Messages

5441

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Real G93 Gcode anyone

« on: January 30, 2018, 09:53:31 AM »

Hi Mauri,
I think the difference here is between inverse time mode and constant surface speed.

in my example
G94
G1 X50 Y50 Z50 F86  completes in 1 minute with a cut speed of 1mm/sec

G93
G1 X50 Y50 Z50 F1    completes in 1 minute, same trajectory, same time to completion, therefore same cut speed ie 1mm/sec

This is straight inverse time mode and it works just fine. What you want is a rotary move subsequent to the linear move to have the same cut speed as the linear move:
G93
G1 X50 Y50 Z50 F1       cut speed=1mm/s
G1 A5 F=nnnnn

where nnnn is such that the cut speed is still 1mm/sec
The cut distance = (5/360)*PI*2*radius and radius is Z=50
      cut distance =4.363mm
      time to complete at a desired cut speed of 1mm/sec is 4.363 sec
      Fnnnn= 60/4.363 =13.75

This is a constant cut speed expressed as inverse time mode but requires the radius for the calculation to be made. The two are fundamentally different.

Craig

5442

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Button OFFLINE

« on: January 30, 2018, 09:23:22 AM »

Hi,
post a screenshot of the Mach/Output Signal ENABLE#0 entry please.

Craig

5443

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Button OFFLINE

« on: January 30, 2018, 04:09:17 AM »

Hi,
I think I know how its done.

Do you have the CSIMO device installed? Is it the current motion device? I assume it is otherwise your machine would not run at all.

Open Mach. Go to Configure/Mach/Output Signals and scan down to ENABLE#0.
Check (green tick) Mapping Enabled. Put the cursor in the Device column and left click. If your CSIMO device is enabled it will occur in the drop down list.
Note in the screenshot attached my Device is ESS, outlined in red.
In the next column Output Name is the name of the pin. Again with the cursor in the column leftclick and a drop down list of the available output pins
should show. The ESS uses ports and pins to designate its individual pins, outlined I blue in the screenshot. You'll have to make a guess as to which pin you've hooked your relay.

Hit <apply>. You'll probably have to shut Mach down and restart it to have the change take effect.

Let us know how you get on.

Craig

5444

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Button OFFLINE

« on: January 30, 2018, 03:41:34 AM »

Hi,
yes that would work. Really that's what we were doing....using Mach and your controller to disable your servos.

Your project was to have a button on screen, rather like the one you're familiar with in Mach3, and when you hit it the servos would stop but Mach would carry on.
When you hit the button again Mach would reinstate the servos ensuring that the machine coordinates were consistent. Actually fairly simple.
We've hit a roadblock where we can't get your controller to produce an output. You could do it with a switch but its hardly called CNC when do have to do it by
hand.

To be honest the folks at CS Labs have been in the CNC business for a long while. The prospect that they released a device onto the market which could not
produce an output on a given pin from a Mach output signal is remote.

I think it more likely you have not yet understood how to set up your controller. I downloaded the plugin but without the device for my computer to talk to
I can't get the plugin to run and cannot therefore provide any help. Do the company have any videos? And not Mach3 videos.....we know they do Mach3 really
well but we need to know how to deal with the Mach4 plugin.

Craig

5445

Third party software and hardware support forums. / Re: Linkage Mechanism designer and simulator.

« on: January 30, 2018, 03:25:35 AM »

Hi Tweakie.
kool, I could really do with one of those .....with it I could....could.....I don't know what I could do but I'm sure it would be great!

Craig

5446

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Real G93 Gcode anyone

« on: January 30, 2018, 02:30:46 AM »

Hi Mauri,
I've never used G93. Found this video and it explained quite a bit:

https://www.ganotechnologies.com/cnc/rapidrotary/

The converter has the option of processing both the linear and rotary moves or just the rotary moves only, although I have no idea how that would work, in fact by my
reasoning it can't work.

My question is: what happens when you have a coordinated move which includes a linear and a rotary component?

The simplest I can think of is
G1 X50 A180,       my expectation would be that the X axis would drive 50mm while the A axis rotated 1/2 a turn. If the current feedrate is 180 and is conventionally
interpreted the move would take 1 minute.
If the feedrate were 4 and it were interpreted as inverse time mode then the move would take 15 secs (1/4 minute).

You ask why the G93 interpretation is applied to the linear component of the move.....how else can you interpret it? If you wish the rotary move to complete in 15 secs
then for the linear component to be coordinated it must also complete its move in 15 secs. The F word for the linear move would have to be 200mm/min whereas the
conventionally interpreted F word for the rotary component would be 1440 deg/min. The two F words don't match up. I argue therefore that if a move combines rotary and
linear components then both components must be treated the same way or the move will break, that is NOT be coordinated.

Where a move is solely linear or solely rotary then I could see that differing feed interpretations would work.
Imagine a move G1 X50 Y50 Z50 F86. I expect the controlled point to move 50mm in the X direction, 50mm in the Y direction and 50mm in the Z direction. The 3D distance
is 86mm and with a feedrate of 86mm/min the coordinated move would take 1 minute to complete, easy, normal interpretation.
The same move but inverse time mode would be G1 X50 Y50 Z50 F1. The move would still complete in 1 minute.

These F Speeds become inaccurate when machining in Simultaneous mode (i.e.) not all are similar movements.

I'm not sure how you come to this conclusion...this example suggests that the coordinated move completes in the same time with the same trajectory and
I see no inaccuracy in it.

Craig

5447

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Tool Life Management

« on: January 29, 2018, 08:26:15 PM »

Hi,
the only advice I was given, by my Mother,was don't play with it o'ermuch or you'll go blind.

Does that count?

Craig

5448

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Lathe wizard scripts

« on: January 29, 2018, 07:54:57 PM »

Hi,
I have been told you can use the very rare substance 'Unobtainium' to de-compile code. LOL

Craig

5449

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Lathe wizard scripts

« on: January 29, 2018, 07:52:30 PM »

Hi,
no, you cannot by and large de-compile. In order to edit your code you need the source code, you edit it
and then a new 'compiled' version is made. Without the source code you can do nothing.

If you were writing a wizard for Mach4 to sell  you would not give your customers the source code,
just the compiled or executable code.

You might ask NFS for the source, I suspect they consider it proprietary code in which case they'll say no.

Craig

5450

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Tormach moved from Mach 3 to Mach 4 - Feedrates 2X what is requested

« on: January 29, 2018, 06:06:43 PM »

Hi,
may I suggest measuring the elapsed time for a  linear move and compare with what you expected.

One possiblilty is that Mach4 is going to fast or another is that Mach3 had been going to slow. Accurate measurement
will be the only way to sort out which.

Craig