Messages

331

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: M4 update to 5000 version, result: system failures

« on: January 27, 2023, 02:45:59 PM »

Hi,
how was GOOMBA being aggressive? You claim that NFS has closed two tickets and yet GOOMBA has posted the reply to at least one of your emails,
how is that aggressive?.

Probably pay to remember that NFS support and pay for this forum....you are a 'guest in their house' as it were.

Craig

332

SmoothStepper USB / Re: Problem with ESS C25XP, Noice?

« on: January 23, 2023, 06:48:51 PM »

Hi,
what is the clamping mechanism? If it has a coil then it will have inductance. When you turn the current off to a coil/inductance there will
be a very VERY large voltage spike.....unless you have a 'catch diode'. Do you have one?. If not (and it is a coil you are switching) stop right now and fit
a catch diode or you risk blowing up your breakout board but worse still your ESS.

Do not foll around with switching currents in inductances......the voltage spikes blow s*********t all over the place.

Craig

333

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

« on: January 22, 2023, 05:40:40 PM »

Hi,
if THC is required then the ESS/Warp Runner is probably the most cost effective solution.  You will see various combinations that work with a Proma controller,
but the Proma controller is just a voltage comparator and produces Up and Down commands whereas the Warp Runner has anti-dive strategies, and is all round just
more sophisticated.

That plasma is HF start....and it will be problematic for ANY plasma table. In particular the HF start. Remember that in the earliest days radio waves were generated
by a spark generator......so much so that Marconi got radio communication across the Atlantic. HF has an alarming habit of defeating every filter, but if its what you have that's what
you try.

Craig

334

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

« on: January 22, 2023, 02:41:48 PM »

Hi,
if  you are new and do not yet have a license you should go with Mach4. All development on Mach3 ceased eight years ago, it works but whatever bugs it has it will always have.

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

Mach4 all but requires an external motion controller, I'd recommend an Ethernet SmoothStepper (ESS). You need a breakout board to match, and for a simple machine
such as you are contemplating a single port (17 IOs) bidirectional C10 for $23.00 is good value or a two port (34 IOs) bidirectional C25 for $29.00 is good value also.
You may have to provide some very simple external circuitry, relays etc, but should be no problems. Or you could make a breakout board, this is one I made, all three ports (51IOs)
developed, all 24V tolerant, differential outputs for the servos (six axis), plus PWM, relay on/off for the spindle and electromagnetic brake output for the Z axis.

You'll soon want Torch Height Control, a plasma table without it is way less than ideal. Yes, I've heard it all before...' I don't need THC....I'll use X or Y or Z, I don't need THC'
and I call BS, every single one of them comes back to implementing THC

Mach4 has a script based software THC feature, very low bandwidth, say 10Hz, but adequate for many THC purposes. Your electronics skills will come in handy if you wish to do that.
The ESS is matched to a THC controller/breakout board in the form of a Warp Runner board, now you have realtime hardware controlled THC with bandwidth of 100Hz or more.

What plasma machine do you have?. Any HF start plasma is far from ideal for a Plasma table, the electrical noise is very hard to accommodate, contact start like Hypertherm is much preferred.
Even contact start plasmas are electrically noisy and so USB connected motion controllers are not recommended. Transformer coupled USB is better but still has more latency
and less noise immunity than Ethernet.

Craig

335

General Mach Discussion / Re: Macro to Output to Clamp

« on: January 19, 2023, 08:06:24 PM »

Hi,
I assume you are using some sort of pneumatic valve to operate the clamp?

My forte is electronics and tend to think of those solutions first......but I would use a JK FlipFlop as a latch. JK FlipFlops are a small IC and can be had for a dollar or so.

If you want to clamp a part, the the JK latch which controls the pneumatic valve will require a pulse from Mach to do so. To unclamp the part a second pulse
is required. If Mach were to Estop the it will not produce the pulse and thus anything that is currently clamped would stay so until the pulse is applied.

JK FlipFlops have a Set and a Reset terminal in addition to the J and K inputs, thus you could have a external button to clamp a part and another button to unclamp
it, without affecting Machs ability to alternately clamp then unclamp.

Craig

336

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Initial Z move

« on: January 19, 2023, 07:54:04 PM »

Hi,
I don't use plasma so am not particularly familiar with it but when milling if you touch off on the top of the material to set the Z zero, if you leave the tool there and proceed to run some
code and if the first feature to be milled is at x,y then the machine will move to that location, dragging the tool as it goes. From your discussion I assume this is similar to what
is happening to you?

I touch off usually by probing OR manually, but then I always lift the tool a little....is this something you expect to happen automatically? Or is this something that is accomplished
with commonsense and some experience?

I'm guessing that you use a G31 probing move to touch off? Is so remember that a G31 is like a G1 move, that carries on moving until the probe circuit indicates a touch
whereon the machine stops its G1 move and aborts the remainder of that move. What a G31 probing move does not do is lift the tip of the tool backup off the material.
You'd have to code that if you wish it to happen.

