Messages

4591

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Out-Of-Band Axes in Hobby vs Indusrial

« on: May 11, 2018, 12:31:38 AM »

Hi Steve,
I'd been contemplating how to go about retaining 'reference' during free running mode.

My spindle (the grunty high torque one) is based on an Allen Bradley servo and is 1:1. The encoder is available
as outputs from the drive, 8000 count/rev. If I track the encoder with a MPG input to the ESS and subtract
8000 from the count at each 'zero crossing' or index event it should prevent a counter from overflowing
and therefore retain 'reference'.

The only time where I would be concerned about the number of complete turns in addition to the angle within
the current revolution would be when I was rigid tapping and then I would be using the spindle as a C axis
coordinated with the rest of them.

Looking forward to viewing the M19.

If someone were to question 'do you need all this crap' I would have to answer no, but its so much fun fiddling
with all this....and a hobby should be fun right.... even if it doesn't make sense!

Craig

4592

General Mach Discussion / Re: "Goto Zero" getting Soft Limits Error

« on: May 10, 2018, 10:33:42 PM »

Hi,
soft limits have nothing to do with limit switches. They are a programmable way of doing the same thing.
On the screen there should be a button 'Soft Limits'. Find it, hit it, and now soft limits should be disabled.
If you crash its your own fault. Ideally you would have home switches which allow you to usefully employ softlimits
which are a boon to the CNCer.

Craig

4593

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Can I use Granite Devices SimpleMotion drive plugin in trial version of Mach4

« on: May 10, 2018, 10:28:31 PM »

Hi,
your welcome of course.....sorry to have to tell you but....you will still end up spending those hours, its just
it will be on something else!

Craig

4594

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Out-Of-Band Axes in Hobby vs Indusrial

« on: May 10, 2018, 07:27:20 PM »

Hi,

Contrary to the feature matrix on the website, the Hobby version has all 6 OOB axes available.

Kool!

OOB axes use the scripting jog methods for motion and they can be homed.  So one can use incremental or absolute jogging for precise positioning.

Kool!

No G code will ever move one of these axes in coordination with any other axis.  Meaning that no axis letter can be assigned to them.

Well that explains why I couldn't 'see any means of controlling them' even in Industrial.

I have some serious experimenting to do. The ESS allows up to six motors. I'm thinking three (co-ordinated) for the three
axes, one for regular spindle and one for an indexing spindle/axis. My application requires that the spindle be indexed
at certain times. My plan is to have two motors out-of-band motors, one as a free running spindle and the second
indexing spindle and the step/dir signals selected by an output of the ESS.

Now only have to work out how to keep track of the reference position during that time where it is used as a free
running spindle....that may be a challenge! May be required to re-reference when entering indexing mode on each
occasion.

Fun...fun....fun

Craig

4595

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Can I use Granite Devices SimpleMotion drive plugin in trial version of Mach4

« on: May 10, 2018, 04:01:29 AM »

Hi,
try opening Configure/Control/Plugins.....is the ESS plugin listed, check it to enable and close.
On the next open select the ESS as the motion control plugin.

Craig

4596

General Mach Discussion / Re: Replacement Computers

« on: May 10, 2018, 03:33:00 AM »

Hi,
sounds like Windows10 (64 bit) and Mach3 may have had a parting of the ways.

http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,37291.0.html

Craig

4597

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Can I use Granite Devices SimpleMotion drive plugin in trial version of Mach4

« on: May 10, 2018, 03:28:07 AM »

Hi,
having made a dick of myself...I might as well carry on!

If you look in the plugins folder in the main Mach4Hobby directory you should see:
'M4SM.m4pw' not 'M4SM.mpw'. Also there should be a signature file of the same name but different extension:
'M4SM.sig

Are both those files there?

Craig

4598

General Mach Discussion / Re: Plasma Z floating head

« on: May 10, 2018, 03:16:52 AM »

Hi,
Thomas is right, you could have the post just issue a M3 and the M3 would contain touch off code. You don't have to have the post include all that code explicitly.

Anyway once you get your HiCon and realize what features and code they've built in you wont be worried about some fancy post....

Craig

4599

General Mach Discussion / Re: Plasma Z floating head

« on: May 10, 2018, 03:03:26 AM »

Hi,
sounds like we're starting to make some progress.

I've used Mach3 but never that G28.1 trick, really really kool. I've used G31 extensively in Mach3 and for the last 18 months in Mach4.
Look for:

Mill GCode Programming

in Mach4 Docs. Note there is NO G28.1 mentioned. I don't know whether that's an oversight or what.
What I have found that all the gcode jobs that I used to run in Mach3 all pretty much works in Mach4. When all said and done Mach of whatever
flavor is a Gcode interpreter....conforming Gcode should work in either. Its my experience that Mach4 conforming Gcode is somewhat stricter in
interpretation than Mach3 compliant Gcode, there are a lot of tricks and shortcuts we used in Mach3 which really aren't good practice and often wont work
in Mach4.

I do recommend the use of G31.nnnn, you can generate probe files and all sorts of things and all extremely accurately.

For a plasma table you really really REALLY NEED THC. THC is a realtime feature and is enacted by the controller. Vital Systems HiCon board is the only Mach4
board I know of which has implemented it at this time. Nice screen addition in the GUI to support it too. The HiCon is not cheap but it is good....suck it up!

You may be required to do a little Lua coding to tie it all together but probably only 20 lines or so. Knowing what those lines are and where to put them is another
matter but you will find help on the forum.

Craig

4600

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Spindle at Speed

« on: May 10, 2018, 12:49:02 AM »

Hi Steve,
almost all the custom code that has turned up in my installation has got there as a result of me
trying to help someone else do something specific rather than me needing, or even once I've
completed the code, actually using it.

I change tools manually and therefore have little need for M6's.

Some code I have written is actually more about file processing, I might run a Gcode file through
a Lua script to change or correct the code before commiting it to the machine. I have another script I have
written is for coil winding, pretty simple but effective.

The truth is that there is really nothing about my setup that requires custom code to run.

Craig