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1

General Mach Discussion / Pokeys57E dead battery

« on: December 05, 2022, 09:35:18 PM »

I have been using a Pokeys57E for several years to interface between Mach3 and a custom control panel I made. It was working perfectly for a long time.  The other day it stopped working and it seemed like the shared messages between Mach and the 57E were not happening. I should mention that I have a bunch of logic that I uploaded using PoBlocks several years back.

My first thought was that the little coin cell on the back of the 57E is probably dead and the 57E has lost its memory. I contacted PoLabs or whatever they are called and they stated that the battery was only for the real time clock and would have no effect, and that my 57E was probably pooched and that I should purchase a new one. Tried a bunch of stuff nothing worked, however using the view mode in PoBlocks I could see all the logic working as it should when I exercised the inputs, finally I ignored their advice and changed the battery, it was near flat, and now everything is working like a champ again. So it appears that the battery does matter. YMMV

2

General Mach Discussion / How to trigger either a message, or a pop-up when input 2 is activated?

« on: December 05, 2022, 09:13:25 PM »

I have several brains working, so I can add another for this purpose, I'm just not sure how to trigger either a message or a pop-up (anything to get the users attention)

If I can't do it with a brain, is there some other way?

I tried adding the following to macropump.m1s, but it does not work (macropump is enabled in cfg), so not sure what's up with that approach?
If IsActive(INPUT2) Then
message"abc"
EndIf


I can see input 2 changing in the diagnostic page, so the hardware is okay.

If I open macropump.m1s in the VB editor and then hit the play button, it gives syntax errors for just about any valid code that I put in the script


Thanks

3

Third party software and hardware support forums. / Pokeys57e index (speed) signal not displaying in Mach3

« on: January 09, 2020, 04:58:41 PM »

I hope someone can help with this....

I have a sensor next to my spindle and the signal is connected to a Polkeys57E. The pin is configured as the Index input. I can see the signal pulsing in Pokeys when the spindle is running. However the spindle speed always shows 0 in mach3. So somehow the link for that particular signal is being ignored. I have many other signals that are being passed back and forth between Mach3 and PoBlocks and they are all working just fine.

I have tried issuing the M03 command, no difference, and in Mach3 config, the index signal is set 0, 0, 0 and emulated, and reverts back emulated even if I uncheck it, so it appears Pokeys is forcing it to emulated likely because it's smart enough to know that this value is linked to the 57E

Any ideas?

What is the correct DRO # for the displayed spindle speed?

Thanks in advance

4

General Mach Discussion / No Feed Ovrd when using MDI

« on: April 18, 2018, 05:54:37 PM »

I'm just flushing out the last of the bugs in my custom control panel and found this one........

I have a quadrature encoder connected to a Pokeys 57E, this is configured as MPG0. I have a brain that redirects the output to Feed Ovrd (821)

This seems to work just fine when Mach is not moving anything, however if I enter say G01 X5 F2 into the MDI  so the table is moving and I then try to tweak the feedrate using the encoder, no change. Further if I open the brain the MP0 Velocity DRO displays 0 while I'm moving the encoder as if MPG0 is either locked out or being ignored while the G01 command is executing. As soon as the table stops the barin starts showing activity again and I can adjust as desired.

Using the GUI I can adjust the feed rate up and down with the +/- arrows above FRO, but attempting to enter a new FRO value from the keyboard is ignored.  

Is there possibly a configuration selection that enables/disables changing the FRO while in motion?

5

Machscreen Screen Designer / Custom button, Hotkey not working

« on: April 17, 2018, 02:07:42 PM »

Newbie to screen modifications......

Please see image below

I added a button JTO Ctrl-B and a LED.

If I click on the button using the mouse, the LED besides it turns green, so far so good. However if I Type Ctrl-B, the button does not get selected. What am I doing wrong?

6

General Mach Discussion / Keygrabber ---> Brain

« on: April 16, 2018, 07:52:38 AM »

Is it possible to use KeyGrabber to trigger the first column of a brain?

I have no experience with KeyGrabber other than starting the application and  poking around a bit. In the translate column, I can select another key or choose a special key, not sure if the special key can trigger a brain?

7

Brains Development / Jog (Tab) display status

« on: April 15, 2018, 02:07:00 PM »

I have a brain that displays the jog tab, when ever I push a jog related button on my pendant. Unfortunately the display sometimes gets out of sync with the brain. How can I inform the brain of the present status of the jog (tab) display?

8

General Mach Discussion / Licensed version, will increasing kernal speed prevent missed charge pump pulses

« on: April 09, 2018, 04:14:54 PM »

I have been testing the demo version of Mach3 Mill, mostly positive so far. When I monitor the charge pump signal, every second or so it drops a pulse, reducing the frequency to 6.25kHz for one cycle. This plays havoc with my watch-dog hardware that is looking for a 9-15kHz signal.

I'm presently running the kernel at 25kHz because of the demo version limitation. If I purchase a license and then increase the kernel speed, will the dropped CP pulses be fixed?

9

General Mach Discussion / Motors intermittently shudder whie in reset

« on: April 09, 2018, 01:28:03 PM »

I'm at a loss as to why this is happening.

With the Mach3 Reset button pressed (solid green) i.e. not in reset or emergency mode, the steppers are silent unless I command them to move, everything normal and as it should be.

However if i press the Mach3 Reset button (flashing green/red), the steppers intermittently shudder, when I say shudder, they don't actually move, however I can hear the coils being de-energized/energized momentarily, and I hear a slight ping from the motors. If I place my hand on the motor I can feel it, perhaps every second or two.

I scoped the direction and step signals at the parallel port and I don't see anything that looks like it could trigger the drive. Even with the scope set to single trigger mode and a threshold of about 1 volt. When in run mode with the steppers moving, nice clean 5V square waves, so the scope and triggering are working.

Unless there is an actual E-Stop (not a press of the reset button on the Mach screen), the enable signal to the drives is active.

Anyone experience something like this?

10

Brains Development / Mach3 crashes the moment I click on the enable checkbox for a brain.

« on: April 07, 2018, 03:54:42 PM »

Some time ago I had a bunch of brains working with mach3. At the time I was using a Pokeys57E with shared data etc.

For the moment I have all those old brains disabled, and I'm simply trying to run one very simple brain....

Output 1    NOP    Delay    Output 1

The moment I click on the enable checkbox for this brain, Mach3 crashes with an Artcode 9991 error.

I tried uninstalling Mach and then reinstalling, the Pokeys57E add-on is presently NOT enabled. I have no idea what's causing the crash?