Messages

181

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Warp9, Mach4, and SSD drive

« on: September 04, 2019, 08:56:15 PM »

Ron,

IMHO it would be worth the effort to get Mach4 running. Warp9 has a great how-to that'll step you right thru the process. If you've got a working machine running on Mach3 you're most of the way there.

Tom

182

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: mach 4 go to zero and keyboard issues

« on: August 23, 2019, 08:38:18 AM »

It doesn't seem you've ENABLED keyboard jogging. See that black icon in the tray with the red circle? Click that. You can also do it in the Jogging tab in the center of the screen.

183

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Programming Mach4 setup on one computer, but running it on another? Licensing.

« on: August 04, 2019, 07:50:58 PM »

Each license will only work with the PC where the license PC ID came from, but you can have 5 licenses. Just go get another license with the PC ID from your nicer computer!! You can deactivate a license, too, if, perhaps, in the future you get an even BETTER PC and get rid of one.

If a PC dies, get a new one, install Mach, get a license, copy your entire Mach4Hobby directory over, done. Go deactivate the old PC license on the web site. If you somehow run out of licenses, contact Artsoft, they're pretty good to us Hobby guys, they're not trying to hobble us, they're trying to stop the real bad guys.

184

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Anyone running a pokeys 57E (ethernet) and an Ethernet Smoothstepper (ESS)?

« on: August 01, 2019, 07:54:26 AM »

It wasn't to me, but it may be to you.

185

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Anyone running a pokeys 57E (ethernet) and an Ethernet Smoothstepper (ESS)?

« on: July 31, 2019, 10:39:51 AM »

If you have an extra PCIE slot, or something, in the PC, just add a NIC, I'd use Intel but that's just me. Or a USB Ethernet adapter?

You will have to power the PoKeys57e with 5 volts, very easy to come by with a PC close by, you can even get it from a USB port. You could use the same USB cable that's going to the PoKeys55, just cut the end off and find the two power (5v) wires. Or a simple 5v power supply powered from your 110 mains somewhere in the box. I like Meanwell power supplies, but Chinese rips are probably $8.

186

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Anyone running a pokeys 57E (ethernet) and an Ethernet Smoothstepper (ESS)?

« on: July 31, 2019, 09:52:18 AM »

I use this combination in Mach4 successfully, ESS runs the machine, the PoKeys does my physical buttons and pots (SRO/FRO). I, too, replaced a PoKeys 55 that was on Mach3 when I upgraded to Mach4. I have the PoKeys57e simply connected to an Ethernet switch on my home network, it doesn't require a dedicated NIC like the ESS prefers. I have two Ethernet ports in my PC, one for the ESS and one for the network/internet (GASP!) This combo has been running flawlessly on Mach 4 for a couple years since I sucked it up and switched to Mach4. If you're switching from Mach3 to Mach4, get ready for your machine running much better, but also be prepared for a bit of learning/unlearning!! Mach4 isn't an upgrade to Mach3, it's a total different thing.

If you've written code in Mach3 for your buttons, you'll have to learn a bit of LUA to do it in Mach4, but that said, the PoKeys plugin has many of the buttons you may be using in a tab in the plugin. I haven't tried those because I wrote the code before that tab was in the PoKeys plugin and I haven't taken the time to go back and redo it.

Good Luck, it'll be worth any trouble and DO get the Ethernet PoKeys!

Tom

187

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 build 4225 - Plasma feature instability

« on: July 29, 2019, 07:55:14 AM »

On the machsupport page, go to downloads then scroll all the way to the bottom. There you will see the FTP site, home of dev versions and more.

Tom

188

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: TOOL changer problems after update

« on: July 26, 2019, 08:13:52 AM »

Might this be the Lua 5.3 vs Lua 5.2 issue? Try going in your profile, delete your m6.mcc file, or move it/rename it, and start Mach4 and let it recompile. If that works, you may need to do the same with other macros, too.

I could be completely wrong, but doesn't hurt anything to try.

Tom

189

Mach4 Videos / Re: ESS and Mach4 Setup

« on: July 25, 2019, 07:47:07 AM »

I think so, yes.

190

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Fusion 360 Cutter Comp "P" Value.

« on: May 02, 2019, 09:05:23 AM »

I know, I know, I always think about documenting when making changes then don't do it!! I'm good about commenting IN the code, but that doesn't help me find ALL the little edits I've made over the years in the screenset where the code is all over the place At least in the post it's one chunk of code so sorting thru for my comments is easier than finding them all over in the screen.

I'm going to make Seth's G41/G42 edits to my Fusion post just for the exercise and while I'm in there I'm going to sift thru, find my internal comments, and document them in a separate file for future reference. I don't have nearly as many edits in the post as in my Mach4 screenset!!

Tom