Messages

21

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Multiple Probes

« on: May 18, 2017, 02:00:12 PM »

Cool.  I thought that was the case but thought I'd ask before chasing that rabbit through the hole.

22

Mach4 General Discussion / Multiple Probes

« on: May 18, 2017, 09:30:24 AM »

In the pin setup I see Probe, Probe1, Probe2 and Probe3 on the M4 and ESS setup.  I know G31 works with Probe.  Would G31.1 be used with Probe1, G31.2 for Probe2, etc.?

Thanks

23

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Reverse Run

« on: May 15, 2017, 07:25:00 PM »

Anyone?  The manual talks about reverse run and shows images of a reverse run button, but none of the stock screensets have it. 

24

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Reverse Run

« on: May 14, 2017, 12:26:46 PM »

Anyone have any ideas on this one?  I see an output for reverse run, but no button action or function to activate it.  Do you just turn the output on and off to activate/deactivate?

25

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: CNC Plasma THC surface contact finder with Mach4..

« on: May 12, 2017, 09:35:26 AM »

M4 doesn't use VB Script.  You have to re-write the macro in Lua.

26

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Cannot set Machine coordinates G54 to 0.00 in the offset tab!!

« on: May 05, 2017, 01:05:01 PM »

Someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding is that the G54 offset is your work offset and reflects the distance between work zero and machine zero.  If you home the machine,  everything should be zero.  If you jog somewhere else and zero all (set your work zero), machine coordinates and work offset will match and current position will be zero.  If you jog again and hit zero all, again, machine coordinates and work offset change to the same number and current position goes to zero.

If you set a G52 offset to say G52X2Y2, G92 offset changes to X2 Y2 and current position changes to X-2 Y-2.  If you jog now and hit zero all, machine coordinates and work offset stay the same while current position goes to X-2 Y-2.  Now if you MDI G52X0Y0, current position and work offset go to zero.

My understanding is that G54 always represents the distance from machine zero to work zero and you can not just change that G54 value...unless you home the machine.

In your case, if you are setting your work zero properly and your gcode is referencing work coordinates and not machine coordinates, it should work propely.  For instance, if your DRO's are zero'd out, G90 G00 Z-1 would sent the Z down 1" relative to it's current position in work coordinates (zero).  G90 G53 G00 Z-1 would send the Z to -1" relative to machine zero, wherever that may be.

We always had issues in Mach3 homing.  When the machine was referenced, it would lose position now and then.  No issues when the machine was not referenced.  For that reason, we never referenced the machine, we just worked from work zero.  Mach4 is not that way.  Homing in Mach4 is very predictable and works great.  If you're trying to run with the machine de-referenced, try homing it and see if that helps.

27

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: List of Inputs and Outputs

« on: April 28, 2017, 06:57:36 PM »

Thanks.  I remembered seeing the list but thought it was in another document.

28

Mach4 General Discussion / List of Inputs and Outputs

« on: April 28, 2017, 04:56:56 PM »

Some of them like mc.OSIG_OUTPUT2, mc.OSIG_OUTPUT3, etc. are easy, but others like the output for Soft Limits are not so intuitive.  Is there a list of inputs and outputs? 

Thanks

29

Mach4 General Discussion / Reverse Run

« on: April 25, 2017, 01:20:24 PM »

Has reverse run been impemented in M4?  I don't see a function in the documentation or button action for it.

Thanks

30

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: mcCntlGcodeExecuteWait Inside a macro

« on: April 25, 2017, 01:15:03 PM »

I think the issue was in one particular macro.  I wrote some test macros with some motion commands and they all executed fine with no timing issues.  I couldn't pinpoint the issue with the macro because it worked in the editor but failed when run.  When it failed it just went to the next line which made me think it was just blowing past the mcCntlGcodeExecuteWait().  I re-wrote the macro and it worked.

I did figure out that using a combination of mcCntlMdiExecute() and mcCntlGcodeExecuteWait() can cause strange behaviour. I've seen a total crash and I've seen where the code seems to function, but it doesn't update the screen (DRO's and toolpath display) while it's doing it.  For instance using mcCntlGcodeExecuteWait() in the macro, then calling the macro from a button using mcCntlGcodeExecuteWait(inst, 'M3000') caused a crash.  Calling the same macro using mcCntlMdiExecute(inst, 'M3000') works if there is no other code or if this is the last line of code, otherwise it blows past the mcCntlMdiExecute() and on to the next line.  

If I take the code out of the macro, using mcCntlGcodeExecuteWait(), and drop it in a button script, it seems to work, but the screen doesn't update while the code is running.  It updates after the button script is done.  It's just a matter of figuring out what works with what.