Messages

91

General Mach Discussion / Future of Mach3 ??

« on: July 11, 2015, 12:35:30 AM »

Just wondering others opinions on the future of Mach3.

XP will get progressively more difficult to find as time goes by (i.e. legal versions), and Microsoft won't sell licenses anymore.

And what about suitable PCs with parallel port, they are getting older more unreliable, and slowly getting harder to find.

I'm getting to a good stage with Mach3 but wonder if I should at some point start looking at Linuxcnc for the future. Not something I want to do but thinking down the track.

Opinions ?

Keith

92

VB and the development of wizards / Re: Saving & Recalling Specific DROs to file

« on: June 12, 2015, 09:15:59 PM »

NOPE it can all be done in CB.

(;-) TP

LOL, cheers Terry, off I go CB hunting.

Keith.

93

VB and the development of wizards / Re: Saving & Recalling Specific DROs to file

« on: June 12, 2015, 07:23:17 PM »

My first thoughts are I'm going to have to write a custom script to read the specific DROs and save them to a file (don't know that bit).

Likewise I'll have to have a button script that asks you to choose one of these saved files, then puts those values in the dros.

Had a quick wiz through the Programmers Ref Manual and don't see how to do the saving / opening bit yet.

Hope this isn't getting into the realms of plugin writing.

Keith

94

VB and the development of wizards / Re: Saving & Recalling Specific DROs to file

« on: June 12, 2015, 05:57:24 PM »

If you create user DRO's in the screen, they'll already be saved when you close and restart Mach3.

Cheers Gerry,

thing is some of them won't be userdros, they'll be Machs built in dros too.

That's why I need to be able to select a few dros of different types and have those saved to a file so I can later load them in one go.

Keith

95

VB and the development of wizards / Re: Saving & Recalling Specific DROs to file

« on: June 12, 2015, 05:54:13 PM »

SUre it is about a dozen different ways.

(;-) TP

Terry, you are just teasing me, you've just dangled a dozen carrots in front of me (should say sticky date pudding, I'm not into raw carrots  ).

Keith.

96

General Mach Discussion / Re: No built-in THC DELAY in Mach3 ???

« on: June 12, 2015, 05:51:33 PM »

I've got a Canadian mate. I'll have to give him a call and see if he can teach me the language 

Keith.

97

General Mach Discussion / Re: No built-in THC DELAY in Mach3 ???

« on: June 12, 2015, 06:56:02 AM »

Looks like it does exist. The documentation I was reading was obviously older stuff.

I've found OEM DRO 177 is "Torch Pierce Delay", but can't find any explanation of how it operates in Mach. The name "Torch Pierce Delay" is not very indicative of it being a THC Delay, where it does not react to the THC UP/DOWN signals for its set duration.

But then again, neither is THCOn for the ARC OK signal 

Keith.

98

VB and the development of wizards / Saving & Recalling Specific DROs to file

« on: June 12, 2015, 06:14:40 AM »

I'm looking at saving what I'll call "Parameter Sets" for different materials (plasma cutting related).

So lets say I have a new material. I initially type specific values in various DROs, then I want to be able to save these DRO values to a file so that when I come back to Mach next day, I can load all these DROs at once by opening the chosen Parameter Set file.

This way I can have an ever growing list of Parameter Set files for convenience and speed.

Is this possible in Mach ?

Keith.

99

General Mach Discussion / Re: No built-in THC DELAY in Mach3 ???

« on: June 12, 2015, 04:15:26 AM »

Going into it in a little more detail, here is how the THC operation is described in the Mach2 manual (italics):

1.   The part program moves the torch at Safe Z to the start of the cut then moves to Z = 0
     (This is pierce height).

2.   It then executes M3 ("spindle start") to start the arc. Mach2Mill stops executing the part program and completes the torch switch circuit. Piercing starts.
      
3.   When the THC interface detects that the arc is good it signals this to Mach2Mill which switches on the torch height servo and resumes execution of the part  
      program. This can have a short Dwell (G4) or immediately commence the first move for the cut.

4.   Whenever the height servo is on it will sample the Torch Up and Torch Down inputs. If Torch Up is active then the Z axis will move in the plus direction at the rapid  
      feed rate multiplied by the Correction Speed percentage DRO. Similarly Torch Down will move in the minus Z direction.

The way it's worded sounds to me like as soon as the ARC OK is recieved, the THC will respond to the UP/DOWN signals. My plasma cutter puts the ARC OK signal out very quickly after the TORCH ON signal is given, so I can see the THC reacting in the middle of a pierce when the voltage is sky high, and driving the Z down while piercing.

Have I got any of that wrong

Keith.

100

General Mach Discussion / No built-in THC DELAY in Mach3 ???

« on: June 12, 2015, 01:51:13 AM »

I'm working on making a torch height control for Mach3.

Does Mach not have a built in THC DELAY. Judging by what I read in the documentation it seems the THC becomes active as soon as Mach gets the ARC OK signal. However the torch could still be in the middle of a pierce and you don't want to have THC moves then.

I've got a Candcnc system and it has a user adjustable THC DELAY. I think from when the ARC OK is recieved the THC ignores any UP/DOWN signals for the duration of the THC DELAY setting. The DRO code is OEM 177 which is just a reserved DRO, so I'm guessing that the THC DELAY is part of the Candcnc plugin and not native to Mach3.

I can get around this easily enough by programming it into the THC controller, but just want to double check first that Mach doesn't have anything built in.

Keith.