Messages

4291

SmoothStepper USB / Re: ESS and C11G help needed

« on: June 15, 2018, 03:34:57 AM »

Hi,
I think there might be two ways you can do this.

First, as tweakie has suggested use the capabilities of your C11 breakout board. My reading of the manual suggests that its analogue output is related to the frequency
of the input pulses. If my interpretation is correct then pin 14 port 1 of the ESS should be configured as a step signal of a step/dir pair. Note you will require a external
nominal 10V supply. If you have the ESS pulse at 25kHz the analogue output will be 10V.

Another way of doing it but does not use the specialist circuit built in to your breakout board is to use a regular output, say pin 9. If you have the ESS produce a PWM output on pin9
the output of your breakout board (pin 9) will be PWM also. A small capacitor would smooth the output and would produce a roughly 0-5V analogue voltage.

Given the simplicity of this last idea I would suggest that you try it as an experiment. Assign pin9 port 1 in the ESS plugin as your spindle PWM and measure the output voltage
of pin 9 of your breakout board with a multimeter, even without a capacitor or low pass filter it should produce an analogue voltage which might be sufficient for you.
If it doesn't work...well it didn't cost anything to try.

Craig

4292

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Best practice to communicate between Lua scripts?

« on: June 15, 2018, 03:07:55 AM »

Hi,
I think you'll have to use registers, indeed much of the reason for having them is to communicate between Lua chunks.

Mach has at least two Lua chunks, the GUI and the Cgode interpreter. They cannot run simultaneously and so in any session of Mach control passes back and forth
between these two chunks. No variables in one chunk are available in the other. Registers are required.

A related idea is that if you require Mach execute a movement say, then Mach's control state must be MC_STATE_IDLE (as opposed to in use). You might require an MDI move say, so Machs
control state would have to be MC_STATE_IDLE and then when the MDI started to execute it would change to MC_STATE_MRUN. If you now wish to access the GUI and execute some functions there you will have
to find the means of wresting control from the MC_STATE_MRUN state back to MC_STATE_IDLE and THEN cause the GUI chunk to run. You have found that a RESET is sometimes required to wrest control from the current chunk.

http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,36548.0.html

I have a list of Machs states as a text document and put it in the Docs folder that I might have it at hand when coding. I have found that at certain times it is necessary to determine Machs current state
before you attempt certain calls, otherwise the call will fail, sometimes unpredictably and sometimes you can crash Mach.

My understanding of this stuff is very rudimentary at best but even a little understanding can demystify Mach considerably.

Craig

4293

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Need the answer to this question "Is Mach4 a "MACHINE CONTROLLER"

« on: June 14, 2018, 03:10:46 PM »

Hi,
its more a definition of terms. He is correct Mach4 cannot control a machine, it requires a motion controller to do so.
A parallel port is a motion controller and as John has pointed out there is a parallel port version for Mach4. Its features are limited and will never be fully featured.
For this reason Mach4 essentially requires an external motion controller to be fully capable.


Mach3 it itself could not control a machine, it required a motion controller to do so, the parallel port being the best known.  Mach3s parallel port is fully featured.
Notice the distinction between Mach and the motion controller. Most people considered Mach3 as one but is in fact two distinct pieces but running within the one CPU of the PC.

Craig

4294

General Mach Discussion / Re: THC and Mach3/4

« on: June 14, 2018, 02:57:59 PM »

Hi,

So I am able to provide Mach4 with up/down inputs and have Z axis act on them

No. There are signals already defined but the motion controller is required to act on them. Dive control represents a programmatic variation of the basic THC function.
The THC function of the HiCon board has a custom screen where you can enter the parameters including anti-dive.

Craig

4295

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 THC

« on: June 14, 2018, 11:47:46 AM »

Hi,

http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,37543.msg256691.html#msg256691

Craig

4296

General Mach Discussion / Re: THC and Mach3/4

« on: June 14, 2018, 11:44:02 AM »

Hi,
at the current time, and to my knowledge, Vital Systems HiCon board is the only Mach4 controller that has full blown realtime THC.
The UC100 does not support THC in Mach4 but does in Mach3.

it seems Mach4 doesn't support THC or even basic Up/Down inputs

This is incorrect, Mach4 has THC signals defined but requires the controller to implement it in hardware, at this time the HiCon.

There has been talk that because of the rapidity that Mach4 cycles that a programmatic THC solution is feasible, albeit somewhat slower than realtime
THC like that of the HiCon. No announcement regarding the release of such a solution and/or the hardware support that would be required for it has been
made by NFS.

One of the most recent updates from Microsoft for Windows 10 has presented a problem for Mach3. A patch for Mach3 has been released.
Development on Mach3 ceased five years ago and there has been no indication that NFS are inclined to revise that policy, for that reason
Mach4 is the preferred solution for the future.

Craig

4297

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 Spindle Speed Control

« on: June 14, 2018, 07:25:05 AM »

Hi.
I've downloaded the manual and it does not appear to have a pulse output as my Delta does...shame.

Craig

4298

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 Spindle Speed Control

« on: June 14, 2018, 07:07:34 AM »

Hi,
even better is that with an index signal the PID controller would work so you would have very accurate control AND display of spindle speed for the
effort of hooking up one input to your controller/BoB.

Craig

4299

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 Spindle Speed Control

« on: June 14, 2018, 07:04:31 AM »

Hi,
yes what I've outlined is precise but that's less important than if you have an index signal Mach can display the actual speed on screen....you don't have to do
anything, its already built in. So it makes sense if there is such a thing as a synthesized index signal from your VFD then for the sake of a piece of wire to hook it to
a spare input on your controller/BoB, dozen keystrokes in the plugin to turn it on and viola...accurate, live spindle speed on screen.

Craig

4300

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: "Screenset 2010"-like tool and zero macros?

« on: June 14, 2018, 05:36:53 AM »

Hi,
yes...the Set Tool button to the right of the screen has code attached, reasonably simple code at that. You could copy it, add a GcodeExecuteWait() type move to
your fixed plate then  use the tool offset code .

Craig