Messages

1341

General Mach Discussion / Re: Circle not circle but oval - no backlash on the axis, steps per unit set OK,...

« on: November 12, 2020, 04:46:31 AM »

Hi,
have you measured how square the X and Y axes are to each other?. Only a very small angular deviation from
90⁰ will have a significant effect on a circular interpolation path.

Craig

1342

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Seig 2.7

« on: November 12, 2020, 04:38:07 AM »

Hi,
you mention SmoothStepper:

the online documentation for the stepper motors referenced Smooth Stepper control boards

and then you mention UC100:

the guys I bought the kit from suggested a UC100,

So which do you have?
They are not the same. The Ethernet SmoothStepper (Warp9TD) has 51 inputs and outputs whereas the UC100 has only 17 inputs
and outputs. The UC100 has sufficient IO for only the most basic of machines, with all the 'input economizing' like combining
home and limit switches that we used to have to do with Mach3 and a parallel port in days gone by. With an ESS, or other boards
like 57CNC (PoKeys) with 57 IO's or the UC300 (CNCDrive) with 85 IO's you can have separate inputs for homes and limits. Thus with a three
axis machine you would have three home switches, one per axis, and six limit switches, two per axis. With that setup all this stuff
like 'Home in Place', Soft Limits and 'Work Area' just falls into place.

Without Home switches and a repeatable Referencing (Homing) procedure you will always get the mind-bending errors you are referring too.
With Home switches you don't get 'Home in Place' and Soft limits which are directly related to 'Work Area' are consistent and repeatable,
without Home switches Soft Limits and Work Area are meaningless.

Craig

1343

Modbus / Re: Mach 4 modbus setup with Click PLC

« on: November 05, 2020, 08:43:14 PM »

Hi,
this post would be best in the Mach4 General Discussion Board, it will get more response.

Using the Mach4 Modbus plugin generates Registers into which you may place data or alternately read data
from the Modbus device.

You will need to write Lua scripts that place the required data into the outgoing data registers and read in incoming
data registers.

It is common to write macros, named m100, m101 etc and then whenever you need to execute code just MDI m100 for example.

Craig

1344

Mach4 Plugins / Re: Plugin for Mega 2590 Ramp 1.4 running GRBL

« on: November 05, 2020, 08:35:21 PM »

Hi,
in order to write a plugin you will need in-depth information about Mach4 and particularly its data IO.
In order to get that info you need to contact NFS and sign a Non-Disclosure-Agreement. NFS are very keen
to have enthusiastic individuals and companies write Mach4 plugins for their hardware......it all benefits
NFS sales.

I must say I echo Zasto's comment that the effort you're going to go to to write a plugin is such that any
commercial return would price it well outside of your projected sale price range.

Given that Mach4Hobby is $200USD, even if you could build a $50 external motion controller, is $250USD
a 'low budget hobbyist CNC primer' solution?

My personal experience of Mach4, and I've been using it for six years is that it is far from a 'low-budget CNC primer' solution,
but competes very favourably with industrial CNC solutions costing many tens of thousands of dollars. It's not so much
that Mach4 (and compatible hardware) is too expensive for low-budget CNC primer but rather that it is a very  cheap
alternative to high end industrial solutions.

Craig

1345

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: MACH4 4th axis Limit switch

« on: November 04, 2020, 05:24:44 AM »

Hi,
that is the advantage of having separate home and limit switches.

If a home switch activates Mach does not care except when the axis is being homed. Limit switches should always be active,
UNLESS you specifically disable them to perform a certain operation and then reinstate them immediately after.

Unless your motion controller has very limited inputs available why not have separate homes and limits? All of the industrial machines
I've encountered all have separate limits and home switches.

Craig

1346

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: macro for Home Axis

« on: November 04, 2020, 03:04:54 AM »

Hi,
do you have a motor assigned as number 5?

If you have no home switch assigned to an axis which is being homed it will 'home in place', ie not move. An axis will
move only when it is logically connected to a motor number and a home signal for that motor is enabled.

