Messages

331

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: T## Oddities

« on: May 13, 2020, 08:37:49 AM »

To unpackage you use the loader and select Import Profile. This is the tool the tech support guys use.

332

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: MACH4 LATHE

« on: May 13, 2020, 08:26:13 AM »

I don't think anything is locking up. Have you had a look at the M6 macro? You may have to press cycle start after your toolchange. You also have an M1 before a tool change.
On more thing I would change is get rid of the G28's they are trouble if your not real into Gcode. Use G53 and you will be much happier and the code will read better for you.

Thanks
Brian

333

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 open source content

« on: May 13, 2020, 03:56:00 AM »

Also have a look at the wizards. I did the bolt hole wizard in a way to show how you can make a wizard with limited programming knowledge. It looks a bit nasty at first but you will see that it will automatically make the dialog layout for you.  If you follow that example it can be pasted into a Lua panel in the screen designer as well. It could be used to make a nice probe wizard or other control. If you want to be overwhelmed with code have a look at all the font engraving code. This is all on the modules addons directory. It is really cool but it gets deep fast.

334

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: T## Oddities

« on: May 13, 2020, 03:46:23 AM »

Small note, under the Help menu you can package your profile. Doing that will also back up all your settings. It will allow you to get running even if you have to swap pc’s. It is much faster than doing a restore point.

335

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: MACH4 LATHE

« on: May 13, 2020, 03:37:22 AM »

You need to post your Gcode file. Or you can send it into the support guys too. We run 100’s of parts in testing at a run, it should work. We just have to find the issue.

336

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 feature vs Mach3

« on: May 13, 2020, 03:24:20 AM »

I had a thought after I typed this and it really sums it up.

Mach3 grew organically , Mach4 was designed.

So without the community and work that it took to grow 3 we never would have known what was needed to design into 4. Heck you guys have not seen multi instance! That came from a conversation Art and I had walking around a wood working show in Vegas. That idea was put into action on the first day we started on 4. It has never been released but it is getting closer all the time.  The modular design architecture of 4 is simply its number one feature and everything grows from that. Most people don’t realize you can run M4’s core with your own exe!  It is an amazing bit of software and a real pleasure to work on over the years to solve problems with.

337

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 feature vs Mach3

« on: May 13, 2020, 03:13:23 AM »

Steve you forgot about
38. Lua panels To allow users and OEM’s to put custom controls and items on the screen (font engraving and the lathe can cycles are an example)
39. Plugins can put data on the panels as well and allow users to place them
40. More screen designer objects
41. You can modify anything programmatically that is a property I. The screen designer.


Many more but some that came to mind as I was reading The funny part is 90% of the people don’t care about all the features. My hope  is that some day we can make a place where people can share and exchange Lua panels , plc’s and code chunks.

338

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Screwcutting issue under Mach4

« on: March 31, 2020, 08:44:42 AM »

Had a conversation with Greg and he told me that he fixed an issue in the ESS firmware that may sort your issue. Please get the latest plugin from them and test. This is what he told me he fixed:
 "The fix allowed a specific motor to continue at the last commanded velocity while it waited, and then the spindle would continue spinning."
I think you may be in luck! This was done 3-4 months ago

Thanks
Brian

339

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Screwcutting issue under Mach4

« on: March 29, 2020, 07:32:12 AM »

I will send a message to Greg and Andy, they may be able to make it work.

If you want to have some fun make an RC circuit and convert the PWM into a voltage. This is how we did it back in the day

What do you have for a spindle drive? Can you simply talk to the VFD over modbus? I don’t use analog very often anymore. Why wire when you can talk to the device .

Sending a message now to the ESS guys

340

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Screwcutting issue under Mach4

« on: March 28, 2020, 08:02:45 AM »

Can you please change your configuration to PWM for the analog output? That may fix you up. I am on my phone now and if it works I will tell you why it is doing it .