Messages

4961

General Mach Discussion / Re: Getting Disillusioned with Mach3.

« on: January 13, 2012, 04:35:36 AM »

Hi Ian,
I will get back to you later today in a PM.


Hi Rich,
Wish I was a lathe user, sometimes. 


Hi Art,
Thanks for the response. As you say, I am sure it was non-intentional but the The E1P1 / E1P0 seems to be a buffer type of problem as it will work for a small number of instances (6 or so) then it will freeze for a while then work then freeze and so on. When it does work it is just such an excellent command for fast switching it would wonderful to get it back again.
The existing Impact/Laser plugin which uses the digital trigger output is not affected by this issue.


Hi Hood,
I must admit to having not tried the very latest SS version software. Thank you for the information.
The Mach derived M10 / M11 suffers similar problems to the E1P1 / E1P0 and will freeze during a long repetitive sequence but the new SS derived commands may behave very differently.
Unfortunately, nothing is ever simple as my SS installation is currently on a milling machine and is not plug for plug compatible with the laser but when I can I will transfer it and see.


Hi Gerry,
You are quite right and it is a bit ironic really because the response has really exceeded my expectations.


Thanks to you all for your assistance,

Tweakie.

4962

General Mach Discussion / Re: Getting Disillusioned with Mach3.

« on: January 12, 2012, 01:19:07 PM »

Thanks Guys, you are all very kind.

Tweakie.

4963

General Mach Discussion / Re: Getting Disillusioned with Mach3.

« on: January 12, 2012, 09:34:04 AM »

I'd be happy to stick it on the yahoo group for you right now if you like - let me know.

Most grateful if you would Ian I haven't even found the support email for Brian as yet. 

Tweakie.

4964

General Mach Discussion / Re: Getting Disillusioned with Mach3.

« on: January 12, 2012, 09:10:55 AM »

Hi Scott and Hi Gerry,

Thanks for your support. An additional plugin would not help as part of my problem relates to the use of the Impact / Laser plugin operation and I cannot use two plugin’s at the same time. I am not a member of the Yahoo group so cannot post there but I will send a copy to Brian if you think it would help.

It is my own fault by upgrading to later versions of Mach as they were released and I have tried going back to earlier versions but then other things that I have since added don’t work correctly (C++ stuff for example) and it has all become quite a pain.

I just want E1P0/E1P1 back working even if I am the only person  in the world (at the moment) that wants to use it 

Tweakie.

4965

General Mach Discussion / Getting Disillusioned with Mach3.

« on: January 12, 2012, 08:16:05 AM »

Hi Guys,

After all these years as an extremely satisfied (and I mean ‘really satisfied’) user I am starting to get disillusioned with Mach3 (and the speculative, guesswork, statements that version 4 will fix all the problems really does not help).

Mach was just fine ‘yesterday’ but we, as well as our machines, all move on – more complexity, more sophistication, more function, faster operation etc etc and in my case also more laser.
It appears to me that recent revisions have catered for those that shout the loudest and have not really been for the good of all. The changes that have occurred to the way CB is treated was bit of a shock at first but the addition of “While IsMoving() … Wend” between every CB statement now seems to prevent tool breakage on the ‘auto tool zero’ routine at least.

My main gripe, at the moment, is with M11P1/M10P1and the E1P0/E1P1 commands which would switch an output coincident with axis movement in more or less exactly the same way as the Z Axis can move during any X and Y Axis movements when included on the same line of GCode. Now they just don’t work !! Why ??

Believe it or not, laser usage is going to grow in popularity and if Mach keeps moving backwards by ignoring the, perhaps unique, requirements of laser users it will get left behind in this important area of CNC. I get more than a dozen emails a week about using a laser with a CNC machine and many relating to using Mach3 with a laser and whilst I am learning fast I am still far from being an expert (perhaps I never will get there).

The LPT Parallel Port is dying in its availability so I have tried the Smooth Stepper controller and Mach (without benefit as far as laser is concerned) and am now looking toward external motion controllers which use other software (a sad day for me).

My requirements, as a laser user, are pretty basic – I just need to switch an output on when an axis moves and switch an output off when an axis stops – without any delay. Is this too much to ask ??  The E1P0/E1P1 commands that Art included (for laser use) used to do exactly this so why does it no longer work ??. Why has it been changed ??. Will it be fixed ??.

Questions that will never be resolved, or will they ??

Tweakie.

4966

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Re: Impact Engraving.

« on: January 10, 2012, 10:46:27 AM »

Thanks Russ,

For the full story of Lena this thread may be of interest. http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~chuck/lennapg/

Tweakie.

4967

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Re: Impact Engraving.

« on: January 10, 2012, 07:52:24 AM »

Hi Guys,

This effect needs a lot more trials but based on the fact that my previous example (positive image) when viewed against a sky background appears as a negative image I decided to make a negative image and then view that against a sky background.
As I seem to be getting bit of a reputation for the ladies (thank you Jeff  ) this image is of my little helper ‘Bertie’.
It is overcast here in the UK today and it was impossible to find a patch of blue sky so I used a white background and cheated a little by altering the contrast level towards the blue in Photochop. Interesting nonetheless.

Tweakie.

4968

Tangent Corner / Re: over 18/21

« on: January 09, 2012, 03:25:50 AM »

I replaced the cig's with sex, but try as I may, just can't seem to get to 20 a day.

I don't smoke but I understand the problem (I drink Beer).

Tweakie.

4969

General Mach Discussion / Re: Where Can I Buy Some C4....

« on: January 09, 2012, 03:17:53 AM »

If you need any help Ray then you need to be more specific about your problem. 

Tweakie.

4970

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: Halftone.

« on: January 08, 2012, 08:09:03 AM »

And this is the same image processed with Halftoner using the 'line' option and cut into particle-board with a V bit (It really needs colour filling to enhance the contrast but I just don't have the time today).

Tweakie.