Messages

7061

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: G52 strange behaviour

« on: April 14, 2017, 11:06:31 PM »

Hi,
Smurph (and others) have gone to some lengths to explain to me why you should name all your macros with a lower case m.

It turns out that Machs interpreter changes all uppercase letters to lowercase, therefore when Mach is searching for a macro it
will be looking for m.... not M.... as you coded. Windows is not case sensitive and will usually provide the right file but sometimes
it doesn't. Understanding how Mach searches for macros has saved me a number of snafus. Not sure that this is the problem
you describe but is a handy tip anyway...it will save you some headscratching down the line.

Craig

7062

General Mach Discussion / Re: 2 bob on one mach3

« on: April 14, 2017, 10:54:28 PM »

Hi,
to run two BOBs requires two parallel ports. I assume the port number you have given is the second parallel port?

If so on Machs Config/Ports and Pins page enter the port number 0xEE00 into Machs #2 port address and enable the check box.

You should thereafter be able to assign inputs and outputs to the new board using port#2 and the usual pin assignments.

Craig

7063

General Mach Discussion / Re: Steps per w/ Dmm servo

« on: April 14, 2017, 05:39:54 AM »

Hi,
the calculation is very similar. I believe the DMM servos are fitted with 10,000 count per rev encoders. With 2:1 gearing
the lead screw will turn one revolution per two servo revs, ie 20,000 pulses. If you leadscrew is 1/4 inch lead then your steps
per inch is 20000/ 0.25 =80,000 pulses per inch.

80000 per inch is pretty fine, if you wanted a rapid speed of 200ipm say then you would require travel of 200/60=3.33 inch/sec
or 266000 pulse per sec. A parallel port will never keep up in fact some external motion controllers won't go beyond 100kHz, others
will blaze along at 4MHz.

Should it be your controller be unable to deliver a pulse rate fast enuf for the rapids you have in mind you can use the 'electronic
gearing' function of the servo drive.

Craig

7064

General Mach Discussion / Re: Will Mach3 run on windows 10?

« on: April 14, 2017, 05:21:04 AM »

Hi,
the question is do you wish to use an external motion controller?

If you do want to use an external controller then use whatever OS you want up to Win10 64 bit.

If you don't ie you wish to use a parallel port motion controller then your OS is 32bit Win7 or earlier.

Mach will run happily under just about any Windows OS but a parallel port motion driver IS OS dependent
and also dependent on how the PC is configured. Some otherwise good PCs run PP like a dog and yet an old $10 XP
clunker will run fine. A major reason that so many CNCers have migrated to an external controller like a UC100
or Smoothstepper is that Mach is SO much less dependent on OS or PC configuration.

Craig

7065

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 System Rquirements

« on: April 09, 2017, 02:44:41 AM »

Hi,
I think Mach4 is better than Mach3. LUA is the language that 'glues' it all together and LUA is simple and yet the
subtlety, flexibility and power it conveys also makes Mach4 very flexible and powerful. Additionally Mach4 is a modern
program, written in modular style. Thus if a module is weak or faulty it can be replaced by another be it commercial
third party or your own creation.

The new style and language is more complicated to start with, you will have to invest some serious thinking/learning to
get the most out of Mach4, but when you do 'the sky is the limit'.

I use my laptop from time to time to control my mill, the buttons on the screens are small enuf that touch screen is a bit
hit and miss. A large monitor will help.

Craig

Mach4 is less dependent on the OS than Mach3. I use Win8 on my laptop and Win7 on my regular machine controller, both
work fine and I don't think the OS makes a jot of difference.

7066

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: file i/o

« on: April 08, 2017, 04:29:11 PM »

Hi,
in LUA a backslash, '\', is an escape character. Consequently if you wish to put a backslash in a LUA string the backslash
will have to be quoted or preceeded by an escape character ie another backslash.

Your instruction:
mc.mcCntlProbeFileOpen(inst, "C:\\mach4Hobby\\GcodeFiles\\KFCProbeValues.csv","%.4AXIS_ %.4AXIS_Y\n", true)
does require the double backslashes however if you have a path string with backslashes embedded:
mc.mcCntlProbeFileOpen(inst,path,"%.4AXIS_ %.4AXIS_Y\n", true)
will work.

Craig

7067

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: mach 3 to 4

« on: April 08, 2017, 04:08:54 PM »

Hi metlcutr55,
I'm using a dual core Atom single board computer for Mach4. It is well short of recommended specs and
uses the Intel integrated video that smurph described as 'hideous'.

It works fine. Where it does fall down is when you have to load large files. Some of my PCB etch files are up to
5Meg and waiting for them to load requires lots of patience. Once loaded they cut just fine. If you have 3D routing
files of 100's of Megs DON'T use such a miniscule platform, for ordainary milling files however its fine.

I have a licence for my laptop (2GHz i7,16G RAM) which I have used to control my mill from time to time; aside from
loading large files VERY much faster it makes no difference at all, the machine cuts no faster or smoother. It might be
the laptop can keep the buffer full or close to it by comparison to the Atom but I've noticed no difference.

Craig

7068

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: file i/o

« on: April 01, 2017, 09:54:08 PM »

Hi,
I don't think you've got the path right yet...

This is a register I use to access a file which is subsequently used in a macro:

C:\Users\craig\Documents\eagle\fourthFOC\AEProbeData.txt

Try putting your probefile in the same directory as your Gcode, not your modules directory.

Craig

7069

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: file i/o

« on: April 01, 2017, 06:23:22 PM »

Hi,
the file open statement requires a path in addition to the filename.

Have a look at m401 in Mach4Hobby/LuaExamples/ProbeToFile .

Craig

7070

General Mach Discussion / Re: Is there Gcode to get the machine to goto Machine Coordinates for Tool Changes?

« on: April 01, 2017, 03:22:54 PM »

Hi,
yes, the code is G53.

For instance if you wish to rapid move to machine zero code:
G0 G53 X0 Z0

G53 is described in the Gcode list that accompanies Mach3.

Craig