Messages

191

CVI MachStdMill (MSM) / Re: G73/G83

« on: September 16, 2010, 10:38:01 AM »

Mick,
Uh, You know I didn't really want to know this right?     (....just kidding)

Re the A axis movement:
What page were you viewing when you saw the Z axis movement?
Was this while running the 10x7 resolution and on the run-path page?
If so, there is a bug on that page where the A axis DRO is actually showing the Z axis values.  
I have that fixed but it has not gotten out in a release yet.
OTOH, if you saw this on a different page, it is probably something different.

Dave

thomsj,
          yesterday i spent about 3hrs creating a gcode program which was running perfectly last night,
          this morning loaded the same program and got an unrecoverable error,tried many times to load,
          the only way it would load was after i deleted the g83 at the begining of the line.
 
          Then i started to mess with changing to g73 at one stage the A AXIS started to move although
           there arn't any a axis moves anyywhere in the code,afer that i gave up and came indoors to try
           this laptop,in msm with g83 x0 y0 z-25 r5  dro's zero'd out i get y movement ! then z goes to -25
           and retracts to safe z, the peck distance is ignored.

           Load machmill and the line runs as it should.
                                                                   mick.

192

CVI MachStdMill (MSM) / Re: G73/G83

« on: September 15, 2010, 10:32:11 PM »

Tom,

The catch here is if one wants to use MSM, one needs the dev version of Mach3, so that leaves out the .032 and .033 and .040 lockdowns.

This is correct - the reason that MSM won't run on the lock down version as that it requires mach APIs that don't exist in the lock down rev.

Don't know what else to try until Dave chimes in with a tip or 2!!

Oh my, while I'm flattered, I fear the expectation may be more than I can meet in this case.  

Here are some (maybe) relevant thoughts I've had:
There are three ways I can think of to get G-code into mach for execution.
1) load a file into mach.
MSM does this the same way all other screen sets do - call the mach interface to load a gcode file. A screen set has no knowledge of what's in a gcode file etc. User pushes button, mach interface called, mach returns, screen set's part is then all done.

2) MDI control
mach provides 1 MDI control - all screen sets use the same control. Again the screen set is not involved in the contents of the data entered via the MDI control.

3) Script Code statements. This is not applicable for the situation at hand.

Once ode is loaded, when the user starts the code, the screen set job is the same simple sequence of
a) button pushed, b) mach "run code" interface is called.
Again the screen set has no knowledge of a canned cycle - an conversion of a canned cycle is handled by mach and motion is passed to the motion device (at least that's my understanding).  

So I'm at a loss for "tips" as to why you could see this with a MSM/SS combination.

Some other musings on my part:
1) Screens sets and plugins don't use any common interfaces that could conflict (MSM does not use a plugin to run). It was designed that way to avoid potential multiple plugin interface issues.
2) The PP driver does not interface to the rest of mach via a plugin interface - it is a more "intertwined" part of mach.
I suppose the combination you are seeing could be peck drilling via a plugin motion control device - but that still does not quite fit all of what you have described.

I can only do rudimentary SS testing as I don't have a SS connected to actually drive iron (just a bench test set up for the SS).

Right now, I think this remains an unsolved mystery until more clues are found by someone.
And (uh, no offense meant; really!) before going hunting, it would be nice if more than one person could confirm the problematic combination.  Just to many unknown variables yet to make a plan of attack.

I will shoot Greg an email to ask him to read the thread in case he has any ideas.

Dave

193

CVI MachStdMill (MSM) / Re: G73/G83

« on: September 15, 2010, 06:03:41 PM »

I don't really know what it actually is - I'm just doing semi-educated guessing at this point.

My guess would be a combo of 3.43.22 and SS - but I'm at a loss to see how a G73 canned cycle is different between PP and SS - I would have thought mach did all the canned cycle processing and just passed Z motions to the lower layer (PP or SS).

I think this is one for the Mach Wizard man in the corner behind the curtain.  

Brian likes small concise test cases - can you post a small gcode file that runs on PP and not SS?

