Messages

5261

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Button OFFLINE

« on: February 15, 2018, 05:03:19 AM »

Hi,
no I will not try to make a video because you are wasting my time. I have given you instructions time and time again to run the CURRENT
code through the debugger. Have you done so?

I have told you that you need to use a standard button. Have you swapped your toggle button out?

I have posted to this thread dozens of times, considerably more than the number of lines of code. I have not only single stepped you through the code
I have microstepped you through it. I've done everything from proposing a solution to writing and debugging the code, I've done everything but
install it on you machine and you still wont follow the instructions to get it to work.

Craig

5262

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: I'm stuck

« on: February 15, 2018, 01:15:41 AM »

Hi RMH,
I was wondering how you're getting on, I was pretty blunt in my lost post and hope you haven't been put off as a result. Unfortunately neither will I back
away from the truth.

I was rather hoping you might be able to lean on whomever sold you this thing to either put it right or refund your money.

Hobby CNC is a long learning experience....shame that this experience is part of it.

Craig

5263

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Lua script detect when the cycle is running

« on: February 14, 2018, 10:18:25 PM »

Hi,
I was reading about subroutines and macros last night in Peter Smids book which is pretty much the standard
for both Fanuc and Mach4.

He doesn't call them subroutines or macros but calls all of them subprograms. Your bit of testing suggests they can be
used interchangeably as well.

Craig

5264

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Button OFFLINE

« on: February 14, 2018, 07:07:28 AM »

Hi,
yes you have 'Toggle' button not a regular button.

You've done it again, you've avoided doing as I've asked, in particular I've ALWAYS posted the code so that you could put it in a file so you could single step
through it but you insist on attaching it to a button from the get go. If you had done so then you'd know the code was fine therefore there must be something
wrong with the button or the codes attachment.

I've asked you REPEATEDLY to single step through the code. Please do it!

Craig

5265

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Button OFFLINE

« on: February 14, 2018, 06:56:24 AM »

Hi,
I see there's something wrong with your button. A regular button has more events than the four shown in your screenshot?

Craig

5266

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Button OFFLINE

« on: February 14, 2018, 06:44:08 AM »

Hi,
that screenshot shows the old code, not the latest. It looks like its attached correctly.

Do you have a copy in a separate folder so you can single step through with the debugger?

Craig

5267

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Running a subroutine from inside a macro?

« on: February 14, 2018, 02:00:01 AM »

Hi,
WARNING THIS IS MY OWN UNDERSTANDING AND MAY, IN FACT PROBABLY,IS WRONG

If you have a Gcode file which includes one or more subroutines O#, and one or more macros M# then the main Gcode file can execute any of the
subroutines but the macros cannot.

The reasoning given was that the macro is in a sense a subroutine in itself. Thus the parent program, the Gcode file, calls a macro which attempts to
call a subroutine but that subroutine is defined in the parent and the call will fail. 'A parent can call on a child or children but a child cannot call on a parent'

Using this logic if a macro has a subroutine defined within itself it could be called successfully.

If you wish code to be called against the hierarchy then that code could/should be put in a panel.

Craig

5268

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Lua script detect when the cycle is running

« on: February 14, 2018, 01:06:06 AM »

Hi,
I think there is a difference between InCycle and MC_STATE_IDLE.

For any code  to produce motion requires the use of the motion planner. If for instance you want to run a Gcode file the sequence of events would be:
Is there a process or code currently using the Planner?
----If there is terminate the process/code
----If not the control will be idle and if idle the planner is available for use
Submit the Gcode job to the Planner

The code could be a Gcode file or an MDI command or a GcodeExecuteWait() API call or a screen script. In any case the control must be idle before a new stream
of motion instructions can be run.


When a Gcode file OR MDI command is run there must be a CycleStart command and thereafter the CntlIsInCycle() would return true. If a later CycleStop is executed
the CntlIsInCycle() would return false. What happens however if a FeedHold is encountered, is it still InCycle? Also what happen if it yields as part of a coroutine pair?
It is not clear to me that InCycle is the same as MC_STATE_IDLE

As I posted earlier I recently discovered that if I executed a GcodeExecuteWait() statement without first ensuring the control state is Idle then I could crash Mach bigtime.
As a consequence I put this line of code in:

if (mc.mcCntlGetState(inst) ~=0)then mc.mcCntlCycleStop(inst)end

Note that control state idle is numerically equivalent to 0. This statement checks that the control is idle and if it isn't issues a CycleStop to make it so.

The next issue I encountered is that even though the control is idle sometimes the GcodeExecuteWait() will not execute and will return MERROR_NOT_NOW.
If you were relying on the statement to make some move but for whatever reason did not move you could have a crash if you made some other move in expectation
that the previous move had been made. Thus I had this test:

local rc=mc.mcGcodeExecuteWait(inst,'g0......')
if rc==-18 then wx.wxMessageBox('GcodeExecuteWait() failed to complete') end

In fact my code became a little more sophisticated than that, if my GcodeExecuteWait() did not complete I would issue a MachDisable MachEnable pair and try again
for up to five times before the wxMessageBox error warning. This made my code pretty robust.

Craig

5269

General Mach Discussion / Re: MACH3PLASMA LIMIT SWITCHES FOR G540/PROMA

« on: February 13, 2018, 09:09:10 PM »

Hi,
on the Machine Diagnostics page do your new limit switches light up when you activate them by hand?

Craig

5270

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: I'm stuck

« on: February 13, 2018, 09:07:07 PM »

Hi,
unless I miss my guess  nobody has got that controller to work.

If you want to go insane an get really pissed off then stick with it.
If you don't then buy a decent controller from one of the 'known good' brands.

Craig