Messages

61

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: A axis operation in Mach4

« on: May 06, 2016, 11:52:34 PM »

Then you enter "G0A90" and the motor only moves a small bit, what does the DRO for the A axis say?  Does it end up displaying some number close to 90?

Try slowing the max velocity WAY down and see what happens.  For example, set the max velocity to 2160 (6 RPM) and accel to 100.

What breakout board and/or motor driver is your PMDX-411 connected to?

And finally, please post your Machine.ini file (otherwise I'll end up asking a bunch of very basic questions about your configuration).  Or create a "profile package" and post that (you will have to change the file extension from ".m4prof" to ".zip" in order to upload it).  To create this, go to the "Help" menu and select "support" and then "Package Current Profile".

Bob

62

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Hanging up on a M03 after installing version 2.2914 ??

« on: May 06, 2016, 11:35:20 PM »

In the Configure->Mach dialog on the "Spindle" tab, do you have non-zero values in the "Accel Time" and "Decel Time" column?  This should only matter if there was an absurdly large number there.

Have you looked in the Mach4 log?  Go to the "Diagnostics" menu and select "Log".  When the log window appears, click on the little right arrow icon in the upper left (like a "play" button) to start logging messages.  Now try running a short GCode file with an M03 command and see what messages appear.

Bob

63

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: A axis operation in Mach4

« on: May 06, 2016, 01:25:21 AM »

Taking info from your related post on our forums (http://www.pmdx.com/PMDX-Forums/index.php?topic=266.0) - Is this like a glue extruder, where the motor is always going to spin one direction to apply glue?  If so, make sure to disable "rollover" as in step (1) below.  It should be disabled by default, but check to make sure.  If rollover is enabled and you issue a "G0A30" followed by "G0A300", the 2nd move will be backwards through 0 degrees to 300 (actually -60 degrees).

I'm at home and don't have a motor to verify this with, but have you tried this:

(1) Go to the "Configure" menu and select "Mach".  On the "General" tab in the lower right corner make sure the "Rollover A" box in un-checked.

(2) I tried these motor tuning parameters:
- set your motor driver for 1/8th step (1600 steps/rev)
- In Mach, set "steps/unit" to 4.444 (i.e. 1600/360 = 4.444 steps/degree)
- set velocity to 21600 units/minute (60 RPM * 360 degrees/rev, just a number I pulled out of thin air, change this for whatever a realistic velocity is for your machine)
- set acceleration to 500 units/sec^2 (again, a number I pulled out of thin air)

For me, entering a "G0A30" in the MDI box results in the SmartBOB generating 133 step pulses, which is (30/360)*1600 or as close to 30 degrees as  you can get with 1/8 step resolution.  Try this (with realistic velocity and accel params) and tell me what you get.

[EDIT] If you don't get the expected results, in addition to telling us how far the motor actually moved, also tell us which version of Mach4 and the SmartBOB plug-in you are running (both are available on the SmartBOB configuration dialog or the SmartBOB diagnostics dialog (go to the "Diagnostics" menu and select "PMDX SmartBOB").

Bob

64

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Event Script for Enable Button

« on: May 04, 2016, 10:11:53 AM »

By "event script section" do you mean the "Signal Script"?  Or the PLC script?  I'm not an expert (yet) on the Lua side of Mach4, but my understanding of the way things are arranged in the wx4 screen set (but NOT the wxMach screen set) is this:

PLC script - this runs at a periodic interval (default is 50ms).  You could place the code there, but you would have to check for a change in state of the input signal.  Do-able but more work and not as efficient as the following methods as this code would run even if input signal hasn't changed states.  And there would be a variable delay (from 0ms to the "PLC Interval" defined in the top level of the screen set) in responding to the input signal.  In your case that would not be an issue as all you are doing is enabling Mach4.

Signal script - this script, in the wx4 screen set, is just the dispatcher for Mach4 signal events.  Every event in Mach4 runs this script, which simply checks to see if there is a script associated with that event (in the "signal library", which is just an array of functions indexed by event number) and if so, it runs the script.  Again, you could place the code here, but that doesn't fit with the overall design of the event flow in the wx4 screen set.

Screen Load Script - This is where the "signal library" is defined, and where the screen set places code for its event handlers.  The screen load script is run once at start up.  Part of what is does is initialize the SigLib[] array with code to handle the various events.  SigLib[] is then used by the signal script to process events.  This code is only run when its associated event is triggered.

65

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Event Script for Enable Button

« on: May 03, 2016, 11:22:57 PM »

Then the above script should work for you - presuming that the screen set you are using is based on the wx4 screen set.  The wxMach screen set does not have the "signal library" section in the screen load script.

NOTE: If you are using the "wx4" screen set (if you are, it should say so in the lower right corner of the screen), make a copy of the screen set and edit that copy.  If you make changes in the wx4 screen set they may (probably WILL) get overwritten if/when you install a new version of Mach4.  There are two ways to copy the screen set:

(1) Using Windows Explorer, go to the C:\Mach4Hobby\Screens directory and copy your screen set.  Then when you start Mach4 with your profile, go to the "View" menu and select "Load Screen", then load the new file that you just created.

or...

