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1

Mach4 General Discussion / Upadte: Configuration of Mach4 for homing with reference contacts

« on: January 05, 2017, 03:21:54 AM »

Hi,

Meanwhile I have found the problem. I have made some mistakes in the configuration of the ESS.
The ‘Reference All Axes’ of Mach4 is working now like it should.

But it looks like that the version of Mach4 (or the wx4.set) I have installed is different to the one which is used by DazTheGas in his video.
1.   After ‘Reference All Axes’ the machine is moved to the reference positions and the exact OffSet values from the configuration of the ‘Homing’ are shown. (Pic. 01)
2.   I have debugged the code and figured out that the problem starts within the ‘Signal Script’. The variable ‘sig’ is not set and based on that the ‘if (sig == …)’ can’t work. (Pic. 03)
3.   In the ‘Screen Load Script’ is now a function ‘RefAllHome’ (Pic. 04) which is called by all ‘Reference All Axes’ buttons (Pic. 05)

I guess with this version of the wx4.set just a GCode must be run right before the ‘Referencing is complete’ message box is called. The GCode must move the machine to coordinates ‘all zero’. But I’m a very inexperienced user of Mach4 and I would like to have a solution which is based on the knowledge of the experienced users here!

2

Mach4 General Discussion / Configuration of Mach4 for homing with reference contacts

« on: January 03, 2017, 04:26:01 AM »

Hello,

I’m from Brunswick (Germany) and I’m a very new user of Mach4. I have used Mach3 with Windows XP via parallel ports in the past.
Now I want to try Mach4 on Windows 10 via SmoothStepper.

I have configured Win 10 to be a very “speechless” system and the communication with the SmoothStepper works well.
I want to control a portal milling machine with 3 axes.
X & Y has got to limit switches and one reference contact in the middle.
Z has got just one limit switch (top) and one reference contact.

All limits are combined together to one output by my controller. That signal I have configured as just one input (‘A ++’) on the ESS.
The reference contacts of each ax are configured as individual input’s (‘X Home / Y Home / Z Home’) on the ESS.

With Mach3 it was possible to make the homing on that way that the machine was running first to the reference contacts (in the middle of each ax) and than a configured distance to the homing position.
I know that therefore a macro must be used in Mach4 (e.g. based on the description of DazTheGas) but I’m not able to do so.
First of all the home signal is coming (on ‘Machine Diagnostics Screen’) whenever I trip a contact.
But the status LED-field (next to the position field) is not changing to green.

Hope someone can help me to configure Mach4 to go forward!