Messages

5841

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Button OFFLINE

« on: November 23, 2017, 05:19:20 AM »

Hi,
isn't that exactly what you want? If you hit the 'offline' button the motors stop but the DROs keep moving. That, by definition means that the DROs
no longer reflect the actual position of the machine. So long as the machine co-ords are reset to those that applied when you go back 'online' you have
no need to re-reference.

Those servo drivers have an enable input as does the spindle. You need to use it. Whether you chose to have three seperate enable signals or just
one hooked to all three drivers is up to you.

Craig

5842

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Button OFFLINE

« on: November 23, 2017, 04:32:45 AM »

Hi,
my proposal is a software approach but you still need a way to prevent the motors from turning while having Mach go through all it usual motions.

Are all of the enables joined together or does each servo and/or spindle have its own enable?

Craig

5843

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Button OFFLINE

« on: November 23, 2017, 04:01:42 AM »

Hi,
yes Mach4 could be made to behave that way.

Do your stepper drivers and your spindle drivers have enable inputs? If they do then it is a simple matter to connect all the enable inputs together,
when you wish the motors to be active assert the enable signal. When you want to go 'offline' de-assert the enable signal and all the motors
would ignore any motion commands.

The only other consideration now is to record the location when you go 'offline' and then write some code to return to that location when going
back 'online'. Note that despite there being no physical movement for Mach to behave normally then the machine position as reflected by the
machine co-ordinates will move per normal. At the end of your 'offline' session the machine co-ords will be different to the actuall machine co-ords
of the point where it stopped. That would be easy and work fine UNLESS you change your work offsets during the session. Then you would physically
have to move the machine the difference between the pre and post work co-ords. Maybe in the first instance require that the work co-ords not change.
At a later date add that function if required.

What sort of motion controller are you using? Trying to estimate the resources your controller might have to spare.


Craig

5844

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 feed rate issue

« on: November 23, 2017, 03:38:17 AM »

Hi,
if the Feed Rate Overide is active then the overide bar blinks red. The feed speed is reduced from what you've programmed, 1000 units/min
to a percentage, in your case the FRO is 4% therefore your feedrate is 40 unit/min, close to but not identical to the 34.11 units/min that Mach
calculates. It is not neccessary but it is common for the traverse speed to be affected by the FRO as well, thus your G0 (rapids or traversere) would be
2500.2 x 0.04=100 units/min, there again not quite what Mach calculated but close.

Hit the FRO <reset> and try running the code again.

Craig

5845

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: UC100 G02 will not work

« on: November 23, 2017, 12:55:47 AM »

Hi,
ger21 is right, how could G02 not work when thousands have been using it?

Whom replied to your enquiry, and to whom did you direct your query? Doesn't really sound like CNCDrive at all.

Craig

5846

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Button OFFLINE

« on: November 22, 2017, 05:37:01 PM »

Hi,
welcome. Mach4s great strength is its ability to be customised and so would be almost assured that such a feature could
be added if its not there already but named differently.

Would you be kind enough to explain what you mean by 'Offline' and what sort of behaviour that you would require of
Mach when its offline?

Craig

5847

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: XHC Mach4 USB motion board warning and info

« on: November 22, 2017, 05:31:14 PM »

Hi,
yes the 57CNC has a great rep and very flexible. Note that the 57E and 57U which share the same core have a few limitations
when used as a CNC controller but are expanded to full capacity with the 57CNC.

Most experienced CNCers on the forum DO NOT recommend any controller be run off an router, not that it won't work, but
cannot be relied on.

Craig

5848

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: XHC Mach4 USB motion board warning and info

« on: November 22, 2017, 03:40:07 PM »

Hi,
yes Ethernet is preferred. Why not put an extra card in your PC, cheap as chips?

Warp9, the makers of the ESS, for instance recommend that all wiresless connections be disabled when a PC is used with the ESS.

Craig

5849

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: XHC Mach4 USB motion board warning and info

« on: November 22, 2017, 01:17:22 PM »

Hi,
Roger has made the suggestion that a lot of the Chinese suppliers are just selling houses, they may make the boards even but they don't design them.
As a consequence they can't/won't answer questions about their products and can't/won't update either. I don't know whether that is the case for
XHC but it makes sense. Surely a company would want to develop their product to suit potential customers demands...unless they can't for whatever
reason.

I would recomend an Ethernet connected motion controller because of the reduced latency compared to USB connected. You will probably need another
Ethernet card.smurph made a reccomendation as to the IC series that resulted in best throughput for CNC purposes.It was an Intel IC. I will do some digging
around to find the thread.

Craig

5850

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 newbie here. I need some help

« on: November 21, 2017, 02:18:39 AM »

Hi Azalin,
at home and yes I have just downloaded build 3481.

C:\Mach4Hobby\Screens...and there is a bunch of them including one that I personalised ESSMillwx4.set so when I customise it it doesn't get overwritten
the next time I get the latest and greatest build.

Craig