Messages

3171

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Un-Supported wxNumberEntryDialog

« on: January 26, 2019, 06:20:31 PM »

Hi Steve,
after my post I tried a Dialog and used ShowModal() and it worked. I am a little familiar with ShowModal() syntax as
I have seen it used and I have copied/pasted and edited to use it  myself.

I have used a statments like:

if (UI.<dialogName>:ShowModal()==wx.wxID_OK) then.....

which achieves the same result as:

rc=UI.<dialogName>:ShowModal()

and then testing rc.

Either way I have some more stuff to experiment with. Thanks again.

You are correct.....letting wxFB generate the Lua code and then looking closely at the code is very illuminating.

Does your missus get sick of you being right all the time.... ....or does she even think that?

Craig

3172

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Motor Tuning in Mach 4, Very Stuck

« on: January 26, 2019, 06:05:23 PM »

Hi,
you've seen the calculation......2000 pulses per rev and 5mm per rev (pitch) means 2000/5 =400 pulse per mm.

Under the assumptions I have made that is correct. Put 400 in the 'Steps per Unit' setting.

Zero your X axis and MDI g0 x100. <MDI Cycle Start>. How far did it move, it should be 100mm....exactly.
If it has moved exactly 100 mm then leave that setting alone, you'll never touch it again in the life of the machine.
The max velocity and acceleration you can change at will but the steps per unit set the dimensional accuracy of the machine.
If you do a cutting move of g1 x100 f300 say and it only moves 95mm then your part is going to be undersize....rubbish.

As a start set the max velocity to 2500 (mm/min) and try acceleration of 250 (mm/sec²)

Craig

3173

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Can't get Mach 4 to open in Windows 10, but can in safe mode

« on: January 26, 2019, 05:53:15 PM »

Hi,

https://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php?topic=34534.0

Craig

3174

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: mcCntlGcodeExecute best practice

« on: January 26, 2019, 05:47:39 PM »

Hi,
there is another API which is more suitable and recommended under most circumstances:

Code: [Select]

LUA Syntax:
rc = mc.mcCntlGcodeExecuteWait(
number mInst,
string commands)

Description:
Execute G code as a unit of work and wait until it is complete
Note also that it has a return code which can be tested for success.

Code: [Select]

Returns: Return Code Description
MERROR_NOERROR No Error.
MERROR_INVALID_INSTANCE The mInst parameter was out of range.
MERROR_NOT_NOW The operation could not be completed at this time.
MERROR_NOT_COMPILED The macro scripts could not be compiled.

Craig

3175

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Motor Tuning in Mach 4, Very Stuck

« on: January 26, 2019, 05:28:27 PM »

Hi,
my apologies, in your original post you specified that you have an ESS, so disregard the question about the controller.
The ESS will handle anything you care to throw at it at a canter.

Craig

3176

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Motor Tuning in Mach 4, Very Stuck

« on: January 26, 2019, 05:20:03 PM »

Hi Dale,
are you Aussie? Is it warm enough yet!

Ok, the stepper driver has a setting which would make your desired 'Steps per Unit' 1000.
If you set your stepper driver to 5000 pulse rev revolution combined with directly driven 5mm pitch screws
results in 1000 Steps per Unit.

Its another way of saying that every pluse issued by Mach/BoB/Controller will advance the axis 1 um. That's pretty impressive.

You have not said what sort of controller you are using?.

If you wish to spin your motors at 500 rpm and your driver is set to 5000 pulses per rev then
Pulses per minute= 500 X 5000
                          =2,500,000
or Pulses per sec  =41666 or near as dammit 42kHz.

As you can see my question about your controller is not idle. Machs parallel port is natively 25kHz. It would not be
fast enough to signal your driver with that high resolution. You can increase the kernel speed in Mach3 parallel port,
if I recall there is a setting for 45kHz. The downside is that the faster you try to make a parallel port go the likelihood
of glitches /stalls and stutter goes up markedly.

