Messages

1

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach3 XML Reader Bug

« on: March 09, 2020, 02:50:27 AM »

Looks very much like you have solved the mystery 

Tweakie.

Not a mystery so much as a warning to others who might be using it- the same issue was observed on multiple computers.

Turns out the list of outputs is also missing the first item, so everything there is offset by one row as well.

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Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach3 XML Reader Bug

« on: March 08, 2020, 04:16:07 PM »

Looks like the issue might be only with the list of inputs- the column on the left should start with X++, then go to X-- and X Home (as the other axes do) but X++ is missing, so everything after is offset by 1 row.

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Mach4 General Discussion / Mach3 XML Reader Bug

« on: March 08, 2020, 12:33:57 AM »

This isn't going to stop me from being able to use Mach4, but it's an interesting quirk that might have caused me some setup issues if it hadn't popped up in an incredibly obvious place...

If you notice in the two screenshots below, the XML reader is getting the pin assignments in the wrong lines.

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General Mach Discussion / Re: Switching from Mach3 to Mach4

« on: February 06, 2020, 01:21:36 AM »

Hi,
no, those features are not related to digitising.

Mach4 does have up to four probe inputs which could be used to advantage in a digitizing routine but Mach4 does not have
a digitizing Wizard that is familiar to Mach3 users. There is certainly nothing to prevent you from writing your own module to
do so, but I'm guessing you don't want to write programs.

There may be a solution for you though.

mcSurface Wizard is feature that allows Mach to autonomously probe a given XY area and record the Z axis data at each of the
sample points. Thus the file looks a bit like a 'bed of nails'. The mcSurface file is intended to be applied to the z axis thereafter
with the intent that it correct a 'wavy or otherwise uneven machine base'. You wouldn't want to use that particular function
but it does provide a 'bed of nails file', would that be adequate?

Craig

No, not really what I need. The thing that would make me buy *right now* is if it incorporated the DXF-generation capability of ProbeIt, so that it could be used for CMM / reverse-engineering stuff. I don’t really want to have to use Mach4 for machining and Mach3 for probing.

ProbeIt doesn’t do bed-of-nails- it will follow a perimeter. Lot faster and more detail-oriented than bed of nails, and DXF output makes things easy to get into CAD.

5

General Mach Discussion / Re: Switching from Mach3 to Mach4

« on: February 06, 2020, 12:34:37 AM »

mcSurface plugin, ... ,Trace module,

Please tell me these are things related to digitizing?

6

General Mach Discussion / Re: G31 command stops since moving to Ethernet SmoothStepper

« on: February 05, 2020, 11:04:04 AM »

Get the Windows 10 fixed version of .062. That solved my probing problems. You can apparently find it here (see the “do not update windows 10” thread, but I got it from Warp9. The patch wasn’t intended to resolve this issue, but it did. For me, at least.

7

General Mach Discussion / Re: Probe is triggered, but movement doesn't stop

« on: February 04, 2020, 11:41:31 PM »

Well, the problem wasn't what I thought it was, but I didn't actually get it solved for real until today.

My router (ESS + G540 + Super PID) wouldn't probe well at all. My mill (ESS + C10 + VFD) had no problem probing.

The difference? Router was running on a Windows 10 computer, and the mill was running on Windows 7.

Mill started having issues with probing the other day, after--quite coincidentally--the motherboard in my windows 7 box gave up the ghost and I swapped it for a slightly-less-old Windows 10 machine.

Light finally clicked today, and I went digging in that direction. Turns out that after the Windows 10 v1803 patch, Warp9 released a patched version of the .062 executable for Mach3 to resolve some DLL access issues that were preventing Mach3 from starting. This also seems to have had the side effect of fixing the problem with probing and G31 commands.

Anyone who comes across this when searching for a fix, go to the link below and download Warp9's version of the executable. Swap that out for the original one, and I'd be willing to bet that the problems disappear.

https://warp9td.com/index.php/sw/software-mach#MachThree

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General Mach Discussion / Re: Another Aussie Tool Setter not working with ESS SmoothStepper

« on: February 04, 2020, 11:33:45 PM »

I know this is a necro post, but it's probably worth it.

You guys are using Windows 10, I'll bet?

I had all sorts of weird issues with probing with Windows 10 and the ESS. Late 2018, Warp9 released a patched version of the Mach3 .EXE file for version .062. IT was intended to resolve some issues with the Windows 10 v1803 patch, but it also seems to have fixed my probing issues. You guys might consider giving it a shot.

Here's the link: https://warp9td.com/index.php/sw/software-mach#MachThree

(Yes, I'm going to post this in a couple of necro threads, because those are what comes up when googling about G31 / probing issues with ESS and Mach3.)

9

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 aggressive motor movement stalling the motor

« on: June 11, 2019, 12:32:17 AM »

Hi,

Thinking maybe I ought to try the Mach 4 demo, just to see if that fixes it.

Nice thought but.......no it wont fix it. The problem you have described is not a Mach (3 or 4) fault but a fault with your
X axis, be it a stepper or driver or binding axis or whatever.

Craig

I'm not going to admit that you were right, even though you were. I'm just going to say that wire nuts are the devil, but you prompted me to go back and re-check everything yet one more time. I'm back to 100+ ipm rapids again. :p

10

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 aggressive motor movement stalling the motor

« on: June 10, 2019, 02:03:18 PM »

Nice thought but.......no it wont fix it. The problem you have described is not a Mach (3 or 4) fault but a fault with your
X axis, be it a stepper or driver or binding axis or whatever.

Craig

It's (a) definitely not binding, as I can power down the machine and push the table in X with no problem. It's (b) definitely not an issue of power (2830 oz-in NEMA 42 w/ Keling 11080 driver). It's (c) not the motor, as the same problem happened with the original factory motors before I got the new ones. It's (d) unlikely to be a problem with the driver, as the fault indication isn't lit up, but it can't be ruled out. I think I have enough wire length to swap A and X drivers without having to unbolt anything, so that would be a next step, perhaps.