Messages

101

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Can someone better explain probing setup?

« on: January 31, 2016, 09:48:07 PM »

If I have soft limits set my keyboard commands for the Z are reversed.  By simply clicking soft limits on, up is down and down is up.   Also no matter whether soft limits are off or on when I try to zero probe, the z axis travels upwards instead of down.  

This is a known issue with Mach4 and the configuration screen.  Double check your soft limit values and note that the soft limit **MAX** is the first column and the **MIN** is the second column.  If you enter, as a lot of people presume, the smaller value in the first column (which is actually the "MAX" column) and the larger value in the second column (which is actually the "MIN" column), Mach4 will not complain or warn you that you've entered nonsensical data.  It *WILL* however, jog the motor in the opposite direction as you have noticed.

[EDIT] I just looked back at the pictures you posted.  You do indeed have the Z axis soft limits backwards.  The X and Y axis look OK. [END EDIT]

[shameless plug] Note that an upcoming version of the PMDX SmartBOB plug-in *will* check this and warn the user about it.

Bob

102

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Can someone better explain probing setup?

« on: January 30, 2016, 09:26:40 PM »

I see from the pictures that you are using an ESS as the motion controller.  And the screen set is "wx4".  Whcih version of Mach4 are you running? The newest public version is build 2803.  The probing Lua code has changed (significantly) in the past couple of Mach4 releases.

103

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: M06 not working

« on: January 30, 2016, 09:21:24 PM »

Note that the official Lua Scripting manual does contains errors related to the name of the M6() function. In the manual, section 5.4 (page 22-23) , its shown that the tool change Macro can be customized using the m6() function. This is INCORRECT because Lua is has case sensitive functions. You need to use the M6 function name (uppercase).

It's really unfortunate that the official manuals still contains errors.

I know that others have had issues with upper/lower case.  However, when I copy the stock m6.mcs file from the Mach4Mill profile, which has both the file name and the macro function name defined in lower case "m6", into my SmartBOB test profile, it works.  At least with MDI code.  With either "m6" or "M6" in the MDI window.

Perhaps I've got to go back and find/read the thread that talked about case sensitivity.

Bob

104

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: M06 not working

« on: January 22, 2016, 12:05:19 AM »

If you are using a profile based on the PMDX-Sample profile that is (optionally) installed with the PMDX-SmartBOB plug-in, then the M6 macro is not there (an oversight on my part).  You can copy the m6.mcs file from:

     C:\Mach4Hobby\Profiles\Mach4Mill\Macros\m6.mcs

into the "Macros" sub-directory in your current profile.  For example, if you are using the PMDX-Sample, copy it to:

     C:\Mach4Hobby\Profiles\PMDX-Sample\Macros\m6.mcs

You may optionally also copy the "m6.mcc" file.  But if you don't, Mach4 will create it the next time it runs.  The "mcc" file is the compiled version of the "mcs" file.

CAUTION: **IF** you are using the PMDX-Sample profile, please copy it to a new profile name.  A future version of our installer *MAY* overwrite that directory (though we will always give you a warning before we do it).  To copy the profile, start the Mach4 loader, click once on the PMDX-Sample then click on the "Copy Profile" button.  Give it a new name.  You can leave the "Screen Set" field blank and it will keep the existing screen set.

105

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Backlash not applied during manual JOG?

« on: January 03, 2016, 09:36:36 PM »

so I'm a bit confused then.    I thought backlash was compensated in the Motor tuning variable in Mach?  or Does the motion controller do the compensation?  or do the two work together?

There is indeed a field in the motor configuration tab for setting the backlash.  While the Mach4 core does nothing with that value, the plug-in is able to read that value** and use it for their backlash algorithms.

** note that plug-ins are also free to disregard that value and force you the enter a value somewhere in the plug-in specific configuration dialog.  It all depends on how the plug-in is written, and I have no idea how any plug-ins other than the PMDX plug-ins handle that.

Bob

106

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Backlash not applied during manual JOG?

« on: January 02, 2016, 08:54:12 PM »

What motion device are you using?

FYI - the Mach4 development team decided that backlash compensation would be handled by the plug-ins and devices, not by the Mach4 core (i.e. Mach4 motion planner).  So whether your device supports backlash compensation, and how and when it is "enabled" is up to the plug-in.

Bob

107

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Version 2803 Problems

« on: December 31, 2015, 01:37:47 PM »

The Motiodevice is not enabled.
It's yust in the list.

That shows that the simulator is not selected as the motion device.  It does NOT show whether the simulator plug-in is enabled or disabled, which it what I was referring to.  For that, go to the "Configure" menu and select "Plugins..".  There should be a red "X" in the "Enabled" column on the "Simulator" line.

Bob

108

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Version 2803 Problems

« on: December 30, 2015, 09:20:01 PM »

Next issue:  

<snip lots of config stuff>

Enable Simulator - Newfragled Solutions

I'm not sure about the other issues, but I do know that you should *never* enable the simulator along with any other motion plug-in (i.e. ESS).  I can't explain why doing so caused your ESS to then start moving motors.  But I *DO* know that enabling the simulator plug-in often causes erratic behavior in other plug-ins.

Bob.

109

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Version 2803 Problems

« on: December 30, 2015, 09:13:58 PM »

Here the log from the "Homing".

From the log it appears that something is preventing the ESS from actually homing.  I'm not familiar enough with the ESS config screens to be of any more help here.  BTW, there is also ESS specific help on the Warp9 support forums (http://www.warp9td.com).

A polite suggestion - instead of putting all of your ESS & machine configuration/operation issues in the thread that was originally about build 2308 problems, please start another thread (or several more threads) with subjects lines that make it clear that your issues are at least partially ESS related.  That way people who know a bit about the ESS plug-in may be more likely to *find* the thread and jump in the help.

Bob

110

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Version 2803 Problems

« on: December 30, 2015, 10:20:11 AM »

Are you still using the simulator as your motion device?  If so, all it does when homing an axis is wait 1 second, set that axis position to zero and set the axis to "homed" (green indicator next to "RefX" button).  In fact, the simulator ignores the "Home Offset" setting in the "Homing/SoftLimits" configuration tab.

If you are using the ESS as the motion device, check that you don't have the "Home In Place" setting checked (go to the "Configure" menu and select "Mach..", then click on the "Homing/SoftLimits" tab).  There may also be further homing settings in the ESS plug-in config, but someone familiar with the ESS plug-in will have to help you there.

Bob