For this reason I would not recommend such high resolution if you are attempting to use a parallel port, your original
setting of 2000 pulse per rev is better. That corresponds to a linear resolution of 2.5um per pulse, still very impressive.
Even 2.5um resolution is likely to be more accurate than your machine....or if your machine is that good/expensive
then what are you doing pissing around with Mach in the first place?

If you are using an Ethernet SmoothStepper say, by way of comparison, that has a max pulse frequency of 4Mhz.....
that is 160 TIMES faster than Machs parallel port (at 25kHz), thus you can set your resolution high, even higher than 5000
pulse per rev and still be within the capability of  the SmoothStepper.

Resolutions of finer than 1um (excepting wafer scale semiconductor manufacturing gear at millions of dollars each) is for those
people who like to jerk off and/or brag.....not what I would expect from an Aussie!

Craig

3177

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Motor Tuning in Mach 4, Very Stuck

« on: January 26, 2019, 04:47:07 PM »

Hi,

1000 counts per unit

You cant arbitrarily set the 'Steps per Unit' to whatever value you like.

If you have a manual car and are cruising in top gear if the engine is doing 3000 rmp and you are going 100km/hr
unless you change the gearing, or the diff or the size of the wheels you can't suddenly decide 'I want to go 120km/hr
at 3000 rpm'. The ratio is fixed by the mechanics of your car.

The analogy is that if you have set your stepper drivers to 2000 pulses per revolution and the pitch is 5mm per revolution
then the Steps per Unit IS 400.....no if...no buts. If you want to change it then change the number pulse per revolution
ie your stepper driver OR change the pitch of your ballscrews OR introduce some gearing between the motor and the
ballscrew.

Craig

3178

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Motor Tuning in Mach 4, Very Stuck

« on: January 26, 2019, 04:37:23 PM »

Hi,
who knows.....you have given us no information.

First...tell us about the stepper drivers or better yet post the manual
Are the steppers direct coupled to the ballscrews or through some sort of gear/belt reduction?
You said you are using 1605 ballscrews....can you confirm and in particular that they are 5mm pitch?

I will make some assumptions based on what you have said, I know 'assumption is the mother of all 'f......ups'
but here goes.

If your ballscrew is direct coupled and it is 5mm pitch AND you have set the drivers to 2000 steps per revolution THEN

Steps per Unit (mm)=2000 /5
                              =400

I would suggest you start with the velocity setting of 2500 (mm/min) and an acceleration of 250 mm/sec/sec.

When you say that the axis is traveling very slowly, how are you instructing it to move?
I would be prepared to guess that you are jogging it and the jog rate is set vey low.

Do yourself a favour and learn a little Gcode and use MDI instructions instead.

If for instance you code:
g0 x100 <MDI Cycle Start> the X axis should move at its fastest possible (2500 mm/min if you have followed my recommendation)
speed to X=100 mm.

If you code:
g1 x100 f500 <MDI Cycle Start> then the X axis should move to X=100 at 500 mm/min.

Thus by using MDI commands you have explicitly told Mach how fast to drive the axes....you are not reliant on jog speeds.

Craig

3179

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: G-Code bad character used

« on: January 26, 2019, 04:13:17 PM »

Hi,
with Eagle open Options/Directories and update the path to the pcg-gcode folder.

Craig

3180

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: G-Code bad character used

« on: January 26, 2019, 03:57:09 PM »

Hi,

http://eagle.autodesk.com/eagle/ulp?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q%5Btitle_or_author_or_description_cont%5D=pcb-gcode&button=

As I recall I downloaded and extracted to a folder in MyDownloads. I seem to recall it was necessary to inform Eagle of the path to
that folder.

To generate Gcode at the Eagle command line type 'run pcb-gcode'<enter>.
To enter the setup type 'run pcb-gcode-setup'<enter>.

Craig