Messages

1

Video P*r*o*b*i*n*g / Re: Image overlay for USB camera

« on: March 20, 2023, 02:48:51 PM »

How did you get the crosshair overlay on top of the video? I tried using a png in the image part of the camera settings, but could not get it centered. The size of the camera window you specify does not seem to sync up with the size of the image in any way that I could understand.

2

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: mach4 video screen element

« on: May 08, 2022, 03:45:00 PM »

Thanks, Mach4 has a lot of things to discover

3

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: mach4 video screen element

« on: May 08, 2022, 12:20:49 PM »

Thanks that was a little tricky but it worked.
For anyone else who needs this, here is what I did. I looked at the size in pixels of my video window in the Mach4 screen and created a grayscale image of a centered black cross with a transparent background in photoshop. Saved it as a png (attached). Changed the extension on my screen set file extension to .zip and then added the cross hair image to the images file in the new zip folder. Changed the extension back to .set. I could then go into the screen editor and add this image to the video screen element.  Since the cross may not be exactly centered, I recalibrated my offsets to the tool center as a final step. The cross overlay was smaller then the video image so controlling the number of pixels may not be that important.
I am sure there are other ways to do this, but this worked for me. It takes about 20 incremental .01" jogs for my microscope camera to traverse a drywall screw head, and the cross makes it easy to see the center and maintain consistent offsets, so I am happy with the results.

4

Mach4 General Discussion / Screen element overlay control

« on: May 07, 2022, 08:35:05 PM »

Is there any way to control which element in a screen is on top when they overlay each other? As an example can I put a button on top of a video or image element? If the button is on top it is visible. if it is on the bottom it is hidden. I would like to be able to control this.

Thanks
Jonas

5

Mach4 General Discussion / mach4 video screen element

« on: May 07, 2022, 08:27:48 PM »

Is there a way to get cross hairs on the video screen element. I would like to use a video window with my USB microscope for optical xy zeroing.

6

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Easy G M Code lookup

« on: April 07, 2020, 08:25:29 PM »

When browsing or editing GCode, I usually encounter a code I am not familiar with. This requires multiple steps to find the definition. I am currently starting to explore 3DPrinting as well as CNC and this opens up a whole new set of G and M codes. To make it easier to figure out what is going on I decided I wanted a dictionary like function which would allow me to highlight a G/M code in notepad++ and pop up a definition using a simple hotkey. After investigating dictionary programs with personal glossaries, the only one I found which had the capabilities I wanted was WordWeb. Unfortunately the free version did not allow personal glossaries, so I had to splurge for the pro version which runs about $19. I am not affiliated in any way. If anyone is interested, I attached some files that can be used to fill a private glossary. You open the file in a text editor, select all and copy, then go into the WordWeb edit tab, edit glossary, add, give it a name, and then paste the clipboard to load the g and m code definitions. Once loaded in Wordweb, highlighting a GCode in any program, and hitting <cntr><RMouse> pops up any definitions in the glossaries. I found sources online for Mach4 and two 3D printer code definitions and used the info to create these files. I tried to do basic editing and no value added changes to keep from adding errors. I did the best I could, but there could be errors and contradictory/overlapping definitions. I use these to figure out what is going on when I browse an existing file. I would use something more reliable and detailed if I was editing one. If something is wrong, it is pretty easy to edit the glossary in Wordweb to fix it or add more info. I will not be maintaining these, so don't send me corrections.

JonasB

7

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Searches restricted to Mach4

« on: July 01, 2019, 11:05:09 AM »

Thanks, that was what I was looking for, but did not see that capability in the fine print.

8

Mach4 General Discussion / Searches restricted to Mach4

« on: June 30, 2019, 02:37:08 PM »

Trying to find something in the forums for Mach4 is very difficult. The high level partitioning of Mach4 helps, but the search tab still searches everything, so a keyword finds a lot of Mach3 info and then it becomes difficult to find something that works for Mach4.  Since Mach3 and 4 are really different, there should be a way to restrict searches to only the Mach4 portion of the forum. Using Mach4 as a keyword does not always work. As an example,  searches for "USB camera"  get lots of hits, but they are almost all Mach3 and so it is difficult to find a mach4 post if it exists. When I add Mach4 as a keyword, I get no hits which seems unlikely.

9

Mach4 General Discussion / usb camera

« on: June 30, 2019, 02:25:57 PM »

The question: Is there a way to have a window in Mach4 that shows the video feed from a USB camera. I would like it to have one similar to the toolpath window that I can put on a tab for homing and centering. I am currently using an external piece of software, but would like to stay in the Mach environment if possible. (tried searching for this info, but got lost in the non relavent Mach3 solutions)

10

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Connecting a VFD to Mach4 through Modbus (RS485)

« on: April 20, 2019, 12:26:21 PM »

Does this address all the issues discussed in topic=34023.0 i.e. Estop, speed overide, ...? If Mach4 supports modbus, I think it should be documented and the software setup to handle typical spindle functions as a minimum. Browsing the forum and piecing together various experiments (great stuff there and thanks for that) to get something working seems like a poor way to support a significant capability.