Messages

301

CVI MachStdMill (MSM) / Re: Homing and Limit Switch Probblems.

« on: August 06, 2010, 04:16:39 PM »

OK, that means that I misremembered the purpose of that setting. "home Off." = "axis Offset amount after homing" rather than "amount to back off the switches".
My understanding of what mach does is home until the switch closes, then reverse until mach sees the switch open again.
That sequence is started by a ref axis call to mach. We know mach is seeing the call and starting motion toward the switch; we know it sees the switch close (the motion stops) - what you don't see is enough movement away from the switch so that the switch is open after movement stops.
I suppose it could be contact bounce of the switch making a very short pulse that makes mach think it is off the switch. so Mach would stop before perceptible motion would be evident - and it could then stop with with the switch staying in the static "on state"....

That would beg the question of why is 1024 acting different from MSM....
Here's another idea:
Do you have a a debounce interval set in the profile for 1204 that is not set in the profile for MSM?

(I'm quickly running out of ideas ....    )

Dave


 

302

CVI MachStdMill (MSM) / Re: Homing and Limit Switch Probblems.

« on: August 06, 2010, 11:10:20 AM »

Hi,
MSM and 1024 quite literally do the exact same calls to mach for referencing operations.
...and mach does the motion control for reference operations (not MSM or 1024).

So the difference is some where else - I got to thinking about where it could be and then it occurred to me:
You have two different profiles (XML files) - one that you use to run 1024 and on that you use to run MSM - correct?

The amount that Mach backs off a home switch is stored in the profile.
I'm guessing that in the profile for 1024, the back off amount is set to what you like. While in the profile for MSM, the back off amounts are set to 0.

Let's check for that. Please fire up Mach with MSM and go to config - Homing/limits and look at the values in the "Home Off." column - are they zero?

If they are zero, set them to the back off amounts you want to usem close the dialog box to save the values. Then close Mach (mach only writes changes to the Profile file when it exits). Restart Mach, is will now load the updated profile with the new back off values. Now try the referencing operation again.
Does it now do the same actions as when running the profile for 1024?

Please let me know if this is the cause of the "not backing off".

Dave

303

CVI MachStdMill (MSM) / Re: Using Pulley with MSM

« on: August 06, 2010, 12:11:19 AM »

Hi,
FYI - I've added a Pulley DRO to the run page. Should show up in Beta 4.
Dave

304

CVI MachStdMill (MSM) / Re: Spindle Speed MSM

« on: August 05, 2010, 07:16:00 PM »

Mach 3.43.12 will run MSM - but I do not recommend using due to a nasty bug in mach 3.43.12

See
http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,15471.0.html in this board
and
http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,15520.new.html#new

Dave

305

CVI MachStdMill (MSM) / Re: Homing and Limit Switch Probblems.

« on: August 05, 2010, 04:30:00 PM »

Hum,

It gets stuck on the first switch (Z) in the sequence - correct?

To make sure I am following you correctly: You are starting the sequence by clicking the "ref all home" button - both when using  1024 and in MSM?

Could you please tell me a bit about how your home switches are wired up?

Are there separate switches for each axis each to a separate mach input?

Or are the all the home switches in serial and going to a single mach input?


Dave

306

CVI MachStdMill (MSM) / Re: Probing and touch plates - your MSM experience?

« on: August 05, 2010, 12:14:13 PM »

Hi,
plese send me a PM or email with your email address - I'll send you some info about how to get some debug info for me to look at.
Dave

Dave,

I'm haven't yet moved up to SS..

Mach 3.043.010
MSM Beta 2
PP
Homebuilt Probe


Thanks

307

CVI MachStdMill (MSM) / Re: Spindle Speed MSM

« on: August 05, 2010, 11:09:13 AM »

Noel,
If I'm following what you did correctly, you have a couple of profiles.
Let's give them some names just to make it easier to talk about them in this post.

ProfileA is your "original" profile - I guess it's the profile that you have used before MSM can along to run the machine. We know it has the correct ports & Pin information for the spindle as it turns the spindle on/off. Profile A loads up whatever screen set you used prior to MSM.

ProfileB is "Newer"" - I think you created it by using mach loader to make a copy of Profile A and then adding the MSM option settings to the copy. For some reason this profile won't turn on the spindle for you when running MSM.

If I have it right so far, I then have a question - You then said that you
"Started the old version and then loaded MSM screen set as you suggested from within the old version and all works as it should."

Do I take this to means that you started Mach using ProfileA and then used the menus view-load screens to make ProfileA load up c:\mach3\MachStdMill.set - and now you have MSM loaded and the spindle works correctly via MSM buttons?
I'll call this combination ProfileA-w-MSM-setfile

If I have this correct, and I were doing this, my next steps would be these:

1) Use mach loader to make a copy of ProfileA-w-MSM-setfile - let's call that XML file ProfileC.

2) load up Mach with ProfileC, verify that we haven't lost our marbles by seeing that the spindle still works.

3) we don't want to loose your orig profile that you used for non-MSM combinations. So start mach with ProfileA-w-MSM-setfile, and use menus view-load screens to reload the other screen set you used to use (e.g. 1024.set). Then close mach (mach only writes changes to the XML file when it exits). This will turn ProfileA-w-MSM-setfile back into the original ProfileA.

[updated 8-6-2010:
There used to be a section in this post about setting MSM options and in particular about setting Persistent DROs.
It was pure hogwash.  My brain apparently went on vacation when writing it.... sorry. If you read it before this edit, forget you read it.
According to the install & config manual, "Persistent DROs" ONLY controls the settings of the Mach Axis DROs between mach sessions. It has nothing to do with saving User DROs between sessions. This is confirmed by some retesting I did.
I've deleted the hogwash so as not to mislead the unwary who read this in the future.
Dave]



1) ProfileC will (hopefully) be all ready for MSM use.
a) ProfileA is now set for non-MSM mach use.

And finally, I'd throw ProfileB away just so that I can't load it by accident in the future and wonder why my spindle didn't then work.

Dave

308

CVI MachStdMill (MSM) / Re: Homing and Limit Switch Probblems.

« on: August 04, 2010, 08:29:57 PM »

From what you said, the problem is 99.99% likely to be a hardware issue that you are experiencing.
The is not much that screen set software can do to compensate for cables that ground +5 power supplies. You should check your system carefully - shorting of power supplys has been know to damage the associated electronics (like the break out board).
Dave

309

CVI MachStdMill (MSM) / Re: Manuals not available thru the reference page. For me

« on: August 04, 2010, 02:19:35 PM »

No problem, we all learn as we go.
Heck, I spend some days just hoping that the whole day is a beta test and that tomorrow I'll get to back to living real life v1.0 ! 
Dave

310

CVI MachStdMill (MSM) / Re: Spindle Speed MSM

« on: August 04, 2010, 01:41:46 PM »

Hi,
MSM is pretty straight forward wrt to spindle operations - the spindle button actually do M3, M4, M5 etc.
So I'd first suspect a configuration issue.

Things off the top of my head you can check:
1) Setting-common page - is the spindle enabled or disabled? check the button state.
2) is the current tool the prob tool number? MSM tries not to start the spindle if a probe tool is mounted - but in that case it gives you a pretty blatant dialog box with a message.
3) make a copy of your MSM profile using the mach loader - fire up mach with the copied profile and change to the 1024 screen - can you start the spindle? If not, highly likely there is a port & pins setting problem in the profile.

Dave