Topics

21

Mach4 General Discussion / Additional Button Properties

« on: February 03, 2018, 03:38:57 PM »

Hi All,
in the screen editor when I look at the properties availble to be edited for Machs Enable button I see entries like 'Text Up' , 'Text Down'
'Button Colour Up' and 'Button Colour Down'.

I have a button on screen wish I wish to be able to change colour when active.  This button was one that was already there, I've just resused it for my purposes.
I doesn't have all the properties that the Enable button has.

How can I add those properties to my button?

Craig

22

Mach4 General Discussion / Trouble Loading Mach4Lathe

« on: January 26, 2018, 03:05:58 PM »

Hi All,
I have had reason lately to fire up the Mach4Lathe profile and have had a bit of a battle.

My laptop  had a meltdown and so I'm using Windows7 Embedded 32 bit as OS. This restricts usable memory to 2.5Gig

I had assumed that memory was the problem I've encountered when trying to load Mach4Lathe. After selecting the profile
Mach attempts to load the screen elements and the 'percent completion bar' suggests that it completed OK. It then goes
to load the canned cycle modules and mostly it fails. It would appear that a warning screen flashes up but it dissappears
as Mach shuts down before I can see it.

If I shut the PC down then restart from cold the first load of Mach4Lathe works, it loads up and I can run it, no problems.
This debunks the theory that lack of memory is the fault. If I shut Mach down and then try to load Mach4Lathe it fails.
In fact if I use the screen editor when Mach attempts to redraw the screen when exiting the screen editor it fails.

It suggests to me that some portion of the canned cycle modules is hanging up and preventing subsequent restarts.
I used Task Manager to check if any application or fragment was hanging up but it showed nothing. I'm guessing that
whatever fragment is hanging up is not an application as far as Task  Manager is concerned.

Craig

23

Mach4 General Discussion / Is Mach4 really Hobby Material?

« on: January 17, 2018, 01:28:52 AM »

Hi All,
I've been using Mach4Hobby for about a year and I luv it. I especially like the flexibility that comes with the modular structure and how Lua has been integrated.
I would admit that at the beginning I had my doubts but the more I learn the better I like it.

I have noticed however that many who try Mach4 are less that happy...comments like "I'll wait for NFS to make Mach4 like Mach3 used to be...' are common.
It strikes me that if half (this is my wild guess) of people who try Mach4 who don't carry on with it then is Mach4 really a hobby product?

I am happy to make the effort to program Mach4 to my liking but maybe you are not. I'm hoping that this post might generate a few comments and maybe a poll
is in order to establish what people like and dislike about Mach4.

Craig

24

Mach4 General Discussion / Toolpath Regen

« on: December 26, 2017, 05:38:01 PM »

Hi All,
have just noticed something about the 3481 build.

I have two Gcode files, one for the top of a PCB and one for the lower side. When I load say, the top etch file it loads and the tooplath draws as normal.

If I then close that file and load the lower side file, it loads and the dialogue box suggests it is going to draw the toolpath, but it fact draws the toolpath
of the previously loaded file, ie the upper layer.

If I close the current file and then do a <Regen Toolpath>, ie draw a blank page, then load a new file all is well, the new file draws correctly.

Has anyone noticed the same? I have noticed this with build 3481 but have not noticed it with earlier builds but don't know whether the earlier builds
behave the same way. Does anyone have an earlier build active who would be prepared to test the redraw behavior?

Craig

25

Mach4 General Discussion / Signal vs IO and Aliases

« on: October 14, 2017, 01:03:26 AM »

Hi All,
more basic questions about Mach/Lua/Life and everything...
How does Machs IO differ from Machs signals?

Code: [Select]

hIo, rc = mc.mcIoGetHandle(
number mInst,
string path)
seems to indicate if I could provide a path to an IO I should get a valid handle back. As result of another thread I'm trying to work out if its possible
to get a valid handle for  'fwdrevbit', the name of an IO in 'function1' of 'modbus0' I wrote a macro just to see whether it would execute which included:

local handle,retcode=mc.mcIoGetHandle(inst,"modbus0/function1/fwdrevbit")

It didn't seem to return a valid handle. fwdrevbit is a Mach Output according to the Modbus plugin. That is, if I understand the IO fwdrevbit is registered
and owned by Modbus.

Again as part of the other thread I went to Machs Output Signals page and selected Machs Output#0 and was able to assign it to device modbus0 and to the
IO/signal rwdrevbit. I think the OP can run from there, he can use Output#0 or any other output he wants to signal the Modbus device. Given that Machs core
seem to recognise the IO/signal I created should I not be able to address it directly with an IoGetHandle rather than tieing it to a signal and use SignalGetHandle?

