Messages

5451

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Lathe wizard scripts

« on: January 29, 2018, 06:03:26 PM »

Hi,
I think what you guys are calling Wizards are in fact included in this module.
Modules are complied, you can't tweak it. You could write your own...

Craig

5452

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Button OFFLINE

« on: January 28, 2018, 04:43:30 AM »

Hi,
well if I had spent that sort of money and it didn't do what the company claimed I would be hammering them for a solution.....that's a plain rip-off.
That however is your call.

If you want to run Mach4 I suggest CS Labs offering is too immature. I have no reason to doubt that they will get there in the end and they have a good
reputation in the Mach3 market but it sounds like their Mach4 stuff is s*********t.  CNCDrive, another European manufacturer also with a good reputation in the
Mach3 market but has only been in the Mach4 market a few months. I wouldn't go there either....I want something that works from the very start.

https://warp9td.com/
https://www.poscope.com/
https://www.pmdx.com/
http://www.vitalsystem.com/portal/index.php

All of these companies have been making and selling Mach4 stuff for quite a while. That's where I'd be going.

I've watched your video but not quite sure what you are trying to show me. If its the fact that the machine cant jog two axes at once that's because they can't.
To do that requires coordinated motion ie Gcode or Gcode as MDI.

Craig

5453

General Mach Discussion / Re: Getting More Inputs, How do you?

« on: January 28, 2018, 04:18:43 AM »

Hi,
not sure about Mach3. With Mach4 you can only have one motion controller but you may have more input boards. You could for instance have your PoKeys
as your motion controller and then have ANOTHER one as an input board. In fact PoKeys development history is exactly that, their boards all started off as data
collection/communication boards. Only later did they morph into CNC controllers.

You might think PoKeys is an expensive solution to data collection, its not....in fact PoKeys enjoy a good reputation for value for money.

One other way to get more input is with Modbus. Modbus would work equally well with Mach3 or Mach4. It will require a processor to 'assemble the data'
into Modbus format. Peter Homman of Homman Designs in Austrailia and long time contributor on the forum will probably have some good solutions.

You could also use serial input. I have not heard of any boards that work off the shelf, I think you would have to roll your own, probably cheap enough but potentially
very time consuming.

Anyway the 57 PoKeys have got swags of inputs/outputs, are you in any danger of running out?

Craig

5454

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Button OFFLINE

« on: January 28, 2018, 03:59:05 AM »

Hi,
I would be leaning on CS Labs....they are the ones advertising that their device is Mach4 ready and its not.

Tell them to fix it or give your money back. You might remind them that as a member of the forum that you are in a position to tell a wide
audience that their device does not work and/or that they are not prepared to help you.

Craig

5455

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Button OFFLINE

« on: January 28, 2018, 03:40:32 AM »

Hi,
how long have you had the device? If it doesn't work make them take it back and give you your money back. You can buy an ESS for
half what they want and it works.....having electronic devices that work are very handy for CNC!

Craig

5456

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Button OFFLINE

« on: January 28, 2018, 03:24:42 AM »

Hi,
reading in the CS Labs section of the forum a few people have had trouble with getting these things to run with Mach4.

http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,35289.0.html

Craig

5457

General Mach Discussion / Re: Making sure I get the right control board

« on: January 28, 2018, 03:08:34 AM »

Hi,
Mach will run on a parallel port, that is a DB25 plug. The parallel port can be quite tricky to get to work. The PC HAS to be a 32bit OS Windows 7 or earlier.
Often you need to strip out all sorts of junk and optimize all sorts of settings to get it to run smooth. Even then if you try to run another program while running
Mach on a parallel port you'll probably stall or crash your machine.

There are still a lot of people who use it, it is free, all you need is a really simple breakout board and you can get started.

There are now lots of good external motion controllers, the cheapest about $100 and up into the thousands with $200 getting a useful hobby grade one. They plug into
your PC by USB or Ethernet. They tend to be faster and smoother. They are also very much less inclined to go cranky because something the PC did and you can run
just about any Windows OS.

I've used parallel port and it was pretty good but then I bought an Ethernet Smoothstepper and it goes real smooth and well. I won't be going back to parallel port.
All you have to do is decide if you want to spend the bucks.

Craig

5458

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Button OFFLINE

« on: January 28, 2018, 02:49:26 AM »

Hi,
that sounds pretty rubbishy....you can't assign an output pin to a Mach signal?

There must be a way of having Mach control the digital output pins. If it can't throw it out as rubbish.

If you cannot have Mach run some code and have that code switch output pins on and off or respond to an input its not a controller.
Try Configure/Mach/Output  find ENABLE0 and try to assign it to one of the available output pins of your controller. I can do this with
my eyes closed with my Ethernet Smooth Stepper, you MUST be able to do something similar. Ask CS Labs....they sold it...they should help
you to get it to work.

Craig

5459

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: API Function Codes Help

« on: January 28, 2018, 02:36:33 AM »

Hi,
I would think that a function like that will be built up of several API calls and some logic to glue it all together.

This should get you looking in the right place:

LUA Syntax:
rc = mc.mcAxisHomeAll(
   number mInst)

LUA Syntax:
rc = mc.mcAxisSetPos(
   number mInst,
   number axisId,
   number val);

In the Axes category.

Craig

5460

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Suggested OS

« on: January 28, 2018, 02:09:55 AM »

Hi,
yeah the little LattePanda is pretty hard to beat.

The larger of the two has 4 gig RAM 32gig EMMC, sort of poor mans SSD and Enterprise Windows 10, based on Windows 10 PRO and the PRO version is required for
Mach all for $210.

This has more powerful options and without OS:

https://www.udoo.org/udoo-x86/

Craig