Messages

1

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Enhanced stupidity between 2 machines

« on: March 07, 2021, 02:47:06 PM »

Nick, Huge thanks for the input.
I checked that between both profiles and they were set the same (incremental)
Gave up and set up a new profile (from scratch, imported nothing), which was not fast . .

Looked ok, imported G code fine, toolpath was as it should be, I was a happy little bunny . . . . but.
Everything was teeny tiny . . .
Scratched head, looked at motor setting in the ESS plug in and the Mach controller, all same same . .
for some reason looked at the general tab and it had defaulted to inches . . . . . gaaaar.
Bloody colonials . . set it back to Metric and all is well in my (now) slightly whisky infused world.

I have not the foggiest what was wrong.
However, it all works now.

2

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Enhanced stupidity between 2 machines

« on: March 07, 2021, 11:44:14 AM »

Aaaand, that stops the machine being able to go round corners . .
Fine if it's all straight lines, no corners  . .
Which part of the machine profile allows curves?
More digging to come .

3

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Enhanced stupidity between 2 machines

« on: March 07, 2021, 09:20:17 AM »

Well, stumbling towards something.
Code that causes the odd lines and stops that Profile running (snippet below)
N220G3X66.286Y80.257Z-0.500I4.207J2.702
N230G2X65.757Y80.942Z-1.000I3.679J3.386

If I edit it manually to this
N220G3X66.286Y80.257Z-0.500
N230G2X65.757Y80.942Z-1.000

It runs.
Toolpath looks fine in the window and the code runs just fine.

N220G3X66.286Y80.257Z-0.500I4.207J2.702
N230G2X65.757Y80.942Z-1.000I3.679J3.386
What are the "I" and "J" referencing?
Why does one profile of Mach4 ignore them and one profile hangs on them?

4

Mach4 General Discussion / Enhanced stupidity between 2 machines

« on: March 07, 2021, 07:05:55 AM »

I've setup a Wee benchtop mill running Mach4, and apart from the wonky nut on the controls, it pretty much does what I expect, most of the time.
I've set up a 4 x 4 plasma table (currently just a table with a pen on it to test things)
And am having a helluva job getting it to do what I want. (The machine goes where I expect it to, usually)
But I'm having issues exporting G code to it from Sheetcam

Code generated on Sheetcam shows up fine on the Mill iteration of Mach4 (but the mill can't actually run it as the table is too small)
the same code, sent to the Table just won't run and shows up really weird on the screen.

Mill and table run off the same computer, off the same iteration of Mach4 under different profiles (one runs from a parallel port controller, the table runs off an ESS) both "work" with G code sent from VCarve.

Screenshots below.
Same G code file, Same computer, Same version of Mach4 different machine profile for each
Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

5

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: M4 crash on launch

« on: February 07, 2021, 04:02:42 PM »

Guys, thank you.
I had a spare laptop (windoze surface)
Runs M4 absolutely no issues whatsoever.
The laptop this is from (the one that crashes M4 instantly) is a quadcore machine I bought for gaming/mining has some zooperdooper video card, which is patently poop at running non videogame progs.
Running the hardware setup on the surface.
Many thanks for the pointer.

6

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: M4 crash on launch

« on: February 02, 2021, 08:12:56 AM »

Sorry, both running W10,
Both computers fast (multicore processors) and less than 2 years old.

7

Mach4 General Discussion / M4 crash on launch

« on: February 02, 2021, 08:00:48 AM »

I've got M4 (licensed) running my wee mill and intend to use the same computer to run a plasma table / router (one running out the Parralell port, one out the ethernet port only run one machine at a time)

I'm trying to do the setup for the plasma/router electronics from another machine which has an unlicensed copy of M4 on it (just to test hardware/Electronics)
But that machine _Will not_ run M4.
It freezes on launch, I've tried more than 6 iterations of M4, have cleared the directory, have cleared the registry, have done uninstalls with the provided uninstaller, nada, zip, zilch.
For the life of my, it will not run M4
Have loaded an unlicensed copy of M3 to test the hardware with (which seems to run fine)

What else can I try clearing to get M4 to run?

