Topics

1

Mach4 General Discussion / Mach4 xbox configure questions

« on: August 19, 2023, 04:07:17 PM »

I've searched and can't find anything on the xbox button configuration.
The dropdown has selections that I don't know what they do. Like the "xbox cont/inc toggle" or how to use the "user gcode1" selection.  may be missing something but is there any descriptions or documentation for this?
The one thing I wanted to do was to increment move an axis like pressing the arrow keys or the screen buttons in incremental mode. Is it possible to do this?
I thought of writting gcode and using the "user gcode1" but so far can not figure out how to use those selections.
Still trying though.
Thank you for any help.

2

Mach4 General Discussion / Mach 4 keyboard problem

« on: August 15, 2023, 04:00:16 PM »

Can anyone help with this wierd problem?
I decided to make a small control box to act as a second keyboard with only a few keys for using keyboard shortcuts .  I used a Teensey 4.0 controller programed to act as a usb keyboard.  I have two shortcuts made in M4 for cycle start and stop besides the movement keys. The new keyboard works perfectly in all windows programs. Windows 10 sees it as a standard keyboard.
When I run Mach4 everything is ok and regular key shortcuts work with regular keyboard.
When the new control box is pluged in and push the start key it runs one line of code and then stops and will not accept any other keyboard commands from either keyboard.
It does work with two standard keyboards hooked up though.
Why would Mach 4 not like something with this one?
I don't understand why every other program is ok with it but Mach4 is not.
Can someone please help me out?
Thanks

3

Mach4 General Discussion / Can someone please help with Touchoff operation error?

« on: May 27, 2023, 04:13:34 PM »

I trying to use the touchoff function in Mach4.  I have everything set up and it probes correctly but the results are wrong and I am very confused as to why. I have the backoff set to .1 and the diameter set to .1 and I think after the touch of the Y- position it should read -.15. that would be the -.1 backoff and half the .1 diameter. Is that correct?
Attached is the result after the operation. The zero position is way into the part.
It shows the backoff position as -.3482
How is that possible? What am I missing?
Oh I am using the ESS if that makes a difference.

4

Mach4 General Discussion / Can anybody help with Mach4 ESS threading problem?

« on: May 05, 2023, 08:07:26 PM »

I recently upgraded to Mach4 and ESS. I think I have most of the problems worked out.
The problem I have now is with threading. I didnt have a problem with Mach3. Now with M4 when I use the threading built into Mach4 turn cycles the machine starts and goes to the starting point where it waits for the index pulse. Once in a while it works. Alot of times it just sits and waits. When I hit the stop button and reset and try again usually nothing happens. Sometimes I have shut down Mach4 and restarted and it will work.
The rpm is seeing the index pulse fine, and rpm works all the time. When I run ESS diagnostic it shows the pulse flashing good. When I use the Mach diagnostics screen the index led never flashes at all but the rpm works. 
I have asked Mach about this but have not gotten an answer yet.
Does anyone got any ideas on why this is happening? I even loaded the newest version and still only works sometimes.
Thank you.

5

Mach4 General Discussion / Simple way to have Mach4 remember axis positions on startup.

« on: April 26, 2023, 01:33:03 PM »

I've searched and found some explanations for why Mach4 doesn't remember the axis positions when it is shut down and restarted. They make sense but Mach3 used to do it and the examples I found were not working or I did not understand them. After searching and experimenting I came up with a simple way that works for me.
Firsst go to Configure - Plugins - Regfile.
  Click on the + and add three new registers: Xpos, Ypos and Zpos.
  make sure the persistent colume is green checked.
Next add the following to the screen load script:
---------------------------------------------------------------
-- Get register
---------------------------------------------------------------
function GetRegister(regname)
 local inst = mc.mcGetInstance()
 local hreg = mc.mcRegGetHandle(inst, string.format("iRegs0/%s", regname))
 return mc.mcRegGetValueString(hreg)
end

---------------------------------------------------------------
-- Save register
---------------------------------------------------------------
function WriteRegister(regname, regvalue)
 local inst = mc.mcGetInstance()
 local hreg = mc.mcRegGetHandle(inst, string.format("iRegs0/%s", regname))
 mc.mcRegSetValueString(hreg, tostring(regvalue))
end

