Topics

1

General Mach Discussion / Bug in mach3 ToolPath colours?

« on: November 26, 2019, 11:18:53 AM »

Is there a known bug in Mach3 ToolPath colour settings?

I prefer a light colour background rather than the default black.  If I set the background colour to white or other light colour and the other colours to suit that background (black for G1 for example) then when the ToolPath graphic is redrawn the tool path is shown for a guessed 0.5 secs then I just get a white screen.

It seems as if the white background is drawn first, then the lines for the other stuff such as the tool path are drawn but then it seems as if the background is redrawn over the top of everything, blanking it out.  This can be seen by going to a 50% grey, then the lines are only partially swamped out.  As black is defined as nothing then redrawing nothing over the image will have no effect, but redrawing white over everything will wash it out, which is what happens.

Is there a known fix or work around for this?

2

General Mach Discussion / mach3 MPG setup and galil

« on: November 18, 2019, 06:46:12 PM »

I am making an external control panel, with a bunch of buttons and an MPG.  I use a galil controller and plan to connect the MPG direct to the controller using an aux encoder input.  That should be straight forward but I need to add switches to select which axis and what feed steps.  Searching the forums here the usual advice is to write a "Brain" to do that but I have found no guidance on how to do that.

I have another idea how to do this and I would like some feedback on its feasibility.  For the various buttons I am using an iPac2 keyboard emulator to send Hotkeys to mach3.  So my idea is to use the iPac to send the appropriate messages to select the jog rate and selected axis.

3

General Mach Discussion / Wiki problem

« on: November 14, 2019, 05:29:19 PM »

Has the wiki been moved or taken down?  When I try to access it I get the page title and some stuff about the GNU licence details, otherwise a blank screen.  There is a login button but my MachSupport login details do not not fire it up and I cannot find anywhere to join.

4

Mach4 General Discussion / Galil vs Vital

« on: November 02, 2019, 07:26:58 AM »

I have a mill with DC PM motors with tachos and linear glass slides.  The velocity loop is closed between motors and drive amplifiers which take the usual +/- 10 V velocity signals.  The position loop needs to be closed in the controller.
Currently I am running a Galil 2143 card and mach3, but I want to change to Mach4.  To take full advantage of the capabilities I need to change to a Galil 4143 or 4040 card, which is not cheap.

I have just been made aware ot the Vital Systems options, so I am looking for feedback on both options Galil or Vital?  Or suggestions as to other compatible controllers.

5

General Mach Discussion / Spindle question with Mach3/Galil

« on: February 11, 2019, 04:55:10 PM »

It is documented that for spindle control one can connect a spindle quadrature signal + index.
My question is: Is it sufficient to only use a single channel + index?  That is use channel A & I  rather than A, B & I
The primary purpose of a quadrature signal is to get both position and direction, however I am not interested in direction so the B channel is unnecessary theoretically but whether that applies in practice depends on the Mach3/Galil/plugin requirements and that is what I don't know.  I have a single spindle pulse string already and I do not want to change that for full quadrature unless I really have to.

A related question.  I have read that Mach3 only uses a single spindle index pulse to set the feed for threading.  If you use multiple pulses/rev, and tell mach3 how many, will it adjust the threading feed multiple times per spindle rev?  If not, is there any reason not to trick it like;
Say we have 4 pulses/rev and specify a 0.25 mm pitch thread, will we get a 1 mm pitch thread?
For the record I want to make some accurate pitch threads and adjusting feed once per rev seems very coarse.

Thanks in advance for knowledgeable replies.

6

Mach4 General Discussion / mach4 and Galil plugin

« on: February 11, 2019, 10:23:07 AM »

Steve,

Quotes from what seems like a dead thread.

<<
Quote from: smurph on April 20, 2017, 08:44:46 PM
Tony,

Unfortunately, there is no demo version of the Mach 4 plugin.  I will see if I can implement that.

Nice work on that variable J head!  You managed to get rid of all the noisy parts quite nicely.    i have replaced so many of those bushings i lost count.  I much prefer a pulley J head because of the noise those things will start making.  And they will get noisy pretty damned fast.  Just watch the spindle bearings and make sure they don't heat too much at those speeds!

Steve
end quote>>

Steve,

It has been a while since I have checked in to the forum.  I see that much progress has occurred with the Mach4 Galil plugin, but that the DMC 2143 has not been tested yet.  I am still willing to do this if you can release a demo version of the plugin.  You will understand that I am unwilling to buy the plugin until I am sure that it will work.

7

General Mach Discussion / Motor tuning

« on: July 08, 2014, 06:39:45 PM »

Simple question.
When driving through an external motion controller card, Galil to be specific, which has its own motor tuning, does the Mach 3 motor tuning still apply?  If not, is there a default setting which should be set?  In general I find the documents poor when it comes to describing the differences between what is required for driving through the printer port and driving an external motion card.

8

General Mach Discussion / Galil plug-in

« on: June 25, 2014, 04:09:20 AM »

When I try to load Mach 3 after installing the Galil ST plugin.  I get a message saying that the plugin .DLL is not valid.  I have downloaded and installed a few times with no change.  I have also tried this on 2 separate computers, one with Win 7 and the other with XP.
However, if I install the Galil plugin for the older Galil software then Mach 3 accepts it.
Is there a known issue with the ST plugin?  If so is there a workaround?

9

General Mach Discussion / Computer hardware for Mach?

« on: June 24, 2014, 07:18:52 AM »

I am just setting up a Mach 3 system with a Galil motion Controller card.  So the hard work will be done inside the Galil.
My question is, "Is Mach 3 performance overly dependent on the PC speed and RAM size?  Is a multi-processor PC an advantage?".  The PC will be dedicated to only run the Mach 3/Galil combination, no internet connection nor other software.   

10

Mach SDK plugin questions and answers. / Galil plugins

« on: June 24, 2014, 07:01:33 AM »

When I load the ST Galil plugin I get a message saying that the DLL is bad.  I have downloaded the plugin a few times but with the same result.  The standard Galil plugin loads without problem.
Is there a known issue with the ST version.