8

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Seig 2.7

« on: December 15, 2020, 04:18:26 AM »

MDI, pray tell, what is MDI?
I know, a confused man, always needs another TLI 

I've yet to get limit switches set up, I've bought them, I have cable, I have plugs, I know where I'm going to put them, it's just I've been run off my feet with the crimbo rush and the mill has been working for a living a couple of hours a day, every day for the last 3 weeks.

Getting work offsets in stuff knocked out in fusion 360 seems pretty logical.
There is a "home" thing fusion likes to chuck into the G code at the start and end of execution cycles which I assume is for toolchanges?
But other than that, I'm fairly happy with getting work on the table and having the mill execute it.

I was (and still am) thrown by the engraving wizard in Mach4 that seems to randomly place engraving anywhere . .
Buggered if I know how to get that into any place consistently.

I'm using 5mm endmills to cut shapes in 3mm steel plate (single pass, full 3mm DOC ) I get about 40 mins out of a cutter and it's fubar'd. Mill stops cutting and the Seig just loosed the plot as it can't make the cutter go through metal anymore.
Have settled on 1700 (ish) rpm and 40mm/min feed at which the cutter is cutting and there is some tolerance in there.
What was screwing me up was plunging end mills, oddly enough, that didn't go well.
But fusion has a ramp function, which if set at a 45 deg ramp and plunge speed of 10mm/min doesn't destroy end mills . .

Mach4 and Fusion seem to play well with each other.

The engraving wizard in mach4 has a mind of it's own for placement . . .

How do you get a toolchange into a G code run?
Or do you do separate listings for each tool and park the mill inbetween code runs?

9

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Seig 2.7

« on: November 17, 2020, 07:56:38 AM »

Well, an update (I know, ejit with mill, how interesting can this be . . .*yawn*)
Well, for me, very 

As you guys guessed, most of the problems I was having were with the nut between the keyboard and the mill.
I was completely lost as to why a "toolpath" would show up on the Mach 4 screen and I'd not be able to "jog" round it without hitting a limit on the mill.
I read and listened and thunked hard about your comments, and decided to park the machine in a "home" position and re-load the file (having restarted Mach4 with the machine parked at "home")
And I could start to see why the toolpath was showing up where it was.

Then I noticed that some of my files had their 0,0,0, reference in the middle of the part and some lower left . . . .  So some sense is being made of positioning work on the mill and getting mach 4 to cut the work rather than destroy the mill (which is what I'm here for)

So, huge thanks for pointing me in that direction. I'd still like to have Mach4 "Cut Here" but am now starting to understand that I need to be consistent with reference point on the G code file to enable that (If I can stick to lower left I just jog to lower left and zero on mach 4 there, hey presto off she'll jolly well trot. (in vaugely the right place)

Other issues solved this week (tho positioning is not 100% there yet, I need to figure out how to stop fusion putting the stock point in the middle of the work..)
I had a stiff nut, one of the ballscrews on the X axis was locking up, watched a video, stripped it, cleaned it, re-dressed it and hey presto, with shiny balls, my nut runs smooth . .  (I know, childish and immature, but I am)
And the Z axis Gib has never been right on my mill, a bit of googling pointed me to how to "shoogle" the Gib into the right position that would allow the upper and lower Gib adjustment screws to actually work ("Shoogle" is a Scottish word meaning to faff with something 'till it's either better, worse of you've broken it completely)

Picture is a shark (Work in progress) fins cut on the mill.
I know, very simple,  but I am.
Hai Than Kew.
Roy

I will come back with other stupid questions, like how to get Fusion 360 to less aggressively plunge mills when cutting, but maybe on another forum (I have slowed the plunge rate, but really I need to "peck in or come in at some angle . . ) ((I think))

10

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Seig 2.7

« on: November 12, 2020, 12:47:51 PM »

Cheers Stuart,
I shall give that a bash.
I intend getting limit switches in this weekend.
Having said that, I intended to be a millionaire by the time I was 30 . . 25 years past that point and no sign of it happening anytime soon . .