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Topics - chaney

Pages: 1
1
Mach4 General Discussion / Workoffset Button Scripting
« on: October 02, 2023, 09:32:35 AM »
Hi all.
I currently have some on-screen buttons I have scripted to get my machine to travel to my work offsets (fixturing). (Example: "G54 Home")
If I select one of the 4 workoffsets (G54, G55, G56 G57), the machine moves to the machine coordinates(G53) I have set for fixture X-Y zero locations.
Works great.

What I would like to add, is the functionality to set the X & Y Axis to zero when the "workoffset home" position is reached. (for the given offset)
I currently have to remember to manually set these to zero when starting the job. (sometimes when using the same offset I don't have to reset)
If I forget to set the zeros obviously it starts machining elsewhere. Then I'm aggravated.

Can someone please help me with how to go about this?
Some scripting advice or the lua commands required to set the axis zeros and DROs.

Thanks in advance to any advice/help.
The forum can be a great help on occasion and I appreciate all advice I recieve.

2
Mach4 General Discussion / FIFO Drain Error
« on: July 26, 2023, 06:21:45 AM »
So I updated Mach4 setting up a new machine, and now all of the sudden my current machine won't run properly.
The motors will not respond/move.
If I restart Mach4 a hand full of times, they will finally respond.
As soon as I try homing, they move to the first or second switch.
At this point the machine stops and I get multiple pop-ups saying "HOMING_PREP failed waiting for FIFO to drain”.
Now nothing works again.

I have no idea what FIFO is.
Can anyone provide any ideas how to correct this issue?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

3
Mach4 General Discussion / Programs stop at M3 and will not continue
« on: November 21, 2022, 09:20:57 AM »
I finally got my m6 macro working and have put together a short program to test my tool heights and offsets.
When I first ran the program, I had to stop a few times to make adjustments to heights and other things.
The program runs through 5 tool changes, and moves around a foam block. Just to check that the offsets are staying the same and consistant through different tools and heights.
The first couple times I ran it, it was a slow process of getting through the first couple changes trying to adjust the offset for my tool heights.
I got to where I was making it through three or four changes successfuly.
All of the sudden, out of nowhere, upon exiting the third tool change the program stops on the m3.
I have tried everything I could think of. re-writing and re-ordering the gcodes and layout with no success.
I can place different lines in front of the m3, such as spindle speed or ytoo offset. The RPM's and offsets may work but it will stop on the m3, even if it's in the same line.
All the gcode is a copy and paste, one after the other, with only changing the tool numbers. Minus the beginning and end.
I just cannot understand why it would be working just fine  and then just stop working.
There is no errors or comunication in the history or error bar. It just stops and will not continue.

Has anyone dealt with or seen this before? Maybe have some ideas for me to try?

I would greatly appreciate some feedback.
I will attach the program as well.

Thanks in advance

4
Mach4 General Discussion / Auto Tool Setter Offsets
« on: November 14, 2022, 10:10:30 AM »
I am working through my m6 macro, and am finding that there is more to the tool height offsets than I previously believed.

I had previously been changing the (Mach4 Offsets Tab) Gage Block heights along with the GageBlockHeight in my macro.
Until I sadly realized that the gage block setting was changing my G55 Z heights, causing me all sorts of additional issues.

After trying the (Mach4 Gage Block Heights) settings at zero and just changing the macro gageblockheight, I found that it was changing my master tool (tool#1) info in the tool offsets page. That doesn't help either. It was also recording a tool length/offset incorrectly for the current tool as well.

On top of those issues, I really can't figure out how to get that stuff to work.
I know that I can manually zero work pieces with a single tool, but that defeats the purpose of using the m6 to auto tool set.
I will attach some of my Z-heights, and short notes of my problems. I am here asking for some strongly needed direction and help.

How do I get my probed tools (from my m6 macro) to probe within the current work coordinate system, and set the tool height accordingly & correctly to keep my tools from crashing into the table or cutting air?
I was expecting that the probing would record the height in G53 machine coordinates, and Mach4 was calculating everything and applying the height to the current running work coordinate system to offset the tool height correctly.

I have tried multiple m6 macros, but I am just now getting into setting my tool heights. I kind of like the layout of this macro, but it probably needs help as well.
I will attach it as well.

