Messages

5541

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Is Mach4 really Hobby Material?

« on: January 17, 2018, 10:47:04 PM »

Hi Chaoticone,
I'm group 1 and proud of it...all group 1's unite...all go insane together and beat the rush! LOL

As you say genuine CNC enthusiasts will eventually come to Mach4 being so much more capable eventually.

The group 2 types are very likely to hate Mach4 as Mach4 definitely requires some study and application.
For these individuals having all the most basic stuff work seamlessly is important. In this regard I believe that NFS
are  guilty of not making sure that their experience is as trouble free as possible. Various forum contributors
have made available solutions to many of the simplest Mach4 shortcomings and yet NFS have not incorperated those
solutions into later builds. Likewise having the documentation fall behind the actual state of Mach4 is causing some
to lose interest.

I understand that NFS need to concentrate on those matters which result in OEM and Industrial sales but to leave
a chunk of Hobby users adrift invites less uptake which may have long term consequences. NFS is a private business
and it is certainly not my place to cast aspersions on the business plans of others. Please accept my apologies if it
appears I trying to do just that. My needs are best met by NFS prospering and continuing to develop market
leading products, widespread uptake of Mach4 by hobby users seems to me to be a worthwhile business goal.

Craig

5542

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Is Mach4 really Hobby Material?

« on: January 17, 2018, 09:30:29 PM »

Hi Rich,
by the way with the screen editor built in making your own screens is pretty straight forward and easy.

Craig

5543

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Is Mach4 really Hobby Material?

« on: January 17, 2018, 09:23:39 PM »

Hi Rich,
I can't answer the lathe question, I don't use either Mach3 or Mach4.

The initial set-up problems, minor programming tweaks like Russ is dealing with at the moment, I will  guess take
20 odd hours, in fits and starts over a couple of weeks, as least that's what I did.

I would estimate another 100 hours or so studying  before Lua starts to make sense and probably another 100 hours
or so to get comfortable with the modular structure of Mach. How soon that can be achieved depends on how dedicated
you are. It took me about three months to assimilate all that info. While its still only scratching the surface I found by
that time I was deriving immense satisfaction from the pursuit. While its not the same as making parts, if you consider
the value of a hobby to be what you learn in its pursuit the 'learning' Mach has been good for me.

200-300 hours solid learning is not an insurmountable investment in time but neither is it insubstantial.

Craig

5544

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Is Mach4 really Hobby Material?

« on: January 17, 2018, 08:18:26 PM »

Hi Gerry,
good straight talking stuff...I like it.

You are correct very few CNCers are programmers or want to be. As it stands, effectively, you cannot use Mach4
without at least a little programming. As you also point out given the third party hardware model, set up is far from
straight forward counting against widespread adoption by hobbyists.

That I stuck with it until I became familiar enough to start programming, which I might add is VERY satisfying, is more
about my own interest and skillset than being representative. With that said I now have a very flexible CNC solution
but recognise that many may never arrive at that situation.

That brings me back to the question I posed that started this thread 'Is Mach4 really a hobby grade material?'.
If it is accepted that hobbyists are not by and large programmers then the answer is no.
If you are prepared to learn Lua/Mach/wxWidgets then the answer is yes.

Craig

5545

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Is Mach4 really Hobby Material?

« on: January 17, 2018, 03:56:03 PM »

Hi Russ,

I am happy to make the effort to program Mach4 to my liking but maybe you are not.
Craig
IMHO, this should be an option (very nice, BTW), NOT a necessity !
It should work as intended ... in its most basic form.

This is the problem, that for most users Mach4 does not work 'out of the box' and modest adjustments have to be made
to get it to work. Your post regarding the GoToWorkZero function is an example. Not in itself a huge obstacle but
does put new users off.

