Messages

411

Tangent Corner / Re: Fear.

« on: October 06, 2017, 08:50:26 AM »

   Prefect!

412

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: tool changer tips and tricks

« on: October 05, 2017, 10:16:09 AM »

Lots of ways to do it. If its an option, might consider replacing the Geneva mechanism with a servo to rotate the carousel. Then you just command that axis to a position for each tool and you will know what position it is in because you have encoder feed back. Calculate the steps per so one unit in the axis is on tool slot. Tool 1, G0 C1.000, tool 2 G0 C2.000, etc. Can home to the index pulse of encoder, do an offset of that to line with tool slot, much faster than Geneva mechanism, etc. lots of benefits.

413

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Spindle At Speed, Spindle Zero Problem

« on: October 03, 2017, 10:45:55 PM »

Craig, I haven't read this whole topic (just read your last 2 replies) so not sure what I might be missing about it so take this with a grain of salt........ instead of the while loop you might want to use the mc.mcSignalWait api call.

414

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Erratic Feedrate When Cutting Spline Lines

« on: October 02, 2017, 04:38:48 PM »

Right now I just have CV turned on in the main Mach4 config. Not in the CV Wizard. Am I correct in assuming that this will provide a generic CV profile that Mach will use?

Not really, the only thing that setting does in general config is set the default mode to CV or exact stop. When you fire up Mach or click the reset button it sets things to a default state. In regards to this, it activates default modal codes (G64 or G61).

When I install the 2 files that Chaoticone provided into the Mach4 Wizards folder and run it like any other wizard it will populate the Wizard CV table with more optimised settings based on what I input, and if I check "Use CV" here then it will use these figures? If I uncheck the box then it goes back to the generic CV from the main Config?

Not necessarily. To use the values generated by the wizard the api call mc.mcMotionSetCVAngleEnable has to be called. When you go through the mcCvTuningWizard this call is executed to enable it. In the CV_Feedrate wizard (table) you can enable or disable it by toggling the button up top. I can't think of a reason anyone would want to turn it off (because exact stop mode ignores it all together anyway) but good there is a call to control it through script if you had a need to.

415

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Erratic Feedrate When Cutting Spline Lines

« on: September 29, 2017, 09:10:57 PM »

The first main issue that I have found is that the Mach4 program has a flaw in the CV area, in that when you go from G1 to G0 it goes off line.

This is no surprise. There is no CV in Rapids (G0). Rapids are well rapid, no throttling back. Get there as fast as your motor tuning will allow.

If you make all the code G1, then it does not, but the time increases significantly.

I would imagine it does. This would be equal to starting a round track race and telling car number G0 he just has to get to the other side and can drive through the infield (shortest path) while telling car G1 he has to stay on the track.

The second issue on lettering is that no matter the tolerance setting on your CV program on curves it does not follow the line.

I fully expect that. The question is, does it stay within the tolerance you entered? If so, that's the best that can be done with CV. If you have to stay exactly on path then CV is not an option. That is what exact stop is for.

416

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Erratic Feedrate When Cutting Spline Lines

« on: September 29, 2017, 08:48:07 PM »

Thats excellent thank you, I've learned and gained a lot from this thread.

Last weekend I was trying to cut some timber clamp knobs and the cutting was very slow and jerky, I have just run a test with the knowledge and Wizards I have got from this thread and it runs as smooth as silk.

Once again thankyou.

Good deal!

417

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: probing problems

« on: September 29, 2017, 08:41:59 PM »

 

No, I did not write the probing module. I wrote the touch module. 2 completely different modules. I did not make the video at the following link either but it is about the touch module.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VA49atQNzmg

418

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: probing problems

« on: September 29, 2017, 06:09:06 PM »

Hey Craig,

When I wrote the touch module I ran into the same thing when trying to simulate.

419

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: probing problems

« on: September 29, 2017, 05:07:19 PM »

Sounds like it's touching during the probe move (which ends the probe move) then checking to see if the probe is active (which it won't be now I'm guessing) so it can continue or give an error (no contact with probe). Just an educated guess though.

420

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Erratic Feedrate When Cutting Spline Lines

« on: September 29, 2017, 10:58:26 AM »

Hopefully this will be the last update.......... no functional difference. I just added the blend radius for each angle to the ini and the CV_Feedrate table so 2 files here.