Messages

1

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Non Linear Spindle Speed?

« on: December 17, 2018, 11:02:47 PM »

Thanks! Will give these a try!

2

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Non Linear Spindle Speed?

« on: December 16, 2018, 10:34:31 PM »

20% would be fine, but in my case it looks more like this.  (guess it could be the VFD in the speed control as suggested)

Call for -> Get   %diff
300  ->  163    -46%
400  ->  281    -30%
500  ->  396    -21%
1000->  989    -1%
1500->  1563  +4%
2000->  2155  +8%

Normally I mill around 2500 which is the top end of my spindle speed (and that is all totally fine), but in this case, I needed to run a face mill at around 350 rpm. It came in under-speed, with a stall and a crash

Of course, I can work around this by jacking up the requested speed to ~800 in CAM, or by adjusting SRO slider on Mach4 (which is what I did).  However, both of those methods introduce other potentials for human error on a future date, so if there was a way to fix it, I would like to save future self the headache =)

I am using a Vital systems HiCON Controller (and set the Analog Spindle Scale to 48.8 in the mach plugin to get it 'close'). That output feeds into a Precision Matthews PM-25 stock speed control.  I did measure the output of the HiCon card to be generating expected voltages. From there wired into the location where the analog Speed Potentiometer on the PM-25 would have attached.  (The rest of the board is potted with black epoxy, so I have no idea what is in there, or able to test further)

Thanks for the info!

3

Mach4 General Discussion / Non Linear Spindle Speed?

« on: December 09, 2018, 04:01:17 PM »

Hi all, in My spindle speed controller, 0-10V does not map to a linear increase in spindle speed.

I have fiddled with the scaling parameter in Mach4, and doing that, I  can get it "close" to the requested speed, on either high or low end, but not both.
(sacrificing on the low end at the moment, but just got bit with too low speed, because I forgot about it)


Is there a way to apply eg: a quadratic or other function to this output in march4 to match what my controller seems to want?
Any ideas?

(Sorry if this has been answered before, search doesn't seem to be working right now)

4

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Wacky behavior on DRO 3804 and 3805 (at least)

« on: August 12, 2018, 10:40:02 AM »

Thanks Joe!  (Will have to play with that extended keyboard bit).

I wound up just redoing my machine setup in MM (so both settings could be the same), and manually converting my tool table from inch values to metric.   It got me up and running, without going back in time... Just need to make sure I don't make a bozo  converting from my IN height gage on tool length entry!

5

Mach4 General Discussion / Wacky behavior on DRO 3804 and 3805 (at least)

« on: August 09, 2018, 11:17:26 PM »

Hi,  When setting up Mach4 in mixed mode

Machine Setup Units = "Inch"   (this is how I originally set up and dialed in my mill)
Units Mode = "Metric"              (this is how I normally program and work)


When I click an Axis on DRO I get non-deterministic behavior on either direct Type-in  values or when using AutoCalc

 example: click into X DRO and type:  2 <ENTER>,
   /sometimes/ I get 2.0 as expected,  but other times I get 1290.32  (If I then just select the same axis again only hit enter, -> 1248694.2768 mm! )


I have tried this in BOTH 3804 and 3805, but both have same result. (Also, exists with fresh profile)
Can someone verify and hopefully fix it?!

(I guess i will try to go back to 3390 for now as this is the last version that I know did not have this issue, but was looking forward to a few other fixes (like keyboard jogging), so crossing my fingers for a quick fix or a hack I can do on my side to fix it )

6

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: HELP!: Mach4 3481 jogs in inches when "set"(?) to mm

« on: December 12, 2017, 12:14:28 AM »

Update:  I found this text in the release notes for 3390

> From Version 2.0.3247 (4/1/2017) to 2.0.3390 (5/9/2017)
> Correct incremental jogging for machines that start in G21 (mm)


Since i still had the original (3390) installer lying around, I downgraded, and the issue went away.
That tells me that it was likely a regression of the fix in a build after 3390.  Hopefully someone who can fix this reads this, and it helps chase it down.


3390    OK
3481    ISSUE PRESENT
3485    ISSUE PRESENT  (found this version on the ftp page)


PS:
Did a little exploration and Can document a similar bug, which happens in reverse.  If you have your machine fully set up as metric (Setup units =  mm  and units mode = mm ) then I was able to repeat the issue by running a G20 command to set the machine to inch readout mode.  Then running the inc jog functions were adding mm increments to an inch display, and JOG rate % slider switched from 1-100 to ~ 0 - 3.9

7

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: HELP!: Mach4 3481 jogs in inches when "set"(?) to mm

« on: December 11, 2017, 10:54:37 AM »

In my case,  the MACHINE SETUP UNITS is INCHES (and it was set that way before, too)  and the UNITS mode is MM.  I have been happily using this in the previous build  (since i originally configured and calibrated the machine in inches, but do most of my modeling and run in metric). 

Another oddity that I've noticed is that the JOG slider no longer reads in 1-100%, but now it reads in what appears to be actuals mm/min move speeds.   [EG: the lowest number I can select on the slider is 24.5 on the jog slider].. weird 


Thanks, glad to hear I'm not the only one.

8

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: HELP!: Mach4 3481 jogs in inches when "set"(?) to mm

« on: December 11, 2017, 12:10:12 AM »

previous version was (most likely) 3247.. but I'm just guessing

9

Mach4 General Discussion / HELP!: Mach4 3481 jogs in inches when "set"(?) to mm

« on: December 11, 2017, 12:09:29 AM »

Hi, I recently updated to 3481 and now when I jog an increment while in G21 mode, it moves in 'inches' instead of 'mm'.  ex: pressing X+ button with jog increment is set at 0.01 => moves the X from 0.00 mm to 0.2516 mm on the display.
 
I can't figure out how to make it work the way it did before I upgraded.... which is: 1 press on the +x button with jogincrement at 0.01 mm moves the axes from  0.00 mm -> 0.01 mm

I'm sorry if this is a stupid question answered hundreds of times  in other threads. I did do a quick search,  but wasn't able to  find this discussed much, but I'm totally dead in water at the moment (in fact, looking for the old installer file to downgrade). Also totally possible I'm doing something bonehead, schooling welcome.