Messages

31

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

« on: April 17, 2023, 06:59:31 PM »

Have you set up your spindle pulley info in Mach4? Mach4 figures out the %PWM by looking at the S word as a % of the maximum spindle speed.

Are you using the relay on the PMDX-126 to command Run or Forward to the VFD or are you using the Run or Forward directly from the PMDX-107? The PMDX-107 derives the run status by looking at the PWM. If the PWM ever becomes absolutely 100% (never pulses) the PMDX-107 will turn off. We often recommend that users set up the maximum pulley speed to just over the maximum S word that you plan to use. For example if you have a 24000 RPM spindle, set the maximum pulley speed to 24005 so that the PWM never saturates to 100%.

32

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Can Master - Slave have different Axis screw pitch Settings?

« on: March 26, 2023, 01:38:19 AM »

Counts Per Unit is a property per Motor not per Axis, so it may indeed be possible for different pitch screws to be used for the Master and Slaves on a given Axis. Like you, I would prefer for Smurph to speak to this question.

33

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: MACH 3 to MACH 4 and USS TO ESS

« on: March 23, 2023, 09:12:50 AM »

Any servo drive that accepts incremental quadrature input from rotary encoders can be run from an incremental quadrature linear scale, however the scales have lower effective resolution and are not coupled as tightly mechanically to the motor. Mechanical backlash will cause problems. Typically you will have to tune them to operate more slowly with lower P gain, more I gain, and if available a dead band in order to be stable. Anilam did this on some of their older controls.

34

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: I don't see the "SIMULATOR" tab

« on: March 14, 2023, 08:04:13 AM »

Craig:

ModuleWorks.com does offer 4 and 5 axis simulators for other partners. They have done simulators for dozens of companies and you may have seen their software being used by dental labs that make prosthetics. Perhaps you could investigate the possibility but it will likely be much more expensive.

35

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: I don't see the "SIMULATOR" tab

« on: March 14, 2023, 07:51:35 AM »

Craig:

The ModuleWorks simulator is available for purchase on the Machsupport.com web site.

It supports 3 axis milling and would not help with 4 or 5 axis systems.

It installs as a separate Mach4 profile as if it was another machine.

https://www.machsupport.com/shop/3d-cutting-simulator-mach4-hobby-plugin/

36

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: laser engraving on the fly

« on: March 10, 2023, 09:23:17 PM »

Yes, it is supported on some motion controllers like the Ethernet SmoothStepper.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79g7WSAuJUk

37

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Rotary Axes in Radians vs Degrees?

« on: February 19, 2023, 06:08:41 PM »

You can specify the "counts per unit" for your rotary axis to the appropriate value for one radian of movement. That should work reasonably well in the real world but with these considerations:

1)This will inherently be an approximation because for any reasonable gearing setup the value will include pi as a part of the computation and pi is an irrational number.

2)The concept of "rollover" in the Mach4 configuration probably assumes that the value to be declared to be the rollover point is 360, as in degrees.

One alternative approach would be to make your unit of measure be one full circle so as to avoid the irrational number issue.

38

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Keyboard short cuts & editing current Gcode

« on: February 19, 2023, 03:37:30 PM »

Did you look at the screen shot that Craig provided?

It shows the desired button in the standard screen sets. If you have a customized screen set it may not be there, but it works fine in the standard ones.

39

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: PMDX-416 USB Can't Connect

« on: January 08, 2023, 10:28:15 AM »

You are still welcome to send it to us for warranty repair/evaluation.

Steve Stallings
PMDX

40

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: PMDX-416 USB Can't Connect

« on: January 08, 2023, 10:01:26 AM »

It seems strange that the PMDX-416 works OK if it is found but Mach4 has problems finding the PMDX-416 when starting. This could be a software problem related to the configuration on your computer or Mach4.

With Mach4 not running, try unplugging and replugging the PMDX-416 several times. Give it a couple of seconds for Windows to react. You should get a sound or other notifications from Windows each time you plug or unplug the PMDX-416 just like those you get when plugging and unplugging a mouse. You can use this as a test case (not involving Mach4) for trying it on different ports, different cables, or even different computers.

Next, test the PMDX-416 with only the USB cable connected. You can easily disconnect the PMDX-416 from all other wiring by unplugging the terminal strips without unscrewing your wiring harness connections.

If the PMDX-416 fails to connect reliably in these isolated tests, please return it for warranty repair.

Sometimes with USB there can be problems with a "ground loop" between the computer ground and the machine ground. If you find that the PMDX-416 can be made to work if the only thing wired to it is the USB cable, and all other terminal blocks unplugged, then suspect a ground loop. If you do see this situation there are two things that you can try. First make sure that the computer's power and the safety ground at the machine are coming from the same power outlet. Second, you can add a heavy wire (like 18 gauge lamp cord) between the metal chassis of the computer case and the "GND" terminal of J7 on the PMDX-416. This will shunt the "ground loop" leakage current through the heavy wire instead of through the shield wire of the USB cable.

I do not have any experience with trying an Ethernet to USB adapter, but such configurations do involve extra layers of software that can make configuration more complicated.

Regards,
Steve Stallings
PMDX