Messages

151

Third party software and hardware support forums. / Re: Xhc HB04 MPG Pendent with Mach4

« on: May 17, 2018, 06:14:32 AM »

I've installed the driver with my wireless pendant version and most of the defined buttons do what they're supposed to do. However, the jogging doesn't appear to use the values that are set in the config for the increments. That wouldn't be such a problem except that I'm working in metric and the increments sometimes come out in metric, and at other times in imperial. It's not really usable as it is unfortunately.

Is there any way you can make this work in Metric and also use the values set in the config? If not, I'll have to buy a different MPG as I have no idea what it's going to do when I turn the handle.

152

Mach4 General Discussion / y

« on: May 04, 2018, 03:32:24 PM »

y

153

General Mach Discussion / Re: M3 S500 doesn't start spindle, subsequent S changes do..... why?

« on: January 24, 2015, 08:18:20 AM »

Ok try this and see.
Go to Ports and Pins and the Spindle Setup. Enable the relays. Then go to OutPuts and Enable Output 1.  You should be able to leave it at port and pin 0 but possibly the ESS will complain. If it does just set it to any port/pin you are not using.
Hopefully that will help.
Hood

Bingo!!! You clever man, that's done the trick. I'm sure the setup information tells you to disable the relays but who cares, it works properly now.
Many thanks, that's helped me so much.
Cheers,
Roger

154

General Mach Discussion / Re: M3 S500 doesn't start spindle, subsequent S changes do..... why?

« on: January 23, 2015, 04:58:26 AM »

Try changing your code to S500 M03.

This doesn't work. If I do this...
M03 S500
S600

that works. It's the change in spindle speed after it's turned on that starts the PWM. If that second line is S500, it doesn't start

155

General Mach Discussion / Re: M3 S500 doesn't start spindle, subsequent S changes do..... why?

« on: January 23, 2015, 04:55:55 AM »

Ok, here are the files for the setup with the macros, a test program and explanation of the issue. Hopefully this will reproduce the problem. It's the PWM not turning on that's the problem, the relays only respond to that.
Thanks for looking at this for me, it's much appreciated.

156

General Mach Discussion / Re: M3 S500 doesn't start spindle, subsequent S changes do..... why?

« on: January 23, 2015, 03:00:52 AM »

The spindle button will only start the spindle, it will not set the speed.
For example if you do not have any previous value in the RPM DRO then pressing the Spindle button would result in no RPM. If you had a value there then it should start rotating.

Hood

This is true, but it ought to start the PWM if the spindle speed is already set. If the spindle is running and I stop it with the Spindle button, I think it's reasonable to expect the spindle to restart when I press the Spindle button again. That doesn't happen. There appears to be something in the code that only starts the PWM when there's a change in frequency.

157

General Mach Discussion / Re: M3 S500 doesn't start spindle, subsequent S changes do..... why?

« on: January 22, 2015, 05:24:31 PM »

Thanks for your reply, I'll sort that out in the morning. At the moment, the only way I can make it work is to cut and paste the contents of the spindlespeed.m1s macro onto the end of the m3.m1s macro. That forces it to start the PWM when it sees a line like M03S500. It still doesn't work when I click the spindle button though unless I go to the DRO and type S500. I imagined that the m3 macro would be called by the spindle button, but that's clearly not how it works.

158

General Mach Discussion / M3 S500 doesn't start spindle, subsequent S changes do..... why?

« on: January 22, 2015, 10:42:31 AM »

I'm using a C32R5 board with an ESS to control a Wabeco lathe. The spindle is enabled by relay 1 and the speed is controlled by the 0-10v output generated by the PWM

I understand that this version of the board doesn't directly control the relay outputs, that's done by the presence of the PWM signal.

This is my simple test program...
M3 S500
G00 X8 Z9
G01 X8 Z9 F100

The program runs, the spindle speed shows as S500 in the DRO and the dwell light comes on for the 4 seconds I've programmed. At the end of the program, the spindle is shown as turned off and again the dwell comes on as expected. The spindle doesn't come on though!

The Spindle outputs for Step and Dir are set to 1.14 and 1.16, either way round gets the same result.

If I change the program to this...

M3 S500 (nothing happens)
S501 (the spindle starts)
G00 X8 Z9
G01 X8 Z9 F100

The problem seems to be that the PWM doesn't know when to turn on. If I try to turn on the spindle manually, a similar thing happens.

1) Click then Spindle button (nothing happens)
2) Type S500 in the DRO (nothing happens)
3) Click the spindle up arrow or type S501 say (the spindle starts)
4) Click the Spindle button (spindle stops)
5) Clich the Spindle button again (nothing happens)

So the key questions is.... What actually decides when the PWM signal starts? Clearly the enable M3 or spindle button doesn't do that. It only seems to output a PWM signal once it's been enabled and the speed is subsequently changed.

This sounds like a bug rather than a setup issue to me but I may be wrong.

Does anyone have any ideas on this? Maybe this is something you've experienced too?

Any help would be much appreciated.

159

General Mach Discussion / Re: Issues with pausing and resuming

« on: October 21, 2014, 09:49:35 AM »

An Arduino and grbl is not in the same league as Mach3 and the others I mentioned. Not even close.

Gerry you are a 100% rught, but
striplar was only asking: "All I need is for it to execute G1 F# S# and M03, that's all I use"

that was the trigger for grbl and Arduino.

Thomas

Quite so Thomas, I never use any of the canned cycles, it's all done on the CAD/CAM system that runs on the same computer as Mach3.

160

General Mach Discussion / Re: Issues with pausing and resuming

« on: October 21, 2014, 08:19:17 AM »

An Arduino and grbl is not in the same league as Mach3 and the others I mentioned. Not even close.

As for Mach4, afaik, there are no motion controller plugins available, except for the parallel port plugin. There are a few using the parallel port plugin, but I can't tell you if they're using Mach4 exclusively yet.

Thanks for that.