Topics

1

Mach4 General Discussion / Laser tool measuring

« on: March 19, 2018, 09:24:38 PM »

I got this crazy idea the other day to try building a DIY laser tool measuring system. A quick search of the Internet showed that commercial solutions were in the thousands of dollars, and only one guy on Youtube has a working DIY example. I found the laser sensor he is using on Ebay for $75.  Now it's in my shop and I have to make good on the attempt. Anyone else tried doing this? Anyone got any advice?

Measuring tool length should be easy, use the same procedure as with a touch plate. The diameter may be a bit more difficult. Cutters are not always symmetrical within the volume of their rotation. I figure I would need to spin the tool to get an accurate measurement. This would avoid with asymmetry  and would only require measuring laterally from one direction.

Edit: I forgot to mention that it has a 80mm throat opening and is repeatable within 5μm. It takes 10v to 30v DC and acts a PNP switch.


-Freeman

2

Mach4 General Discussion / Any plans to move up to a newer release of Lua than 5.2?

« on: March 18, 2018, 12:37:21 AM »

I need math.type() which was introduced in Lua 5.3. Any plans to update Lua any time soon?

-Freeman

3

Mach4 General Discussion / Is there a bug with mc.mcProfileGetDouble()?

« on: March 17, 2018, 10:20:09 PM »

What am I missing here? I'm trying to use mc.mcProfileGetDouble() and the default value is a fractional value. I get back a numeric value of zero. The API docs claim it should return the existing value or the default value if the property doesn't exist.

Code: [Select]

hgProbing.params = {
   ...
   ['StepOffDistance'] = math.abs (mc.mcProfileGetDouble (inst, 'hgProbing', 'StepOffDistance', 0.5)),
   ...
}

I have to do an explict mcProfileWriteDouble() to get it to work. Now when I do the mcProfileGetDouble () returns the expected value of 0.5.

This looks like a bug with mcProfileGetDouble(). Can anyone confirm?


-Freeman

4

Mach4 General Discussion / Notebook tab reordering - could it be any more painful?

« on: March 17, 2018, 02:37:56 PM »

If anyone has any enlightenment to share on how to reorder tabs in a notebook, please share with me.

I have tried dragging tabs in the UI tree to reorder - crashes Mach4GUI.
I have tried dragging tabs in screen layout itself - does nothing.
I have exported tabs and tried re-importing them - Mach4GUI spins for ever and eventually crashes.
I have tried cut-n-pasting (which works with other UI components) back into the notebook - does nothing.
I have tried deleting and then re-pasting back into the notebook - worst yet, deletes the tab and it's contents, but paste is disabled.

It's been three years, please give the screen editor a bit of love and attention. The development tools are the first thing integrators will look once they decide the motion engine is worth investing in. This is so frustrating.

5

Mach4 General Discussion / Tabbing between UI controls

« on: March 17, 2018, 01:07:57 AM »

Is there a way to enable and control tabbing between a set of UI controls? As an example, if I add X, Y, Z, and A axis DROs to a screen set can I enable tabbing between these four DROs so that they move from the X, to the Y, to the Z, to the A, and back up to the X?

I don't see any mechanism for enabling or setting the tab order like you can with other development tools.

-Freeman

6

Mach4 General Discussion / What is the "Instance" and "Scale Method" properties used for on UI controls?

« on: March 16, 2018, 01:33:24 AM »

There is a property on every UI control in the screen editor called "Instance", what is it for?

Also, what is the "Scale Method" used for? I suspect it is for selecting how a UI component scales when screen set doesn't match the original dimensions it was designed for, but why on each UI control? A global setting on the top most tree item would seem reasonable. What is the effect of each option in the menu for the property?


-Freeman

7

Mach4 General Discussion / Stop on probe signal for G0/G1 moves to protect probes...

« on: March 16, 2018, 01:04:52 AM »

I once asked if this was possible for Mach3. I was told the engine did not support it. Now that I'm using Mach4 more I'd like to ask the same question.

I use the MachStdMill style master tool probing and touch offs. In MSM a master tool could be designated with a tool number. I am trying to replicate the same style probing that MSM supported in my own custom screen set, but would like to overcome one of the weakness of the method or my bad habits. Often the Master Tool stays in the spindle. I use it to touch off and check distances and tolerances. This means I frequently jog or do a G0/G1 from the MDI to move around. No surprised I have gone through my share of probe tips when flubbing a jog or movement.

Is it possible to have any axis movement come to a halt if any of the G31 probe signals becomes active? I realize this is a crutch, but I have moved up to a more expensive probe and the ceramic tips are going to bankrupt me if I keep doing this.

-Freeman

8

Mach4 General Discussion / Debugging Lua code...

« on: March 12, 2018, 02:53:43 PM »

The Mach4 alpha came out I seem to remember a debugger that allowed you to set break points in code and then while Mach4 was running normally, you could examine the state of your code at the break point.

Is that still available with build 3713 (the latest Dev build) with the new ZeroBrane support?

Are there any best practices for debugging modules while Mach4 is running?


-Freeman

9

Mach4 General Discussion / Is possible to run two instances of Mach4 when developing & using the simulator?

« on: March 08, 2018, 11:41:49 AM »

I often find myself, when working on a Mach4 screen set, wanting to refer back to the unmodified or previous version. Usually just to verify UI layout or behavior. With a single Mach4 instance you have to exit the screen editor, view the other screen set, look at what you loaded the screen for, and then revert back to the screen set you were editing.

Is it possible to run two instances of Mach4GUI on the same machine if they use the simulated motion engine?


-Freeman

10

Mach4 General Discussion / Bug reporting?

« on: March 03, 2018, 12:54:25 PM »

Is there a blessed way to report bugs?  I don't see a forum category or a bug report page on the web site. It would be nice if there was a bug reporting mechanism in the app at the time it crashes so it can phone home and allow user to say what they were doing.

I just ran into a problem where Mach4GUI crashed when I tried cut and paste a handful of UI elements from the wx4 screen set into my own. I was trying to cut and paste them since it appears that I cannot export individual UI elements like the history or mode line.


-Freeman