Messages

4541

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Simple one line MDI required

« on: May 17, 2018, 07:54:15 PM »

Hi,
the short answer is no.

As it stands you are required to type your MDI code in the MDI window. I presume you are happy with that,
its similar to going to the MDI tab in Mach3.
If you hit <enter> you will start a new line in the MDI window, so you can have multi-line MDIs, quite handy.
Once your MDI code is complete then you are required to issue a MDIExexcute() command and for that purpose
the Cycle Start button is provided.

If you find hitting the Cycle Start button on screen inconvenient it would be possible to assign a spare keyboard
key and have that key execute the MDI. Clearly <enter> is used in other manners would not suitable, every time
you hit it an MDI would execute whether you intended it not.

Does that sound like a reasonable work-around?

Craig

4542

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: No Script Engine Found for ...

« on: May 17, 2018, 07:45:31 PM »

Hi,
just confirm that the Lua plugin is enabled. In early builds Configure/Mach/Plugins in the most recent
Configure/Control/Plugins.

Craig

4543

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Wireless USB MPG Pendant Handwheel

« on: May 17, 2018, 03:21:58 AM »

Hi,
the code base is about five years old. I, unlike you, am not at all surprised that there is only limited market penetration by manufacturers
of Mach4 ready equipment.

Manufacturers of external motion controllers and pendants have to make a major investment in resources to produce a Mach4 compatible
plugin. Remember this investment is against a backdrop of what is still a fairly small market of potential buyers.

This situation is now changing rapidly.

Firstly the number of Mach4 users has grown to the extent that manufacturers are now actively pursuing products to satisfy demand. Three manufacturers
have released Mach4 plugins, CNCDrive, CSLabs and XHC in the last year, with mixed results in some cases but none the less they have made the investment to
participate in the growth of the Mach4 market.

NFS is to be congratulated that they have focused their efforts on development. Some of the features added in the last year alone are the probing module, PMC, the
all new Zero Brane editor/debugger. As a result of the development effort NFS has also weathered some criticism that Hobby users are confronted with the need to do
a fair amount of Lua coding with out of date documentation yet they have persevered with development of new features and increased capability.

I believe the gamble will pay off, Mach4 is now a very attractive solution for OEM and Industrial customers. The high value of such sales should go a long way to secure NFS's
future. As a hobbyist I will continue to benefit from NFS's new developments and their growing commercial strength, and I am of the opinion that the momentum is
building.

I might point out that we, that is you and I, have the opportunity to get in on the action. For instance you have already seen that there is the market for a wireless pendant.
Do you feel the inclination to roll up your sleeves and make one? Any and all genuine enquires are being met by NFS, they are as enthusiastic that manufacturers should be
producing equipment that makes best use of Mach4's strengths.

Anyway welcome aboard! You will have noted that I am a rabidly enthusiastic Mach4 user......

Craig

4544

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Wireless USB MPG Pendant Handwheel

« on: May 17, 2018, 12:50:14 AM »

Hi,
as you can see there is a very substantial investment in time an energy to code even something as simple
as a plugin for a pendant. To date few manufacturers have done so.

There have been a number of posts in the forum from users whom have made their own control panels
complete with buttons, switches and handwheels. Most have had good success an enjoyed the process
of both making and then programming with Lua.

Unless you are dead set on a wireless unit a control panel could be a worthy project, certainly a learning
oppurtunity.

Craig

4545

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 Windows 10 update -- don't do it

« on: May 17, 2018, 12:39:09 AM »

Hi,
yes 066 was the latest but 062 was considered less buggy and has been recommended.
Looks like its had a wee tweak to accommodate the latest MS updates and so I believe is the 
first bit of work done on Mach3 for five years.

Craig

4546

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Wireless USB MPG Pendant Handwheel

« on: May 17, 2018, 12:04:11 AM »

Hi,

http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,31332.0.html

Craig

4547

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Wireless USB MPG Pendant Handwheel

« on: May 16, 2018, 11:20:57 PM »

Hi,
there are few pendants at this time that have a Mach4 ready plugin.

I use a VistsaCNC P1 but that is wired not wireless.
There has been some posts about XHC pendants, one of which is wireless, and some success has
been had getting them to work with Mach4. I'll try and track down the thread.

Craig

4548

General Mach Discussion / Re: 3040T Chinese router, Y axis not working

« on: May 16, 2018, 02:47:44 PM »

Hi,
I think this test is the correct one:

Also, does the Y-axis work using the MDI or the pop up onscreen MPG pendant (press tab key on keyboard)?

If the Y axis does not work under this circumstance when the X,Z and A do then it means most probably a fault on the board, most commonly the stepper driver IC.
I would guess if you had a close look it will be a Toshibe IC 68.... or similar, good  ICs if used within their limits and cheap, but tender and prone to failure if you
stray outside those limits.

Can you post a close-up pic of the board and/or driver ICs?

Craig

4549

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: How to Pass Values to Subroutines in Mach4

« on: May 16, 2018, 02:35:03 PM »

Hi,
I think the pound variables in the range #500 to #549 are persistent global variables. That is to say that they are written to the .ini file and so are preserved
over different Mach sessions.

Good spotting with the L vs Q. I didn't spot it myself.

CNC Programming Handbook

by Peter Smid is pretty much the bible for CNC. It is almost too comprehensive to be a quick reference but it is good.

There is one way in which Mach4 Gcode is somewhat stricter than Mach3 Gcode:

Code: [Select]

N00170 G04 P3.000000
N00180 G82 X-31.9000 Y27.1800 Z-3.0000 F100   R1.0000  P0.500000
N00190 G82 X-37.3000 Y13.6000
N00200 G82 X-37.3000 Y18.7000
N00210 G82 X-37.3000 Y21.3000
N00220 G82 X-16.8500 Y27.4000
N00230 G82 X-21.6000 Y22.7500
N00240 G82 X-23.7000 Y9.4500 
N00250 G82 X-27.4500 Y34.4000 This is  a fragment of code for drilling holes in circuit board. The code was produced by a PCB-to-GCode utility operating on PCB software EAGLE. It works in Mach3 as is
but not in Mach4. The reason is that the drill cycle G82 is modal, you mention it once and it stays active until you change it. Therefore having G82 on each line is redundant and
worse illegal because successive lines only have the new X and Y co-ords without all the other drill cycle parameters. The code runs in Mach4 if its edited:

Code: [Select]

N00170 G04 P3.000000
N00180 G82 X-31.9000 Y27.1800 Z-3.0000 F100   R1.0000  P0.500000
N00190 X-37.3000 Y13.6000
N00200 X-37.3000 Y18.7000
N00210 X-37.3000 Y21.3000
N00220 X-16.8500 Y27.4000
N00230 X-21.6000 Y22.7500
N00240 X-23.7000 Y9.4500 
N00250 X-27.4500 Y34.4000 Each successive line introduces new X and Y cords and the existing drill cycle parameters are assumed constant.....as you can see the Mach4 interpretation is actually the correct one
its just that we became accustomed to dodgy code in Mach3.

Craig

4550

Modbus / Re: Communication With Modbus Multiturn Absolute Encoders

« on: May 16, 2018, 08:22:13 AM »

Hi,
why?

Modbus communicates master to slave, so you would require a Modbus slave, either a PLC or Arduino or similar at the encoder for the PC Modbus master
to interrogate. Why not just hook the encoder to an MPG input on your BoB/controller?

Craig