Messages

251

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Modbus Programming guidance needed

« on: January 03, 2021, 08:45:27 AM »

After spending the morning on this I remember why we didn't make a manual. EVERYTHING depends on the slave, and nothing has a simple answer.. I did remember if the registers are bit packed we can very easily unpack them! Use the I/O bitpack setting and it will place the Modbus in your input selections. I put about all the time I want I want to for a Sunday I have 3 pages done and by the looks MANY more to go. I have only covered how to get communications and starting on input configuration. I would like to remote in and see if i can make your machine work the way you would like. When I have something that is worth reading I will put it here.

252

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Update?

« on: January 03, 2021, 06:32:59 AM »

Cslabs, that is the one we do the least amount of testing with. But I can tell you that I have a good relationship with them and they have been good working with us when we contact them. So it could be a little slower than the others but I am confident it will get done.

253

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Modbus Programming guidance needed

« on: January 03, 2021, 06:21:54 AM »

Okay, I have not done a manual in a long time so I guess it is time to suffer . I will start this morning and see what happens.  Soon as I get something worth looking at I will put it here so we can see if I am on the right path.

Thanks
Brian

254

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Update?

« on: January 03, 2021, 06:10:18 AM »

No, the plugins are backwards compatible if the plugin authors use the format and style we give them. This was a major design feature from the first day we started to code mach4! Now if we add a feature that is new and they need the calls for it, yes it must be updated. But we are trying to do very little major changes like that anymore. Also know when we release we have run the code on 6 or more motion controllers and we have min of 2 solid days of testing that must be passed before it can be called a release. We have a few small issues we are looking at now in the screens. I think they are fixed but every time we find an issue the testing starts all over again from the beginning.

What motion controller are you concerned about ?

255

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: How to display C axis in Lathe graphics?

« on: January 02, 2021, 07:42:01 PM »

We talked about adding the G112/G113 . But lathe is 7% of what the software gets used for and I would think 2% of the 7 would ever do live tool milling on a lathe. Now I do have a soft spot for a lathe like that ! The Mori I ran when I worked for the university had this and I mostly remember it it sure would be cool! But I think more people need laser. 

256

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Modbus Programming guidance needed

« on: January 02, 2021, 07:24:05 PM »

Man, I can’t get away with anything! Yes it is TOT... we also added a load meter to his setup .

The issue with modbus is that it is a VERY loose standard. Sometimes it is base 0 sometimes it is base 1 for the registers. Sometimes the manual has the table where the data is in memory and sometimes not. Setting up the VFD for Tony’s machine was a real challenge because it has instructions that are not very clear. But with some goofing around and playing with the settings we got it. Now to help you out I can remote in and take a look at your settings and see if we can make this work. I was thinking that I should make some samples for IO devices that people would like to use. I have been in the forum looking for silly stumbling blocks like this so we can fix them. The issue is will anyone read the manual if we make it

257

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Modbus Programming guidance needed

« on: January 02, 2021, 06:42:52 PM »

Yeah, if you get really, really, really board some time read manuals for a few VFDs and you will be shocked what they cram in for features. This is done so you have a watchdog. So if the master is gone the slave will shutdown. You can setup VFDs to stay running if coms are lost too. This stuff gets complex fast! So many settings!

258

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Run a lathe and a mill on same computer (not simultaniously)

« on: January 02, 2021, 06:38:57 PM »

You should be able to set it up with another IP range. I think stock is 10.9.9.1 set the other one up on a 10.10.9.1 .  I hope this makes sense...  you will need to set your static IP in Windows to match each ESS. Clear as mud?

259

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Modbus Programming guidance needed

« on: January 02, 2021, 06:34:35 PM »

Wow, I keep this up people are going to think I have done this before... I don’t need lies like that out there.

Now, to run a spindle the PMC with a small amount of Lua sending over modus is really cool! I set that up for the Maho project that a YouTube guy is doing. If you guys want that I can post a copy here.

260

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: How to display C axis in Lathe graphics?

« on: January 02, 2021, 06:29:58 PM »

The issue with reading the Gcode file is that one line of Gcode could make 100’s of moves. We keep all that in the display.dat file. It really is not that bad to get the data