Messages

21

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: VistaCNC Pendant - Running out of luck...

« on: September 11, 2016, 11:21:03 PM »

We have had a couple customers that have tried to use these pendants on Mach4 along with out SmartBOB products.  We don't have a VistaCNC pendant in-house to test with.  But when I've examined debug logs from our customers I see truly bizarre motion data coming from the Mach4 motion planner when trying to jog via the pendant.  Things like the entire jog motion for one detent on the pendant being sent to us compressed into 1 millisecond worth of motion (grossly violating the max acceleration parameters in the motor config tab).

I haven't looked at the VistaCNC plug-in since March of this year.  It looks like they released new plug-ins in June and July.  If you can run some tests for me I can take a look at the data that is being passed to our plug-in and see what I can see.

(1) I need to add some information to your profile in order to generate the debug files I need for this.  Please send me your Machine.ini file and I will add the required lines and send it back to you.  You can attach it to this message thread or email it to me at bob at my company name dot com.  If you need help finding the Machine.ini file, see this link:
         http://faq.pmdx.com/content/3/10/en/where-do-i-find-the-machineini-configuration-file.html
Hmmmm... if you want to attach it to this thread you will need to rename it to "Machine.txt"

(2) Once you have the modified Machine.ini file, enable the SmartBOB's debug log as described here:
         http://faq.pmdx.com/content/3/3/en/how-to-capture-a-debug-log-file-and-send-to-pmdx.html

(3) After you enable the debug log, exit Mach4 and re-start Mach4 as described in the above FAQ

(4) Pick an axis to test.  For the purpose of my instructions I'll use the "X" axis, but you can use any axis.  In the MDI box enter:

G0X1.0
G0X0

Then click on the "Cycle Start" button to run those two GCode lines.

(5) Now try jogging that same axis using the VistaCNC pendant.  Try jogging it in one direction, then try jogging it back in the other direction.  You don't need to end up exactly back where you started.

(6) Now disable our plug-in's debug log as described in the above FAQ, create a profile package and send that to me.

Bob

22

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: MAch 4 and Darwin Homing Problems

« on: September 08, 2016, 05:11:13 PM »

Are there any messages in the error/status line (bottom left of the Mach4 screen) or in the "history" window (click the "History" button to the left of the error/status line?

23

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 G code problem (G01 is being ignored).

« on: September 01, 2016, 03:08:07 PM »

I don't know about skipping the "G01" line.  As fort he FRO updating, if you are using the "wx4" screen set the white box above the FRO slider displays the current feed rate, not the FRO setting.  Mach4 uses velocity data from the motion plug-in to calculate the actual feed rate.

Bob

24

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Unable to complete RefAllAxisHome

« on: August 24, 2016, 04:13:10 PM »

I am not sure if Mach 4 has implemented the referencing of both ends of a gantry axis. I know this was not working a month or so ago. It could be my plugin.

Just to be clear - homing is implemented in the plug-in.  All that the Mach4 core does is tell the plug-in when to start homing each axis.

Bob

25

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 error comp calc failed with current tool radius

« on: August 15, 2016, 05:55:18 PM »

I'll admit up front that I know nothing about Mach4's implementation of tool cutting compensation.  But an obvious question would be what was the current tool radius when you got that error?

26

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Problems with upgrade to 4.2.0.2914

« on: August 15, 2016, 05:44:18 PM »

To close this out for now, at least, the issue has been resolved by changing the step pulse polarity to active low, which for his drivers (Geckodrive G201X with COM=5V) was the proper setting.

27

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Serial Plugin Questions

« on: August 11, 2016, 05:33:49 PM »

FWIW - There is a sample program here, which shows how to use some of the functions:

         C:\Mach4Hobby\Modules\luars232-Example.lua

If you so a web search for "luar232" there are other examples of usage, but an actual API document wasn't obvious.

Bob

28

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Problems with upgrade to 4.2.0.2914

« on: August 07, 2016, 10:54:42 PM »

On the first image (the cutting board).  The last two letters look off (shifted down) - that I can see.  Does any of the image above the letters look "off"?  Or does the image look fine and only the letters are offset?

In the 3rd image (the first one with the filled-in dots) - of the two "1" box images, do you know which one was drawn first?  I.e. was the 2nd one shifted up and to the right?  Or down and to the left?  I'm guessing "down and to the left".

Can you send me another profile package (just to make sure I've got your most recent) and the GCode file that you used to create the 3rd and 4th images?  I only need the part that draws the #1 box, then some random dots, then re-draws the #1 box.  You can post them here if you like or email them to me.

Bob

29

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Relay control Mcode

« on: August 05, 2016, 05:53:48 PM »

That depends on your motion controller and break-out board.  In general, you have to map one or more Mach4 output signals to the pins on your motion controller/BOB that control the relays.  For example, on the PMDX SmartBOB products, some of them have "Pin1" control the on-board relay, and some have a separate output pin named "Relay".  If you were using a PMDX-411 connected to a PMDX-126, the two relays on the PMDX-126 are controlled by "Pin1" and "Pin14".

To see the Mach4 output signals, go the "Configure" menu and select "Mach...".  Then click on the "Output Signals" tab.

M3 turns on the "Spindle On" and "Spindle Fwd" Mach4 outputs and turns off the "Spindle Rev" output
M4 turns on the "Spindle On" and "Spindle Rev" outputs, and turns off the "Spindle Fwd" output
M5 turns off the "Spindle On", "Spindle Fwd" and "Spindle Rev" outputs

M7 turns on the "Mist On" output
M8 turns on the "Coolant On" output (also sometimes referred to as "Flood On")
M9 turns off both "Mist On" and "Coolant On" outputs

You can write custom M codes to control the Mach4 "Output #0" through "Output #31" outputs.  There are messages elsewhere on this forum that discuss that.  You can also look in the Mach4Hobby/Docs directory for the "ScriptingManual.pdf" which in section 3.1.1 tells you which M codes are available for custom code (i.e. "scriptable").

Bob

30

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Short output pulse from Mach4 + ESS

« on: August 04, 2016, 12:46:52 PM »

The capability to produce a single pulse of around 5ms, or any millisecond-scale pulse with 10% accuracy, would need to be specifically supported by the hardware device.  Windows is NOT a real-time environment.  There is no way to guarantee that 2 events in a windows program (i.e. rising edge and falling edge) happen with that kind of accuracy without writing a Windows kernel-mode device driver.  Now 5 minutes +/- 10% is easy, even in Windows :-)

So Tweakie's suggestion is the way to go, unless the ESS has capabilities (and I have no idea whether it does or not).

Bob