Messages

1

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Jog buttons not obeying incremental mode

« on: April 01, 2023, 12:10:08 PM »

Incremental jogging mode works as expected if pressing on screen buttons with the mouse but wired buttons still jog continuously.

2

Mach4 General Discussion / Jog buttons not obeying incremental mode

« on: April 01, 2023, 12:08:50 PM »

I have a behaviour I don't understand.
I have mapped some buttons to Jogging in Mach4.
Buttons are connected to a Pokeys as matrix keyboard and then mapped to Jog inputs in Mach4 inputs config.
They work but always as continuous jogging even if jog mode is toggled to incremental.
Anyone any idea why this is and how I can get these buttons to work in incremental mode?

3

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: mpg "Velocity mode"

« on: March 19, 2023, 08:52:21 AM »

Thanks joeaverage,

I will definitely experiment with the Mach API's.
I guess the Mach3 Velocity mpg functionality was quite similar (more correctly I was using "Step & Velocity" mode). It worked in mpg incremental mode until axis velocity was maxing out (and mpg could then potentially get ahead of motion) it would then switch to velocity move until mpg rate was below max speed again at which point it would drop back to mpg controlled moves, starting from the position the velocity jog stopped.
It's probably cleverer than that in Mach3 and probably takes any cause for mpg windup including acceleration and velocity limits into account. It probably also employed some filtering/hysteresis on mpg speed so that it wouldn't rapidly jump back and forth between modes. Even if I could only implement a simplified version it may prove to be functional.

Knowing very little about the Mach4 API at this point I'll take a look and see if it is possible to do something similar. If not then potentially look at the options back at the mpg encoder end.
I could potentially see a couple of approaches. Have to find out more about what's feasible to read and control in the API.

A quick look for other options appears to show that custom functionality can be programmed in the Pokeys device using Poblocks so that may give another option to try and achieve some functionality without resorting to making my own microcontroller pcb, although again I currently have no experience of Pokeys/Poblocks programming.

4

Mach4 General Discussion / mpg "Velocity mode"

« on: March 18, 2023, 11:50:22 AM »

I'm just starting to try Mach4 moving from Mach3.
I have an mpg connected to Pokeys57U.
In Mach4 I don't see any way of running mpg with "Velocity mode" per Mach3, which I found to be a very useful mode of operation for larger moves and rough positioning before switching to incremental mode for slow fine positioning.
As far as I can tell Mach4 only works with mpg in incremental mode which will easily "wind up" causing potential long continuation of motion after mpg stopped.
Is there a way to implement the Mach3 mpg Velocity mode in Mach4?

Thanks Peter 

5

Mach4 General Discussion / Set focus to DRO

« on: January 14, 2022, 06:43:39 PM »

I'm trying to convert from Mach3 to Mach4 on my 3 axis mill.
I have a CNC panel with buttons and keypad. I'd like to set focus to a DRO from a buttons on the panel. This is to enter values in to the DRO.
I had this working on Mach3 but cannot find how to set focus to a control in Lua.
Does anyone know how this can be done?

Thanks

Pete 

6

VB and the development of wizards / Changing toolpath view programatically

« on: September 10, 2013, 05:10:35 AM »

I would like to change the toolpath view programmatically in Mach3. i.e. zoom in or out, pan and tilt etc.
Is there a way to do this from VB for instance?
Background: I have a cnc setup without touch screen and am trying to eliminate need to use mouse input but need some ability to manipulate the toolpath view from button inputs.