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Messages - devinw

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1
Be patient with them, as Industrial customers will get priority.  Until then, have you tried a newer build? 

Steve

Cool, yeah it's OK. I can wait. I am using the offical newest recommended supported build from Warp 9  (ESS maker) now, so I don't think I'd want to change?

2
Have you talked with support and made a ticket?  If not, I would have them check it out.  They will want a packaged profile (Help -> Support -> Package Current Profile) and the G code file that you are running.  There has to be some explanation for this and they will find it.

Steve

Yeah, I have a active ticket now. They kinda went quiet for a couple of days but I'm hoping they can help!

3

But I did also compare Mach to Fanuc, Fidia, and Siemens first though.  That is what we end up replacing most of the time.  And they cost significantly more than Mach.  Like in the multiple 10s of thousands.  Plus, on any given machine, Mach will most likely be the cheapest component of the machine!  Most power supplies cost more than Mach.

I'm glad things are working for you now.  Onward and upward!  :)

Steve

For sure. And I don't have experience with some of those, so I will take your word for it!

But yeah, mostly working now which is good. i still can't do a manual tool change though without troubles since my upgrade to ESS (see my other thread if interested). If I can get that solved I'll be 100%!

4
To be fair though, it makes no sense that the "spindle RPM" box on the main screen lets you type a number in, but it does nothing. It had been long enough of a time gap that I had forgotten about all the quirk in Mach4 and how truly bad ArtSoft is at making intuitive and clean UIs. Sorry guys, it's true. You need to hire someone to help you make your UIs :).

To be REALLY fair though, have you ran a Fanuc, Fidia, or Siemens?  Or Linux CNC?  Good luck with anything being intuitive with those.  All things are relative.  :)

What is it supposed to do when you put a speed in the spindle RPM box?  Start the spindle?  If so, which direction?  Forward or backward?  Would that be what everyone likes?  There is NO WAY we can make a screen set/UI that everyone likes.  And there is NO WAY we can make everything intuitive either.  But we DO give you the ability of making it exactly the way you want it.  :)  We gave you a really good starting point though.  Just modify it to your liking.

Steve


Interesting plot twist: I just upgraded to a new build last week and it lets me type the desired speed into that box and works fine. So either a) I'm crazy and it was never like that before or b) this feature was recently added or c) something happened to my old installation that randomly made that feature not work.

I'm betting on  B or C.

PS: I don't think it's fair at all to compare a free open source program (Linux CNC) to a commercial product that costs a significant amount of money. Yes, it is pretty janky I will agree though.

5
I ran another program tonight, one that I know worked before the switch to ESS. 1st tool ran fine, here is a screenshot of right after the MTC happend. At MTC, I jogged the head a little, brought the tool down to a .3mm shim and hit the the Set Z button as usual.

Then, as you can see in the screen shot, Mach has moved to a strange location that is not where the it is supposed to be going based on that line of code. I hit the STOP button right at Z above the part, but it looked like it was gonna try and plow down into the part... And of course the X and Y are nowhere near the spot where it's supposed to be putting that hole!

I did notice that when I hit set Z or zero Z during a MTC, Mach4 is populating (strange?) X, Y, and Z values in the Fixture Offsets Table under the G54 (work offset?) line. Is that normal?? Or is this maybe the problem??


6
Well the X is going to a negative position after the second tool.
Do you actually have room in the negative area before hitting the limit?

I just checked and from where the program 0 was, the Y has about -30mm before hitting the limit, and X has -200mm. So, the code is not going anywhere near that. I don't recall where it was trying to go, but it clearly banged the Y limit. On the other program I remember seeing the DRO was saying Z was about -75mm (after it snapped the tool), which definitely wasn't commanded anywhere in the program!

7
The problem might be the tool table.
If your gcode has tool numbers and heights the tools will have the heights associated with what is in the tool table.
If your code does not include populating the tool table that might be the problem.

Tool table looks to be all 0s from what I can see.. Attached is the code that ran the X into  - and hit the limit after the M6 to T2 and hitting resume.

I'm becoming pretty sure this has to be something with Mach4 because I'm looking side by side with some code with an MTC that I ran prior to switching to the ESS and upgrading Mach4 to this build and I don't see any extra lines of code around the tool change that looks suspect.

8
At the bottom of the screen it lists all the modal g-codes that are active. I have circled 'G1' in the image below. Check to see if 'G0' is active before resuming, this would mean the next move would be a rapid unless something other than G0 is on the next line of gcode.

Are there additional scripts that are run to move the machine to tool change position and zero the z?

OK, I will check this. Thanks.

And no, no additional scripts. It's a very basic setup. I wonder if the "remembered" Z position is messed up somehow and Mach is moving to it after the tool change for some reason?

9
Thanks for the replies ya'll! I just checked and indeed the M6s are exactly the same between my old PMDX profile and my new ESS one. Screenshots attached.

SwiftyJ, pardon me but what do you mean my modals? Sorry, I'm still far from a power user in mach4 :D.


10
So, I just finished upgrading to a Ethernet SmoothStepper from a PMDX dongle and everything is working fine except my basic manual M6. Using Mach4 Hobby version 4.2.0.4612 with ESS 275. I just copied the old M6 macro from my profile that I was using before (which I think is just the standard one that comes with Mach4...no fancy mods).

I ran 2 programs tonight that each have 2 tools:

1st program: Tool 1 paths all work perfect > Machine pauses and moves up for MTC > Changed tool and zero'd Z > Hit resume and Mach 4 move some in X and Y and then RAPID MOVED down to Z=-25mm or so! It drilled the 4mm shank of a 0.5mm engraving tool through a 2mm piece of aluminum. Pretty impressive really. There is no Rapid Z-25 in my code... So what was this?

2nd program: Tool 1 paths all work perfect > Machine pauses and moves up for MTC> Changed tool and zero'd Z > hit resume and Mach4 rapided X and Y all the way to crash into the X limit switch and the machine stops. Again there is not this motion in my code.

Any idea what the hell is going on here? I'd like to not destroy any more $30 engraving tools :D.

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