Messages

1861

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 Exit button for touchscreen

« on: December 19, 2019, 05:57:07 PM »

Hi,
re-reading the whole thread there is another possibility that may avoid the situation where a random <Enter> keypress would cause an MDI
command to be initiated.

You say you have a text box for MDI input?
Did you use wxWidgets to do it? If so why don't you include an enter event. Then the only time that the enter event would be tested is while
the text box is active.

If you haven't already tried, wxFormBuilder is the premier development tool/system for generating wxWidgets code with a Lua wrapper.
I used to try to avoid it but trying to manually craft wxWidgets code is hard going. wxFormbuilder has taught me alot about wxWidgets.

Craig

1862

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 Exit button for touchscreen

« on: December 19, 2019, 04:35:22 PM »

Hi,
to be honest I think you are going about this the wrong way.

I still find myself hitting <Enter> occasionally after typing an MDI, a hang over from Mach3 days but I don't find using the
<MDI Cycle Start> button that onerous....but perhaps you do. What you are trying to do here is 'fix a perceived
problem that is in fact no problem at all, just a new, Mach4, way of doing things'.

Given that proviso......then you can use the keyboard plugin to capture any <Enter> keypress. If you so desire
you can cause such a keypress to issue an MDI Cycle Start.

I forsee a problem that there are a number of circumstances that you would use <Enter> keypress, not all of them
associated with MDI, are you sure you want to issue an MDI Cycle Start at EVERY <Enter> keypress?

Of course using the keyboard plugin as I am proposing you could choose other than Enter as a keypress to start an MDI command,
maybe the <Space Bar> for instance. That might reduce the number of occasions that you accidentally start an MDI command.

There is a video by Daz-the-Gaz about using the keyboard plugin.

https://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php?topic=31585.msg219180#msg219180


The upshot is that the keyboard plugin can launch a number of 'Mach Actions' in response to a defined keypress....but what happens
if one of Machs stock actions is not what you want. That is what Daz's video is about.

You can cause the keyboard plugin to trigger a Mach signal, mc.ISIG_INPUT33, for example. Now every time you press the <Space Bar>
Input #33 would trigger. Now you just have to put Input #33 into the SigLib{} table as you would with any other input signal
and cause the appropriate action. If you are not familiar with the SigLib{} table......you are in for a treat!! It is a very VERY VERY
clever way to deal with signals, both input and output, that is new to Mach4 and not even dreamt about in Mach3. Look at my .pdf on it:

https://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php?topic=40051.msg267764#msg267764

Craig

1863

CS-Lab / Re: csmio/ip-a + Mach 3 servo problems

« on: December 18, 2019, 11:49:44 AM »

Hi,
reversing the servo direction OR reversing the encoder direction have the same effect.

If the servo moves back and forth.....then its trying to do the right thing whereas if it moves violently to one
end of an axis without attempting to reverse, that is a symptom of when the ecoder and servo directions are
crossed.

It sounds to me like you have had the correct directions when the servo moved back and forth but
you need to tune it. Try to start with small or no I or D, just P alone. I and D components can very
quickly cause instability.

Craig

1864

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 Exit button for touchscreen

« on: December 18, 2019, 11:38:33 AM »

Hi,
yes, look in Mach4Hobby/Docs for API.chm.

Can also be accessed when Mach is enabled by clicking <Help Docs?> button in the File Ops tab.

Craig

1865

CS-Lab / Re: csmio/ip-a + Mach 3 servo problems

« on: December 17, 2019, 05:02:41 PM »

Hi,
sounds to me like you have the encoder reading 'upwards' in one direction whereas the servo rotates 'downwards'

Try reversing the main pos and neg power feeds to the servo.

Craig

1866

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 positioning error

« on: December 16, 2019, 06:39:16 PM »

Hi,

I forgot to mention that i saw that flashing led 2 times in machine idle state and it didnt go away until i move an axis back and forth for some time.

I believe you have found the root cause of the problem which inspired this thread.

with parallel port commands from another computer, i will take apart all the controller cabinet and build it from scratch electric/electronic wise, thanks.

You are in danger here of identifying the problem area WITHOUT finding out why. You may succeed in fixing the problem with a rebuild but still be none the
wiser as to what is happening.

Clearly you have invested a lot of time and money into this project, find a technician with an oscilloscope and pay him/her to indentify the problem properly
or risk having the same thing occur later.

I will adjust p12 later as u describe when i solve this huge problem.

With regards this problem there may be a software oscilloscope in the tuning software, if any. If you monitor the position error you will learn a huge amount about
your machine and controller. I have attached a screenshot of part of the Delta software scope. Note how you can identify and monitor certain variables, like
commanded position and feedback position etc. Very useful for identifying problems.

Craig

1867

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 positioning error

« on: December 16, 2019, 12:16:23 PM »

Hi,

There is no HF source within the controller, its just the motherboard, PMDX+ESS+spindle board attached to pmdx and input boards, there is only a small PSU(with metal cover) which supply power to the motherboard. There is no noise source that i know of but that led should not be flashing in idle state.

You are correct, the step signal should not be flashing unless the axis is moving.

Do you have an oscilloscope? I would probe the step output of the ESS and the step output of the BoB.

Craig

1868

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 positioning error

« on: December 16, 2019, 12:09:19 PM »

Hi,

I adjusted p11 to 4 and p12 to 20 but the servo gave an alarm with that settings so i increased the p12 to 4000 with that setting it works without giving any alarm.

When it gives repeated alarms with the following error (P12) set to 20 means that the servo cannot accurately follow the
toolpath. You need to work out why. With the setting at 4000 what you are saying is that you'll tolerate:

4000/10000 x 25=10mm of deviation before the machine faults.

The most likely problem is that you have too high acceleration set in Mach4 so the toolpath will zoom off in a new direction
but the servo can't keep up because it has to lunk a huge piece of iron around.

Set all the acceleration parameters in the servo drive as high as you possibly can then reduce Machs acceleration in that axis until
the machine no longer alarms. That then is the true measure of the acceleration the servo is capable of producing with
that axis mass.

Craig

1869

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 positioning error

« on: December 15, 2019, 07:50:12 PM »

Hi,
I use Delta B2 series servos which have a 160,000cpr encoder (40,000 line) and the electronic gearing applies to that native encoder pulse stream.

It is possible for the drive to produce an encoder signal (A,B,Z) which is synthesized from the native encoder pulse stream. These encoder output
channels could be used to drive stand-alone DROs for instance, and they are programmable from 4 lines to 40000 lines per rev.

This is an example of "encoder output scaling factor" but has no relevance to your electronic gearing (which applies to the native built in encoder)
or your steps/unit values.

Craig

1870

General Mach Discussion / Re: Problem with Mach3 and nvum V2 usb

« on: December 14, 2019, 06:39:46 PM »

Hi,
NVUM is in our 'Hall of Shame' for peddling pirate Mach3 licenses, you will get no support here unless, maybe, you've
bought a genuine license an tweakie relents.

Craig