Messages

1

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: MACH4 Pendant not moving Axis

« on: November 17, 2020, 06:54:22 AM »

Problem solved. When assigning the MPGs in MACH4 the window was so small, that I could not see, that I had assigned ESS_Encoder_0 / 1 instead of ESS_Encoder_Aux_0 / 1.

2

Mach4 General Discussion / MACH4 Reference All Axes (Home)

« on: November 14, 2020, 05:43:54 AM »

Hi, I am using MACH4 to control a lathe. I am using the ESS and I can reference X Axis and Z Axis separately and this works nice. However the "Reference All Axes (Home)" button is always grayed out. What am I doing wrong ?

Thanks in advance

3

Mach4 General Discussion / MACH4 Pendant not moving Axis

« on: November 14, 2020, 05:36:01 AM »

Hi, I am using MACH4 using the Ethernet Smooth Stepper. I have build a pendant with two rotary encoders and mapped them to the ESS Encoder Aux 0 and 1. I can see, in the Diagnostic Screen of the ESS, that Aux 0 and Aux 1 MPG are following the movement of the rotary encoders. I have assigned MPG0 and MPG1 of MACH4 to those and followed many of the instructions for LUA scripts adding the following lines:
   mc.mcMpgSetAxis(inst, 0, 0) --Map the MPG 0 to control the X Axis
   mc.mcMpgSetAxis(inst, 1, 2) --Map the MPG 1 to control the Z Axis

I also have a speed switch to select the speed of the movement and use the following lines to set the speed:

        mc.mcMpgSetInc(inst, 0, PendantDistanceX1 )
        mc.mcMpgSetInc(inst, 1, PendantDistanceX1 ) 

When I change the speed button, I can see the output message, that those commands got executed.

However I never see movement of my motors. I can move them with the jog buttons or the key on my computer keyboard, but not with the pendant. What am I missing ? Is there any way to observe MPG0 and MPG1 values simalar to the diagnostics of the ESS ?

Thanks in advance for any help

4

Mach4 General Discussion / MACH4 Ethernet Smoothstepper and output failures

« on: September 19, 2020, 06:37:04 AM »

Hi all, I have just assembled a CNC Lathe with Ethernet Smoothstepper and Breakout boards from CNC Elektronik Langenfeld. Yesterday evening everything seemed to work fine. This morning I turned on the machine again and now the ESS Smoothstepper seems to generate random output pulses for the Stepper Motors. I have already tried a different power supply for the ESS. If I disconnect the breakout board from the ESS, everything is quiet, so that noise must come from the ESS. Also, that only seems to happen, after MACH4 has started communicating to the ESS. Before the Steppers seem to be quiet. Please note, that MACH4 operation is still disabled.
Any tips ? Is that a broken ESS or is there any configuration option ?

Thanks
Kevin