Messages

81

VB and the development of wizards / Re: Programmers Reference Manual for Mach3 Version 4?

« on: May 31, 2011, 02:27:58 PM »

Hi Terry,

I don't have perimeter probing in MSM at the moment. I'm working on some things, but I've learned not to talk about those before their time 

Dave


 

82

VB and the development of wizards / Re: Programmers Reference Manual for Mach3 Version 4?

« on: May 31, 2011, 11:54:28 AM »

Hi,
My advise is to just ignore the speculation in the intro section of that manual about V4.
When it was written (2 years ago), the author had been told about several things being considered. Those things have not come to pass as of today and that makes the V4 speculative text confusing in today's context.

IMHO, a reference manual should say "what is" and the version of mach that it corresponds to, and it should not speculate as to what "may or may not be in the future".

As I've done the last few updates to that manual, I've sent a revised version that does not guess at the future to Brian for his consideration.

As of today there is not a released mach V4. If/when there is such a thing, I would hope the manuals would be updated to match. Until then, mach V3 is what exists and the latest programmer ref manual is pretty good for documenting the V3 calls.

Dave

83

VB and the development of wizards / Re: Run a script when Mach loads

« on: May 12, 2011, 01:12:53 PM »

HI,
If you are using a recent mach release, there is a script that is loaded (if it is present) whenever mach loads a screen set.

For more info get the programmer's ref manual from here
http://machsupport.com/docs/Mach3_V3.x_Macro_Prog_Ref.pdf

and look up ScreenSetLoad.

Dave

84

General Mach Discussion / Re: Automatic Tool Change bug when using Mach 3.43.35

« on: May 04, 2011, 12:00:36 PM »

Hi all,
FYI - This issue turned out to be a combination of things.

1) The results of Mach's GetCurrentTool() call changed with Mach 3.43.35
(compared to mach 3.43.22 lock down).
There was a bug in 3.43.22 where the results of the call lagged 1 tool change
behind the contents of OEMDRO 824. With 3.43.35 they now match.

2) The change in the result from the mach call exposed a bug in MSM that in turn
impacted ATC script handling. I've fixed MSM to match the mach change and ATC
use under MSM is now working again with mach revisions >= 3.43.35. MSM users
with ATCs will want to update to MSM v1.1.3 to get the fix.

Dave

85

Finished Plugins for Download / Re: Huanyang VFD controller plugin

« on: May 01, 2011, 01:35:05 PM »

Hi,

I've received some more information about the DRO 39 situation to pass along.

First, I'm not sure this helps, but the problem is not unique to the Huanyang plug-in.  

With both the Huanyang VFD plug-in and the VIstaCNC tach plug-in, no index pulses appear on any input pin to mach. Hence Mach sets the value of DRO 39 to 0. Further, DRO 39 is "special" in that it is normally (almost always) is set by Mach - so if the plug-ins attempt to update the DRO from plug-in code, Mach will often overwrite the value the plug-in wrote.

Which code (mach or plug-in) will be the last to update each time thru the mach 1/10 sec refresh loop, is indeterminate (I'm told mach runs this loop as as a timing race condition). This is also why some people can see the Huangyang plug-in work with the 1024.set screen but not with MSM and (Some other screen sets) - the way mach fires of threads internally and hence when they get run within this race condition are different between the screen sets.

There is a way for a plug-in to take over DRO 39 and update it - however, currently, a plug-in which attempts to do so must be a full motion plug-in - i.e. it must be handling all motion for mach (otherwise mach's motion code, including the code that updates DRO 39) is still being run.

Neither the Huanyang VFD plug-in or the VistaCNC tach plug-ins are "full motion" plug-ins. Therefore they are unable to update DRO 39.

The requirement that only a full motion plug-in can update DRO 39 may change in a future version of mach, but that ability does not exist in mach as of today.

To muddy the waters a bit more, it may have been possible for a non-full motion plug-in to update DRO 39 with some older versions of mach (it changed when art did some changes to how the mach driver determines timing) - this is likely the reason that the plug-in authors think they have seen it work in the past.

In any case the mach versions where that may be possible are not mach versions that can support MSM.

Until Mach is revised and a change makes it into a mach release, the only option is to have the plug-in update a user space DRO # and for the user to edit MSM to change the RPM DRO # from 39 to that #.

Some "RPM plug-ins" already offer the ability to update an user space DRO instead of DRO 39.

Because a) different plug-ins use different alternative user DRO#s, and b) mach does not provide support dynamically altering a screen DRO # at run time, MSM can't automate this for the user.

If you are using a plug-in to derive RPM, then you will need to customize MSM for use with that plug-in.

The good news is that this works fine as this is what several Huanyang plug-in users have successfully done to integrate MSM and the Huanyang plug-in.

Dave

   

86

CVI MachStdMill (MSM) / Re: Probing license available in the personal edition?

« on: April 18, 2011, 10:11:48 PM »

HI,
Info re the features in each edition are avail from the CVI web site at www.CalypsoVentures.com
Under the "MachStdMill" menu are the pages with this info.
Personal Edition page: summarizes the key features of the personal edition.
Professional Edition page: Gives the major features that Pro adds
Edition comparisons: this gives a summary of the differences - including calling out the difference in licenses (personal use vs commercial use).
 
MSM v1.1. was recently released and the probing support was a major area of focus for the release.
There are a couple of videos now on the CalypsoVentures site that give a quick overview of the software's features. The 2nd video on the home page, introduces the probing operations for v1.1 (starts about 3:00 into the video).

BTW - most of the support activity for MSM has moved to our user forum - avail from the CVI web site or CalypsoVentures.proboards.com
Please feel free to drop over there and ask if you have any questions.

