Messages

141

Newfangled Solutions Mach3 Wizards / Re: any chance to get this wizard working with the MSM Screenset?

« on: November 14, 2010, 05:10:53 PM »

Hi Herb,
I'm unaware of anything in MSM that would impact a wizard's operation -
so I loaded my copy (licensed) of the NFS wizards; picked the cut circule wizard, and had it post code back into mach; which ran fine for me.

Could you give us some more info as to what you see happen when you try the NFS wizard with MSM?

Dave

142

CVI MachStdMill (MSM) / Re: Jogging

« on: November 02, 2010, 11:47:09 AM »

Larry -
re V and S/V modes -
these are both MPG modes. In V (velocity) mode, the amount of movement is proportional to the speed at which you turn the MPG.
In S/V mode, mach is supposed to start in step mode, then shift to velocity mode when the mpg is turned faster than some threshold.

I've been told that in current revs of mach, these two modes are really the same as one mode is either broken or has been removed. (I don't remember which of the two is "disabled" off the top of my head).
I never got a clear answer as to if this was a bug situation or an intentional change - so when doing MSM I kept both mode buttons in the jogging block and let mach do whatever it does when you select each MPG mode.

Dave

143

CVI MachStdMill (MSM) / Re: Jogging

« on: November 02, 2010, 10:47:17 AM »

Hi Larry,
OK, that's good - it's actually moving just at a rate that is not what you expected.
In cont mode jog speed is controlled by the slow jog % DRO next to the cont button.
In step mode, the movement will be at whatever the current feed rate is.

Check your feed rate - I'd suspect it was set to a slow value.

Dave

144

CVI MachStdMill (MSM) / Re: Jogging

« on: November 02, 2010, 02:40:10 AM »

Please perform the following experiment and let me know what happens:
1) start mach with MSM
2) verify that cont jogging works
3) select step mode
4) set step value to something reasonable - say 0.5" or 13mm etc - just some reasonable amount to give obvious movement
5) press right arrow for X+

Does it move?
If not, exit and restart mach from same profile.
while a reset might do it, but I want to make the 2nd part of the test as similar as possible)

6) start mach with same profile as before
7) use menus, view, load screens - load 1024.set
8 ) verify that cont jogging works
9) select step mode
10) set step value to something reasonable again (Use same value as before)
11) press right arrow for X+

Is the result movement or hanging?

12) Before exiting mach, use menus, view, load screens to load MachStdMill.set
13) Exit mach (this gets the profile rewritten so that next time you start, this profile is back to MSM as it was when we started).

Dave

145

CVI MachStdMill (MSM) / Re: Jogging

« on: November 01, 2010, 03:34:40 PM »

Larry,

The MSM jogging controls (should) work just like they do in any mach screen set (as the functionality is implemented internal to Mach).
The Jogging controls are described in section 2.2.3.5 of the MSM user manual.

For all jog modes (Cont, Step, or MPG) the Jogging button must be on (green).

Cont mode causes movement as long as an arrow key is held down.

Step mode causes one movement each time an arrow key is pressed. The amount of movement is the value shows in the DRO next to the step button in the jogging panel. For example if this DRO shows 0.5000, and Step mode is active, and the jogging button is on, then each time you press the "right arrow" key you will get 0.5000 of movement in the X+ direction.

So let's check first things first -
One can change back and forth between Cont and Step mode at will.
When you click "Step" the button lights up green - correct?
When you click "Cont" the step Cont button (Or MPG button if you were in MPG mode) goes out and the Cont button become green - correct?
 
Dave

146

CVI MachStdMill (MSM) / Re: Parallel Port2 no Led activity

« on: October 27, 2010, 06:23:40 PM »

Ron,

My apologies -

The bad news: the PP2 display is only for input in beta 12. Output mode is on my list of things to add when I get some time to do so.  

The good News: This only impacts the display of PP2 leds on the PP driver page - not the actual functioning of the PP itself.  PP2 will work however you set it up in Mach (input or output). There is no problem using PP2 in output mode with MSM - MSM just can't currently show you the right leds for output mode - but the system will function just fine anyhow.  

I know it would be nice to have the page handle both modes for PP2.
Does it help to realize that 1024 doesn't give any rational display of PP pins for either PP1 or PP2?  

Dave

147

CVI MachStdMill (MSM) / Re: Parallel Port2 no Led activity

« on: October 27, 2010, 05:08:42 PM »

Hi Ron,
Here are the first thoughts that come to mind re your 2nd PP:

1) Is the 2nd port enabled in the mach config port & Pins ?
If you're using the port, I'd guess yes. if the a PP is not enabled in mach, MSM greys out the port's pins on the PP driver page.

2) Is the 2nd PP set up with "pins 2-9 as inputs" checked in config ports&Pins?
MSM only handles the 2nd port display when the port is set up as "input". I'd need to go look at the code, I can't remember off the top of my head if MSM also greys out the pins for PP2 if it is set as output. In any case, the 2nd PP display panel LED pin layout corresponds to the input case. (having the 2nd PP panel visually handle the "output" case was not implemented in the beta).

Dave

148

CVI MachStdMill (MSM) / Re: Mist and Flood control

« on: October 22, 2010, 01:42:53 PM »

good - I'm happy to know the problem is fixed
Dave

149

General Mach Discussion / Re: Probing Software

« on: October 18, 2010, 04:14:06 PM »

You might want to take a look at the MachStdMill screen set - it includes built in support for many common probing operations
info can be found at
http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,15291.0.html

Dave

150

CVI MachStdMill (MSM) / Re: Screen Not Working, No Moves...

« on: October 11, 2010, 03:55:24 PM »

Hank,

Dave,
I had a chance to figure out what I was doing wrong,and finally got the screen to work. ''However'' in loading the screen from the mach loader,I find that the divice manager, the tell's you to choose printerport, or no devices, freezes, and the do not show me this again, I cannot click on it to do so. It wont let me, clicling on any of the buttons dont work, and just goes to the WhiteScreen and the loads.

There is a bug in Mach 3.43.22 - sounds to me like this is what you are seeing:
 
•   Dialogs unresponsive during screen set load
Verified on 3.43.22

If Mach displays a dialog box when initializing (say to pick the hardware output device to use), the dialog will appear but then be “frozen” - until after Mach finishes loading the screen set.  Once mach has finished loading, the dialog will be come active and you can then respond to it.

The work around to this Mach V3 bug is to simply be patient and wait for the screen set load process to complete.
Dialogs will respond "normally" once mach finishes it's load process.

Next is the tool offset height, I always use 0.1 above the workpiece and is in the z safety at 0.5 which is in my programs GCode,never changed,and the result is, it is going 1.5 above the work piec and should'nt, I look all over the setting pages and status bars and cannot find how to change the setting. All the ZYZ A B C axis's are at 0.0000. loading a GCode that I always use,and did so before switching to MSM in the .1024 screen will not produce the 1.0000 rise in Z. Tried everything I know,and maybe thtas not enough,but dont know where esle to look. As for the screen itself, Great, just two things I cannot figure out.   Thanks,   Hank S.

Lots of possibilities - Some ideas of things you can check:

1) You can see how all the offset calculation values on the WC-Offsets page - top panel.
confirm that the offsets are as you expect them to be.
See section 4 of the MSM manual

2) how are you setting Z0? What is the gage block height set to?
See MSM manual section 4.3.1

3) do you have safe-z configured?
Check the Mach safe-Z configuration settings.

Dave