Craig

1347

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: MACH4 4th axis Limit switch

« on: November 04, 2020, 03:00:02 AM »

Hi,
why does it matter if the home sensor is triggered, the only time Mach will do anything or act on a home signal is when its homing.

Craig

1348

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: difference between mc.mcSignalWait and mc.mcSignalHandleWait ??

« on: November 03, 2020, 01:06:51 AM »

Hi,
the difference between the two is:

Code: [Select]

LUA Syntax:
rc = mc.mcSignalWait(
number mInst,
number sigId,
number waitMode,
number timeoutSecs);

Description:
Wait on a signal to change state.

Parameters: Parameter Description
mInst The controller instance.
sigId A valid signal ID. (NOT a signal handle)
waitMode An integer specifying whether to wait on the signal to go high (WAIT_MODE_HIGH) or low (WAIT_MODE_LOW).
timeoutSecs A double specifying a timeout period.

and:

Code: [Select]

LUA Syntax:
rc = mc.mcSignalHandleWait(
number hSig,
number waitMode,
number timeoutSecs);

Description:
Wait on a signal to change state.

Parameters: Parameter Description
hSig The handle for the signal.
waitMode An integer specifying whether to wait on the signal to go high (WAIT_MODE_HIGH) or low (WAIT_MODE_LOW).
timeoutSecs A double specifying a timeout period.

So one API uses a Signal_ID where the other uses a Signal_Handle.

All signals in Mach have a numeric signal number or identifier, for instance input signal ISIG_15 has a numeric identifier 16 and the probe signal ISIG_PROBE1
has a numeric identifier of 183 for example. These are Signal_ID's . You can find some useful signal identifiers, other useful ENUMS and various other
lists like machine states, error identifiers etc  here:

https://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php?topic=40051.0

If you find the Signal_Handle with mc.mcSignalGetHandle(....) a number will be returned corresponding to the handle, an hexadecimal integer of commonly
5 or 6 digits. The 'handle' means...sort of....the current memory location that the variable of interest is in.

Lua is a dynamic memory language and a variable may not have one constant and unchanging memory address but rather its
memory location will be formed, used and then 'garbage collected' as the program segment goes out of scope, whereas a Signal_ID is
constant.

The use of either is fine, all you have to remember is that you get a current signal handle from within the current scope in order to address
a signal variable. While it sounds like using a Signal_ID is better it is programmatically less efficient because Lua has to stop, look up the Signal_ID
table, which could well be in another page of memory,  get the signal current handle, then execute the Signal_Wait routine. Additionally a Signal_ID
is numeric and therefore prone to human confusion, a Signal_ENUM is far less confusing and much easier to read many months after you have
written the code.

I fell into a trap in the early days. I was trying to use mc.mcSignalHandle Wait(inst, mc.ISIG_SPINDLE_AT_SPEED).

The numeric identifier for ISIG_SPINDLE_AT_SPEED is 181. What I did not know was at that time the SignalHandleWait() API was limited to a
signal identifiers of 64 or less and the API failed. It took a lot of shagging around before I discovered the reason. I believe that limitation has since
been rectified but it serves to point out that you are inviting trouble if you do not test EACH AND EVERY possible return code for this API otherwise
you are inviting Mach to hang up, and you'll have to use Task_Manager to stop it, very, VERY tedious after a while.

Craig

1349

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 - usb NVUM_SK BOB outputs not working

« on: October 30, 2020, 11:16:19 PM »

Hi,
that company is on the Hall of Shame record for peddling pirate Mach3 licenses and is not supported here.
If you have bought a genuine license then check with Tweakie, he may relent.

Craig

1350

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: RCD-Residual Current Device pop up when press stop

« on: October 25, 2020, 09:47:14 PM »

Hi,
at depower of your circuit one phase is hanging on a few milliseconds longer than the other phases creating a
phase imbalance leading to an RCD trip event.

It looks like the RCD is 'C' curve, that is to say the type demanded by most electrical authorities for protection
of domestic consumers. There are other types, I think possibly 'D' or 'M' types which are more tolerant of momentary
imbalance that will not nuisance trip.

Any industrial electrician will tell you what RCDs are required in domestic situations and those which are for industrial
situations in your jurisdiction.

Craig