Next  make a new Save button and add the following to the left up script:

posx = scr.GetProperty("droCurrentX","Value")
WriteRegister("Xpos", posx)
posy = scr.GetProperty("droCurrentY","Value")
WriteRegister("Ypos", posy)
posz = scr.GetProperty("droCurrentZ","Value")
WriteRegister("Zpos", posz)

Next  make a new Load button and add the following to the left up script:

regvalx = GetRegister("Xpos")
regvalx = tonumber(regvalx)
mc.mcAxisSetPos(inst, mc.X_AXIS,regvalx)
regvaly = GetRegister("Ypos")
regvaly = tonumber(regvaly)
mc.mcAxisSetPos(inst, mc.Y_AXIS,regvaly)
regvalz = GetRegister("Zpos")
regvalz = tonumber(regvalz)
mc.mcAxisSetPos(inst, mc.Z_AXIS,regvalz)

That should be it. Save all changes and When you click the save button it will save positions in the registers.  When exiting the registers will be saved in the machine.ini file. When mach4 is restarted click the load button and it will load the positions from the ini file.

If you want it to do it automaticly put the button codes into the screen load script and the screen unload script instead of buttons.

Yes things could move on the machine but this is how Mach3 worked and that was fine. It won't work if Mach crashes but it didn't on Mach3 either.
Hope this helps somebody.

6

Mach4 General Discussion / How to change axis position in a script?

« on: April 25, 2023, 09:57:44 PM »

I'm just starting to learn how to write some scripts and want to make a simple button to change the x axis position with a script like when you click on the x dro and change the position with the keypad.
I used scr.SetProperty("droCurrentX","Value",regval) to set the dro but as soon as I move the axis it reverts back to the original position before I changed it.
What command should I use to do this?
Thanks

7

Mach4 General Discussion / Can't get lathe out of Constant surface speed mode - I'm going nuts - help

« on: April 20, 2023, 10:36:39 PM »

I haven't used Mach4 Lathe very much yet But the other day I had the PID working pretty good. It was holding the rpm pretty close. I used one of the cutting cycles and it defaulted to css mode. Now whatever I do the rpm is way high, If I set rpm to 200 it runs at around 530 rpm and if I move the x axis in smaller and run G97 the rpm speeds up. I've tried everything I can think of. I shut everything down, the program, the smoothstepper and the machine. and started again. Still runs way faster and will speed up with smaller x axis values. The code list at the bottom shows G97 which as far as I know is fixed rpm.
What am I doing wrong.
Attached the screen capture.
Help please.

8

Mach4 General Discussion / Toolpath window difference

« on: December 24, 2022, 10:33:29 PM »

Another difference from M3 to M4 I can't seem to figure out if there's a way to replicate it.
On M3 when you scrolled thru the gcode the toolpath used to highlight the move segment in the toolpath. I can't find anyway to make M4 do that. I'm going to keep trying to find it but any help on whether it's possible would be appreciated.
Thanks again.

9

Mach4 General Discussion / wxLathe screen weird problem

« on: December 23, 2022, 10:48:15 PM »

When I run the Lathe screen on my machine I have only two Tabs - Program Run and Turn Cycles.
When I run it on my laptop that I have it loaded on so I can learn and edit screens, the same lathe screen has a Diagnostic tab also.
If I copy the screen to the lathe computer it again only has the two tabs and no diagnostic tab.
Even in the screen designer on the machine computer it is missing the diagnostic tab.
The only difference is  the lathe is using the smoothstepper ESS. Could this have anything to do with it? Is there something in Mach that stops it from being there?
Thanks

10

Mach4 General Discussion / New to Mach4 and question on entering data

« on: December 22, 2022, 09:23:56 PM »

Just started with Mach4 and finally got it working with my machine.
Trying to get used to all the differences.
Is there a way to enter numbers like Mach3 used to have? I'm talking about the calculator box that let you add and subtract from the existing entry.
If the dro was say 3.500 you could press the + button and add 0.01 to make it 3.51.
Thanks again