Messages

1

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Need help triggering feedhold with a driver alarm - Mach 4

« on: August 03, 2021, 09:18:22 PM »

I wouldn't feed hold - I'd eStop.

Driver alarm means "I tried to get to the commanded move point but didn't get there" so you have lost positioning and something is very wrong.

That's a "shut everything off NOW" situation.

I wouldn't feed hold - I'd eStop.

Driver alarm means "I tried to get to the commanded move point but didn't get there" so you have lost positioning and something is very wrong.

That's a "shut everything off NOW" situation.
[/quote]

I thought about estop but since it's a plasma table I'm not too worried about a few lost steps, I wanted to be able to start back up if things were still close.  I have limit switches on both sides of all the axis and a magnetic torch head so I doubt I could crash it too bad.  I'll probably eat those words one day but for now it makes sense in my head.

2

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Need help triggering feedhold with a driver alarm - Mach 4

« on: August 03, 2021, 09:14:04 PM »

Try using mc.mcCntlFeedHold(inst) after you have set your error

DazTheGas

This worked perfectly, thanks!

3

Mach4 General Discussion / Need help triggering feedhold with a driver alarm - Mach 4

« on: August 02, 2021, 08:45:56 PM »

I have hybrid stepper motors on my plasma table and I would like the alarm function to trigger a feed hold in Mach 4.  I have tried numerous different times to write the code myself (more like copying others code) but I can't get it to work.  Right now I have the code where it reads the pin when the state changes and it sends an error message but I can't get it to trigger a feed hold no matter what I try.  Any help would be appreciated.

Code so far:

[mc.ISIG_INPUT0] = function (state)       -- X Axis
        mc.mcCntlSetLastError(inst, "X Axis driver ALARM - STOPPING")
    end,

Thanks!

4

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 Stalling Out

« on: February 02, 2018, 06:43:48 PM »

I am running an ESS with clearpath servos on a 64 bit machine.  I'll try adding a capacitor to the e-stop but I would think if the e-stop was triggered their would be a message in the history.  I'll also look into the ESS buffer monitor.

Any other suggestions?

5

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 Stalling Out

« on: February 02, 2018, 03:11:19 PM »

I'm running a full Mach 4 Hobby license.  I'm not sure if the computer is 32 bit or 64 bit, I'll have to check when I get home.

6

Mach4 General Discussion / Mach 4 Stalling Out

« on: February 02, 2018, 08:40:32 AM »

I'm having an issue with my mill and I'm not sure if it's due to Mach 4 or something else.  When I try to machine large gcode files (>20,000 lines) my mill will suddenly and randomly stop.  I don't get any errors in the history but all the axes are disabled and I have to restart Mach 4 in order to enable them again.  It's like the program fills up its memory and then says I quit.  It's done this a few times now and it's becoming a problem.

I'm running Mach 4 on a Windows XP machine with 8 gigs of RAM using an ethernet smooth stepper board.  Using Fusion 360 for CAM.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

7

General Mach Discussion / Lua Basics Tutorial

« on: November 03, 2017, 08:11:35 AM »

Is there a Lua Scripting 101 for Dummies out there?  I've done plenty of coding but never in Lua so I'd like to see some sort of language reference list or something.  Ultimately I'm trying to figure out how to use generic inputs and I would like to make it where if my spindle is running flood coolant is always on.  Thanks! 

8

VB and the development of wizards / Need help turning on coolant when my spindle starts

« on: October 30, 2017, 09:35:43 AM »

I'm new to Mach 4 so I'm looking for a little help on the scripting side.  I would like to set up my mill so that anytime I turn on my spindle the coolant automatically turns on.  Any help would be appreciated.