I'll try to illustrate: lets imagine you write a macro called m199(), say. It's purpose is to probe the material. Lets also assume that you can jog the machine to a suitable
location for the probe to occur and that you can bring  it to within 10mm of the surface and you zero the Z axis. Your macro could be something like:

Code: [Select]

function m199()
local inst=mc.mcGetInstance()
g31 z-20 f200
........    -this code block retrieves the numeric value of the Z axis at touch off and thereby calcultes the Z zero and sets it
........
........
end
if (mc.mcInEditor()==1)then
    m199()
end

The G31 acts like a G1, and in this case the the machine will move the Z axis downwards from its current zero position and will travel to -20mm UNLESS it is stopped by a probe contact.
But note that it does not pick the tip up again, that you would have to code for instance:

Code: [Select]

function m199()
local inst=mc.mcGetInstance()
g31 z-20 f200
g91 z5
g90
........    -this code block retreives the numeric value of the Z axis at touch off and therby calultes the Z zero and sets it
........
........
end
if (mc.mcInEditor()==1)then
    m199()
end

The g91 switches to incremental mode, shifts the Z axis 5mm upwards from its current location, namely the material surface, and then return to regular g90 or absolute mode.
The remainder of the code stays the same.

Craig

337

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: How do you make a screen button turn on and off a relay?

« on: January 19, 2023, 07:08:50 PM »

Hi,

OK so somehow I got the button to work but i would like to have my spindle on button also trigger the coolant button or output signal

In most cases, even if you use an on-screen button or an external button or use regular Gcode to turn your spindle on Mach uses an m3() function to perform the required task.
m3(), being such a ubiquitous function is already programmed into Mach4, and by-in-large its not a good idea to alter it. What you can do instead is write your
own m3() script.

When Mach encounters an m3() call it searches in the first instance to the macros folder of your profile. If it finds it then Mach will run the macro. If it does
not find it it will start searching 'up' the file tree until it finds an m3() macro. Your existing profile probably does not have an m3() and so Mach searches until it finds
one, namely the built-in m3().

If you write your own m3() and put it in the macros folder however Mach will use yours instead. You'd most likely want to put everything the the OEM m3() has in it
but then you can add whatever else you would like, for instance a couple of line of code to turn on the coolant pump.

Craig

338

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: How does G30 work?

« on: January 19, 2023, 06:50:31 PM »

Hi,

I’ve played with rotary when it was in preview and used it a couple of times.  Pretty handy. But I’m not paying that price tag for it. I’ll get by without it.

If I'm not mistaken you can still use four axis, indexing only, with the basic subscription.

I make parts for automotive instruments and my CNC mill is invaluable, I'd go broke for sure without the ability to make the parts I do. Some of the parts
I use, particularly for speedometer cables, are now almost impossible to source new, and even those that are available are all from overseas suppliers.
If COVID has taught us anything is that its extremely important to retain as much capability in-house, or at least locally. For this reason if I can add
four axis capability, it's not so much that there is the volume of work to make money, but rather if I  retain capability, which in turn allows me to continue
whereas I'd be watching money making jobs going begging for lack of capability.

Craig

339

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: How does G30 work?

« on: January 19, 2023, 05:42:52 PM »

Hi,
the answer is #4014.

With G54 active #4014=54
With G55 active #4014=55
With G56 active #4014=56    etc.

There's still some coding to do but I think now I have all the bits and pieces I need to be able to automate the clearance.

Thanks  Cbyrdtopper, as always, a pleasure to correspond.

Craig

340

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: How does G30 work?

« on: January 19, 2023, 05:31:27 PM »

Hi,

How are you liking the extensions?  I have little need for them.  The only one that looked interesting to me was Rotary.

Well, that's a bit of a question. Autodesk really did sort of pursue me to get me to buy the extensions. Even the introductory offer was $1900NZD ( about $1200USD)
at the time. In reality I have not used them for several months.......which is just plain stupid of me.....I've paid big dollars for extra capacity and then not used it?

I set up fourth axis with a stepper, but the stepper was inclined to stall and was pretty slow. I've just bought, taken delivery and installed a new servo for the fourth axis,
and now it performs really well. It has taken some months for me to put aside the money for the upgrade out of personal funds, and really I cannot burden the business
with this expense as I have yet to prove that it will be a money maker....yet.

Anyway the upshot is that I'm starting to use it now. That's why I've suddenly started asking questions about G30, as I need to understand it to use the Fusion post.

The first thing that I've noted is that you have to be quite considered when you CAD your part. It may make sense to have the coordinate system oriented in one direction
and fixed at a particular vertex lets say only to find that when you go to CAM the part that the coordinate orientation or vertex location introduces some mind bending
complexities. As it turns out, just like using regular 3 axis CAM Fusion can accommodate those sorts of things....but it takes some time to discover all those procedures.

All-in all I am pretty happy with what I've seen. The toolpath editing functions are something that I'm likely to use. The question remains can I either generate a business case
for renewing the subscription, especially now that the introductory offer has been used, or alternately save the money out of personal finances before the subscription renewal
middle-end of July?

Craig