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Messages - joeaverage

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211
Mach4 General Discussion / Re: MACH 3 to MACH 4 and USS TO ESS
« on: March 03, 2023, 04:57:18 PM »
Hi,

Quote
How buggy was the version that runs on XP and could a guy have both 3 and 4 installed on the same PC and use one or the other?

It was never that that build of Mach4 was buggy per se, in fact Mach4 has never been buggy in the same way as Mach3, but rather the old
builds miss many of the new features, like McSurface plugin, the script based THC module and so on.

Eight years ago when I started to install Mach4 my intention was to have both Mach3 and Mach4 available on the same PC. It is possible, although not eminently practical.
It took three to four weeks of extreme frustration and painful learning before I got Mach4 running satisfactorily, but once I did I've never touched Mach3 ever again.
I've lost my Mach3 license file and can't be bothered trying to get another. I seldom bother replying on the Mach3 board anymore, or at least quite selective about those threads
that I can be bothered with.

It's when you come to customize the behavior of your machine, be it modestly or majorly, that's when Mach4 shines. That is not to say that Lua, the API and Mach's
program structure do not incur a learning curve all of their own, but once you master that and you'll look back at Mach3 with pure derision.

My recommendation is embrace Mach4, and do what it takes. It will be a rough ride for a while and saddling yourself with trying to keep Mach3 limping along at the same time
is just masochism.

Craig

212
Mach4 General Discussion / Re: MACH 3 to MACH 4 and USS TO ESS
« on: March 03, 2023, 04:14:50 PM »
Hi,

Quote
The glass scales are connected through the encoder interface board, and are just for display as far as I can tell,

Yes, that was my guess. Well, the good news is that if you use an ESS and a good breakout board then you can hook all your glass scales
up without any interface board. Really is there any need for glass scales? I've been using Mach4 and an ESS for eight years and the only time
the DROs get 'out' relative to machine position is if the steppers have lost steps and that ONLY ever happen when I make a big mistake.
I don't have glass scales and don't need them.

Craig

213
General Mach Discussion / Re: newby with questions
« on: March 03, 2023, 04:07:03 PM »
Hi,

Quote
Mach 4 cost wise is essentially the same.

Correct.

Quote
It also appears to be a version of the tormach controller software which has worked very well for me in the past.

Incorrect. Tormach, in the early days used a version of Mach3. More recently they use PathPilot which is a version on LinuxCNC. Having said that
in practice using Mach3 is very similar to running Mach4, they both make chips. Its when you 'get under the hood' thatMach4 shines.

Quote
Is there some backwards compatibility? Do the machine specific settings transfer?

No, Mach4 is a new product from the ground up which requires new settings.

Quote
but the switching has, in other posts, been likened to be difficult. What is the gain for the pain of transferring?

Yes, it is a challenge, you'll come to hate Mach4 BEFORE you get a handle on it and come to love it. As to the gains you'll have to read the thread I linked too.

Quote
Other than my inability to get the soft stops programmed, mach 3 has worked pretty well so far?

Yes, if you had a Model T you could still use it to go shopping but there are better cars. Do you want a better car or are you going to spend good
money on keeping the Model T going?

Craig

214
Mach4 General Discussion / Re: MACH 3 to MACH 4 and USS TO ESS
« on: March 03, 2023, 03:35:40 PM »
HI,

Quote
I was thinking I might try to the XP version of MACH 4 to get things working

Why? If you are going to use Mach4 why castrate yourself with such an old build of Mach4?

Mach4 has quite a learning curve and you'll come to hate it BEFORE you get a handle on it and get to love it.
If you persevere you will get results and you never turn Mach3 on ever again.

With a capable external motion controller like an ESS then just about any PC will do....but not as old as XP!!!
One of the kids cast-off school laptops will be fine.

Can you draw a diagram of how the glass scales are connected? Neither Mach4 or Mach3 which preceded it, are feedback control solutions,
neither are the USS or the ESS. It's possible to use glass scales to monitor the machines position and even populate the DROs but that
cannot be used to close a position loop. This is why I'm interested in how the glass scales have been used.

Craig

215
Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 modbus issue
« on: March 03, 2023, 03:22:35 PM »
Hi,
there was/is a current thread which has an idea that you should investigate:

https://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php?topic=47113.0

It concerns register addressing. Some installations number the registers 0,1,2,3......8192......etc whereas some others number them 1,2,3.....8192....etc.
There is a setting in the Mach4 Modbus plugin which allows you to select either protocol.

