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121

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 screen GRAPHICS -- makin' it Purdy

« on: March 18, 2015, 10:10:37 AM »

Size limitation required a second post for the second video . . . .

Second: demonstrates a simple context sensitive control. The two sliders are for RPM and SFM and can be set from the dro or the slider or a macro. They work in real time so moving the slider changes the rpm of the 4th axis while it is running. the SFM slider is only active in 'AutoSpeed' mode and the RPM slider is only active in 'SetSpeed' mode. Since the controller takes it's data directly off the dro, it is not possible to change the spindle speed using the wrong method. ex. setting 1000 SFM could result in an entirely different speed than 1000 RPM.

Note that any monitoring task, so far as I can determine, must be run in the PLC script. Working in this script should be done with consideration for how much processing power you are consuming with your script and keeping in mind that you should not loop anything as it can easily  get into a 'deadly embrace' wherein whatever need to happen to break out of the loop . . will never happen while in the loop.

Question: I can find no way to create a variable in the PLC script that will not be reinitialized on each running of the script. It seem that rather than loping within the script, it runs from the beginning each time. I suppose this might be good in some ways, but having no variables to carry data forward to the next run is uber inconvenient. As a work around, I am using a gReg to carry forward a simple counter that controls the speed of the flashing on the dro.

Does anyone know how to create a var that will not be reinitialized? Lua syntax to create a variable  is: var ::= name, but that does not work in MACH4. I have been unable to figure out how to create a variable without initializing it.

122

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 screen GRAPHICS -- makin' it Purdy

« on: March 18, 2015, 10:09:25 AM »

Update: the problem with controls not re-appearing after being hidden seems to happen only if the control is in a panel (group). I have updated this in the bug reporting section.

Attached videos:

First: demonstrates the idea of monitoring something (a dro in this case) and having action taken based on the values monitored. Also LED appearing only when needed (the vertical bar is actually an led). And also making a dro flash in response to reaching a certain level. IN this test, the RPM dro is being used, but the target for this feature will be a dro (or a fancy gage) that measures power output on the a spindle. The action taken on an overload situation might be to start a cooling fan or slow the federate in response to a motor overload in order to prevent a fault.

123

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 Bug Reports

« on: March 18, 2015, 09:15:16 AM »

LED on Mach screen hide when 'hidden' is set to 1, but do not display when 'hidden' is set back to zero

Update: This problem seems to occur only when the controls are in a panel.

124

General Mach Discussion / Re: BT30 spindle from scratch - with power drawbar and ATC of course

« on: March 17, 2015, 05:51:58 AM »

Now, that is quite a story. Well done. Very well done.

You may have been able to get 10 tools by having 6 on one 'half' (first 180 degrees) and 4 on the other and still used the 48 tooth coupling, however, The software to run such an arrangement would be complex and error prone and probably require a sensor or two to operate safely. Seems to me that 8 equally spaced tools with quick change holders is the bulletproof solution.

Just one more (compound) question if I may; presumably the turret is supported by a draw tube or shaft. Dies that shaft ride on bearings in the housing or on the hydraulic seals? It is a hardened piece from the original machine or did you design/build that part? Lastly, I note that the pulley does not shift in and out with the Turret. Is the shaft splined, keyed or slotted or is there a special slip joint and again was this recovered from the original machine or new design?

For a minute there, I thought you had posted a photo of a different machine, but it appears you built a full cover and painted it to match the machine. First class. Very nice!

OK, last, last question; there appear to be some kind of trapezoid shaped 'posts' sticking out of the turret surface that the tools attach to. Also I noted holes in the turret edge that look like there are screws or cams of some kind. Is this the quick change mechanism?  I can't tell from the photo how it works, but unlike an Aloris type piston, it would seem your arrangement must pull down as I see no tracks or dovetails to locate the toolholder.

Sorry for so many questions. It is a rather complex machine.

125

General Mach Discussion / Re: BT30 spindle from scratch - with power drawbar and ATC of course

« on: March 16, 2015, 09:37:04 PM »

I watched your video some more time(s) and now I can see the turret rotating very slightly as it cinches up on those teeth. If I knew what a hirth coupling was, it would have been clear from the git-go.  Now that I can see all those choppers, it makes total sense. Thanks for explaining.

You mentioned that the hydraulics were from a 'previous turret'. What was the motivation to build a new one? That is a very significant project to tackle, I would say.

126

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 screen GRAPHICS -- makin' it Purdy

« on: March 16, 2015, 04:29:11 PM »

But if the goal is "Makin it Purdy", then we can do much better than the built in LED's.

An LED bar graph would be easy enough, and the square LEDs don't have the Ugly syndrome. You can stack a bunch of them to make the bar, but there are not enough colors to make it 'Purdy'.

