Messages

61

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions

« on: November 16, 2014, 06:25:53 PM »

Correction, sentence 6 should have read:

If I enable all three, I'm back to that problem of Darwin sending signals to M4 when there is NO encoder motion.

Peter

62

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions

« on: November 16, 2014, 05:42:11 PM »

Art,

At the risk of driving you to drink, I've discovered some more information about the encoder actions in Darwin that might be of use to you.  As you might recall, I have 3 shaft encoders that work fine in M3.  While playing around in M4, I've found that enabling encoders 0 and 1 results in both axes working fine.  If I disable encoder 0, encoder 1 stops working.  If I enable encoders 0 and 2 only, both work okay.  If I enable all three, I'm back to that problem of Darwin sending signals to M4 when there is encoder motion.
So, enabling encoder 0 seems to be required for any encoder to work.  Encoder 2 seems to interact in other ways.

I bring this up now because it appears that M4 now supports encoders.  Now I need to get the function calls and definitions!

Thanks

Peter

63

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Screen Set Ideas

« on: November 16, 2014, 11:53:13 AM »

Yes, I too have quadrature encoders as well as an index output for super accurate homing.  Quadrature with the 500 line pair wheel gives me 2000 counts per rev.  Darwin also shows 2000 counts per rev so everything is working right there.  In fact, I'm not sure where you can set the number of counts per pulse in Darwin  It seems to be just one.
I plan to mix your function calls with some of the stuff from the mouse wheel example for a proof of concept (and learning tool).  I should be able to get Mach 4's DROs to increment / decrement by turning my hand wheels (remember I'm in manual mode so no motor action).  Just substituting an encoder for the mouse wheel.  Not useful in itself but paves the way for other stuff.

Peter

64

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Screen Set Ideas

« on: November 15, 2014, 10:51:24 PM »

Actually, I have three shaft encoders that I use in Mach 3 driving the DROs on the settings tab.  Works great as DROs when in manual mode.
I can configure them in Darwin and see the counts increment / decrement, multiples of one, not 4.  Not sure why you see multiples of 4.
Anyway, if I can get that test working, then I'll try to set them up to drive the mouse wheel routine in manual mode just as a software test, nothing practical.  If that works, I can try to set up the DROs I want to replicate the ones in Mach 3.

Should keep me busy past Thanksgiving.

65

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Screen Set Ideas

« on: November 15, 2014, 07:18:46 PM »

The video brings us back to: How do you read the MPG outputs in Mach 4?

66

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Screen Set Ideas

« on: November 15, 2014, 01:39:12 PM »

Ooo, ooo, ooo!  Thanks, that's the kick starter!

67

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Screen Set Ideas

« on: November 14, 2014, 09:59:53 PM »

Ah hah, a mouse wheel.  That explains a lot to me!  Well, Mach 4 won't be soup until long after MPG support is incorporated.

Maybe I should spend my time trying to fix the homing routine instead.

Thanks for your help.

Peter

68

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Screen Set Ideas

« on: November 14, 2014, 07:59:25 PM »

Ya-Nvr-No,

Thanks for the drop down hint, that'll help tremendously.  How did you get the argument lists?  None of these are in the reference doc that I can find.
I fully expect that learning how to write scripts for Mach 4 is either going to keep me out of the bars or in them.  I've learned a few programming languages this way and greatly appreciate any help in getting started.  Just getting to the point of writing and executing the first script can be intense.  A "Hello World" example for Mach 4 might help a lot of people get started.

Peter

69

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Screen Set Ideas

« on: November 14, 2014, 04:18:19 PM »

Where are these function calls listed/documented?

Peter

70

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Screen Set Ideas

« on: November 14, 2014, 12:08:28 PM »

Ya-Nvr-No,

How do you configure the MPGs?

Peter