Craig

26

Mach4 General Discussion / Actions verses Events

« on: October 10, 2017, 02:18:54 AM »

Hi All,
have got myself confused again...looking at some buttons, Load G Code, for example. It has a Left Up Action of Gcode Load.

I have scanned thru the Lua script and found no Gcode Load function. The drop down list of Actions show a number of functions/actions for which
I can find no code. Am I correct in assuming that these functions/actions are coded in the core where I can't see/edit them?

All the events (left up, left down, clicked and lost focus) I can identify either the script or the function which is called within the Lua script. Presumably
I could dig around until I found the code and see/edit it.

While trying to de-mystify things I might as well ask what is the meaning and intent of Goto Page and Run MDI. Are there some examples I could view?

Craig

27

Mach4 General Discussion / Lexical scope and Global Variables in Lua

« on: October 01, 2017, 07:03:20 PM »

Hi All,
have proven to myself, yet again, how little I know about Lua.

Writing some code yesterday to help a bloke out and elected to put two signals in the SigLib (signal load script) and have two
global variables AtSpeed and IsStopped be written with the state of the input pin.

My intention was to use the variables in m3, m4 and m5 scripts but came unstuck, the variable was not valid in
the macros.

My understanding was that any code in the screen load script was available to all other code within Mach, clearly
my understanding is wrong/incomplete/completely out to lunch!

I've read several explanations of lexical scoping but just when I thought I had it fixed in my mind its goes astray on me.
Does anyone have an explanation or a link to an explanation that may help? Making intelligent use of scoping is a vital
part to extracting the most from Lua.

Craig

28

Mach4 General Discussion / EtherCat Pulgin...co-operative venture?

« on: June 04, 2017, 10:40:06 PM »

Hi All,
a wee while ago I came across my first 'distributed motion control' set up, a proprietary communication protocol by Panasonic,
called 'Smart Servo', if memory serves, based on RS485 comms. Really clever.

As a consequence I did a little reading about distributed motion controls and various field bus strategies. All really fascinating.
The one that appealed on the basis of performance, flexibility and reasonably widespread adoption by industry is EtherCat.
If my understanding is correct if there were a plugin Mach4 could communicate to EtherCat capable servo drives via a humble
RJ45 cable. No hardware motion controller required!

While EtherCat is not so common amongst the cheapest servo and drives common on hobbyist gear most of the better servos and drives
are EtherCat capable. I am of the opinion that EtherCat may well come to dominate the distributed motion control field on the basis
of capability and  apparently flexible and favourable licence terms. It already appears to have more market penetration than any
of the other protocols.

If Mach4 is ever going to hit the industrial mainstream it will require some distributed motion control capability, at this stage EtherCat
being the most significant. Is there any interest amongst the community to write a plugin?

My own programming skills are not upto it but I could probably help in some sort of joint effort.

I need to find out a little more about plugins and Machs SDK.

Also need to find out a bit more about potential costs of licencing EtherCat. Don't want to spend time and effort on a plugin only to find
that you can't publish or sell the thing because of a licence snafu.

Craig

29

General Mach Discussion / Ultra 3000 servo drive

« on: April 16, 2017, 01:42:37 AM »

Hi All,
I am attempting to use an Allen Bradley 1.8kW servo as a spindle motor. Have a 2098-DSD-020 2kW servo drive.
Have bought a copy of Ultraware, Rockwells setup software.

I can't get the Ultraware program to recognise the drive as 'online' when its plugged in. I have tested the RS232 port
and it appears to be working. When the software is started or rescanned it appears to step thru
all ten available nodes but fails to recognise my drive. The drive is secondhand so could be faulty, obviously hoping otherwise
because I've done my bucks...

One thing I saw with this drive it 'requires an auxillary 5V supply if logic is to remain active in absence of main power'. I assumed that
the 5V was unnecessary for testing, but maybe I'm wrong.

Craig

30

Mach4 General Discussion / RS485 Modbus vs Step Direction

« on: February 26, 2017, 12:38:04 AM »

Hi All,
have at work been introduced to Dynatorch software which controls 'distributed control' axes using RS485. Axes achieve
co-ordination when 'started' simultaneously pre-established position/time tables. Very clever.

The plasma table has X and Y axes executing simultaneously, ie co-ordinated movement in XY yet Z can be executed independently
offering regular Z axis movement and THC differential movement.

All motion controllers I've come across for Mach4 are step/direction types which offer co-ordinated movement in XYZ but then can't offer
differential Z movement for THC within one co-ordinated move, or at least without intervention from the motion control card, which few if any
offer at this time.

Is there any specific reason that a motion plugin could not be written for Mach4 which copies this behaviour?

Craig