Messages

6351

General Mach Discussion / Re: Can I use the g28 Code to set a "Forever Home Position" in Mach 3

« on: October 10, 2017, 01:45:47 PM »

Hi,
not really. If you drive to some known location, 'home' for instance and then shut down. When you next fire Mach up you could
'home in place' which assigns 0,0,0 to the current location. That requires that every time you shut down that you go to the same
location and second that as you power on the machine doesn't move and my experience is that it does as the drivers power up
and the motors 'lock up'

What you are trying to do here is avoid putting quality home switches in your machine and setting up index homing if your servos/steppers are
capable of it. Don't be a plonker, put home switches in and be done with it...repeatable, accurate, easy for multiple operators.

Craig

6352

PoKeys / Re: Pokeys 57U - Spindle Speed Control

« on: October 10, 2017, 01:30:56 PM »

Hi,
great, that link worked and very comprehensive manual.

Craig

6353

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: G-code execution from screen button.

« on: October 10, 2017, 01:20:09 PM »

Hi,
that's a new one. I think that one or more of the files associated with each button is invalid.

All of those buttons point to code where? Are all of the files fixed in size? Are all of the files there? Are all of the files non-empty?

How do these buttons differ from the first ones that you formed and apparently worked? These new buttons all appear to be bounded by a box.
What are the properties of the box?

Craig

6354

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: G-code execution from screen button.

« on: October 10, 2017, 05:47:38 AM »

Hi,
yes I thought they might be useful. I would suggest something like:
1) <feedhold>
2) Retract spindle to safe height
3) move to an XY location such that any subsequent move by the first Gcode in any of the three files is safe
4) close old file
5) load new file
6) <cycle start>

The few lines of code to enact 2) and 3) could be done  with CntlGcodeExecuteWait
1) and 5) could just be regular function calls to the functions in the screen load script.

As far as error trapping goes maybe it sufficient just to ensure an MEROR_NOERROR as a return code and call all other return codes as faults
and cease WITHOUT crashing Mach. Good trick if you can do it, my exception trapping and handling skills in Lua are very so so...

Craig

6355

PoKeys / Re: Pokeys 57U - Spindle Speed Control

« on: October 10, 2017, 05:24:02 AM »

Hi,
the 57CNC manual is very good, in fact its because of that manual that I know that several different output circuits are in use. It seems
very likely that the same circuits are inside the 57U as well and any indication as to which of the two or three output arrangements is used on
pin 17 and we'd be away.

Craig

6356

General Mach Discussion / Re: problems with machining holes and Z axis

« on: October 10, 2017, 05:16:19 AM »

Hi,
yep got that. Definitely parallel port input. Do you feel inclined to take the top off to get some close ups of the BoB and drivers?

Craig

6357

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: G-code execution from screen button.

« on: October 10, 2017, 05:11:09 AM »

Hi,
kool, I didn't expect it to work straight off. I'm almost disappointed, it could've thrown a few challenges!

I think some error trapping would be a good idea, if its to operate in a production or semi production environment its highly desirable
that a small mistake or oversight not crash Mach.

Also do you wish to have execution automatic? Do you wish to have some 'safe' moves when a file is closed so the tool doesn't run into the jig
or a clamp on its way to the next lot of code?

Craig

6358

PoKeys / Re: Pokeys 57U - Spindle Speed Control

« on: October 10, 2017, 05:02:29 AM »

Hi,
the manual for the 57CNC is there and can download that but when I go to the 57U  Related Downloads and try to download the manual listed
there (21.12.2016) I get a 404 error page not found.

All I really want to know is what type of output circuit is behind pin 17?

Craig

6359

General Mach Discussion / Re: problems with machining holes and Z axis

« on: October 10, 2017, 04:53:11 AM »

Hi,
unfortunately that number doesn't translate into a usable link.

Craig

6360

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: G-code execution from screen button.

« on: October 10, 2017, 04:42:13 AM »

Hi,
think I've got some code, I haven't tested it...maybe you can do it, I cant really be bothered cluttering up my screen with more buttons to test your
code...

For the Left Up Script for Button1:

Code: [Select]

local inst=mc.mcGetInstance();
mc.mcCntlCloseGCodeFile(inst);
local hreg=mc.mcRegGetHandle(inst,"iRegs0/Button1");
local filename=mc.mcRegGetValueString(hreg);
mc.mcCntlLoadGcodeFile(inst,filename);
Pretty simple and straight forward. Where it might come unstuck is if the file is not where it supposed to be or is null or corrupt etc.
If you have a look at the API for CntlLoadGcodeFile you will find 9 exceptions as return code. If you wish you could test for each
of the return codes to trap errors rather the crash Mach because you left the file empty for instance.

In the mean time go and put a legitimate Gcode file called Button1.tap in your folder and try out the button.

Haven't added any operation codes like <cycle start> yet but we'll get there.

Craig