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Messages - joeaverage

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3241
Mach4 General Discussion / Re: G-Code Just Cutting Circles
« on: January 18, 2019, 03:30:31 AM »
Hi,
just a guess but I think you are in the wrong Arc Center Mode.

Try changing it.....Configure/Control/General

Craig

3242
Mach Screens / Re: Buy Mach3 in Siemens 840D interface
« on: January 18, 2019, 01:59:20 AM »
Hi,
one of the major distinctions about Sinumerik controllers is their (Seimens) conversational programming features.
It is distinctly Seimens, no other manufacturer does it quite the same way.

If you want your students to be familiar with Seimens controls......buy Seimens.

There is NO other software that is the same.....other than some rip-off copy.

When looking up the 840D it is obsolete, Seimens ceased production in 2015. The 840SL is the current model.

If you are dead set on having Seimens control look at the 808, a much simpler and cheaper proposition.

Craig

3243
Mach Screens / Re: Buy Mach3 in Siemens 840D interface
« on: January 18, 2019, 01:00:03 AM »
Hi,
if you don't have the budget for Seimens .......then forget Seimens.

Mach3 or Mach4 is a good low cost choice for CNC software on a Windows PC. LinuxCNC is a free open source
CNC software that runs fine on PCs with Linux (with real-time extensions) installed as the operating system.

Craig

3244
Mach Screens / Re: Buy Mach3 in Siemens 840D interface
« on: January 17, 2019, 10:44:10 PM »
Hi,
a Seimens 840D is one of their top models, worth $20000 plus and annual licence fee for software updates.
Its as about as different to Mach on a PC as it is possible to be.

What is it you want....what are you trying to achieve?

Craig

3245
Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Plasma table - Dry Run feature in M3 macro
« on: January 16, 2019, 11:26:38 PM »
Hi,

Quote
Once I ran it, I realized that M3 is probably not the best place to implement this feature.  It works but should probably be run outside of the g-code. 

I think that will be a lot more complicated than you imagine.

Essentially there are two 'chunks' in Mach, one is the GUI and the other is the Gcode interpreter.

Only one chunk can run at time. Thus when you are running Gcode with the interpreter nothing in the GUI will run
and vice versa. Additionally data defined in one chunk CANNOT be used in the other. If you wish to share data
between chunks you must use REGISTERS.

There are mechanisms to allow cooperative behavior called co-routines. It allows one chunk to run for a period of time
or until some specific event or wait state and THEN the other chunk will run UNTIL it relinquishes control back to the
other chunk. Daz-the-Gaz made a good introductory video of the process.

https://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php?topic=36170.0

Regrettably my understanding of co-routines is still rudimentary and I would be a poor source for help.

If you are running Gcode however its entirely probable that any time you released control to run a script in the GUI
chunk your machine would stall and wreck your job.

Any user supplied macros (M functions) are called by the running Gcode file and run in the Gcode interpreter chunk
no troubles. If however you have some code in the PLC script for instance....when does that code run? It can't while
the Gcode interpreter is hogging the CPU.

Craig

3246
Hi,

I have this link open whenever I'm coding:

https://www.lua.org/manual/5.2/

Note that there is a later release (5.3) but Mach has the 5.2 version, there are a few differences.

The Standard Libraries, section 6, contains a list of all the included functions of Lua.

In addition there are a whole raft of libraries written in Lua, mathematical, graphic, communication you name it!

http://lua-users.org/wiki/LibrariesAndBindings

A while back I tried to import a graphical library into Mach. I did quite a bit of work on it but ultimately failed to get the
module incorporated into Mach. I'm sure it can be done but requires more skill than I have.  In this particular
case I was just trying to see whether I could do it in response to a query on the forum, not that I actually required
it.

In the early days I was convinced I would have to download and incorporate a POSIX compliant string editing
module. I subsequently found that the string functions table built in to 5.2 while not POSIX compliant can do
just about everything required.

I have found that anything that I require to do on my machine has NOT demanded that I add other Lua libraries to
Mach. May I suggest exploring the extents of Lua as supplied before concerning yourself with extra libraries and/or
C++ functions.

When scripting Lua represents only a portion (small) of the effort/understanding required the remainder of the
effort/understanding is the use of the API and making intelligent use of Machs structure.

There are a couple of areas where I believe an understanding of Lua will greatly assist your efforts.
The first is to understand and be familiar with is 'functions as a first class value', that subtle but powerful idea occurs
repeatedly throughout Mach. The second area is the use of Lua's one and only data structure...the table.
When you recognize the power of the table you will also see that many of the standard libraries (math and string
for instance) are in fact just tables....tables of functions!

Craig

3247
Hi,
most CNCers have the Z axis home point at the top of travel.

Once you have the machine homed you can now fill in the softlimits. Note that the softlimits are MACHINE COORDINATES.
So your Z axis for instance will have Soft Max of 0 and a Soft Min of -4 say.

Craig

3248
Hi,

Quote
So there is no way to use Soft Limits instead of Home switches?

No, in order for Soft Limits to be useful and consistent you need to home your machine and that means home switches.

Most people use their limit switches as home switches as well. I personally think its poor practice but having said that
most hobby CNCers do it that way.

If you already have limit switches you could probably make them do double service.

Craig

3249
Hi,
sorry, hit the wrong button and posted before I'd finished....

Now try jogging to the lower left hand corner or close to it and <Ref All Home> again. The machine coordinates of the lower
left hand corner are 0,0. But your soft limit setting have not changed.....they are still -12,+12 for X and -24,+24 for Y.
So if you make a move G0 X-5 Y-5 Mach would say 'Yes that's OK its within the SoftLimit boundaries but in fact the machine
is already at the lower left hand corner and its going to try to go EVEN FURTHER to the left and EVEN LOWER and crash!

The point is that SOFT LIMITS are the extents of the machine FROM SOME DEFINED LOCATION, called the reference point
or home. That point must remain the same every session of Mach. Thus the first thing when you turn Mach on is reference
or home it.

You could jog to some location, like the lower left hand corner and call that home. If you go to exactly that location
and home your machine every time then the Softlimits you set in the table will be consistent.

The more common way is to have home switches so that when you <Ref All Home> the machine will drive, at a programmable
slow speed, in a programmable direction UNTIL the home switch for that axis makes AND THEN reset the machine coordinates
for that axis to zero. It will then do the next axis until all axes are homed.

With good home switches you should be able to get your machine to within a very short distance of 'exactly home' every time
and therefore all your soft limits are consistent.

Craig

3250
Hi,
that tells me that you do not have Home switches set up. In absence of Home switches if you ask Mach to
<Ref All Home> it will 'Home in place'....that is to say it will reset the machine coordinates to zero at your
current location.

Sorry to say but that renders your SoftLimts as junk.

Lets say you jog your machine to the center of the table and <Ref All Home>. The machine coordinates of the center
of the table are 0,0.  Lets say you have you soft limits as -12 and +12 for the X axis and -24 and +24 for the Y axis
for a machine of 24 inch movement in X and 48 inch in Y.

If you called a move X30 say Mach would baulk and tell you that move is out-of-bounds.

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