There is also a perception that if, say Mach3, works a certain way then Mach4 should work identically. This is not the case
in practice. There are a few reasons. One among them is that Mach3 used shortcuts and workarounds to do certain things
but they run contrary to Fanuc21 interpretation. An example is repeated G82 lines in drill files, Mach3 will accomodate
such code whereas Mach4 which adheres to the Fanuc standard does not.

One forum contributor was perplexed, if not outright annoyed, that a signal provided in Mach4 (ISIG_SPINDLE_AT_SPEED)
but didn't actually do anything. His reasoning goes that Mach should behave in a certain way on receipt of such a signal
when in fact Mach does absolutely nothing UNLESS the user programs the desired behavior. This is an example of what I have
found to be an often repeated complaint...'Mach does not behave the way I expect....I want...demand that NFS fix it!'
I have chosen my words carefully, for if you have detected that there is a level of frustration expressed in that comment
that is correct. While some , including the OP in this case overcame that frustration and programmed the behaviour he desired,
many have not, they throw their hands up in despair and drop Mach4 altogether.

We all have ideas about how a CNC program ought to behave and more often than not contrary to someone elses interpretation.
Human nature!

Craig

5546

General Mach Discussion / Re: CNC Mill Travels too far on Y Axis

« on: January 17, 2018, 03:00:18 PM »

Hi Mel,
your machine is gaining/losing steps in the Y axis.

May I suggest as an experiment swap the drive signals to the  X and Y axes stepper drivers and run the same program.

If the drivers and steppers are good the fault will stay on the Y axis and you can look closer at your Mach installation
or BoB. If the driver  and/or stepper are faulty the fault will now be on the X axis.

Gives you a means to focus on the right area.

Craig

5547

Mach4 General Discussion / Is Mach4 really Hobby Material?

« on: January 17, 2018, 01:28:52 AM »

Hi All,
I've been using Mach4Hobby for about a year and I luv it. I especially like the flexibility that comes with the modular structure and how Lua has been integrated.
I would admit that at the beginning I had my doubts but the more I learn the better I like it.

I have noticed however that many who try Mach4 are less that happy...comments like "I'll wait for NFS to make Mach4 like Mach3 used to be...' are common.
It strikes me that if half (this is my wild guess) of people who try Mach4 who don't carry on with it then is Mach4 really a hobby product?

I am happy to make the effort to program Mach4 to my liking but maybe you are not. I'm hoping that this post might generate a few comments and maybe a poll
is in order to establish what people like and dislike about Mach4.

Craig

5548

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: GCedit Not opening Help

« on: January 17, 2018, 12:30:20 AM »

Hi,
Configure/Mach/General tab  top right lists the Gcode editor to use, you can browse to it. My copy of Mach has gcedit.exe in the Mac4Hobby folder.

Craig

5549

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: "Go to Work Zero" button script

« on: January 17, 2018, 12:25:00 AM »

Hi Russ,
that script looks like it belongs in the mill profile. There, having the Z axis move to the top of travel before moving X and Y makes sense.

If that script is not to your liking either edit it or write a new one instead. Its both the great strength of Mach4 and its greatest weakness...its so flexible it never quite
seems to do the basic stuff in the way you've become accustomed to.

Craig

5550

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: "Go to Work Zero" button script

« on: January 16, 2018, 10:31:51 PM »

Hi Russ,
yes that looks right.

Note that its the GoToWorkZero() function that actually runs and the lines below are actually just comments. They are left
there so you can see what the GoToWorkZero() function is and how it works. If you don't like what it does or
it doesn't work then you'll have to dig around and find the actual GoToWorkZero() code and edit it.

The operative code is the mc.mcCntlGcodeExecute statement and is composed of three lines all tacked together.
1) G53 Z0 causes the Z axis to go to MACHINE zero
2) G00 X0 Y0 causes the x and y axes to go to WORK zero
3) G00 Z0 causes the Z axis to go to WORK zero

The one statement then contains one machine coord move and two workcoord moves....if you run the code with that
understanding can you indeed see that its running as it should?

Craig