Topics

1

Mach4 General Discussion / Mach4 freezes up while running

« on: July 08, 2021, 05:57:34 PM »

Has anyone had the issue of Mach4 freezing up while running g code? I have several machines that every couple of days or so will just stop moving, but behave in every other way as if they are still running a program. These machines are just running the same code over and over, so it's clearly not a problem with the g code. They also seem to freeze at random points regardless of whether they are running g code from within macro or not.
I am using Windows 10 with Mach 4470 and an ESS.
I will try moving everything to a newer version, but if anyone has any insight as to what might be happening I'd really appreciate it!

2

Mach4 General Discussion / need help with a axis control as both a spindle and an axis

« on: February 22, 2021, 10:48:05 AM »

I am having a really hard time getting smooth motion control out of my a axis, and I think that I should probably use it as a spindle for part of the operation. However, I need to keep track of its absolute position, and be able to return to zero after running it as a spindle.
Using it as an OB axis may be a possibility, but I need to be able to continuously control its speed during other axis moves.
 
I don't need to know its exact position during the operation, but after each cycle it has to be able to return to its original position.

Is swapaxis still a thing with Mach4? I couldn't find it in the CoreAPI file.

Any ideas?
Thanks!

3

Mach4 General Discussion / a axis not working for cv mode

« on: February 20, 2021, 11:50:02 PM »

I am having problems with the a axis not moving smoothly between coordinates. The following example code works fine:

g64
g93
g1
a1 y1 f600
a2 y2 f600
a3 y3 f600
a4 y4 f600

When I remove the y coordinates and try to run the following code, the a axis stops at every point:

g64
g93
g1
a1 f600
a2 f600
a3 f600
a4 f600

I apologize if this is a g code error, and therefore in the wrong forum, but I am assuming it is a problem with my Mach4 setup.
Any help would be really appreciated!

4

Mach4 General Discussion / new to OB axes

« on: February 05, 2021, 04:39:04 PM »

Hi,
I am trying to control a spool motor and the best way to do it is by using step and direction. It needs to operate independently during the g code runs of the main program so I am thinking I need to operate it as OB1.
The problem is, that the spool needs to change velocity during (and independently of) the running of the g code so I can't just turn it on like a spindle.
I am thinking that I probably would not be able to run the spool program as a macro because (I assume) it would just wait until the jog commands for the spool were done before starting the g code. I am not sure where to implement it though.

At this point I am stuck at square one, because I can't seem to get the jog function to work at all.

I am running the following program in a macro with a copy of Mach4 only on the computer, not hooked up to the ESS. I get no movement from any axis, and the message says -18.0.

function jogtest()
   local inst = mc.mcGetInstance()
   local rc
   rc = mc.mcJogIncStart(inst, 0, 1.0)
   if rc ~= mc.MERROR_NOERROR then
      wx.wxMessageBox(tostring(rc))
   end
end

Thanks for any help!

5

Mach4 General Discussion / Transferring Mach4 profile from Windows 7 to 10

« on: September 27, 2020, 05:20:17 PM »

I am trying to get a Mach4 profile from a computer running windows 7 onto a computer running windows 10. I sort of did the recommendation for upgrading Mach4 by copying my Mach4 folder to the new computer, and then installing Mach4 on top of that.
Looks like that's not the right method because I get the following error for all of the m4pw files.
Failed to load shared library 'mcLua.m4pw' (error 126: The specified module could not be found.)

Can anyone tell me what the best method of transferring everything over to a new computer is?

If I do it manually I know I will need to create a profile package and also transfer the screen file.  Is there anything else I need to do manually?  Will all of the macros and wizards be handled by the profile package creator? What about all the registers?

It seems like there must be a better way to do this. Any advice would be appreciated!

6

Mach4 General Discussion / "are you sure you want to exit?" message problem

« on: September 18, 2020, 12:17:22 PM »

I accidentally turned off the "are you sure you want to exit?" message, and I'm having a heck of a time figuring out how to turn it back on.  I'm assuming it is in one of the .ini files, but I can't find it. Anyone have any ideas what it is labeled as, or where to find it?
Thanks for any help!
David

7

Mach4 General Discussion / Problems moving to 4.2.0.4517

« on: August 09, 2020, 01:39:16 PM »

We recently had to move from Windows 7 to Windows 10 for one of our machines.  I saved the mach4 directory from the Windows 7 computer, copied it to the reformatted computer, and then installed 4.2.0.4517 over the top of it (as recommended here: http://support.machsupport.com/en/kb/articles/updating-mach4)

Everything was fine except that whenever I tried to open the screen editor to edit a screen that had been part of the old installation (a custom screen) it would crash Mach4. Editing standard screens that were part of the 4.2.0.4517 installation was not a problem.
 
I did the same thing with 4.2.0.4470 and everything worked fine so we are currently running 4.2.0.4470 on that machine.

I am worried that I will have the same problem again if we ever need to upgrade Mach4 beyond 4.2.0.4470. Does anyone have any ideas what might be happening?

The old version was 4.2.0.4300.

Thanks!
David

8

Mach4 General Discussion / adding delay to signal script

« on: June 06, 2020, 12:28:01 PM »

I was wondering if there is any problem putting a delay in a signal script.  For example, this code would be added to the signal library in the screen load script:

[mc.ISIG_INPUT1] = function (state)
   if (state == 1) then   
      wx.wxMilliSleep(5000)
      mc.mcCntlEStop(inst)
   end
end,

This is just an example for simplicity sake. My question is, will I screw anything up by putting a delay (or a loop) into the signal script. In my mind, this code would receive a signal from input 1 while running some g code, continue running that code for 5 seconds and then trigger an estop. Am I correct in thinking this?
Again, this is just an example to keep my question simple.

9

Mach4 General Discussion / false signals from clearpath enable

« on: March 11, 2020, 10:51:16 PM »

Hi everyone.  I was hoping someone might have some insight into a problem I'm having with my clearpath motors.
Here's my setup:
-Mach4
-ESS
-C10 Breakout boards
-Clearpath Motors with HLFB+ attached to 5v pins of c10 board and HLFB- attached to various input pins.

I have the input pins assigned to limit switch inputs, and the HLFB is set to be asserted when motor is in enabled mode. Each clearpath is set to disable itself when out of position.

Normally everything works great, but every few days or so, while the machine is running, I will get an erroneous limit switch event. I know that it is not correct because the clearpath motor should show by its light display that it caused the disable, but none of the motors ever do.
I have tried adding noise filters to the inputs, but I have gone up to 60,000 us and I haven't noticed any difference in the frequency of the events.

If anyone has any thoughts about this, I'd appreciate it.  It's difficult for me to troubleshoot since it happens so infrequently and randomly.

10

Mach4 General Discussion / New to jogging/ non g-code moves

« on: January 30, 2020, 10:34:23 PM »

I am working on a sanding machine, and I want to be able to move away from the sanding surface quickly if I get an overload signal from the sanding motor.
I was thinking if I make each pass as a jog with the y axis, the z axis could be operated independently and moved away from the surface of the part while the y axis was still moving.

I was trying to test the  mc.mcJogIncStart function with the following code:

function m91002()
   local inst = mc.mcGetInstance()
   rc = mc.mcJogIncStart(inst, 0, -.2)
   if rc ~= mc.MERROR_NOERROR then
      wx.wxMessageBox("failure")
   end
end

I get the message "failure" when I run m91002 in the MDI, but if I remove the "function m91002()" at the beginning of the code, it works one time.
Any ideas about what I am missing or doing wrong? Also if anyone feels that there is a better way to go about this, I'm all ears!
Thanks,
David