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Messages - joeaverage

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161
General Mach Discussion / Re: loosing steps
« on: March 20, 2023, 02:23:06 PM »
Hi,

Quote
The HLFB, as I understand it, is the stepper driver.

It is not a stepper driver, its a servo. High Level Feed Back is a signal that is programmed into the servo, usually to signal a servo fault. Has OP programmed the servo?

Quote
What Craig is wanting you to do is to force a fault on the driver by deliberately overloading the axis motor to see if the fault shows up in Mach.  I am guessing it will but I can understand your trepidation at deliberately causing your motor to overload.  Don't worry about that as the system is designed to protect its self.

Correct you can stall them all day long without damage.

Craig

162
General Mach Discussion / Re: loosing steps
« on: March 19, 2023, 07:30:23 PM »
Hi,
then try the experiment and deliberately stall the servo and see whether it faults out.

Craig

163
General Mach Discussion / Re: loosing steps
« on: March 19, 2023, 06:42:20 PM »
Hi,
how about this for a test. Deliberately stall the servo and then command a movement. As it cannot is should produce an overload error (due to peak current) or
a Following Error, in either case Mach should see it. If Mach does not see it, then either the HLFB is not programmed, of it it is, then its not correctly wired back to the breakout
board or the motion control is not set up to monitor it.

Craig

164
General Mach Discussion / Re: loosing steps
« on: March 19, 2023, 06:28:00 PM »
Hi,

Quote
If a servo drive produces a fault, would it not shut down regardless if Mach is made aware? 

Not necessarily, and overload fault I would expect to stop the servo every time but a Following Error fault, who knows?. It would stop if that whats its programmed to do.
OP does not seem inclined to answer questions about how the servos are programmed or how the HLFB is connected to Mach4 if its connected at all. Not much that I can do.

Craig

165
General Mach Discussion / Re: loosing steps
« on: March 19, 2023, 05:31:22 PM »
Hi,
I don't think that is the right move. I think just throwing parts at the machine without trying to find a cause is a good way to waste
time and money.

If the machine is loosing steps then it should fault out 'Following Error'.

Do you have the HLFB programmed to signal Following Error? Do you have your motion control board ready to accept and act on a Following Error?
If the machine is loosing steps Mach should know about it.

Craig

166
General Mach Discussion / Re: loosing steps
« on: March 19, 2023, 04:37:11 PM »
Hi,
Clearpath servos have one digital output, and its programmable. The most common use is that it be a combined 'Servo Fault' indicator that would combine various overload conditions
and Following Error. Has OP bothered to program the HLFB? Has he bothered to wire it back to the breakout board? Has he botherd to program the motion controller to
respond to a HLFB signalled fault?

Clearpath encoders are built-in and go direct to the control electronics in the servo.....they do not ever get presented to the outside world, including Mach4.

Quote
However, this does not answer why the axis is loosing steps.

There are a number of possibilities including electrical noise. Noise could potentially be in effect signalling extra step are required, so Mach issues 1000 Steps but electrical noise adds an additional 10.
Another possibility is that the servos are being overloaded or more likely being demanded of greater accelerations and/or velocities than its capability. That would be commonly detected as a
Following Error, but then maybe OP has not programmed it so.

Craig

167
Hi,

Quote
The next day (today), I got half way through my 1st CNC job and it paused again! AHHH! It was in Demo mode. It looks like the PCID had changed again after the update. So easily fixed with a new download from the mach website, but certainly irritating. I'd like to avoid that with a simple LUA script that warns at startup if Mach4 is in Demo mode. The title bar is just too easy to miss!

You should not allow Windows to update....ever. If Widows is working today.....why do you need to update? Only if you are on the internet which is plain foolish.

As it was explained to me years ago 'once you hook a PC to a CNC machine it is no longer a PC (ie general purpose computing platform) but a machine controller that just
happens to use Widows as an OS'. A machine controller should not be on the internet, or even on a network. There should be no software on the PC that is not directly related to
running the machine. Note this includes your CAD/CAM software....they should be on another PC elsewhere.

My machine is controlled by a Dual Core Atom single board PC with on-chip graphics, a very VERY low power PC, and yet it runs my machine just fine. I installed Windows 7 Embedded nine years
ago, and its never been touched since. It does not have a Firewall or Virus Protection, I don't just mean that they are turned off, they are not present on the PC at all. The whole point about
using an Embedded version of an OS is so that you include only those things that you need and do not install anything you do not need. Given that this is a machine controller I do not need
to connect to the internet and therefore a Firewall and Virus Protection are not required.

You need to come up with a separate PC for your machine alone.....and it does not need to be powerful, one of the kids cast off school laptops would be fine.

Craig

168
General Mach Discussion / Re: loosing steps
« on: March 19, 2023, 03:47:02 PM »
Hi,
Clearpath servos can monitor servo load but relies on PWM of the HLFB output of the servo. Enquire of Teknics......the trick then is to have Mach interpret that
signal.

Other servos have separate channel for analog output and its just a matter of hooking a voltmeter to that output to monitor servo loads, but not so Clearpath.

Craig

169
Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Script da mach3 a mach4
« on: March 19, 2023, 02:14:51 PM »
Hi,

Quote
It's a pity that when they created mach4, they didn't think of creating a little program capable of converting the many scripts created for mach3 that are out there.

There is no such thing, nor is there any translation that takes VB code to Lua, they are just too different.

When I made the decision to migrate to Mach4 it was because I was so disgusted with the bugs of VB in Mach3. So by my reckoning its a good thing that there
is such a marked difference between the two.

Craig

170
Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Screens BUG
« on: March 18, 2023, 11:21:21 PM »
Hi,
given that Mach4 IS NOT an IDE (Integrated Development Environment) I rather suspect that it is not an easy fix....its not like they have cut down an IDE to make Mach4,
but rather Mach4 has been built from the ground up, which includes the GUI editor.

If you have a complaint about how Mach4 controls a machine, or interprets or worse misinterprets Gcode then that is an entirely different matter, controlling a CNC machine is
Mach4's primary purpose, that the GUI editor is a bit quirky is inconsequential.

Craig

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