Machsupport Forum
Mach Discussion => Mach4 General Discussion => Topic started by: lumber60 on June 07, 2018, 09:25:59 AM
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I am a retired cabinet maker and trying some ideas for retirement and this looks and sounds like fun.
Mach 4 demo, how do i set up motors to run, connect, etc setup ion general.
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Hi,
you can download Mach4 and if you use the Sim(ulator) plugin and run for as long as you like all for free.
The Sim plugin will not drive any motors. If you actually want to experiment on a live machine you will have to install a motion control plugin and
select that plugin as the active motion control device. There is a parallel port plugin for $25. It works but it will never be fully featured, lathe threading, THC
and that sort of thing. It was meant for people to have a cheap way into Mach4, if your serious you will need an external motion controller.
There are half a dozen manufacturers of external motion control devices which are Mach4 ready, ranging from about $120 to $650 or even more if you want a
Gallil controller. At this time there is only one Chinese manufacturer of Mach4 capable controllers and it doesn't work very well at all. If you see someone advertising
cheap Mach4 controllers be very suspicious.
With ANY active motion control plugin (other than Sim) Mach4 runs in Demo mode, that is to say it runs exactly as a licenced version for about six minutes before you need to restart
the program.
Thus to experiment with Mach4 you will need to spend some dollars, $25 as a min for the Darwin Parallel port plugin for which you require a PC with 32 bit OS Windows 7 or earlier.
Other than that you are up for say a UC100 or ESS as a min. The UC100 is $120. Don't be tempted by the cheap UC100s you see on Amazon or EBay, they are Chinese ripoffs.
Buy direct from the manufacturer or their nominated distributor. With an external motion controller you can use just about any PC you want to run Mach4, it will run on even
very small and low powered PCs for instance.
Craig
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Thanks for the quick response.
I have a uc100 from Automation technology but can't get mach4 to recognise it. worked well on mach 3 demo. Now i am trying out the mach 4 to see which one would be best for me to use, "diligent home work on my part, any suggestions how to get mack4 to find the uc100 ?
Lumber60
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Hi,
go to the CNCDrive website and download and install the UC100 Mach4 plugin.
With it installed fire up Mach, go to Configure/Control (also called Mach in earlier builds)/Plugins and enable the UC100 plugin. Restart Mach and now Configure/Control/Select Motion Dev... and select
the UC100 device. Restart Mach and it will now be using the UC100plugin. You will need to set it up per manufacturers recommendations, I use an ESS so my experience wont help you much.
Craig
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I will give it a go and see what happens.
Ken
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We'll, my conclusion i think will be to stay with mach3. Reason being that mach 4 license term and the additional cost doesn't justify it for me, too many restrictions. My mach 3 machine works just fine.
Thanks for your help in making my decision. Mach 4 is"ok" but not worth it to me.
Ken
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Hi,
mach 4 license term and the additional cost doesn't justify it for me, too many restrictions
Restrictions? I know you are restricted to five active machines per licence...is that what you mean? Is five not enough?
Remember also that when Mach3 eventually craps out you will be up for the full cost of Mach4 if you wish to continue with Mach at all.
http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,37291.0.html (http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,37291.0.html)
Craig
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i am under the impression with 4 that only one machine can be used with the license. Hence 2 machines 2 licenses, etc.
What i see as my need to be able to create and test run on my laptop and then when i get back to my machine i am run ready.
4 seems to be a little more user friendly than 3., although limited to run time for me to test anything in Demo mode.
Even with the uc100 installed i do not get to try all the demo adons or test tool paths without timing out. The impression i have from the artsoft 4 description of product i should be able to run the add on features as well as the standard features in demo with controller installed.
What am i missing???
Ken
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yes i did use the simulator adon as you first suggested with the same results
3 was a breeze to demo
Ken
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i am under the impression with 4 that only one machine can be used with the license. Hence 2 machines 2 licenses, etc.
What i see as my need to be able to create and test run on my laptop and then when i get back to my machine i am run ready.
4 seems to be a little more user friendly than 3., although limited to run time for me to test anything in Demo mode.
Even with the uc100 installed i do not get to try all the demo adons or test tool paths without timing out. The impression i have from the artsoft 4 description of product i should be able to run the add on features as well as the standard features in demo with controller installed.
What am i missing???
Ken
you can have more than one machine per purchase you can generate up to 5 lic. with different PID
I use one of mine for the WS mill and another for the test setup in the house so I can customise the screen set
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Hi Ken,
if you are an industrial user then yes you need one licence per machine, and Mach4Industrial is $1400.
Mach4Hobby for $200 allows you to have five PCs activated on one licence. Like Stuart my laptop inside is licenced as is my mill PC in the garage.
Given that mostly my laptop is just for development and experimentation it would be adequate that it run the Sim plugin in which case it doesn't
need to be licenced either. There are a few occasions where I will use my laptop to run my machine, all I have to do is plugin the ESS and my pendant
and for this reason my laptop copy of Mach4 is licenced.
Should I buy another PC I can release the licence on the old one and activate the new one. NFS allow up to seven such licence transactions in a two year period.
The licence conditions are somewhat stricter than Mach3, remember that Mach3 is plagued with pirate copies which is a loss to NFS. The PCID method of licencing
is the more modern method of licence allocation and will in some way limit the proliferation of pirate copies.
When in Demo mode Mach4 runs normally for six minutes before it needs to be restarted. Mach3 will run 500 lines of code before stopping. Little to pick and
choose between them, they both work adequately for testing purposes, if you want better from either, buy a licence. At $200 and $175 respectively that makes
it one of the cheapest software purchases you will find unless you go for LinuxCNC.
Craig
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Thanks for the info, i have been doing my diligence research and have come to the same conclusion. Now all i need is step by step on how to set up mach 4 demo with motion controller uc100 connected. pins, and ports motors, drivers etc. I just can't figure it out. mach 3 went ok for me after alot of trial and error and research however, the terminology in mac4 is a little different, can't figure it out. Any help with this matter would be appreciated.
I am a beginner and starting to get more frustrated.
Ken
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Hi,
download the UC100 Mach4 plugin from the CNCDrive website. Put the plugin and its .sig file in the Mach4 Plugins folder.
Enable the plugin in Configure/Control/Plugins and restart Mach. Select the plugin as active motion controller in Configure/Control/Select Motion Device.
You can now populate the plugin with your pin assignments. I use an ESS so I can't help you much there.
Craig