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Messages - stirling

981
General Mach Discussion / Re: Pause Mach3 with miss fire?
« on: May 01, 2012, 11:52:26 AM »
I hear the title "Programming Mach3 CB for Dummies" is available.
How about "Zen and the art of camel humping"?  ;D

Ian

982
General Mach Discussion / Re: Pause Mach3 with miss fire?
« on: May 01, 2012, 10:17:14 AM »
HIYA IAN, Does that cause a one sec delay in motion??  IF you wait up to 1 sec before motion after the arc starts you may have created a big divot in thin guage metal.
We have the SAME type problem with the slowdown routine for arcs and circle. There is a small delay in motion while the macro runs and makes the cut UGLY.

With Guage metal thinner than 14 we run with NO intentional pause after the arc fires.

No it waits UP TO 1 sec FOR the arc to start but continues IMMEDIATELY the arc starts - no delay. (I just read your edit - I think you've got this now)

THe reason for the 2 step approach with if is IF it sees the signal first test it exits without running the rest of the code. Least time delay. BUT I can see where it may MISS the signal on some systems by asking too soon.
Nope - your wrong here Terry. An else is not only the correct way to do it but it's FASTER - you waste time doing the test again when it's not needed. Note my code doesn't even need the else. (EDIT: Mind neither does yours if you used "if NOT isActive" - never explicitly test for equality to true or false - it's not cool  ;))

Plasma CAN be a tricky critter.
I can think of another word than critter - bastard springs to mind!!!

ALSO some of the THC's plugin WILL "override" anything you try to do. The plugin I run automatically will HALT the system on arc loss or no arc on start.
That can NOT be the case here. Any such plugin would just be doing what this is doing so it would just DOUBLE stop things. Remember the OP's problem was that it WASN'T stopping. Unlesshe has a plugin that deliberately continues execution when the arc fails (why?) then this can't happen.

Thanks (;-)TP

983
General Mach Discussion / Re: Pause Mach3 with miss fire?
« on: May 01, 2012, 05:23:04 AM »
Terry - the macro you posted above suffers from some subtle timing issues which is why it's not achieving the desired result. Can I suggest some changes?

First wait a tad for the arc to light - you're not giving the poor bugger a chance.
Then replace your TWO "if"s with an "if then else". Things could change between the two tests - then what?
Now the:

DoSpinStop()
While Ismoving()
Wend
DoButton(1)

If THC is ON then turning the torch OFF will result in continued execution of the gcode. i.e. THC will only wait for arcok IF the torch is ON. HOWEVER the feedhold will be executed before the XY movement has had a chance to start. A feedhold issued when there's no motion is ignored. Hence the behaviour the OP is seeing.

The following mod to your code works here. i.e. it will stop execution if no arcok for both THC ON and OFF

Code: [Select]
activateSignal(OUTPUT1) 'start torch

i = 0
While (Not isActive(26)) And (i < 100) 'wait NO MORE than ~second for arcok - season to taste
  sleep 10
  i = i + 1
Wend

If Not isActive(26) Then 'if no arcok
  doOEMButton(1003) 'we're not moving so a feedhold won't work and stop is better anyway
  deActivateSignal(OUTPUT1) 'turn off the torch AFTER stopping otherwise if THC is on - gcode will resume
  message "Stopped due to misfire" 'issue the message
End  If   

Ian

984
General Mach Discussion / Re: Probe not responding
« on: April 28, 2012, 11:16:20 AM »
check you don't have emulated ticked.

985
Brains Development / Re: Whats wrong with this brain ???
« on: April 20, 2012, 11:18:42 AM »
OK here's a pic of my demo twos complement "converter". Stable here on 3-43-22.

Ian

986
Brains Development / Re: Whats wrong with this brain ???
« on: April 19, 2012, 01:08:01 PM »
SEEMS a long way around the block to cross the street  BUT I guess it is what it is (;-)
I agree - but as you say - we work with what we have.

Of course there's always the macropump.

Ian

987
Brains Development / Re: Whats wrong with this brain ???
« on: April 19, 2012, 11:01:21 AM »
Yes IF the gate was open you would get the pass through value, IF the gate was closed you would get NIL or zero.
See above for why I already dismissed that ;).

OK I'm gonna be a tease. Duplicate your input. Comparator the first one. Multiply the comparator output by the other input....

Ian

988
Brains Development / Re: Whats wrong with this brain ???
« on: April 19, 2012, 09:40:21 AM »
I think there is a serious flaw there(;-) How Else could you do a comparitor and have the previous value pass through. It should not have passed through the 0/1 that controls the gate???
Can't agree Terry. A comparator's OUTPUT is BOOLEAN - that's it's job and definition. If you want it to output (pass through) it's input when it's comparison is TRUE - what do you want it to output if the comparison is false? (Hint: don't say zero because that COULD have been its input  ;)).

The OP's quest is to convert a 16bit twos complement number into a signed decimal - see his previous post and my answer. I've just done it with a brain. I'll leave you to have a go before I post  >:D.

Cheers

Ian

989
Tangent Corner / Re: Everyone is a winner.
« on: April 13, 2012, 04:27:01 AM »
Excellent news Tweaks. Congrats. I reckon you should invest a third on beer, a third on loose women and just have fun with the rest.

Ian

990
Tangent Corner / Re: Plasma Unit Choices
« on: April 12, 2012, 09:37:17 AM »
Is your DTHC unit compatible with LinuxCNC (Emc2)?
Good question Terry.

If I could get just ONE darn link on the linuxcnc-thc page to give me something other than "404 - No such project" I could probably give you an equally good answer.

Ian