Messages

1031

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: MACH4 Hardware development SDK and examples

« on: October 27, 2021, 07:34:34 PM »

Hi,
still don't know what you require. One of the plugins that ships with Mach4 is ModBus, a serial communication protocol widely used with industrial
machinery.

Its not for realtime use, that is to say you cannot use ModBus as a motion controller,  but is highly suitable for data/switch/sensor input/output.
If, for instance you had an Ethernet SmoothStepper, or a Pokeys 57CNC motion controller and that motion controller interfaces to your machine per standard practice,
but you could use ModBus to issue instructions from your STM micro to Mach and thence to your machine.

Craig

1032

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: MACH4 Hardware development SDK and examples

« on: October 26, 2021, 08:29:32 PM »

Hi,
tell us a little more about want you want to do. As you no doubt know Mach4 uses Lua as a scripting language and has an extensive API
that allows some very kool things to be done with Mach4. It may be you don't need to fiddle with any of the internals and yet still achieve
what you want.

If you want to write your own plugin, which is, if you like, the next 'layer' down then you need to approach NFS and sign a NDA and thereafter you get the inside
gen on Mach4. If there is wider use to your application you may well find NFS would be an active supporter of your project.

Craig

1033

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: PoppaBear here just saying hi, been a while, been poking around with 3d printing

« on: October 26, 2021, 08:23:22 PM »

Hi Scott,
I'd swear I've read everyone of your posts dating back to......well let's not be rude.
Great to hear that you are around and active.

Craig

1034

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Check My Work

« on: October 26, 2021, 12:24:19 AM »

Hi,
the main reason we use micro-stepping is smoothness of motion, the more micro-steps the smoother the motion.

Its tempting to believe that you are increasing the resolution, but it does not work out that way in practice, its to do with
rapidly degrading differential torque between micro-steps. In reality at 1/2 stepping, that is 400 pulses per rev, is the best practical resolution
you can achieve with a two phase stepper.

Increasing the micro-stepping requires an ever increasing pulse rate from your controller, so there is a balance to be struck.

The best balance appears to be about 8 micro-steps per full step, ie 1600 pulses per revolution. Some drivers have a choice of 5 micro-steps, 8 micro-steps,
10 micro-steps or 16 micro-steps. Any of these choices would be fine. Note that would result in 1000 pulse/rev, 1600 pulse/rev, 2000 pulse/rev and 3200 pulse/rev
respectively. One of those numbers may result in a pleasing round number in Machs 'Steps per Unit' setting, and certainly not essential, it is convenient to have
such a number. My machine, in mm units, has a Steps per Unit setting of 1000, that is 1um per step....easy.

Once you set the micro-stepping regime you want in place then leave it alone. It introduces way to much confusion to change the micro-stepping often.

Craig

1035

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: c axiss move while z axiss comand

« on: October 25, 2021, 02:41:41 PM »

Hi,
electrical noise could interfere with the wireless and Mach would interpret the event as an MPG command.....so noise
is still a possibility whether you choose to believe it or not. If you disable the wireless MPG does the fault occur?

Craig

1036

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: c axiss move while z axiss comand

« on: October 25, 2021, 02:32:47 PM »

Hi,
try disabling the wireless MPG.......does the fault still occur?

Craig

1037

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: c axiss move while z axiss comand

« on: October 25, 2021, 02:03:58 PM »

Hi,
do yo have an MPG, noise on an MPG signal effectively causes jog moves.

Craig

1038

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: c axiss move while z axiss comand

« on: October 25, 2021, 02:09:03 AM »

Hi,
electrical noise.

Craig

1039

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Gage Block DRO

« on: October 20, 2021, 02:16:16 PM »

Hi,

I'll check the screens, however if you're using an older screen with a newer build you'll run into this.

That describes the problem, I am using a older screen set that I have added to over time. I'll try using the current screen set
and update it with my mods.

Craig

1040

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 Spindle Issue - Stopped Working

« on: October 19, 2021, 03:54:58 PM »

Hi,
the code is in the Gcode file, so postprocessor.  It could conceivably be programmed as part of the m3/m4 spindle macros.

Craig