROY window  :)

...and yes your website is in there in the About / Coding menu item! I can make a second one for you Chris with your website in the caption or anywhere you want it so you can post it on your website specifically if you want.
...and make the background mach4 white, lol
It's taking me a bit because I'm totally dissecting all wizard, panel, wx.Widgets examples in mach4 and on this thread including learning wx.FormBuilder and how the code is generated; comparing wx.FormBuilder code to Brian's and Scott's code and really learning / understanding it. Shoot, after my morning coffee and coppehagen...I now wipe my a$$ with box / grid sizers and event handlers. hehe. No my butt is not big where it takes a grid coordinate system to wipe it.
Title: Re: Mach 4 Axis Calibration solution
Post by: cncmachineplans on July 13, 2015, 01:59:29 AM
That all looks really good, I wouldnt ask you to have another one for my website as it probably to hard go keep 2 things updated when fresh updates roll around and issues pop up.

One query i do have is, what about people with 5-6 axis machines? Would you think its worth while adding b & c?

Keep up the good work.
Title: Re: Mach 4 Axis Calibration solution
Post by: Screwie Louie on July 13, 2015, 02:05:20 AM
too easy...will do! b & c it is.
Title: Re: Mach 4 Axis Calibration solution
Post by: cncmachineplans on July 13, 2015, 02:41:11 AM
I was thinking, is there a waynto make it populate xyz etc based on how many axis you have setup? So for example if you have a 3 axis cnc router setup then it would just show xyz but if you checked a &b in your motor setup then the axis optimizer would then also populate a &b etc rather than showing all 6 axis if you dont have them all.
Title: Re: Mach 4 Axis Calibration solution
Post by: DazTheGas on July 13, 2015, 03:22:03 AM
I have a similar thing on my machine using the formula from one of my vids,
 
always continue..

after updating would be helpful to put a msgbox to inform the user to restart for settings to take affect

DazTheGas
Title: Re: Mach 4 Axis Calibration solution
Post by: Pedio on July 17, 2015, 02:11:52 PM
Could you also put in a variable slider that easily allowed the user to change the acceleration to see how their motors respond? I know nothing about this area so it may be a silly suggestion.

BTW - I have stepper motors and have the acceleration set at 25. It seems to work pretty well and the motors don't make funny noises.
Title: Re: Mach 4 Axis Calibration solution
Post by: sockles on April 05, 2017, 04:10:46 PM
This would be helpful! Has this been released yet?