Messages

6611

General Mach Discussion / Re: help whit signal step

« on: September 21, 2017, 11:04:39 PM »

Hi,
if you are probing the output of your BoB then its possible that the signal remains high because of a pull-up resistor
in either at the input of the BoB, the output, possibly opto coupled, of the BoB or the input of your driver.

My drivers require a low voltage when stationary but yours may differ. You need GOOD documentation for your
BoB and drivers. Do you have it and can you post it?

Craig

6612

General Mach Discussion / Re: Interference with axis motors

« on: September 21, 2017, 09:27:18 PM »

Hi,
I guess you must live in 'deepest darkest Affwicka', taking the 'darkest' to new levels...LOL

Craig

6613

General Mach Discussion / Re: Moving settings to another computer

« on: September 21, 2017, 09:22:32 PM »

Hi,
just to add, my Atom doesn't have a video card it uses on-chip graphics,way WAY under par for Mach but it works
fine. I suspect your Atom is similar, that was one of the selling points in its day that 'no video card required!'.
Smurph describes the graphics as awful, may be I'm just low class, I don't mind them.

Craig

6614

General Mach Discussion / Re: Moving settings to another computer

« on: September 21, 2017, 09:17:28 PM »

Hi,
I think you've adjusted the wrong way, now there is only 600 pixels to squeeze in all your buttons etc, not going
to fit. Try going to 1024 x 800.

I use a little dual core Atom on my mill and it works fine. The only time I notice that it is such a low power CPU
is if I load large files, more than 5Meg, they take forever to load and draw the toolpath. If your patient and wait
for it to load its fine thereafter. If you do 3D carving with 100 Meg files your out of luck, for any normal
milling job your Atom will be fine.

Craig

6615

General Mach Discussion / Re: Moving settings to another computer

« on: September 21, 2017, 03:04:51 PM »

Hi,
just been fiddling with Mach4s screen size....

Operator/Edit Screen....select your screenset, the topmost entry in the Screen Tree Manager...select properties rather than events in the Properties panel
and there will be displayed Design Width and Design Height. My current screen set was 1024 x 768. If I enter 780 <enter> and the exit screen edit by saving I'm done.
Note after typing your desired height in the text box hit <enter> otherwise the new data will be ignored. Now when I fire up Mach it appears on screen at 1024 x 780.

This is a small tweak but you should save it to a screen set with a distinct name and use that set in your profile. Otherwise when you next update Mach4 the standard
screen set, wx4 for instance, will be overwritten which includes all your little tweaks and they will be lost.

Craig

6616

General Mach Discussion / Re: Moving settings to another computer

« on: September 21, 2017, 02:46:17 PM »

Hi,
I think you could use the ESS that way. Most who use one ESS/PC for two different machines use the same version of Mach. Both varieties allow you
to run different profiles and each profile 'programs' the ESS firmware so the fact that one lot of firmware is Mach4 oriented and the next lot Mach3 oriented
won't matter a damn to the ESS.

I suspect you would need multiple BoBs, one for each machine and plug the correct one in prior to using that machine.

My goto electronics supplier is Element14, can't help with Mouser.

Craig

6617

General Mach Discussion / Re: Moving settings to another computer

« on: September 21, 2017, 05:09:59 AM »

Hi ScotY,
I changed to Mach4 about a year ago. I don't have a lathe but my mill works very well with an ESS.

Mach4 milling/routing control software is complete and ready to rock. Backlash comp is the only feature that is missing from the ESS plugin
which would have any relevance to lathe or mill ops.

Mach4 uses LUA as scripting language and while LUA itself is pretty simple when you combine it with Machs API, wxWidgets and the likes it
can be quite a learning curve. Once you do its very good and easily out does Mach3 for ability to be customised.

This post probably won't help you decide....some will recommend Mach3 and with good cause, and others like me will recommend Mach4 also with
reasons. I think your choice will depend on what you want from this hobby...if you want to design and make things without to much computer stuff
then Mach3 is for you, if however you enjoy technical and programming challenges then Mach4 would be good.

Craig

6618

General Mach Discussion / Re: Does G28.1 always instantly reset a homed axis to zero? Can it be made not to?

« on: September 21, 2017, 04:51:12 AM »

Hi,
I misread your post. Without Mach4 I suspect multiple probe events with Mach3 is going to be a challenge.

If you really want or need to add capability to your machine you will almost certainly have to stump up with some dollars.
Mach4 would give you multiple probe events which would alert you after the event that steps have been lost, too late to save the job.
Linear encoders and display could be continuously compared to Machs position and could provide a useful alarm and/or halt on error.
Closed loop steppers or servos would give you following error capability and would be easiest of the methods to apply.

None of those options are free.

Craig

6619

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: M code macros do not run

« on: September 21, 2017, 03:36:19 AM »

Hi,
kool, I felt sure it was something along those lines...it was a plugin rather than an editor...good to know.

Craig

6620

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: M code macros do not run

« on: September 21, 2017, 03:29:13 AM »

Hi,
my profile on the laptop is:

Code: [Select]

C:\Mach4Hobby\gcedit
Craig