Messages

7341

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mini ITX Motherboard for Mach4

« on: December 03, 2016, 04:10:59 PM »

Hi TOTALLYRC,
have an update....

Tried running M4 on my machine, Atom based miniITX mentioned above. M4 runs fine in sim mode no problems.

When I hook up the ESS I come unstuck. The Ethernet adaptor shows it supports UDP but I'm not sure the Atom is.
Depending on the transmission protocol used by your motion controllers the Atom may not work.

The Atom and the cutdown Windows7 Embedded OS has done really well with M3 and PP and I think would
do equally well M4 and Darwin PP but maybe not ESS. Haven't given up hope on it yet, but hang on to your bucks
at the moment.

Craig

7342

General Mach Discussion / Re: Help! How to write Macro for M11 and M10 in Mach3

« on: December 01, 2016, 07:28:32 AM »

Hi,
done a little bit more reading both manuals and the forum....

The 'Sub main()' and 'End sub' lines are not required and in fact may make it fail.
While I couldn't get the ActivateSignal(OUTPUTx) and DeActivateSignal(OUTPUTx) to work for me
this afternoon I have since got them to work and could be substituted for DoOEMButton(*********) which
would add some flexibility as to which output you wish to use.

Also I had a brief exchange with Tweakie on another thread which suggests that my original premise
for doing the whole thing in a macro is unnecessary.
The way he explained M10 and M11 to work is that they become active at the start of the next move.
Also the P~ argument is in milliseconds. A reasonable delay would put P500 for a half second delay.

M10 P500 ; the start signal is primed and waits for the next move
G01 X100 Y0 ; the spray starts 500ms after the move starts

Not entirely convinced this would work yet but worth experimenting some. Even if it does not sure that the same
strategy would work to turn the spray off.

Craig

7343

General Mach Discussion / Re: Arduino and Mach 3

« on: December 01, 2016, 06:49:33 AM »

Hi,
just had another look at the photos in the link and sure enuf 4 wires...kaspis245 you're in luck.

Does your PC have a 32 bit OS? Does it have a built in parallel port, they are usually the most painless way
to go? If yes then Mach3 and parallel port is a good place to start.

TOTALLYRC...I know what you mean, I'm sure God gave me this great big mouth so I can stick both feet in it!
Sounds like we may have done a job on our friend, laugh/chuckle/snigger tho.

Craig

7344

General Mach Discussion / Re: Arduino and Mach 3

« on: December 01, 2016, 06:37:46 AM »

Hi TOTALLYRC,
that looks like a mighty fine recommendation....Geko's have such a good rep $300 is great buying.

I hope or friends little steppers are bipolar types.

kaspis245, before spending all your luvly 'sheckels' just check the steppers on your machine.
Bipolar motors usually, at least in the small sizes, have four wires.
If you have a multimeter disconnect one of them and test. What you're hoping to find is two
electrically separate windings.

Craig

7345

VB and the development of wizards / Re: perpendicular gantry software calibration

« on: December 01, 2016, 04:22:45 AM »

Hi matteo,
I've had the same problem with my mill which had the X and Y axis out of square by about 4min of arc.
Prior to me stripping down the mill and making the required plate to correct the issue I used software
to make the correction.

As you probably know there is a formula page on the 'Function Cfg's' menu which will do that calculation.
The problem arises though that Mach does not apply the formula equally at all times. What happens is
for instance is that a correction is calculated but requires a significant movement and Mach responds
by trying an instantaneous move of several mm and fails because of limited acceleration. If you're using
steppers they stall and all bets are off. I have not seen any real explanation that can describe the circumstances
when it occurs but a number of users have seen and not be able to explain it either.
What I did was to write a macro that wrote a new file with the arithmetic correction and the ran that and it
worked a treat. In reality it was a wizard of sorts but as I was just starting to use VB I was happy with anything
that worked.

This is what I used

 Sub main
Dim origname$,modname$,pathname$,currline$
Dim correction#
pathname="C:\Users\craig\Documents\eagle\lvdt4\lvdt4."