I would super appreciate some direction and help with this.
I have over thought this so much that I don't even know what to do now. I'm at a loss.

Thanks in advance.

5
Mach4 General Discussion / Programs won't continue after m6
« on: February 28, 2022, 10:20:55 AM »
I am still very new to Mach4 and I cannot get a gcode or MDI program to continue on after an m6 is called.
I have tried multiple (different) m6 macros; I either cannot get them to successfully run all the way through correctly, or they will not continue the program after running successfully.
It seems that Mach4 works differently day to day. Like it's pissed at me or something. I will have something almost nailed down, and the next day it will not work at all.
I have already had to start all over with the Mach install and 3 profiles.
The m6 has been my latest struggle. I do not know how to get the macro to set the offset how I want, and it will just stop after the macro and not continue.
I would imagine that Mach4 does allow a tool change sequence mid program?

If I could get some advice, I would greatly appreciate it. Mach Support will not help, they just close my tickets with no replies.

Thanks in advance

6
General Mach Discussion / Creating a DRO to show current offset
« on: January 16, 2022, 05:40:46 PM »
I am hoping someone can point me in a good direction. I am trying to create a DRO for my Mach4 screenset that will show my current offset. Whether it is running in the machine coordinates or a work offset. I am new to Mach and I find that I keep forgetting how the offsets work in Mach. This would just be an easy reminder for myself.
I have created the DRO, and am having trouble getting it to show anything. I read somewhere that I could use the following Pound Var to show the current offset:

local CurrentOffset = mc.mcCntlGetPoundVar (inst, 4014)

I tried putting it in both the "On Modify Script", "On Update Script", and putting it in my screen load script as a function.
I cannot get anything to work.

Can and will someone please help me out?

Thanks

7
FAQs / Commanded Axis exceeds Soft Limits
« on: December 30, 2021, 10:42:21 AM »
Thanks in advance for any feedback or advice.

I have not been able to run any MDI or Gcode commands as I keep getting the error "Commanded axis exceeds soft limits." I have checked things over and over and I am not commanding even close to the soft limits. I have generally been trying MDI commands starting with G90 G53 to keep things consistant, but I'm starting to believe that the soft limits have been somehow changing to a work offset instead of the machine coordinates.
 
Even NFS can't figure it out. I have been working on this for weeks sharing screen shots and walk through videos with support.
Just lately they have had me install the demo version of Mach4, and a beta plugin.
The demo version will not talk to the ESS unless I remove all licensed Mach4Hobby files I have previously been using. Still yet, I can only get newly created profiles to talk to the ESS.
I have not taken the time to use a newly created profile and fill in all the configurations and settings to see if it solves the problem.
I am hoping that someone else has dealt with this before and found a solution. Before I go through all of the trouble re-writing all the LUA scripts and all.

Any help, direction and/or advice would be super appreciated.
I'm starting to think going the Mach route was a very bad idea.

Thanks

8
Mach4 General Discussion / wx.MessageBox wait
« on: December 20, 2021, 01:40:30 PM »
I am so new to LUA I cannot figure this out. I have added three buttons to my screen set that move the machine to positions such as the tool change position. My issue is that I want the message box to pop up after the machine has finished moving into position. Currently when I select the button(s) the message box comes up before it even starts moving. I have tried putting it after the function() in the button left upp script, and all around within the function itself in the screen load script. I get the same outcome, or no outcome at all. I don't know if there is a wait or yield that can go with the message box or if I need a whole script of some junk to make that happen exactly how I expect it to?
Any advise would be super appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

9
SmoothStepper USB / Output always has voltage
« on: December 06, 2021, 08:46:30 AM »
I have a Warp9 ESS with a C11G & C25 board running Mach4. I am using an output  to send a signal to a 5v single channel switching relay controlling my spindle coolant. The output still has a 0.1-0.2 volts at the relay when it is supposed to be inactive. It is causing issues with the relay and being a pain in my neck. I have looked over my wiring multiple times and cannot find an issue that would cause this. Can anyone give me any advice how to clean up the output and keep zero voltagae when inactive?

I will greatly appreciate any advice.
Thanks ahead of time.

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