Dave

194

CVI MachStdMill (MSM) / Re: G73/G83

« on: September 15, 2010, 05:39:01 PM »

Tom,

Screen sets of any flavor have no way to impact the actions that a g-code causes (as far as I know).
(A minor exception is a few specific M codes that mach exposes (M6Start, M6End) for customization. )

So, I was suspecting this is a function of the mach revision - but.... as I was writing this I got your 2nd post...

Weird! I would never have expected that. I was pretty sure the canned cycle actions are decomposed into axis movements by the time mach sends the movements to the SS. (I.e. SS didn't know know what a G73 is).

My "module isolation approach" would have been to see if the test code runs correctly on the lock down rev (3.42.40), using 1024 for both lock down and development test - that eliminates MSM as a variable.

I will say that I will be real surprised if it's an MSM side effect as screen sets don't even know about canned cycles - it's not part of their concept of the universe.   

Care to try the same mach rev (3.43.22 I assume) with 1024 on PP and SS?

Dave

195

CVI MachStdMill (MSM) / MSM Beta quality Satisfaction?

« on: September 14, 2010, 01:20:21 PM »

I realize this is subjective.

 I’m interested in what your overall opinion is of the current MSM/Mach beta combination (MSM beta 10 and Mach 3.43.22) wrt to quality/stability.

Dave

196

CVI MachStdMill (MSM) / MSM feature set satisfaction?

« on: September 14, 2010, 01:14:35 PM »

This poll is to gather some feedback re how satisfied are you with the MachStdMill feature set?

I realize this is subjective; I’m interested in what your overall opinion is of the current feature set included in MSM

Dave

197

CVI MachStdMill (MSM) / An informal MSM satisfaction survey

« on: September 14, 2010, 01:11:54 PM »

Hi,
The number of problems reported in the forum seems to have significantly tapered off over the last couple of weeks. I'd like to think that is due to the initial beta issues having been fixed and that things are going pretty well for most users…. But I figure it's better to ask than assume.

Given that the web forum has some rudimentary polling tools, I just have to try them out   …

I'd appreciate it if you would take a moment to vote in two informal polls that I've posted. I'd like to get an idea of the groups satisfaction level with MSM’s feature set and the MSM Beta quality.  

If there is additional commentary you want to add, please feel free to do so – I'm just gathering input and I'm honestly interested what MSM users have to say.  I'm going to run the polls for a week. During the time the polls are open, I'll be reading replies to this thread but will probably restrict myself to limited engagement in dialog re poll comments until after the polling period. The polls were set up to show the results when the poll closes (so that partial results won't influence voters).

I've made to pools "sticky" so they will be easy to find at the top of the forum.

Thanks,
Dave

198

CVI MachStdMill (MSM) / Re: A axis DRO updated with Z axis co-ordinates in path screen

« on: September 13, 2010, 12:19:12 PM »

Mick,
Thanks for spotting that. I've fixed it - fix will be in the next MSM release.
It was a bug in the 10x7 resolution set file. It's ok in the 12x9 resolution.

If anyone needs this fix quickly, let me know - otherwise I'll let it wait until there is enough to make a release.

Dave

199

General Mach Discussion / MachStdMill beta 10 is available for download

« on: September 13, 2010, 12:02:05 PM »

Hi,
The Current MachStdMill Beta release is v0.3.14 (Beta 10) and requires Mach 3.43.22.

Info is here:
http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,15420.0.html

Dave

200

CVI MachStdMill (MSM) / Re: Touch off

« on: September 13, 2010, 09:53:04 AM »

Alan,
OK, I see where the mis-communication was -
The touch page is for "touching". I.e. manually touch the tool to the surface then click the button.

The probing page is for moving the tool to a surface, and finding it via a touch plate or probe event into Mach.

ON the probing page "Probe Z-" will move the current tool down until a probe event tells mach that the tool has touched the surface (in this case the signal caused by the tool touching the touch plate).
If you are in MT mode, then the same calculation I described before is done when the TP is touched.

1) make sure you have set the height of the TP (settings page) to the thickness of your TP (or the calculation result will be off)
2) make sure the TP is working each time (I life the TP up and touch the tool to see the screen LED go on)
3) make sure the TP is under the tool when you click "probe Z-" (it's not fun to miss the plate)

Dave