Messages

6981

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: change the mother board to a Mach4

« on: May 29, 2017, 02:35:41 AM »

Hi,
welcome. Both Mach3 and Mach4 would work for you but both are commercial products, you do have to pay to use them although
very cheaply by commercial software standards, $175-$200 for hobby/personal use.

You may be interested in LinuxCNC, its open source and free. I am not familiar with it but know people who use it and they find it
very good. Obviously it requires a Linux operating system which you may or may not be familiar.

I think that you should consider what you need...I'm not familiar with AXYZ Int., can you post some manuals or other information
about your machine to establish if indeed Mach would be a suitable solution.

Craig

6982

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: index homing mach 4

« on: May 29, 2017, 12:57:45 AM »

Hi Mark,
that looks good. Very much what I had in mind.

Have to agree 'getting handles' and 'setting states' does seem a bit weird.

I think the upshot is that a handle is assigned by the machine and is therefore very readily available to
code. Further it can be assigned or reassigned on the fly whereas a variable has to be translated to a fixed address.
I don't know whether you've come across 'functions as first class values' concept. It one of the subtleties
of LUA. Once I got my head around the idea... its brilliant.

My heart bleeds for the poor sick little puppies who dream this ...it up!

Craig

6983

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 Driver

« on: May 27, 2017, 07:05:54 PM »

Hi,
try the following:

Mach3 CNC Controller
Software Installation and
Configuration

[/2.1.2.2 Run the Mach3 software installation package.quote]

from the Artsoft site.

6984

General Mach Discussion / Re: My second build, advice please, Mach3 vs. Mach4

« on: May 27, 2017, 05:52:10 PM »

Hi,
I think your project is at this stage working out whats still usable on your machine.

The spindle particularly. You mentioned that you thought the same drive had been used on Bridgeport machines. Might be worthwhile
to see if Bridgeport documentation contains anything about the drive you could use. If you cant find any info is there an industrial
electrician who might be able to help. If you cant get this spindle to operate then you'll have to replace it. A 5kW spindle and VFD
could easily run to $5000. That could stop you in your tracks.

Craig

6985

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: USB gamepad as jogging device

« on: May 27, 2017, 04:53:05 PM »

Hi,
VistaCNC P1A pendant.

Craig

6986

General Mach Discussion / Re: My second build, advice please, Mach3 vs. Mach4

« on: May 27, 2017, 04:45:11 PM »

Hi,
either Mach3 or Mach4 would work fine.

Mach4 has greater capacity for customisation and is still developing whereas Mach3 is what it is and no further development is planned.
Mach4 is at its best with an external motion controller. There are an increasing number of manufacturers who make Mach4 ready boards
but still rather less than the number of Mach3 boards. If you are familiar with SmoothStepper you will be encouraged to learn that the
Ethernet connected version is Mach4 ready for instance.

From the budget point of view being able to retain your existing servos, spindle motor and drive will save you thousands. From your post I'm
guessing that the servo drives are missing? If so you need to replace them with either the same type or at least compatible drives. If that's
not possible then you'll have to replace both servos AND drives, likely to be expensive even if it desirable for reliability over years to come.

You also need to establish whether your spindle motor and drive is in workable condition. Do you have manuals for either or both? If you're
unable to wire up and test the spindle get the assistance of someone who can. The spindle, spindle motor, spindle drive are the heart of the
machine, if any are in trouble you MUST find out soonest.

Craig

6987

General Mach Discussion / Re: How do I get Mach3 to work

« on: May 27, 2017, 04:24:04 PM »

Hi,
have you read the configuration and installation manual?  What PC are you using? What does DriverTest.exe report?

Do the basics first.

Craig

6988

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: USB gamepad as jogging device

« on: May 27, 2017, 06:09:36 AM »

Hi,
all of the alternatives look time consuming, some much more so than others. It brings me back to the question does the result
justify the effort to achieve it?

I bought a VistaCNC pendant when I was using Mach3 and PP and updated to the Mach4 plugin when I upgraded to Mach4. Works
a treat. Certainly no need for me to invest the sorts of hours necessary to build my own.

I bought a secondhand servo off Ebay which I intended to use as a spindle motor. The servo looks like new but it is 20+ years old
and has a resolver rather than an encoder. Finding a drive within my budget proved impossible and so I decided to make a drive.
Have had to teach myself how to program TIs DSP micros to implement field oriented control. Cant be bothered to make a jog box but
have made the effort to make a 12A rms, 48A peak servo drive....

Craig

6989

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: USB gamepad as jogging device

« on: May 27, 2017, 04:37:06 AM »

Hi,
I've been thinking a little more on this...if I were going to make my own handheld jogging device I would take a leaf out
of CRS's book and use a PoKeys board as an input device. Search the Mach4 section of the forum for his posts, he has built
an advanced control panel for his mill.

Admittedly you would end up with as many wires as switches/encoders but you wouldn't have to write your own plugin. The
PoKeys boards are very capable data acquisition products.

Mach4 has a Modbus plugin which can use both TC/IP or serial comms. With your knowledge of embedded systems making a Modbus
device is probably very doable.

Craig

6990

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: USB gamepad as jogging device

« on: May 27, 2017, 04:15:20 AM »

Hi,
not sure but my understanding is that what you require is a device plugin. Plugins are written in C/C++. Also I understand that
they need to be 'signed' or otherwise approved by Artsoft.

I imagine that if anyone were genuinely writing software for use with Mach4 there would be a great deal of approval/support for such
a venture. The sort of programming expertise required for a device plugins is restricted to few people, sounds like you are one of them.

I have considered writing a plugin for EtherCat capable servo drives. When I delve into it I realise that I'm biting off more than I can chew.
An EtherCat plugin would potentially have very widespread use over time and so probably justify the effort. Does the project you're thinking
of have sufficient audience to justify what could be a multi thousand hour programming venture?

Craig