Messages

231

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: adding a simple relay

« on: February 24, 2023, 03:58:07 PM »

Hi,
there are a number of approaches to doing that, and which one you choose will depend on what conditions you want to apply.

For instance, you may want a pump to turn on by a physical button, or an on-screen button, but ONLY while the spindle is operating say.
This would be a good example of using Machs programming to introduce logic.

Lets start with just the simplest of the solutions to turn a relay on or off. This would be a toggle button on screen.

I have attached a pic of a toggle button. Note I just put it on the FileOps tab  simply for the sake of room, but you can put it anywhere you want or need.
Note that you have access to all the properties of the button, things like its size and location, its text, both button Up and button Down, colour etc but most importantly
look near the lower end of the properties list and you'll see that I have assigned Output#20 to the button from the drop down list of Machs available and defined
output signals.

Note that many of the properties are just so you can arrange the button  on the screen to look and feel right with your control. The assignment of a matching output signal
is the ONLY thing thus far that means the visual representation of the button actually 'do anything' Anyway the upshot now is that every time you operate the button Output#20
will change state. To turn your relay on and off requires that you connect Output#20 via your motion control through the breakout board to the relay.

I use an ESS and I'm going to picture how this is done with an ESS.

In the ESS plugin on the PinsConfig tab I have assigned an ESS output, Port1, Pin9 and given it an alias 'MyNewRelay'. In the same ESS plugin I have
now assigned and enabled Output#20 from the drop down menu to my newly configured pin 'MyNewRelay'.

Now whenever Output#20 changes state, which reflects the on-screen toggle button, the Port1Pin9 of the ESS will also change state, which will of course be connected to your
BoB and that BoB output will turn on or off the realy, or beer pump or whatever.

Craig

232

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Comunicate MACH4 with Motion Control PLC

« on: February 23, 2023, 04:51:50 PM »

Hi,
you may not need a motion controller, all your output is going out of MODBUS and all feedback from the machine
is coming in from MODBUS. No motion control required??

You are inviting a lot of programming effort to write the Lua code neccessary to convert the MODBUS registers back into Machs DROs. You'll be
able to transmit coordinates to the PLC, again MODBUS registers, but not Gcode, Gcode is an alphanumeric data string, and I'm sure you could do that too, it would
be a major time commitment.

All in all the programming commitment both in Mach4 and also in the PLC count against what you want to do....not that its impossible.


Compare:

PLC  $500
PC  $400
Mach4Hobby $200
ESS (maybe??) $200
Programming cost???
TOTAL  $1100 minimum, maybe $1300 for hardware PLUS the cost of programming


PC Ethercat Master $1600
(includes Mach4Hobby, Kingstar runtime license, IvtervalZero runtime license, a medium modern PC (ex lease at a guess) and whiz-bang Ethernet card for Ethercat)

The cost saving of the PLC/Mach4Hobby is going to be swallowed and more by the programming cost, whereas using a PC Ethercat Master requires no extra programming.

The whole point of using Ethercat is to have an Ethercat Master....trying to do without it is counterproductive. You'd be better off with plain Step/Dir servos not Ethercat at all.

Craig

233

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Comunicate MACH4 with Motion Control PLC

« on: February 23, 2023, 04:06:49 PM »

Hi,
all that could be done over MODBUS.

Why is it that you've gone to the trouble and expense of an Ethercat capable PLC and Ethercat servos and not have an Ethercat master?
Instead what you are doing is using a Step/Dir software solution, breaking that down in to MOBUS commands to go to an Ethercat PLC, and then
reverse the process back to Mach.

Wouldn't it be easier just to get the Mach4/Kingstar/IntervalZero Ethercat solution and then run the servos direct from Mach and avoid the PLC altogether.

Craig

234

Mach4 Toolbox / Re: M6 script editing issues

« on: February 23, 2023, 02:20:55 PM »

Hi,
when the Gcode interpreter gets a block of code it converts it all to lowercase, strips out leading zeros and any whitespace.