(2) Start Mach4 with your profile.  Go to the "Operator" menu and select "Edit Screen".  Once in the screen editor, go to the "Screen" menu and select "Save Screen As..." option, and enter a new name.

66

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Event Script for Enable Button

« on: May 03, 2016, 05:58:24 PM »

Are you the same person as the original poster using a different user name?

It is a HARD button wired to input 4

Is this "input 4" on your motion control board?  Because there is nothing "hard wired" to the Mach4 "Input #4" signal (on the Configure->Mach dialog in the "Input Signals" tab), which is what your sample scripts were checking.

If your motion controller plug-in calls its input signals "Input 1", etc. (like our PMDX-424), that can be confusing as Mach4 *ALSO* calls some of its input signals "Input 1", etc.  If this is "input 4" on your motion controller board, then you will need to map that physical input to one of the Mach4 input signals.  To do so, go to the Configure menu and select "Mach...".  Click on the "Input signals" tab and scroll down on one of the "Input #0" through "Input #31" inputs.  Choose one ("Input #4" in the sample code I posted above), enable that signal, choose your motion device and input signal name.

Bob

67

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Event Script for Enable Button

« on: May 03, 2016, 05:01:45 PM »

I'm not sure I understand:

I'm trying to script a button that will toggle Enable

That sounds like you want to create a new button that you can click on to enable Mach4 (like the current "Enable/Disable" button when Mach4 is disabled).  Is that correct?

But then you post code that looks like it is attempting to look at the INPUT4 signals and enable Mach4 when INPUT4 is asserted.  And you don't say WHERE you are placing that code, though it looks like maybe you intend it to be part of the screen load script?

If you want to monitor the INPUT4 signal and have it cause Mach4 to become enabled  when INPUT4 goes active, add the following code to the screen load script in the signal library section:

Code: [Select]

[mc.ISIG_INPUT4] = function (state)
   if (state == 1) then
      -- mc.mcCntlLog( inst, "INPUT4 asserted", "", -1 );
      mc.mcCntlEnable( inst, 1 );
   else
      -- mc.mcCntlLog( inst, "INPUT4 de-asserted", "", -1 );
   end
end,

Note that the "inst" variable used is one that is set at the start of the screen load script, so for code *IN* the screen load script you don't need to call mc.mcGetInstance() again.  I ran a quick test of this code and it appears to work.  It also appears (again, in a QUICK test) that re-enabling Mach4 when it is already enabled and while it is jogging, does not interfere with the jogging move.  To be safer, you would want to check to see if Mach4 was already enabled, and only call mc.mcCntlEnable() if Mach4 was disabled.

Bob

68

General Mach Discussion / Re: Spindle relay control is confiigured, but M3/M4 won't turn on the spindle...

« on: April 26, 2016, 01:31:38 AM »

Continuing from my response to Todd's question about the PMDX-126's K1 relay - it appears to have been a noise issue.  See the thread on the PMDX support forums:

http://www.pmdx.com/PMDX-Forums/index.php?topic=264.0

Bob

69

General Mach Discussion / Re: external e-stop requested after 10 seconds

« on: April 25, 2016, 05:51:47 PM »

Hello all. I am trying to configure my new pmdx-126 BOB for my mill. i keep getting an external e-stop requested after 10 seconds.i clear it, and it triggers the e-stop again after 10 seconds. I don't believe its a noise issue because i dont have anything hooked up as of yet. The 126 has an on-board e-stop terminal, but i have it jumpered.i use the diagnostic screen to watch it, and like clockwork, the e-stop led comes on then off. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Sounds like a DIP switch configuration issue (i.e. the board is in "expanded outputs" or "expanded in/out" mode).  Double-check that you have the DIP switches switched in the correct direction.

For better support of PMDX products, see our forums (the link is in my signature line below).

Bob

70

General Mach Discussion / Re: Spindle relay control is confiigured, but M3/M4 won't turn on the spindle...

« on: April 25, 2016, 05:48:08 PM »

Hi,
I am going to tag on to Jim's post because my problem is similar and his post helped me get my relay clicking on, but it will not stay on. I have a PMDX-126 run by SS USB board.  My K1 relay does click on but goes off immediately, with the error message limit switch tripped. On the diagnostic tab I see no active inputs.  I think it must be some config error. 
Thanks for any help.
Todd

Hi Todd,

What are you switching with the K1 relay?  And do you know how much current that device is drawing?  This sounds like a noise issue.  Electrical noise from the turn-on current of whatever the K1 relay is switching is somehow getting in to the isolated inputs on the PMDX-126 (or somehow in the connections between the PMDX-126 and the SS).

One thing to try is enabling filtering on the limit switch inputs.  It has been a LOOOONG time since I've looked at the USB SS config screens, and I don't remember if the SS pays attention to the "Debounce Interval" on the main Mach3 "General Configuration" dialog.  But somewhere there should be places to enable filtering.

If you turn of whatever power the K1 relay is switching, to the relay engages but there is no current flowing through the contacts, do you still get the limit switch message?

FYI - a better place for PMDX related support questions is our forums.  See my sig line below.  I don't regularly monitor the "General Mach Discussion" thread and I just happen to find this post.

Bob