I was leaning toward the image toggle buttons with one photo of a lighted lens and one of a dark lens (there are examples posted). However, I have discovered that the image on the regular (non toggle) image button can be swapped out in real time, so actually you have an OFF state and an unlimited number of ON states . . all of which can be 'Purdy'. There is an OFF image, so you could also have a bunch of OFF states, but that does not seem very useful . . .  at least not at the moment.

You can get a feel for how fast the images change in the video where one of the buttons changes from a round light to a cap that says accell.

Several colors of light could follow some parameter and trigger a buzzer if a certain level was exceeded. I think MACH4 can play sounds (not in front of it at the moment)

I'm wondering if you could not make a speedometer type gage by swapping in images of the speedo face with the needle at different positions, or overlay the needle on a background image using the alpha channel.

The problem with putting an image over a button, is that either the Z order does not work as expected, or the buttons override the setting. Not sure which at this point, but I'll figure it out eventually, and I've been looking at wxLua and wxWidget as I get time and there are a lot of goodies there .

127

General Mach Discussion / Re: BT30 spindle from scratch - with power drawbar and ATC of course

« on: March 16, 2015, 04:11:50 PM »

I am using hydraulics to calmp/unclamp the turret, the lathe has them for the chuck and tailstock and it also originally used the hydraulics to work the turret completely by rack and pinion for rotating.
I am using a Hirth coupling on this one, it is the one that was on the original lathes turret.

There is going to be a lot of torque on that turret when you start digging in those tools with a lathe that big. Are you pulling against a cone clutch or are there wedge shaped dogs in there somewhere or is there a friction plate?

You mentioned machining wedges, but for some reason I though those were for the tool holders.

I have a power chuck yet to install and it has a big hydraulic actuator, draw tube and the chuck itself is mechanical and operates on internal wedges. The hydraulics on the chuck is only something like 600psi, surprisingly low.



 

Yes it is a planetary box, 25:1 if I recall, just what I had lying around.

That explains the similar sized pulleys.    With the box on the motor, it is surprising that you would have that much bounce. Was that coming from the belt? Did moving the box to the turret calm it down?

128

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 screen GRAPHICS -- makin' it Purdy

« on: March 16, 2015, 08:53:56 AM »

What I meant was have the images change state based on the state of the LED's. I don't need to manipulate the LED's, just read their state and swap the images accordingly. So the image would be (or mimic)  the LED.

It just occurred to me that the LED 'state' can be any of the eight colors, so if you monitored 'Color' instead of 'Value' you could track 8 conditions.

So there actually is an advantage to using the LED type.  As far as the ugly factor on round LEDs, I would not let that stop me from using them because I think the Ugly will go away once they fix the anti-aliasing. I can't imagine any modern graphics handler that does not support this feature. I would speculate that it is available, but just turned off. Anti aliasing is compute intensive so it is often defaulted to OFF (for low end graphics cards).

129

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 screen GRAPHICS -- makin' it Purdy

« on: March 16, 2015, 07:57:14 AM »

you got a bit missing from you code condition or if one then the other

The code I have posted here are not complete programs that are intended to be 'run', so there would be are a lot of bits missing. They are 'fragments' to show one method to accomplish a specific task. You will need to lift all or part of the example and insert into your own program. Change the screen item names and variable names to whatever you have used.

ex: in the code fragment, the dro is named 'droRPM'. That is a name that the programmer makes up and it has no special meaning to Lua or Mach, but it is a good programming practice to name things intuitively so that the code 'read' in a more comprehendible way.

That being said, if you can be specific about what you are trying to do, I might be able to help you.

130

General Mach Discussion / Re: BT30 spindle from scratch - with power drawbar and ATC of course

« on: March 15, 2015, 08:31:44 AM »

Have a few vids but not done a write up yet.
This vid is it almost complete although I have since  altered the layout to have the gearbox on the turret rather than the motor.

Hood

Hi Hood,

Sorry I missed this post. I have not been on here in a few months. In here now because I'm porting my InTurn™ motor controller to MACH4. That project is completed and I made a widget and played with the screens a bit, but now time to get back to work.

Your tool turret is impressive! I was thinking about making a turret to go on the mill spindle nose to present tools to the 4th axis in this same manner . .

Also, I have upgraded the InTurn™ Tail Stock and it now slides along using dovetails on a fat piece of precision ground cast iron. It has 'precision' ACME  lead screw and provision to add a motor for a power lead. The mounting is now robust enough to carry a Tool Turret . . .  albeit not nearly as massive as yours.



  . . . . so I have a couple of questions about your design, if you don't mind.

How are you extending/retracting the turret and how are you locking it? Can't tell from the video or the 3D model.

 

You mentioned moving the 'gearbox' to the Turret's frame. Are you using a planetary?

Sorry for so many questions. I'll stop here for now, but I actually have more questions.