Messages

3691

General Mach Discussion / Re: Looking for Suggestions

« on: September 08, 2018, 09:34:39 PM »

Hi,
Gerry is right, Mach4 and an external controller such as he has mentioned are sort of 'native' to each other.

Mach4 does have a parallel port option called Darwin. There is a $25 fee to use it. It also has the same restrictions that applied to the
parallel port of Mach3, namely Windows 7 32 bit or earlier. Given that your problem comes from Windows 7 updates then Darwin
is probably no closer to a reliable solution.

I use an Ethernet SmoothStepper, it costs an extra $60 odd than a UC100 or PMDX-411 but it has three output ports for much increased
numbers of inputs and outputs. If all you require is to get your Sherline working with the existing Xylotex driver then the extra ports
(and expense) are of no importance to you, unless you wanted to expand your Sherline and therefore required more IO.

Craig

3692

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Stops mid cycle, "Never happened before"

« on: September 07, 2018, 12:57:13 PM »

Hi,

I think the limit of lines is set to 500 when using the demo version

No, the 500 line limit applies to Mach3 when in Demo mode.
Mach4 will run for six minutes before shutting down in Demo mode. Given the timing of the fault I wondered as Stuart did if your licensing was correct.
Try Help/About just to double check that the license file has not got screwed up.

Craig

3693

General Mach Discussion / Re: losing axis zero point during job

« on: September 07, 2018, 03:25:49 AM »

Hi,
so you didn't bother to try running a job without the spindle running?

Craig

3694

General Mach Discussion / Re: losing axis zero point during job

« on: September 07, 2018, 01:00:19 AM »

Hi,
one or both axes are loosing (gaining) steps.

The usual suspects if the machine is new and you are still dialling it in is excess velocity or acceleration.

If the machine has performed well for some time and then started playing up with the same settings
(velocity and acceleration) then I would suspect noise.

Almost invariably the spindle is the most electrically noisy device in the machine and almost certainly the most
powerful. Try running a job without the spindle running. Does it make a difference?

Craig

3695

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Soigeneris Fault light and trouble getting Mach 4 configured for stdr-4c

« on: September 06, 2018, 07:24:44 PM »

Hi,
it seems entirely likely that the ESS output/input pin numbers will follow the G540
parallel input plug numbering.

Thus, pins 1 & 2 for the X axis, pins 3 & 4 for the Y axis etc.

Have you tried setting up the ESS plugin with these pin numberings?

Craig

3696

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4demo & csmio-ip-s HELP

« on: September 06, 2018, 02:49:12 AM »

Hi,
Mach4Hobby Demo will work fine.

Note that the CSMIO Mach4 plugin is a work in progress....it has a few quirks and CSLabs have proven to be slow to respond
with fixes/updates.

First you need to put both the plugin AND the signature file in Mach4Hobby/Plugins.

Then you need to enable the plugin in Mach......Configure/Control/Plugins.

Thereafter you can select the plugin as active motion controller. Note you will have to restart Mach AFTER enabling the plugins AND after
selecting the CSMIO plugin as active motion control plugin. Once you have selected an active motion controller other than Sim(ulator) then Mach will
run normally for six minutes before stopping until its licensed.

Craig

3697

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Soigeneris Fault light and trouble getting Mach 4 configured for stdr-4c

« on: September 05, 2018, 03:14:00 PM »

Hi,
the manual for the STDR4 is for a USB SmoothStepper and Mach3.

Please confirm what motion controller you have. An Ethernet SmoothStepper has  aMach4 plugin whereas the USB SmoothStepper
does not.

Craig

3698

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Pokeys57cnc probeing?

« on: September 05, 2018, 03:03:36 PM »

Hi,

I use lua with G31,and

G31 is largely enacted by the controller, Mach/Lua just sets the environment for the G31, the controller does all the tricky stuff.

Have you read the article I directed you to?

Craig

3699

General Mach Discussion / Re: What kind of bit/end mill should I be using?

« on: September 05, 2018, 02:57:51 PM »

Hi Gerry,
OP is also cutting cored aluminum panel.

Craig

3700

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Pokeys57cnc probeing?

« on: September 05, 2018, 02:49:51 PM »

Hi,

please send me the M function you use for probe ,i can look maybe can see something wrong

Probing is a function that is best done in realtime and is therefor done within the controller. Any Lua script will have
such a communication delay to make probing inaccurate.

Have a look in Docs/Mach4CoreAPI.chm/Plugin Development/Probing for a description of the sequence of events between
Mach and the controller during a G31 probe move.

Craig