Messages

4871

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 stops processing gcode

« on: April 06, 2018, 03:49:02 PM »

Hi,
in a sense if Mach did not read ahead it wouldn't work.

Windows is not a realtime computing platform. Thus any software like Mach will be interrupted while Windows goes off and services other programs or services as required and then return to Mach.
There is no set schedule as to when Mach is abandoned nor is there any guaranty how long it will be abandoned for. If Mach is starved of service for too long Mach will pause and your machine will
stall wrecking the job in progress.

The solution is to read ahead so that Mach can carry on when it loses CPU service and hopefully is still running when CPU service is restored.

The mechanism that causes the CPU to transfer its focus is the 'interrupt system'. There are many levels of priority amongst interrupts and additionally Windows uses interrupts to signal between threads.
All in all it is not possible to make Windows into a realtime system as that would require a totally different interrupt structure which would hoplessly break Windows.

There is a clever solution, it is a software system which uses one core of a multicore CPU to run a genuine realtime scheduler while the remaining cores run Windows as normal. Unfortunately such a system
is way too expensive for hobby use.

Linux can with certain extensions, called realtime extensions, can be made into a realtime computing platform and LinuxCNC makes very good use of it.

Craig

4872

VB and the development of wizards / Re: VB / LUA evaluation- no license key

« on: April 05, 2018, 08:53:35 PM »

Hi,
I should perhaps explain a little better, it rather sounds like my comment indicated that VB doesn't work or work well.
That is not the case, as ger21 points out he has many VB scripts working well.

I was at that time still using Mach3 and just starting to write my own scripts. There are a number of things which I found frustrating,
the apparent plethora of 'standard means' of addressing Mach variables, inconsistent syntax conventions within CE and what I
still regard as a poor mechanism for repeating scripts, aka the macro pump.

While some of these gripes are in fact nothing to do with VB, they  combined meant a frustrating experience trying to generate
code. They could and probably should be regarded as 'learning pains' rather than any true fault.

Given that I already had a Mach4 licence I decided that it made sense to invest the learning effort in Mach4/Lua as it is a better
fit with future needs. I must point out the the learning curve of Mach4/Lua is worse than Mach3/CE. The results however
are a quatum leap ahead. If you are a reluctant programmer stay away from Mach4, if however you like a programming challenge
then Mach4 is just the ticket.

Craig

4873

VB and the development of wizards / Re: VB / LUA evaluation- no license key

« on: April 05, 2018, 07:11:26 PM »

Hi,
I personally found that VB was troublesome in that errors were not consistent. It was that inconsistency
that induced me to go to Mach4, I mean if I'm going to learn something new it might as well be the
best for addressing my current and future needs, ie Mach4/Lua.

Craig

4874

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: plc vs screenload script programming

« on: April 05, 2018, 03:06:03 PM »

Hi,
I would start by setting up a timer as in Daz's video:

http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,32573.0.html

Have an on-screen button which will open a file to record the data, start the timer and set a 'ToRecord' flag.
In the PLC script write the values to the file if the ToRecord flag is set.
At the expiry of the timer close the file and stop the timer so it doesn't retrigger.

Craig

4875

VB and the development of wizards / Re: VB / LUA evaluation- no license key

« on: April 05, 2018, 02:38:06 PM »

Hi,
likewise Lua runs, in fact Mach4 is fully configured in Demo mode. It will run for about 6 minutes before it needs to be reset.

THC is enacted by the motion controller not Mach and to my knowledge Vital Systems Hicon board is the only Mach4 controller that has THC support
at the moment. Warp9's ESS board has most of the code needed for THC but is not ready yet, we've been waiting a year for it.

Craig

4876

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 stops processing gcode

« on: April 05, 2018, 01:26:13 AM »

Hi,
is your copy of Mach4 licenced? If its still in demo mode it will run for a fixed length of time and then stop, usually about 6 minutes.

You can see Machs licence status at the Help/About tab.

Craig

4877

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4, Hicon Interga, and Chinese KRS servo Controllers

« on: April 05, 2018, 01:21:59 AM »

Hi,
excuse me for asking but Googling KRS servos resulted in what amounts to an RC servo. Is this correct? Is this for a robot or a CNC machine?

Craig

4878

General Mach Discussion / Re: Homing operation does not pulls back enough to get away from switch?

« on: April 04, 2018, 06:47:22 PM »

Hi,
this is not really about combining limits and softlimits its about combining 'home switches' with 'limit switches'

I have always argued they should be separate. If you decide you need limit switches by all means put them there
but separately, ie they should not try to be home switches as well.

Craig

4879

General Mach Discussion / Re: in need of help!!

« on: April 03, 2018, 03:13:41 PM »

Hi,
check that the desktop machine doesn't have the parallel port driver loaded and dig it out with the control panel if it does and try again.
I would not expect any difference between the laptop and the desktop.

Craig

4880

General Mach Discussion / Re: in need of help!!

« on: April 03, 2018, 09:06:15 AM »

Hi,

1 thing I read up on yesterday pointed me to the fact that Mach3 doesn't run on 64 Bit operating systems

This is incorrect. Mach3 runs perfectly well in either 32 or 64 bit OS's. What does not run in 64 bit OS's is Machs Parallel Port.

Mach should really be considered two  separate bits, one is the Windows application with its familiar GUI, and it will run on 32 or 64 bit no probs. The second bit is the parallel port (bit two),
really its a piece of driver code that runs at kernel level within Windows and takes numeric data from the trajectory planner/Gcode interpreter (bit one) to produce the required pulse streams
for the motor drivers. This chunk of code will only run on 32 OS's and commonly only very well on desktop machines as laptops power saving features often disrupt smooth operation
of the parallel port.

If you wish to run Mach on a 64 bit OS then you will need an external motion controller like a UC100 or ESS because you cant use Machs Parallel Port. Provided you have such a device then
Mach runs perfectly well with either 32 or 64 bit OS's. My normal machine platform is 32 bit Windows7 but have run my machine on occasion with my Windows8 laptop via an ESS and you
cant tell the difference.

Craig