Messages

221

Mach4 General Discussion / Great to discover Notepad ++ but no auto-correction

« on: November 13, 2016, 09:28:07 AM »

Thanks for the Notepad++ installer and Mach4 customization!

I don't find that the auto-correction feature is working.  I enter mc. and nothing happens.
I have installed from Brett's downloader and enabled auto-correction and function and work conpletion plus function parameters hint on input

Anybody else had this experience?

Thanks
Keith

222

SmoothStepper USB / Re: High output rate utilization

« on: November 09, 2016, 08:06:52 PM »

Marcus Freimanis says that the Gecko servo drive can handle 350 kHz input frequency so with a 500 line servo it can run the motor at 10,500 rpm.  That is the information I was looking for.  The speed of the motor is entirely based on the pulse rate and encoder count.  So this justifies trying some of the small servos that are available today to see how much faster they can run as compared to steppers.  It makes it worthwhile to get a high pulse rate motion board in my mind.

223

SmoothStepper USB / Re: High output rate utilization

« on: November 09, 2016, 04:58:51 AM »

Since the ESS is an exrernal motion board generating pulses separately from the PC, I was assuming that limitations on utilization of the high output rates possible by the SmoothStepper would be from the drives, encoders and motors.  Since I hope to use servos, are there some that can utilize high pulse rates for speed or resolution and others that can not?  If the high output rate is not actually useable then I might just get a motion board limited to 100 KHz and save money.

Thanks

224

SmoothStepper USB / High output rate utilization

« on: November 08, 2016, 08:12:58 PM »

What hardware capabilities do I need to consider when designing a CNC system to take advantage of the high output rates of an ESS in Mach4?  Thanks

225

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: mach4 is unmoving

« on: November 07, 2016, 10:05:13 AM »

If you have made the step up to Mach4, don't go backwards to use Darwin with the parallel port.  Just break down and get a motion board like an Ethernet smooth stepper or a PMDX motion board and take advantage of the newer, more capable hardware.  There is really nothing wrong with Mach3 but having just moved up to Mach4 myself, I see the power of the new environment.  However, if you just want to run one machine, Mach3 is very capable.  Both are amazing!

Keith

226

Mach4 General Discussion / Mach4gui.exe in demo mode - Mach4

« on: November 06, 2016, 07:18:51 AM »

It does not seem like Mach4gui.exe functions in Demo mode, is this correct?  After watching Brian's video introducing screen editing on YouTube, I tried to work with Mach4gui.exe.  The first thing I did was to change the wxMach label but it did not work.  Am I doing something wrong or do I just need to go ahead and get a license?

Thanks.

227

Mach4 General Discussion / digital indicator serial port input

« on: October 31, 2016, 05:24:20 PM »

Is it possible with Mach4 to read a serial port input from a micrometer with data out?  I realize that Lua programming would be required.

Thanks

228

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 5 axis breakout board not driving motors

« on: October 26, 2016, 06:08:42 PM »

So many issues to get just right.  Mach3 will not run on 64 bit and I think it does not like Win 7 and higher, XP is better.  You must install Mach3 correctly but running the Drivertest first and there is the critical reboot according to the installation instructions.  I am confused by USP port and parallel port that you mentioned. You may have an issue with proper installation of drivers for parallel ports used with USB boards 

Last week my system did the same thing with no movement on the motors. I had to get a new computer and it was using Win 7. It worked for a day just fine.  Something happened with the parallel port driver at the bios level.  All tests were excellent with voltages, Drivertest, motors lock on reset etc but no movement.  Even the digitizer on the second parallel port was dead.  I finally went back to Win XP and started over but it was not fixed.  Then I went into the bios and changed the parallel ports to AT version then reinstalled but Drivertest indicated no drivers for the parallel ports.  Then I switched back to the default PS2 version of parallel ports and reinstalled Mach3, and ran Drivertest then rebooted! and everything started working again.  Maybe these comments will help.  I hope to pay back for the help I have received in this forum!!

229

General Mach Discussion / homing code

« on: October 25, 2016, 06:47:29 PM »

How can I see the code used to home an axis?  Hoping to use a homing routine to check the diameter of a grinding wheel on a limit switch.  Thanks!

230

General Mach Discussion / Re: axes not moving anymore

« on: October 25, 2016, 06:55:44 AM »

Fixed!  Switched to XP but it did not fix the issue.  Went to bios and switched to AT version for both lpt ports. Reinstalled and it said no drivers for lpt ports.  Back to bios to switch back to PS2 version for lpt ports and reinstalled Mach3 and fixed!  Of course ran Drivertest and rebooted.  Win 7 caused the problem!  XP rules!