Craig

216
General Mach Discussion / Re: newby with questions
« on: March 03, 2023, 03:14:26 PM »
Hi,
the most important part of your post is that you have an Ethernet SmoothStepper. That is a very capable external motion control board
and while there is a learning curve the results will come.

Given that you have an ESS then who cares what PC you use? My machine runs on a Dual Core Atom with 3G Ram and on-chip graphics and it runs fine.
It's slow to load a large Gcode file and draw the first toolpath but thereafter its fine. The truth is that Mach is NOT a power hungry application, just about any PC will
do. One of the kids cast-off school laptops will be fine.

If the old PC is giving you s****t then throw it away and get another. The CAD/CAM application will be more demanding than Mach. One suggestion to bear in mind
as it was explained to me many years ago 'A PC which is connected to a machine is NO LONGER a general purpose computing platform but a MACHINE CONTROLLER
that happens to use Windows as an OS.' I would recommend that whatever PC you use that it be connected to the machine and nothing else, including
and specifically the internet. Neither should there be any extraneous software on it, just Mach and those auxiliary programs necessary to run your machine.
That does not cover your CAD/CAM suite, but I have found Mach's Mill Wizard perfectly well behaved and can run on your machine PC.
Mill Wizard is a NFS sponsored conversational Gcode generation program, and attracts a $75 license fee IIRC.

You are correct Mach licenses are not transferable. That you purchase a new license is therefore both courteous and correct. The problem is that all development
on Mach3 ceased eight years ago, notwithstanding that it works it is well and truly superseded by Mach4. If you're going to purchase a license then Mach4 is the
recommendation.

https://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php?topic=42891.msg278176#msg278176

I would suggest use Mach3 with your existing license file and get your machine running but then plan to upgrade to Mach4. Note that Mach4 has quite a learning
curve so is not as easy as you might imagine.

Craig

217
General Mach Discussion / Re: newby with questions
« on: March 02, 2023, 10:55:10 PM »
Hi,
you don't say what motion control system you are using?.

You might find this a little confusing but in the early days Mach3 was, and still is, the PC application but it would use Mach's parallel port driver as the motion controller.
The motion controller (Machs Parallel Port Driver internal to the PC) takes the numeric trajectory data from Mach (the application) and turns it into pulse streams for the
motors and is communicated to the outside world by a parallel port socket. The downside of using Mach's parallel port was that it requires a 32bit OS Windows 7 or
Windows XP. It was also inclined to stall or stutter if the PC got in anyway overloaded, and quite frequently even decent PC's seemed just to be s****t at it.

In more recent years external motion control boards have become the norm, like the Ethernet SmoothStepper (ESS) ($190) or a UC100 ($120 for a genuine one not a Chinese rip-off)
and various Chinese made boards. They connect by USB or Ethernet to the PC. That means you can use just about any PC including laptops, 64 bit OS's like Windows10.

Do yourself a favor and do not buy a Chinese made motion control board. The Chinese do many things well but Mach3 motion controllers are not one of them! They often supply pirate Mach3
software and will get you kicked off here in a trice. Buy a US or European made motion control. I use an ESS and have done for eight years. Best $180 (at the time) money I ever spent
on my machine.

I use Fusion 360 mostly for CAD/CAM but also paid $75 and use MachMillWizard. The better I get with Fusion the less I use MachMillWizard, but I still use it a lot, very useful conversational
stuff. It has been worth its $75 over and over and over again!

Craig

218
Hi,
that is a hardwired pendant, that is to say that all the signals from the pendant need top be connected to the breakout  board and then to Mach.

The G540 has five inputs.....not even close to enough to use this pendant. In fact the G540 has so few inputs that it is just plain not suitable for  wired pendant of any description.

Take a look at VistaCNC pendants, I had a P1A and used it for seven years before I wore it out, first with Mach3 and then Mach4. It is connected to the PC by USB. It not only powers
the pendant but signals Mach over USB. That means that your breakout board does not require a whole bunch of spare inputs.

Craig

219
Hi nooby,
that company has long since irrevocably 'blotted its copy book' by pedalling pirate copies of Mach3.

If your serious about Mach, either Mach3 or Mach4 then get yourself another motion controller, European or US made.

Craig

220
Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Script Debugging
« on: February 28, 2023, 09:28:43 PM »
Hi,

Quote
--mc.mcCntlGcodeExecuteWait (inst, "G90 G53 G0 X"..xstart.. Y"..ystart..")

At a quick glance this looks faulty....should it not be?:

--mc.mcCntlGcodeExecuteWait (inst, "G90 G53 G0 X"..mc.tostring(xstart).." Y"..mc.tostring(ystart.))

Craig

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