Machsupport Forum

Mach Discussion => Mach4 General Discussion => Topic started by: robertspark on June 06, 2018, 12:12:19 PM

Title: Mach4 Lathe / Turn Screwcutting Encoder Input / single pulse per rev trigger?
Post by: robertspark on June 06, 2018, 12:12:19 PM
As per the title, with regards to Mach4 and Lathe / Turning Applications.

For screwcutting / thread cutting applications does it use an encoder input for the spindle sync or a single pulse per revolution trigger?

Is it motion controller dependent?

(I have a UC300eth, UC400 and ESS)

Lathe programming guide is a bit old and not sure if things have been updated somewhere:
http://www.machsupport.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Mach4%20Lathe%20GCode%20Manual.pdf
http://www.machsupport.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Mach4%20CNC%20Controller%20config.pdf
Title: Re: Mach4 Lathe / Turn Screwcutting Encoder Input / single pulse per rev trigger?
Post by: Steve Stallings on June 06, 2018, 12:56:59 PM
Lathe threading is supported in Mach4, but depends on the motion controller.

Single pulse, tachometer, and full encoder are possible, depending on the
capabilities of your controller. PMDX supports all modes with our SmartBOB
series, with the exception that the PMDX-411 only supports single pulse.

ESS support for lathe threading is in development, but still pending.

I think the UCC products support threading in Mach3, but I am not sure
about Mach4 and their web site does not seem to provide an answer.
Title: Re: Mach4 Lathe / Turn Screwcutting Encoder Input / single pulse per rev trigger?
Post by: robertspark on June 06, 2018, 01:06:51 PM
Thanks for taking the time to reply Steve much appreciated.
PMDX always seems to be at the forefront of motion controller function integration for mach3/4.
Title: Re: Mach4 Lathe / Turn Screwcutting Encoder Input / single pulse per rev trigger?
Post by: Steve Stallings on June 06, 2018, 01:11:32 PM
I wish. While we have the lathe stuff all set, we have plenty of other
things to master.
Title: Re: Mach4 Lathe / Turn Screwcutting Encoder Input / single pulse per rev trigger?
Post by: thosj on June 06, 2018, 10:09:13 PM
Let me just say this, the stuff PMDX has mastered, they have mastered well!

So now, get on with a ClearPath to PMDX-126 adapter board:)
Title: Re: Mach4 Lathe / Turn Screwcutting Encoder Input / single pulse per rev trigger?
Post by: robertspark on June 07, 2018, 10:31:56 AM
ESS support for lathe threading is in development!

...ESS is always in development....  problem is progress is so slow you could have teenagers by the time something is implemented .....

The thing I learnt with cnc is you buy the product as it is forget the expectation or carrot of development changes you have no control over those / what is developed and how long they take

(note I've had both a USB-SS (since ~2008, now sold) and an ESS for a few years now (4 I think, sat on shelf))   I keep having a dabble with other controllers / solutions (I've got a MESA 7i76E I keep meaning to have a play with .... but my knowledge of linux has been slow + gaining momentum of late with the command line interface and playing with Raspberry Pi's + other SBC's  (I've got a dual boot setup with it all configured, just not wired up the IO card to hardware).

Keep wanting to check up on developments with and use my Mach4 licence and see what I can do with it with what I have to hand.
Title: Re: Mach4 Lathe / Turn Screwcutting Encoder Input / single pulse per rev trigger?
Post by: robertspark on June 07, 2018, 10:56:30 AM
With regards to the UC300eth + UC400 motion controllers from CNCdrive, their response on a similar question I posted on their forum was as follows:

Quote
With Mach3 the syncronous thread cutting is working, but there are a few bugs in Mach3 about the thread cutting which can cause issues with some type of thread cutting codes. (I can't remember at the moment which are the cases.)
With Mach4 the UC controllers can't cut threads. We have tried to implement thread cutting some time ago, but found out that it did not work at all on the Mach4 side, so we gave up on it.
Later it was reported to be fixed, but we could not find the time yet to make another try.
/quote]