Messages

1

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions

« on: December 22, 2015, 02:41:06 PM »

Hey Art, thanks for the info. This did the trick!
I thought M4's Active Low's had to match Darwin's Active Low's.
Whew!

One other question:
Why is the PC responsible for sending out step pulses?  I believe it should be the Motion Control Board that should do that.
The PC should simply send a "command" to the board to move a motor, x number of steps at a specified speed.  And the board should react to E-Stops and Home switches directly.
Communications between the PC and board could simply be serial messages.
This is how I operate my robot arms using Arduino and Beaglebone Black boards.  And I can run 8 motors simultaneously just fine.
No need for Darwin.
Perhaps for Mach5

2

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions

« on: December 12, 2015, 12:09:21 PM »

Hi Art -
Thanks for looking into the "Darwin Buffer Error".
The error still occurs with the new plugin, however, a signal tripping the E-Stop definitely has something to do with it.
Playing with Darwin Emergency enable on/off, Darwin E-Stop Tri on/off and Mach4 config setting on/off DOES effect the outcome.

But configs are getting a bit much for the end user ... having now duplicate settings for Darwin and Mach4 Configs.
- What config settings are the "master settings", Darwin or Mach4?
- Which settings take precedence?
- Do they negate each other? (Darwin has a signal enabled high and Mach4 has the same signal enabled low)
- If the Emergency Signal is enabled, shouldn't it ALWAYS trip an E-Stop (the [EStop Tri] checkbox should be checked and grayed out)?

3

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions

« on: December 10, 2015, 09:54:46 PM »

I still get "Darwin Buffer Error - Motion out of bounds" with the "Test" plugin:
- Tried enabling only 1 motor,
- Tried lowering motor speed to just 10 steps/sec
- Tried multiple Pulse Count settings.
Jogging does not work in the Darwin config for any case.
I'm using a slower machine, but my "Time in Interrupt" is still only 8-9us

4

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions

« on: December 09, 2015, 01:20:35 PM »

Thanks for replies -
Removed Sim from Plugins folder,
Tried increasing Look Ahead Lines to 200,
Can't find the Darwin Buffer size setting
No luck.
I only have the Core and Darwin plugins enabled. Do I need any other plugin enabled?
I have three motors configured (X, Y, Z) but can't even "Enable" the machine to try a simple gcode command like G0 X1.0  
Went to check the motion device is still Darwin, but when I selected [Set Motion Device] from the pulldown - Mach4 crashed!  I can't even kill the Mach4GUI process !!!  The machine couldn't even Restart ... had to hold it's power button  

5

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions

« on: December 08, 2015, 04:33:59 PM »

Yes, just hitting [Enable] causes the error, but I'm not in an E-Stop condition.

Message History:
-----------------------
Signal 5 set to 1
Signal 5 set to 1
E-Stop cleared!
Signal 5 set to 0
Darwin Buffer Error - Motion out of bounds.
Signal 5 set to 1

Log
-------------------------
2015-12-08 13:08:47.718 - Loggging Enabled.
2015-12-08 13:08:56.343 - API: mcCntlEnable(true) called.
2015-12-08 13:08:56.343 - Signal id 1018, (Enable #0), changed from LOW to HIGH.
2015-12-08 13:08:56.343 - Signal id 1019, (Enable #1), changed from LOW to HIGH.
2015-12-08 13:08:56.343 - Signal id 1020, (Enable #2), changed from LOW to HIGH.
2015-12-08 13:08:56.343 - Signal id 1120, (Machine Enabled), changed from LOW to HIGH.
2015-12-08 13:08:56.343 - API: mcMotionSync() called.
2015-12-08 13:08:56.343 - SyncPosition()! Clearing planner.
2015-12-08 13:08:56.343 - API: mcCntlReset() called.
2015-12-08 13:08:56.359 - API: mcCntlEnable(false) called.
2015-12-08 13:08:56.359 - Signal id 1018, (Enable #0), changed from HIGH to LOW.
2015-12-08 13:08:56.359 - All motors marked as still.
2015-12-08 13:08:56.359 - API: mcMotionSync() called.
2015-12-08 13:08:56.359 - SyncPosition()! Clearing planner.
2015-12-08 13:08:56.359 - Signal id 1019, (Enable #1), changed from HIGH to LOW.
2015-12-08 13:08:56.359 - Signal id 1020, (Enable #2), changed from HIGH to LOW.
2015-12-08 13:08:56.359 - Signal id 1120, (Machine Enabled), changed from HIGH to LOW.
2015-12-08 13:08:56.359 - All motors marked as still.
2015-12-08 13:08:56.359 - API: mcMotionSync() called.
2015-12-08 13:08:56.359 - SyncPosition()! Clearing planner.
2015-12-08 13:08:56.359 - API: mcMotionSync() called.
2015-12-08 13:08:56.359 - SyncPosition()! Clearing planner.
2015-12-08 13:08:56.359 - All motors marked as still.
2015-12-08 13:08:56.359 - API: mcMotionSync() called.
2015-12-08 13:08:56.359 - SyncPosition()! Clearing planner.

6

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions

« on: December 08, 2015, 02:21:42 PM »

I am also having problems with Mach4/Darwin.  Mach4 won't stay "Enabled" when [Enable] is clicked.
Both my Mach4 and Darwin are licensed from the guys at PMD (Steve and Bob) and the license files are in the Licenses folder.
My motors run fine with Mach3, but with Mach4/Darwin I'm getting "Darwin Buffer Error - Motion out of bounds".
Any help would be much appreciated.
--Bill Daniels