 Begin Dialog filenameinput 16,30,180,96,"filename input"
 OKButton 132,20,40,14
 Text 8,8,32,8,""
 TextBox 8,20,100,12,.inputname
 End Dialog
 Dim Dlg1 As filenameinput
 Dialog  Dlg1
origname=pathname & Dlg1.inputname
modname=pathname & "CORRECTED" & Dlg1.inputname
correction=-0.004
Open origname For Input As #1
Open modname For Output As #2
While Not EOF(1)
Line Input #1, currline
posx=InStr(1,currline,"X")
If posx=0 Then
Print #2,currline
Else
posy=InStr(1,currline,"Y")
posendy=InStr(posy,currline," ")
xstring=Mid(currline,posx+1,posy-posx-2)
ystring=Mid(currline,posy+1,posendy-posy)
xstring=xstring+ystring*correction
leftstring=Left(currline,posx)
rightstring=Right(currline,Len(currline)-posy+1)
newstring=leftstring &  xstring & " " & rightstring
print #2,newstring
End If
wend
End Sub           


As you can see the first part (very inelegant though it be) was just getting the file
to be corrected and generating the name of the corrected file.
The substantive part is where it reads a line, extracts the X and Y cords,calculates the
corrected X coord along the same lines you proposed (xstring=xstring+ystring*correction)
then puts the line back together as a string and sends it to the new or corrected file.
The only real challenge is getting the fairly limited string functions in VB to accommodate
your requirements. The file dialog I've used is a dog and hope I could do better now than then!

This approach means that cords in your Gcode match the numbers in your CAD while
you are optimising your Gcode and the just prior to running the code make the correction
not unlike a post processor I suppose.

Some ideas for you.

Craig

7346

VB and the development of wizards / Re: why my M6Start.m1s doesnot run?

« on: December 01, 2016, 03:37:28 AM »

Hi Tweakie,
after reading your post I went back and tried it again and bugger me ActivateSignal(OUTPUTx) and
DeactivateSignal(OUTPUTx) work.

I spent half an hour earlier today trying different formats etc to no avail. Maybe it was the logic (read illogic)
of the rest of the code that was the problem.

Now, while I have you 'on the line' as it were...
I was trying to help a bloke who wanted to activate a device while an axis was moving. His attempt
was to code M11 P********* after a move.
I explained my understanding (yes a very scary thought...) that the move would complete before the
M code is read and executed. Am I correct?

Whether or not I suggested this (as a macro)

code("G01 X100 y0") ;the move
while IsMoving()
If getOEMDRO(800)>20 then ActivateSignal(OUTPUT4)
wend

and it seemed to work.
My question: is there some logic to the situation where a new instruction is read and executed before
a previous move is completed and apparently some instructions have to complete before the next instruction
is executed?

Craig

7347

VB and the development of wizards / Re: VBscripting Macro with Expressions Variables and Operators for Dummies

« on: December 01, 2016, 02:51:24 AM »

Hi steelroot,
I have real problems with LUA and less so with VB.

In a Gcode program you cant use instructions like getOEMDRO(802) as such an instruction
is VB and needs to be compiled before it will run but you can use pound variables like #99802.
I used these as an example but they relate to your question.

OEMDRO(802) is the current Z axis DRO and #99802 is exactly the same.
So if you wish to subtract from the Z DRO in Gcode:
#99802=[#99802-1.234]
Section 10 of Mach3Mill_1.84.pdf from the Artsoft website tells how pound variables work
and names a few of them...there are 10,000 of them!

Unfortunately you can't use conditionals in Gcode. Pound variables are useful but wont
in themselves solve your problem.

If I understand your question correctly you want to calculate the difference in the current
Z DRO with the next programmed Z axis move. Mach hasn't read that line yet so unless it
reads ahead until it finds a new Z instruction how can it do as you want?

If you wait until Mach reads the line with the next Z move the move is committed to the buffer before
the next line, your conditional, is read and executed. I dearsay it is possible to intervene between the
interpreter and the motion control but that is internal to Mach and I have no idea how to go about it.

