Messages

141

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mouse Jogs work, but keyboard jogs do not

« on: January 30, 2020, 05:34:58 PM »

For the keyboard, did you notice that in the Jogging panel just to the right of the button
labeled Continuous there is a button labeled Keyboard Inputs Enable. If you click on it
once it will turn green and the label changes to say Keyboard Inputs Disable. The label
text describes what will happen if you click. The Green color shows that Keyboard is
currently enabled.
 
In the Packaged Profile that you sent me by email, I see some rather strange configurations
in the key mapping table found in > Config > Plugins > Keyboard Inputs. As it came up for me,
the jog to X+ was set up for Hold the Control Key and hit the Right Arrow. Several others
are similar. This is not the default that should have been in the PMDX-Sample profile,
so perhaps you have reconfigured them.

142

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Slave motor not working with primary motor

« on: January 30, 2020, 09:07:18 AM »

Slaved axes work fine with Mach4 and the PMDX-411. Please send us a "Packaged Profile" from your Mach4 system so we can confirm that your configuration is set up correctly.

You create the "Packaged Profile" in Mach4 using > Help > Support > Create Packaged Profile

Save the file in a known location on your Windows computer and then send it to PMDX as an attachment to an email message.

Steve Stallings
www.PMDX.com

143

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: CP motor, PMDX126, ESS...Limit Switch ++ tripped when touchplate gets grounded

« on: January 12, 2020, 12:00:06 PM »

The input signals on the PMDX-126 are referenced to the GND terminals present on J11, J12, and J13 along the right side of the board. If you expect to use electrical contact with a tool to do touch off, we recommend using a wire from one of these grounds to a clip temporarily gripping the cutting tool. Connecting this ground to the machine frame may work in most cases, but the clip is more reliable.

The outputs on J1 through J7 are referenced to the PCgnd terminals on those connectors. We generally do not recommend connecting PCgnd to frame ground because doing so may establish ground loop paths that will cause problems. This is especially true if you are using an actual parallel port on your computer.

While the PMDX-126 uses pin 10 of the first port to report E-Stop, Mach itself can be configured to look at any signal input as E-Stop. You might double check your configuration.

144

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Can’t load g code files

« on: January 12, 2020, 11:40:13 AM »

This is not an issue with Demo versus Licensed modes.

The problem could be the file name extension used on your files. By default Mach4 will look for .TAP and .NC files. If you want to use file with a different extension, go to Config > Control and select the General tab. At the top right corner of this window is a box where you can add other file extensions to include in the search.

145

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: mach 4 testing limits and home switches inputs

« on: January 04, 2020, 10:04:41 PM »

Mach4 has a similar page, just look two tabs to the right of Program Run on the second line of tabs on the main screen. It is labeled "Machine Diagnostics"

146

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Select Motion Control Device

« on: December 16, 2019, 08:04:00 PM »

Assuming that you are running on the same computer as before, your PMDX plugin should be there, but the Mach4Mill profile does not have it enabled. You can try again by copying the PMDX-Sample profile instead of the Mach4Mill profile, or you can manually enable it by going to >Config >Control and select the Plugins tab. If the PMDX plugin is on your computer you will see it in the list under this tab. Make sure it has a green check in the Enabled column of the chart. Then hit the Apply button in the lower right corner of the window. You will need to shut down and re-start Mach4 so that Mach4 includes the newly Enabled plugin among those you can select.

147

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 is missing DLLs and does not start after updating to 4.2.0.4300

« on: December 02, 2019, 07:23:33 AM »

Just so we don't get a bunch of people worried if this could happen to them, the N (for the EU) and KN (for Korea) versions are the ones affected. This is because of regulatory issues that require that Microsoft deliver standard versions of Windows 10 without built in media support. Only the EU and Korea are affected, and users there can easily download the needed media support.

148

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 lathe x zeroing on a part?

« on: November 30, 2019, 10:43:10 AM »

Start by having a tool selected. You can execute a T1 command by selecting the MDI screen, enter the T1 command into the MDI screen, then click on Cycle Start to run it. The machine must be enabled for MDI commands to run, even though the T1 command does not cause motion.

Then in the bottom right corner of the lathe screen there is a box for "Tool Information". In this box, click on the numeric DRO above "Set X Offset" and enter the desired value. Then click on the button below the DRO to apply the offset to that tool. This will update the main DRO to reflect the position of the tool tip after offset, but does not move the tool. The updated offset values are saved and will be reloaded each time you start Mach4. Likewise executing other T# commands will update the main DRO position to reflect the position of the newly selected tool using the saved offsets. The tool offset DROs are data entry holding boxes and do not update when tools are changed.

If you do not like the process, don't blame me. I am just the messenger.

149

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 lathe x zeroing on a part?

« on: November 30, 2019, 09:13:27 AM »

In lathe usage it is more typical to take a skim cut of the stock and then measure the diameter and set the current X position to reflect the actual cut. The eliminates the difficult process of finding the centerline and also takes into account tool deflection while cutting.

150

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 demo "time out"

« on: November 21, 2019, 05:22:48 PM »

If you select the "Simulation Device" under Config > Select Motion Device, then the demo mode will not time out.

This is the mode that the sample profiles such as Mach4Mill installs with normally.

There is no way to bypass the timeout using any other Motion Device. Only installing a license will do that.

If you got your license from Machsupport.com, or PMDX, or any other distributor that supports self managed licenses, then there is no reason to delay installing a license. You can move it or create another for yourself using the Machsupport.com web site.

Steve Stallings
www.PMDX.com