Messages

21

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: MACH 4 home switch configurations...

« on: August 26, 2023, 01:35:22 PM »

You mentioned limit switches. According to the screens you posted, you have home switches, not limit switches. Careful with terminology so you don't confuse people.

First step is to get homing working properly. If machine does not home correctly, use the Mach4 "Diagnostics" screen to verify that Mach4 can see your home switches. The indicators on the diagnostics are in the right hand column of the Input Signals part of the panel. M0 and M1 labels may be missing the word home, but are the same type of indicator as the M2 Home etc. directly below them.

If you had actual limit switches they would have names like M0-- and M0++.

The configuration option for Home Offset is often misunderstood. It does not cause any motion, rather it determines the numeric value associated with the location where the homing operation stops the machine. One common way to use this is to define Home Offset to a small negative value like -0.100 so that telling the machine to Go to Zero will cause the machine to come to rest 0.100 from the home position.

You are, I think, trying to set up Soft Limits. Since you are NOT using home-in-place without home switches, it is mandatory that you have homing working and that the machine is homed before enabling Soft Limits. The Soft Limits function does not take effect until you enable it. The control for turning it on is in the set of functions in the lower right block of the main Mach4 screen. The button is labeled "Soft Limits On/Off".

Pay attention to the error messages in the bottom line of the main screen to make sure Mach4 does not have issues with your Soft Limits configuration.

Steve Stallings
PMDX

22

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Z-position chaning mid program

« on: August 13, 2023, 09:36:29 AM »

I would suggest that you temporarily disconnect your Z axis driver from the ESS/breakout board and connect the ESS/breakout board output for the Z axis to a different axis temporarily and see if you can cause that axis to show the same symptom of incorrect "Z" location. That would help determine if the problem is in the ESS/breakout board or in the driver, motor, and mechanics. Be careful that you have room for the motion intended for the Z axis to happen on the substitute axis while testing.

23

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Z-position chaning mid program

« on: August 13, 2023, 08:52:32 AM »

When this issue occurs does the on screen DRO reflect the altered Z location?

This is significant because the DRO information comes from the ESS which reports where it thinks the Z axis is positioned. If the problem is in the Mach4 trajectory control process, then the position reported by the ESS would reflect the error. If the DRO still shows the correct Z location where the axis should be, but isn't, then the problem is happening in the ESS step generation or somewhere downstream from there.

24

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: License question

« on: August 05, 2023, 10:07:32 AM »

The MachSupport license server will allow up to 5 active licenses for Mach4 Hobby. After you have 5 issued you will need to deactivate one in order to issue a new one. Other products such as Mach4 Industrial will have more restrictions on number of licenses.

25

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: License question

« on: August 05, 2023, 09:53:05 AM »

If you got your license through a dealer and you did not have a MachSupport login account, you will need to work with that dealer.

If you got your license directly from MachSupport or via a dealer who sent you a "license coupon", then you can ask for assistance recovering your license by using this support ticket page:

http://support.machsupport.com/en/new-ticket

Select "License Support" under the drop down options for "Department"

Provide the name used for registration and your new email address in the provided fields.

Also provide your old email address, the approximate date of purchase, and any other helpful information in the "Message" area.

26

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: License question

« on: August 05, 2023, 09:10:56 AM »

You will need to log into your account on MachSupport.com and get a new license key. To do this you will need to have Mach4 installed as a demo first so you can get the new PCID for your updated computer.

MachSupport allows you to have multiple licenses and you do this process yourself without outside assistance unless something goes wrong.

This should not be an issue assuming that you remember your login information for the site.

Also you will need to save your configuration from the old installation. You can do this by copying the entire Mach4Hobby folder to the new disk drive, or you can save a "packaged profile" and restore that. The entire folder method is simpler and will insure getting other little things that may not saved in a packaged profile.

Remember that if you have not renamed your profile from the default profile name, such as Mach4Mill, it will be overwritten when you run the installer.

27

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: ATC Y-axis won't go to negative value

« on: July 14, 2023, 11:22:09 AM »

Could it be a case of "work coordinates" vs. "machine coordinates"?

28

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Build 4809 to 5153 Hobby, now with industrial look?

« on: July 08, 2023, 03:00:21 PM »

Version 5133 is a beta release. You can download it from here:

https://www.machsupport.com/ftp/Mach4/DevlopmentVersions/

Yes, development is actually mis-spelled, but the link is correct.  8-)

29

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: How to re-pack (zip) a Screenset?

« on: July 08, 2023, 02:56:21 PM »

It is not a windows program, you must run it from a Command prompt. See the help file which should be attached to this post.

30

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Spindle Works in Mach 3 but no go in Mach 4

« on: April 17, 2023, 07:33:12 PM »

If the VFD is only wired to the PMDX-107, then the 100% PWM problem could exist if the SmoothStepper allows a full 100%. Even 99.99% avoids the problem.