Messages

2781

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: scr list

« on: March 28, 2019, 05:45:57 PM »

Hi,
this is the best I know of:

https://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php?topic=29452.0

Craig

2782

General Mach Discussion / Re: Goofy forum layout

« on: March 28, 2019, 04:59:35 PM »

Hi MN300,

I brought up the Task manager and see the network activity go to zero when not on a page with the video.
Pausing the video stops the download too.

Kool, I never thought to do that.....makes perfect sense.
What I had noted was that despite pausing the video (with the pause button) the load bar at the bottom of the
video window carried on loading, which I assumed was consuming data over my Interenet connection.

Craig

2783

General Mach Discussion / Re: Jerky Jog before I even Code

« on: March 28, 2019, 04:54:31 PM »

Hi collincv,

From everything I've read so far, mach4 is about 8 times as much for the industrial version and there's not much difference between the mach3 and mach4.

Both Mach3 and Mach4 are Gcode interpreters and as such if you present a Gcode job to a Mach3 machine and
it cuts a part in a certain way then I would expect Mach4 to do exactly the same.

What is not apparent from its outward behavior is that Mach4 is or can be very much more flexible.  It may
well be that you don't require powerful programming ability to have your machine operate properly
and in that circumstance Mach3 is entirely adequate.

There is a new feature of Mach4 that Mach3 does not have, its called Surface Map. The essential idea is that
you probe the surface of the bed of the mill an Mach records that data and thereafter corrects all moves to
accommodate the surface not being flat. There again it may not be strictly necessary for your machine but it does
serve to point out that Mach4 is progressing with new ideas and features whereas Mach3 is not.

That does not even touch on the Mach4 probing module or the Zero Brane editor/debugger......

It is true that Mach4Industrial is $1400 but Mach4Hobby that you and I use is only $200, with Mach3 still $175.
Mach4Industrial has only one feature that Mach4Hobby does not have, Macro B programming. If you don't
know what it is its because Mach3 never had it either. The real reason that Mach4Industrial is so much more
expensive is support. You can ring NFS anytime with a problem and you go to the top of the queue.

It is fairer to compare apples with apples and Mach3 should be compared to Mach4Hobby. The difference
in price is modest,$25 or 12.5%. Mach3 can be installed on any number of machines, Mach4 on up to five
machines.

Personally the modest differences in price and licensing are subsumed by Mcah4 being light years ahead of
Mach3 in terms of programming flexibility and new and upcoming features.

Craig

2784

General Mach Discussion / Re: Goofy forum layout

« on: March 28, 2019, 04:16:16 PM »

Hi MN300,
I reverted to the smf theme as well, and as much for familiarities I prefer it.

I'm not so sure that the video is still not running, or rather being loaded even if its not displayed.

When running the Mach theme on each occasion I would return to the top page of the forum the video clip
would load anew and totally unnecessarily. This is a waste of bandwidth. My request is that the video stream
be removed from the page, or perhaps able to be downloaded by clicking on a thumbnail say.

The next question I have is why the team developed the new theme at all? Clearly the same database is used
to construct two visually different pages but contain exactly the same information. Is the new theme in some
way better than the smf default? Is there a new development around the corner for which the new theme
is required?

Is there some fault or deficiency with the smf theme? If not, then why bother.....I would have thought/hoped that
updating the API.chm in Mach4, or documenting the Surface Map module would have taken preference.

Craig

2785

General Mach Discussion / Re: trouble getting torch to fire

« on: March 27, 2019, 02:55:22 PM »

Hi,
I used Machs parallel port without a separate video card and it worked fine.

My suggestion is try it. Some PC's seem to do a parallel port well and others do not.....you can't tell
until you try it.

Craig

2786

General Mach Discussion / Re: Jerky Jog before I even Code

« on: March 27, 2019, 12:25:23 PM »

Hi,
the ESS has THC support in Mach3 and will have in Mach4 very soon now.

Craig

2787

General Mach Discussion / Re: Jerky Jog before I even Code

« on: March 27, 2019, 08:32:31 AM »

Hi,
sorry I've got a few different threads going on....you are not especially concerned about using Mach4?
In which case either the ESS OR the UC300 (or maybe the UC400) would be fine as they both are fully developed
for Mach3.

Craig

2788

General Mach Discussion / Re: Jerky Jog before I even Code

« on: March 27, 2019, 08:23:31 AM »

Hi,

UCC is the cheapest, whichever I am a tightass, but I want this to be right, and not halfass it like I have a ton of things in my life and have to buy something twice

The UC**** series is good value but is also the least developed of the Mach4 plugins, no backlash comp, no lathe threading
or THC. All of these function are supported in Mach3 but not Mach4 (yet).

The ESS is somewhat more expensive but when THC is released over the coming days maybe weeks it will be the
most completely developed mid priced Mach4 controller, with the $600 Hicon Integra having had all those features
for a while.

So if i want x,y,z home switches on a router, with the capability to run a plasma on the same machine, i'm understanding I basically need 2 breakout boards, 2 ribbon adapters and the warp9 ess? 

Yes, from your description two ribbon cables and one extra BoB will be required. A C10 BoB is an economical alternative
at $23. IDC header to DB25 ribbon cables are about $5 each.

Craig

2789

General Mach Discussion / Re: Jerky Jog before I even Code

« on: March 27, 2019, 07:34:21 AM »

Hi,

2000pulse per rev is only correct if you have a 0.72deg stepper motor.
360deg /.72 give 500 steps per rev
4 microsteps then gives 2000 pulse per rev

Wrong again......2000 steps per rev is achieved by a 10 microstep regime on an ordinary two phase 1.8 degree/ full step
stepper. If you bother to look at and read any of the documentation I've posted you would see that.

Craig

2790

General Mach Discussion / Re: Can you wire a proximity sensor directly to a motion control board like a pokeys

« on: March 27, 2019, 01:53:30 AM »

Hi MN300,

If the pull-up of the sensor is just the 4700 ohm resistor, adding another 470 ohms in series makes little difference. Just the zener across the input will protect it.

Yes 100% correct, as you say IF the sensor has an active pull up then the 470 Ohm resistor will save the either the sensor, the
zener and/or the 57CNC. That is the reason I suggested its inclusion, just in case. If OP chooses to leave it out and he
lets the smoke out it wont be because I didn't think about making the solution I recommended to him robust.

Craig