Dave

87

CVI MachStdMill (MSM) / Re: Probing license available in the personal edition?

« on: April 18, 2011, 06:12:42 PM »

Hi,
The probing operations do require the professional edition.
You can upgrade the personal to the pro edition - the upgrade price is close to the delta between the personal and professional edition prices.
Dave

88

General Mach Discussion / Announcement: MachStdMill (MSM) v1.1 Released

« on: April 14, 2011, 01:41:34 PM »

A short update - MachStdMill continues to improve    The user base continues to grow and during the 3 months since the release of v1.0, the software has been refined based on user feedback.

MachStdMill version 1.1 has been released and is now available from www.CalypsoVentures.com
If you are unfamiliar with MachStdMill, there are some short videos on the web site which introduce the package.

MachStdMill v1.1 key enhancements:

1) Enhanced probing facilities:
Probing operation support has been significantly enhanced and now offers the most complete work setup probing features available for Mach.

Operation groups include:
•   Edge, Surface and Corner finding (w edge angle measurement)
•   Ridge & Valley center finding
•   Circular and rectangular Pocket center finding
•   Circular and rectangular Post center finding
•   A and B axis rotational center finding and axis alignment

2) Auto-TLO and On-Machine Tool Measuring:
Advanced tool measuring support is included to do “on machine” measurement of tools, removing the need for expensive offline tool pre-setters.

Tools can be measured on the machine and TLOs are calculated and entered automatically into the tool table. TLO support includes all three documented TLO techniques (TLO=PTL, TLO=WCZ0 and Master Tool mode).

3) Tool Table Handling:
MSM Tool Table handling has been significantly enhanced.

A tool table saved by any MSM machine can be loaded on any MSM machine.
The distinction between tool table files created by an imperial (inch) setup units machine and a metric (mm) setup units machine has been removed.

Support was added for mixed units tool tables at the user interface.
Example: Tool diameters may be entered in the natural units of the tool, independent of the setup units of the machine.

4) All bug reports closed:
Release v1.0.2 proved to be very stable with very few bugs. All MSM bugs have been fixed for v1.1 and there are no open errata items as of v1.1’s release.

Dave

89

Finished Screens / MachStdMill V1.1 Released

« on: April 14, 2011, 01:39:46 PM »

MachStdMill continues to improve 
During the 3 months since the release of v1.0, the software has been refined based on user feedback.

MachStdMill version 1.1 has been released and is now available from www.CalypsoVentures.com

MachStdMill v1.1 key enhancements:

1) Enhanced probing facilities:
Probing operation support has been significantly enhanced and now offers the most complete work setup probing features available for Mach.

Operation groups include:
•   Edge, Surface and Corner finding (w edge angle measurement)
•   Ridge & Valley center finding
•   Circular and rectangular Pocket center finding
•   Circular and rectangular Post center finding
•   A and B axis rotational center finding and axis alignment

2) Auto-TLO and On-Machine Tool Measuring:
Advanced tool measuring support is included to do “on machine” measurement of tools, removing the need for expensive offline tool pre-setters.

Tools can be measured on the machine and TLOs are calculated and entered automatically into the tool table. TLO support includes all three documented TLO techniques (TLO=PTL, TLO=WCZ0 and Master Tool mode).

3) Tool Table Handling:
MSM Tool Table handling has been significantly enhanced.

A tool table saved by any MSM machine can be loaded on any MSM machine.
The distinction between tool table files created by an imperial (inch) setup units machine and a metric (mm) setup units machine has been removed.

Support was added for mixed units tool tables at the user interface.
Example: Tool diameters may be entered in the natural units of the tool, independent of the setup units of the machine.

4) All bug reports closed:
Release v1.0.2 proved to be very stable with very few bugs. All MSM bugs have been fixed for v1.1 and there are no open errata items as of v1.1’s release.

Dave

90

CVI MachStdMill (MSM) / Announcement: MachStdMill (MSM) v1.1 Released

« on: April 14, 2011, 01:38:02 PM »

MachStdMill continues to improve 
During the 3 months since the release of v1.0, the software has been refined based on user feedback.

MachStdMill version 1.1 has been released and is now available from www.CalypsoVentures.com

MachStdMill v1.1 key enhancements:

1) Enhanced probing facilities:
Probing operation support has been significantly enhanced and now offers the most complete work setup probing features available for Mach.

Operation groups include:
•   Edge, Surface and Corner finding (w edge angle measurement)
•   Ridge & Valley center finding
•   Circular and rectangular Pocket center finding
•   Circular and rectangular Post center finding
•   A and B axis rotational center finding and axis alignment

2) Auto-TLO and On-Machine Tool Measuring:
Advanced tool measuring support is included to do “on machine” measurement of tools, removing the need for expensive offline tool pre-setters.

Tools can be measured on the machine and TLOs are calculated and entered automatically into the tool table. TLO support includes all three documented TLO techniques (TLO=PTL, TLO=WCZ0 and Master Tool mode).

3) Tool Table Handling:
MSM Tool Table handling has been significantly enhanced.

A tool table saved by any MSM machine can be loaded on any MSM machine.
The distinction between tool table files created by an imperial (inch) setup units machine and a metric (mm) setup units machine has been removed.

Support was added for mixed units tool tables at the user interface.
Example: Tool diameters may be entered in the natural units of the tool, independent of the setup units of the machine.

4) All bug reports closed:
Release v1.0.2 proved to be very stable with very few bugs. All MSM bugs have been fixed for v1.1 and there are no open errata items as of v1.1’s release.

Dave