Messages

171

Mach4 General Discussion / Understanding Lua

« on: December 18, 2016, 09:54:39 PM »

i note in the screen for probing for  Measure Z that Prb.SingleSurfZ  is the function called but in
the probing module it is called Probing.SingleSurfZ     How can that be?

THanks
Keith

172

Mach4 General Discussion / Designing a tool changer for a Mill

« on: December 17, 2016, 10:17:50 AM »

I would like to develop an automatic tool changer since Mach4 can handle one.
Not sure where to look for how a rack style changer is set up and how the tools would be picked up such as with a drawbar.
I have been studying the Mach4 doc on Lua programming to read a file for tool positions and that's made me want to go for it!
Thanks for any guidance!

Keith

173

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: learning to probe in Mach4 with LUA

« on: December 16, 2016, 09:54:56 PM »

Chaoticone,

So I am now running my machine nicely with Mach4 and happy with motors, referencing, limit switches with automatic softlimits and now am ready to concentrate on the probing programming.

I thought the strategy might be to take a probing routine like the Single Surface Measure Y button script and then collect the X and Y measurements on a single probe the move to the next point and run it again etc.
Seemed logical but when I look at the script it uses prb.SingleSurfY function which I cannot find by searching the mcProbing script in Notepad.  I was hoping to learn about how the probing was done by examining the Lua script.   I have been looking in the mcProbing
lua module but not getting very far.

Any suggestion for what to study?

Thanks
Keith

174

Mach4 Videos / Re: Creating a function for the Screen Load Script

« on: December 14, 2016, 09:04:28 PM »

Thanks Daz, that did the trick and soft limits are on!  Wish I could return the favor but this Lua learning is slow...

Keith

175

Mach4 Videos / Re: Creating a function for the Screen Load Script

« on: December 14, 2016, 02:26:19 PM »

Perfect, thanks!

176

Mach4 Videos / Re: Creating a function for the Screen Load Script

« on: December 14, 2016, 11:34:52 AM »

So we put in the soft limits code as done by Daz in the load script and first run of Plc but add code to code plc script to disable axes until referenced and a message to pop up requesting ref if anything else is tried including program running, jog, probe etc.  Now to see if I can figure out how to do that...

Keith

177

Mach4 Videos / Re: Creating a function for the Screen Load Script

« on: December 14, 2016, 10:46:50 AM »

I like the idea of referencing first then forcing soft limits and some way to disable the machine until referencing is done.

178

Mach4 Videos / Re: Creating a function for the Screen Load Script

« on: December 14, 2016, 09:59:50 AM »

This is an interesting issue of ref axes vs soft limits.  I feel that we don't need to look for referencing of axes because no machining should be done before referencing all axes.  I don't feel it would be safe to automatically ref the axes at startup and prefer to turn on the machine then reference as a purposeful move myself, if all is well.  So there never would be a time when there would be a conflict.  Therefore it seems unnecessary to look for referencing before applying soft limits.  Does that make sense?  Am I missing a condition where as an OEM developer that my users are going to get into trouble?  Thanks!

Keith

179

Mach4 Videos / Re: Creating a function for the Screen Load Script

« on: December 13, 2016, 08:17:08 PM »

Sure helped to watch the video.  I learned so much!  Thanks for the time you spent to make the video!

Keith

180

Mach4 Videos / Re: Creating a function for the Screen Load Script

« on: December 13, 2016, 07:46:24 PM »

DaztheGas,

I tried your nice script in the screen load and in the PLC script but nothing happens.  Not sure why.

 My version placed in the PLC script works.
 
     mc.mcSoftLimitSetState(inst, mc.Z_AXIS, mc.MC_ON);

     mc.mcSoftLimitSetState(inst, mc.Y_AXIS, mc.MC_ON);

     mc.mcSoftLimitSetState(inst, mc.X_AXIS, mc.MC_ON);