Messages

5741

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Acceleration Settings

« on: December 04, 2017, 03:20:54 PM »

Hi,
my general strategy for tools is to work them near their maximum. With small diameter tools like these I can't
spin them fast enough and also they are weak, excess cutting speed/chip load will break them, caution is required.

With larger tools I try to stick to recommended speed and feeds with plenty of engagement. You can treat them
with 'kid gloves' but the the job takes that long that any saving in tool life is offset or even negated by taking that
much longer.

Craig

5742

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Reference all home help.

« on: December 04, 2017, 03:14:56 PM »

Hi,
I believe Mach3 worked that way and its probable that Mach4 does the same, I haven't experimented enough to be
sure.

My home switches are several mm short of the axis stops. I set my softlimit to be at or just outside the home switch.
That means that the home switch is within the allowable machine boundary. Given that is the case, whether the softlimits
are over-ridden when you hit Ref All doesn't matter to me, the home switch is within softlimits in either case.

With the  roller plunger switches widely used for home switches it is normal for the home switches to be well within the
boundaries and dedicated limit switches at the ends of the axes. That the home switches trigger during normal operations
is not going to upset anything.

Craig

5743

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Reference all home help.

« on: December 04, 2017, 12:54:41 PM »

Hi,
if the home switch is at zero and the max that axis can go is 18 inches the I would reckon the soft limits be 0 and 18. Better, -0.1,18. That means that
the homw switch is within the boundaries of the machine. As you have set it up if you called Ref All once the soft limits are active it could not reach the
home switch being at 0 whereas the min softlimit is 0.25.

Craig

5744

General Mach Discussion / Re: X & Y motors mounted backwards, how to orient everything??

« on: December 04, 2017, 01:04:48 AM »

Hi,
you can define it anyway you please but there is a conventional assignment as ger21 has just pointed out. If you ever go to import some Gcode or get a wizard
to make code for you you'll need to stick to the conventional setup. It can be confusing.

A little tip that may help while you get it settled is to take an A4  size piece of paper and draw on it the X Y Cartesiasn co-ords just like a graph you did at school
and put that down on the mill table.

Craig

5745

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Creating your own homing script

« on: December 04, 2017, 12:47:34 AM »

Hi RT,
the APIs you're looking for are:

Code: [Select]

LUA Syntax:
rc = mc.mcAxisHome(
number mInst,
number axisId)
and:

Code: [Select]

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


Craig

5746

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Reference all home help.

« on: December 04, 2017, 12:42:17 AM »

Hi Nick,
kool, its starting to come together. When you 'go to center' you need to be looking at the DROs displaying Machine Co-ordinates.

In the video the DROs were in work co-ords and no doubt due to non zero numbers in the G54 work offset they display numbers other than 10,-3,0.

Likewise your soft limits are in terms of machine co-ordinates, to have the DROs display work co-ords doesn't tell you anything.

Also if I understand your commentary the soft limits are 'inside' your home switches? If you hit Ref All part way through a session and the soft limits
are engaged, the normal situation, then the machine will fail to re-reference. Sorry but that means you've just broken perhaps the single most
important motion function in Mach! It is normal to have soft limits at or just 'outside' of the home switch. My soft limits are about 2mm outside of the
X,Y 0,0 home switch positions and the upper Z soft limit is 0, ie coincident with the Z home switch.

Experiment with the function but with the DROs set to display machine co-ordinates, you'll learn a great deal more about your machine and it limits if you
do so.

Craig

5747

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Creating your own homing script

« on: December 03, 2017, 08:11:28 PM »

Hi,
ISIG_MOTOR3_HOME is an input signal, how can you set it? You can set an output signal but not an input.
There is a specific API for setting the homed flag, cant remember what it is at the momoent

Craig

5748

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Creating your own homing script

« on: December 03, 2017, 06:30:51 PM »

Hi,
yes I encountered the same problem when I first used the call. It turns out the call is valid for the first 64 Mach input
signals, mc.ISIG_INPUT0 through to mc.ISIG_INPUT63.

You will have to copy or double assign the index pin.

5749

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Reference all home help.

« on: December 03, 2017, 05:11:39 PM »

Hi,
the Regfile and the functionality it confers is a plugin.

On Configure/Mach/Plugins check Regfile by New Fangeled Solutions. You may have to restart Mach to have it recognise the new
plugin.

Craig

5750

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Calculating Counts per Unit for Mach 4 in metric

« on: December 03, 2017, 04:37:40 PM »

Hi,
on the Configure/Mach/General screen there is the possibility to select the setup units either inch or mm.

Craig