Machsupport Forum
Mach Discussion => Mach4 General Discussion => Topic started by: DazTheGas on October 30, 2015, 09:21:07 AM
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Well I had to make a decision on a few things today and unfortunately I have attached the plugin today as promised, however I have removed all function to axis movement etc until I can test latest version on a live machine instead of the sim, but until I get a new ESS plugin thats not going to happen.
(Although I can say ive been joggin around happily in V2686) but thats no use to you as its been compiled with the latest SDk
So why have I posted it then?? Simple
Just need some feedback as to wether it is loading on other machines,
with the plugin loaded and mach4 started the history should show if it is active or not, this only shows on startup so if your controller is not turned on before you start mach4 it will show as inactive.
I have left a machine enable/disable on the X button and an Estop on the B button.
As this plugin is using Xinput you will need the latest directX on your machine.
As soon as I get machine running I will unlock all the functions.
Thumbsticks and Triggers are proportional.
All buttons can be configured with your own functions within mach4 lua or use internal function.
Any constructive feedback is welcomed.
DazTheGas
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As this plugin is using Xinput you will need the latest directX on your machine.
Does this mean that it won't work on XP machines? Seems like a lot of Mach4 users are trying to keep using XP.
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Thanks again for posting the xbox360 plugin. I plan on buying a controller today, but noticed there are a couple of options for this controller - standard wired console controller and wired pc controller. Does the standard wired xbox controller work with your plugin or should I get the pc version of the xbox 360 controller? Thanks for your time.
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As this plugin is using Xinput you will need the latest directX on your machine.
Does this mean that it won't work on XP machines? Seems like a lot of Mach4 users are trying to keep using XP.
+1 XP... Stand alone PC, one purpose in life stable, drivers all work, what's not to like about XP? ....directx never crossed my mind as being useful to cnc
Rob
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what's not to like about XP?
It's obsolete and shouldn't be supported with modern software, because if you get a situation like this where the latest DirectX is required, there's a good chance it won't work on XP. Artsoft is jumping through hoops and probably wasting a ton of time and money trying to support 10 year old PC's.
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I am away again till tomorrow night so was a bit of a rush just to put the barebones up, the xinput library used is supposed to cater for all flavours of windows.
I have an old xp machine that I will test over Sunday and sort out exactly what directs is needed, already got message of not working.
The xinput used is 9.1.0
DazTheGas
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I'm back at my machine sat or Sunday night and will give it a go regardless.
Sorry Gerry, you're in a small group on that one... Progress is progress, but buying something new without nessesity is pointless... For what Mach does I'm sorry I don't see the need... Some would just stick with m3 (oh that's what most seem to be doing... If it ain't broke don't fix it!)
Let's face it in a production environment you need to demonstrate how your new fangled whatever is going to improve the end product or cut down costs, if it's not doing either but increasing potential operating costs (new hardware, software, training and setup downtime and potential early user error downtime related issues) and your product is the same... Your business model needs looking at in a worldwide recession.
Artsoft and I guess us "early" users of m4 need to de showing what it can bring to the table easily... It should be given more prominent space on the forum... And even their own website for dedicated m4 plugins and lua script wiki etc (a muppets guide for people just like me!)
Daz is doing an amazing job, today most learn from YouTube, but artsoft should be doing their own pushing too
Rob
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I would bet that at least 90% of new Mach3 users in the last 3-4 years are using an OS newer than XP.
Brian has said that their development platform no longer supports XP.
Microsoft no longer supports XP, so why would anyone writing new software try to support XP. It makes no sense at all.
If common sense is in the minority, so be it.
And yes, Daz has done a tremendous amount for Mach4.
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The tough book I use at work is got an Xp coa on bottom however I installed win7 tablet on it and runs a lot better.??
My main computer is a dell optilex from eBay £90 with the software win7 pro so I can't see why hobbiests don't want to move on, I think software can be developed a lot easier if safety nets for older machines don't have to be implemented.
Just my view.
DazTheGas
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Point taken, I guess because I have a happy m3 hobby system on an XP system and am dabbling with m4 hence why I put it on there, have an x360 controller (and shuttlexpress... Not m4 supportef) but wondering if pendants are more trouble than they are worth with m4 and if I would be better getting a hanwheel encoder and using an arduino micro to do keyboard emulation...
Thought the point of external motion controllers was to unload some of the load though... So newer faster probably not a vaild reason.
Then again Linux does not seem to suffer from some of the windows overhead seems to suffer from to keep chasing the gaming / graphics driven market (never been able to get my head round it in 20 years now... And my ESS won't work on it)
Funny thing thinking about mach4 (as l read somewhere artsoft had been at it 5 years now), its probably akin to what autodesk did with inventor and it was I believe a money sinker for them in development time and cost when they had other cash cows, hence I believe after that they bought every bit of software they wanted and did not start from the ground up)
Marketing for m4 needs to be more centrestage, following through to the forums too. Believe art / Brian did some YouTube stuff on brains and other m3 code bits but that side is not being plugged by newfangled so much now.
Rob
Typing with a phone is not good...sorry
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Thought the point of external motion controllers was to unload some of the load though... So newer faster probably not a vaild reason.
Yes, it unloads some of the load. However, many of these people wanting to use XP are still wanting to use the parallel port, so the motion controller argument doesn't work there.
Also, consider that virtually all modern software uses a lot more resources than software written 10+ years ago.
Microsoft Office 2007 will run pretty well on a 1Ghz XP machine, but try running the current version of office on it.
Mach3 was written about 12 years ago, and Mach4, even with a motion controller, runs best with a lot more horsepower behind it. Unfortunately, there's no way around that.
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gerry you are correct. if a sources for win 7 computers can be found where they are dirt cheap everyone will jump, I would will next week if I cant get my last XP computer working on pp
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The i5 dell I have has a pp, was orig going to use Darwin but needed 64 bit win to run some other stuff so that put darwin out.
I would try eBay, there's loads of ex corp machines going cheep,
Wow I'm now using 2 fingers on iPad to type.
God I'm bored.
Me
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daz I just dumped you plugin into the plugin folder it dont work. it comes up with
Failed to load shared Library mcX360.m4pw (error 0: the operation completed successfully).
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Yep I know now, it because you haven't got the xinput lib that's required. I will address this when back home.
DazTheGas
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Oh stupid me!!!!!
Ive gone and posted the friggin debug version not release!!!!
I will have a quick test on XP tomorow to tired now after going over and over the code... DER
DazTheGas