When Mach encounters:
M06 or
M 6

what it actually searches for is m6.
In most cases Windows is not case sensitive and therefore a search for m6 will return M6, but not always. Try renaming your macro to m6 not M6.

Next possibility is that there is a complied file somewhere; m6.mcc, That file will be returned even if you have a later m6.mcs. In the first instance go through your
Profile/Macros folder very closely deleting every m6 file you come across except the one m6.mcs you want to run. Now close Mach4 and restart so that the .mcs file
is complied and put into the screen script. Now try again.

Craig

235

General Mach Discussion / Re: tips for getting started with 2 axis plasma cutter

« on: February 21, 2023, 08:53:26 PM »

Hi,
another possiblity is CNCDrive. They manufacture both software, UCCNC, and hardware control boards like the UC300. Their control boards work with both their
own software AND Mach3 and Mach4. I don't believe that CNCDrive products have ever supported THC, but I could be mistaken. CNCDrive is a Hungarian company
so would be a much easier proposition to get genuine products than stuff from the UAS.

Craig

236

General Mach Discussion / Re: tips for getting started with 2 axis plasma cutter

« on: February 21, 2023, 08:38:15 PM »

Hi,
I don't have any experience with PoKeys products, but they are well regarded. I'm not at all sure that PoKeys boards support THC in Mach4, Mach3 I would say is
a almost certainty, but I'm not sure about Mach4.

Those boards which do support THC tend to use something like a Proma THC unit which produces an UP/DOWN signal only, that is to say that there is no anti-dive
strategy or anything of that description. The WarpRunner is quite a sophisticated product, in fact to my knowledge is the most sophisticated THC unit for ANY of the Mach4 ready controllers.
The only other controller that I've seen enough discussion on to suggest that its a worthy contender is Vital Systems Hicon and Proma 150. The problem is that the Hicon is expensive in itself but is
also a US made product and likely to suffer the same shipping costs as ESS/Warprunner.

Craig

237

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Little help with a script please?

« on: February 21, 2023, 02:36:22 PM »

Hi,
I see:

Code: [Select]

local hSig, rc = mc.mcSignalGetHandle(inst, mc.OSIG_OUTPUT1)
local hSig, rc = mc.mcSignalGetHandle(inst, mc.OSIG_OUTPUT2)
You have assigned hSig the value of the handle to Output#1, and then in the next line overwritten it with the handle of Output#2?
If you want to address the two outputs then you'll need to handle variables.

Craig

238

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach 3 tripping the e-stop

« on: February 21, 2023, 02:17:43 PM »

Hi,
don't know what to make of the Estop triggering like that, electrical noise maybe?.

Once the machine Estops it has by definition lost Reference and you cannot just restart the machine and expect it to pick up where you left off.
You should re-Home your machine and either start the job again or use Run-From-Here (RFH). Note if you use RFH you will have to experiment
with it quite a bit so you are absolutely familiar with the procedure or you will crash. RFH has caused more crashes in Mach3 than all other sources.

Craig

239

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Rotary Axes in Radians vs Degrees?

« on: February 20, 2023, 01:37:57 AM »

Hi,
well no, given that I don't yet have five axis I have not got any code yet either.

Craig

240

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Keyboard short cuts & editing current Gcode

« on: February 19, 2023, 08:46:11 PM »

Hi,
yes that Window has tabs, if you are not on FileOps tab then you wont see <GcodeEdit>

One of the things I disliked about Mach3 was that so much was squeezed into every screen, it was cluttered an confusing. Mach4 is still pretty jam-packed
but you can delete or supress anything that you don't want and de-clutter the screen considerably.

You probably have not tried it yet but you can make your own tab, like those along the top, like ProgramRun, MachineDiagnostics, etc. When you do you will find you can have
entirely your own screen, just as a tab within a bigger screen set. So when you do yet another of your bread & butter water pump jobs or whatever you just click on the tab
and all the relevant data, WCS, tool data and everything you need for that job is all on one tab....great.

Craig