The only alternative as I see it is to have a macro that reads your Gcode line by line until it finds your next
anticipated Z move. There are some useful string functions in VB which should make it possible. I have a macro
for instance that does a correction on the X axis of a large Gcode file. It achieves it by reading a line, indentifying
the next X coord if there is one, extract the string value of X move, apply an arithmetic correction, reassemble
the line as a string and outputting that line to a new or 'Corrected' file.

For this idea to work would depend on the regularity of you Gcode. If for instance you can safely assume that
a Z coord is on every line then you only need to read one line ahead. If not, and a lot of my Gcode files are this
way, many intervening lines of XY moves before the next Z move then you have a lot more reading ahead to do.
Also you would have to decide whether G0 moves or in fact any other Gcode Z moves like helical interpolation should
be included in your conditional.

If the idea sound workable to you let me know and I can write some code fragments that might help.

Craig

7348

VB and the development of wizards / Re: why my M6Start.m1s doesnot run?

« on: December 01, 2016, 01:51:41 AM »

Hi magnetron,
I was messing around with some code and I couldn't get ActivateSignal(Outputnnn)
to work either.
While I don't know for sure I believe that is a very old instruction and is no longer functional
it latest releases of Mach3.

This did work:
DoOEMButton(233) ; turns on output 4 if enabled in 'ports and pins/outputs'
DoOEMButton(234) ; turns output 4 off.

Couldn't find the OEM button numbers for outputs 1,2 or3 but OEM button numbers for
outputs 4,5 and 6 are in the OEMButton list of Mach3_V3.x_Macro_Prog_ref.pdf on the Arsoft
website.

Craig

7349

Mach3 under Vista / Re: Taig CNC loud/not smooth steppers

« on: December 01, 2016, 12:47:46 AM »

Hi,
not familiar with your machine but have a few questions which might push you in the right direction.

First can you post the manual for the controller?
The reason I ask is to know/estimate if microstepping is being used. The principle advantage of microstepping
aside from the theoretical increase in resolution is that it smooths the motion of two phase steppers.
If full stepping is used, and it is possible, then you can expect resonance issues at certain speeds.

One test you might try is to MDI a move

G01 X100 F300 say
and then while moving alter the speedrate override slider, if the noise comes and goes at different speeds
then resonance is the likely culprit. Can also cause overheating.

It might be possible to calculate if microstepping is employed if you know the pitch of the lead screws and any reduction
gearing in the stepper-to-screw drive and comparing that to the 'steps/unit' value on the motor tuning page. Sort of doing
a steps/per calibration but backwards.

Another useful piece of information is current reduction. A lot of stepper drivers, certainly all the good ones have the means
to adjust the current delivered to the motor. Sometimes a modest reduction in current will result in much cooler running
without a huge loss of torque. Another common feature is current reduction at idle, so if the current when running is 3A say,
the current will reduce to about half if the motor is stopped. It will reduce the holding torque but unless the steppers are
undersize usually not a problem but a significant reduction in heat produced.

The stalling and/or loss of steps of the Z axis is concerning. No useful machining can be done while that is the case. It seems
unlikely to me that such a well recognised brand would use too small a stepper for the job. Would pay to check that the axis
is not binding up as it moves.

Let us know how you get on, and by the way welcome to the forum, you can tell CNCers from ordainary humans because
of the lumps of missing hair on their heads as a result of frustration!

Craig

7350

General Mach Discussion / Re: Program stopped when encountering '#' statement

« on: November 30, 2016, 10:34:35 PM »

Hi Kyle,
I only put the G4 P<whatever> just so I had a chance to see the numbers change in the variable monitor.

May I suggest opening the monitor and updating it to observe #500 and try some MDI lines to see if
it behaves; for instance

#500=10 ;check the assignment
#500=[#500+100] ;check the arithmetic function
G1 X#500 F300 ;your machine should drive to X=110mm

Might also try
#2002=50
#500=#2002 ; checks assignment between variables

If all of these check out then I would say Mach3 is doing what it should and it that
case Autoleveller is producing some bad code.

Craig