Messages

11

VB and the development of wizards / How to halt a script halfway & wait for a user entered CR?

« on: November 14, 2011, 06:41:17 PM »

I'm new to all this, presently trying to get my XY cordinates to move between the cutter & the webcam...my end goal is, press a contour shuttle pro button....my script kicks.....

1. Store the present XY coords
2. Goto a known webcam offset (ie locate the webcam immediately above where the tool just was)
3. Jog around a bit (to align webcam crosshair over a pcb index mark)
4. Once I'm happy with the alignment, I then hit carriage return on the PCB keyboard.
5. Use the offsets as per step 2 (but now in reverse) to put the tool where the webcam has just been
6. Restore the XY coords that were stored away in step 1.

The cutting is now exactly over the pcb index mark with the correct XY starting coords.


It the bits in steps 4 that I need a bit of coop ....what's the easiest way to get the VB script to wait until say a CR is pressed on the PC keyboard?

12

General Mach Discussion / Re: Shuttle pro - how do I assign a custom macro to a button?

« on: November 09, 2011, 05:37:56 PM »

Thanks...that did it - who 'controls' the plugin download page...might be worth dropping them a note?

13

General Mach Discussion / Re: Shuttle pro - how do I assign a custom macro to a button?

« on: November 09, 2011, 05:24:32 PM »

I had a look around some of the profile folders (below the mach3\plugin folder) ....couldn't see any 'orphaned' or stray DLLs  - very frustrating!

14

General Mach Discussion / Re: Shuttle pro - how do I assign a custom macro to a button?

« on: November 09, 2011, 04:57:21 PM »

This is whacky...I delete the shuttle pro plugin in the plugins folder, start mach3 - also confimed that it's no longer not  in the Mach3  plugin menu.

I then download V2.62 from the mach plugin page (http://www.machsupport.com/plugins/ShuttlePro.m3p ) ...I save it on my desktop, I run it...sure enough a shuttle.dll file is now showing in my plugins directory...start mach3, look at the plugins menu - V2.62...excellent - click on configure...but I still get the old screen?!!! (ie not like you screenshot at all).... any ideas?

15

General Mach Discussion / Re: Shuttle pro - how do I assign a custom macro to a button?

« on: November 09, 2011, 04:00:24 PM »

Aha...that screenshot explains a lot.

I already had the suttle plugin...but then kept reading about 12 macros associated with it...so I downloaded the latest one showing on the plugin page...popped it in the macro dirictory for my profile....but it still just showed two plugins....I guess I now need to establish the correct way to install  the latest plugin over a previous version ...many thanks, that latest version looks just the CNC icket.

16

General Mach Discussion / Re: Shuttle pro - how do I assign a custom macro to a button?

« on: November 09, 2011, 03:17:08 PM »

At face value, it's looking that it's only possible to assign two custom macros to the Shuttle pro buttons? (is there a workaround here - was hoping to squeeze about six macros on the shuttle pro buttons)

17

General Mach Discussion / Re: Shuttle pro - how do I assign a custom macro to a button?

« on: November 08, 2011, 07:24:46 PM »

Thanks, I've just found a post with a bit more meat on the bones (becuase I didn't even know which directory to drop the macro in!)...

Copy your zero script to a notebook file and save it as M650.m1s

Place this file in Mach3 / macros / Mach3mill folder   (or the folder with the name of the profile you use)

Then in the Shuttle plugin assign a button to "Custom macro #1"  and put 650 in the Macro number 1 box

18

General Mach Discussion / Shuttle pro - how do I assign a custom macro to a button?

« on: November 08, 2011, 05:30:40 PM »

If I goto theshuttle  plugin menu & select shuttle - then select conifg, I get the config screen which allows you allocate actions to the shuttle buttons, the button drop downs have 'custom macro 1', 'custom macro 2' etc .....but how do I alllocate trhe actual macros - in other words what maps custom macro1 to my actual intended macro? (I had thought a browse window might pop up to link to the macro I want to use?)

19

General Mach Discussion / Re: Probing and plate alignment

« on: November 07, 2011, 12:01:25 PM »

Many thanks...all useful for when my webcam arrives!

20

General Mach Discussion / Re: Probing and plate alignment

« on: November 06, 2011, 04:15:53 PM »

NO it does not have to be the rotation point. THe 2 points are just require to be able to calculate the rotation angle. Then you go back to the part Point of origin(X0Y0) and set it to X0Y0. THen you are ready to machine.

I would start with teh LH point frist then move to the RH point. Look at the picture in the Wizard it says a lot(;-)

(;-) TP

Damn just when I thought had it mapped out loosely in my head....so the rotation wizard only sets the angle of rotation?!!

Ok, so the steps would be...

1. Jog to/Align point 1 - tell Mach3's rotation wizard the coordinates
2. Jog to/Align point 2 - tell Mach3's rotation wizard the coordinates
3. exit the wizard (the rotation angle is set).
4. Now jog to any known point on my main pcb (doesn't have to be 0,0) & tell Mach3 the specific coordinates (again using my webcam to align over the mark)

Now I'm ready to cut?

The end goal here must be a wizard that not only works out the angle of rotation but remembers the coordinates that you entered while in the rotation wizard