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Messages - TomL21

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1
Mach4 Plugins / Re: mcX360 Plugin for Lua
« on: February 14, 2017, 09:50:45 AM »
Hahaha. Nice work Daz.

This is becoming a very useful tool for dev, i'm using it for more and more stuff. Thanks for you hard work on this sir!

2
Mach4 Plugins / Re: mcX360 Plugin for Lua
« on: February 07, 2017, 11:53:17 PM »
Short answer, the PMC is a soft PLC in Mach4 that is programmed in ladder logic, and runs on a continuous loop, like a real PLC. So while it's not a version of Brains from Mach3 it is what Brains should have been.

I think the biggest reason for using the PMC over a lua script is your ability to program. If you know ladder, the PMC would make more sense. There is definitely more power and flexibility in lua, but you have to take the time to learn it. If you just want to get something like this up and running, without dealing with adding timers, potentially locking the gui, etc. than the PMC is the way to go. It is just another handy tool that does seem to be a bit under utilized.

Honestly, I've been doing a lot of work in Mach4 for a few years now, and this is the first time I've used the PMC. I saw this was a good opportunity to check it out and it worked great. I'll probably be using it more in the future now!

EDIT: And I should add that after you build the ladder the PMC Editor generates a Lua script that is run on a loop by Mach4, which is why i was able to hack it to get the values I needed. The input filer issue is being fixed, so that should not be necessary in future versions.

3
Mach4 Plugins / Re: mcX360 Plugin for Lua
« on: February 06, 2017, 12:27:58 PM »
And here is the module I whipped up yesterday. A little more basic, I spent most of the time getting some exponential curve on the joysticks. Left and right buttons enable continuous and incremental jog, respectively. Each needs to be held like a deadman switch.

To use this one just load the module in the screen load script and then call the modulename.PLC() function in the plc script. "modulename" is ofcourse whatever variable you assigned the module to.

4
Mach4 Plugins / Re: mcX360 Plugin for Lua
« on: February 06, 2017, 12:15:57 PM »
Has anyone tried this in the PMC? I played with it for an hour or two this morning. Found a couple little bugs that I forwarded off to the Artsoft gang, but all in all works pretty good. And easy to implement.

If you haven't used the pmc yet just drop these two files in the mach4>pmc folder. Then in the screen editor on the screen properties one of the options is pmc objects. Check the one you want to use and that is it.

I did this with the following functions:
Left joystick X and Y axis jog
DPad X and Y axis jog
Right joystick Z axis jog
Hold left button to enable continuous jogging (must be held down to jog any axis)
Hold right button to enable incremental jogging (must be held down to jog any axis)
Start cycles the jog increment
B is disable
Y is enable
A is cycle start
X is feed hold
Back is cycle stop

One of the bugs was I couldn't enter negative values. So I had to hack the .lua file to get a dead zone on the sticks. You'll see in the ladder of the pmc file the stick values are compared to 0, in the lua file i changed these zeroes to 30 and -30.

5
Mach4 Plugins / Re: mcX360 Plugin for Lua
« on: February 05, 2017, 05:32:42 PM »
Installed and played with this a little bit today. Nice work getting everything into registers Daz, a very smart approach! Runs smooth!

I see you have registers for the rumble, i played with the numbers a little bit but didn't get any feedback from the controller. Be fun to vibrate on alarm or contact with a probe. Just playing games here ;)

6
Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Current Status of Mach4 Lathe
« on: February 16, 2015, 02:23:22 PM »
... a word of caution here. Lathe functions in Mach4 depend heavily on features of the
plug-in and/or the interface device. As of now (February 2015) the lathe functions for
the PMDX SmartBOB devices have not yet been implemented.

I think the videos that Brian posted were for a machine running a Vital Systems HiCon
board. For anything else, I would ask before purchasing.

Steve Stallings
www.PMDX.com


Good advice from Steve.

7
SmoothStepper USB / Re: ESS and Mach4
« on: February 16, 2015, 12:42:15 PM »
problem solved.  thanks greg.  appears there was a bit of a bug in the plugin.

8
Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Current Status of Mach4 Lathe
« on: February 16, 2015, 10:37:17 AM »
The ethernet smoothstepper is a classic.  it works great and basically provides 3 parallel ports worth of i/o.  should be able to use the existing bob or can upgrade to something like the pmdx-126.  cnc4pc also has a variety of bobs designed to plug directly into the smoothstepper.

pmdx also has some new inexpensive usb motion controllers out, one of which would plug right into your bob.  i've had a chance to play with the 422 with integrated bob, super easy to set up.

then there's the cslab csmio, vital systems hicon, and a host of others.  depends on what you want and how much you want to spend.  The smoothstepper and pmdx boards are under $200.  a hicon integra without closed loop will run around $500, and is worth every penny.  it is a much more industrial level motion controller.

9
SmoothStepper USB / ESS and Mach4
« on: February 16, 2015, 10:18:19 AM »
So this machine has been running Mach4 with the ESS for sometime now.  I just upgraded it to Mach4 build 2223 and the ESS plugin on the Warp9 website.  This plug in was a little newer than the one i had installed.  See the video for my new issue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyPJp9YoB5U

That ticking sound is the relay on pin 1 of port 1 when the y axis is jogged (pin4 step and pin 5 dir).  Pin1 was being used for the reverse signal to the vfd, that is now disconnected, and I uncofigured pin 1 in the ess plugin and the output signal in mach4.  the video is in that that, nothing should be doing anything on pin1.  the spindle doesn't work at all now.  very annoying.  this all worked fine, foward and reverse prior to the update.  my assumption is something is screwy in the plugin.  anyone experienced the same thing?

In a bind now, have parts that need to get made NOW.  I should know by now not to upgrade prior to a job, but mach4 really needed to be updated.

Thank you for any help and ideas.

10
Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Current Status of Mach4 Lathe
« on: February 16, 2015, 10:02:36 AM »
That depends on your current set up.  if you are running on the parallel port now i would suggesting getting an external motion controller, there are many options for that.  if you already have one then you will need the new plugin for that hardware.  if you have a lot of custom scripts that you will be keeping they will have to be translated from vb into the new lua format.

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