Messages

7371

General Mach Discussion / Re: SIEG Mach3 Mill Stuck in Metric mode

« on: October 07, 2016, 01:53:02 AM »

Hi,
not sure I can help but maybe...

The units you set in the 'native units' are critical because they are used in your motor tuning.
Native units should be set when you set up your machine then not touched.

What units do you use to tune your motors? Do you calculate the steps per unit or do a 'measure
and see' approach.

While I calculated my steps per unit and I believe is preferred because of its accuracy a lot
of users are confused by the calculation and prefer the measure and see approach.
Do yourself a favour and use the units determined by the machine, usually the ballscrews.
If the pitch of the screws is 5mm then use metric for your native units or if the pitch is
1/4inch then use inch. At runtime you can set the display units to whatever you're most
comfortable with.

Once you've set the steps/unit values and motor tuning then worry about the DRO's.
Your post said you used M20, that is not correct, it should be G20.

Craig

7372

General Mach Discussion / Re: newbe help needed

« on: October 04, 2016, 02:30:22 AM »

Hi,
its my experience that the onboard parallel port is less troublesome than a PCI card.

You must install the Mach3 'pulse engine' in order for the parallel port to run.
It very much sounds that the driver has not installed itself.
The Artsoft website has some installation instructions, see if you cant find
Mach3Mill_Install_Config.pdf. It will help. Pay particular attention to the reboot required
part way through the setup. From what you've described I think that did not happen in your
case. If that is indeed true that part of the driver that has been installed is probably corrupt.
You're going to have to use Windows Control Panel and 'dig' it out. Then complete reinstall
of Mach3.

The 'pulse engine' is a VERY trick piece of code and resides at the lowest level of Windows
almost like a virus. If it does not install and run correctly the parallel port will not run, no exceptions!
Get it right then your humble PC becomes a realtime machine controller admitedly somewhat buggy
but at a fraction of the cost of FANUC,SIEMENS or .....

Depending on what you wish to achieve with Mach and how committed you are to CNC you may wish to
consider an external motion controller, there are a number of mature brands for Mach3 starting at around
$100 and an increasing selection of models that work with Mach4 starting for similar money. They have the
advantage that the trick 'pulse engine' not required and very good results can be had.

All my machining to date has been done with a parallel port so good results can be had with it but some
patience is required. Having said that I have bought a licence for Mach4 and the Smoothstepper motion
controller has today just passed through customs so hope to have it within a couple of days, cant wait!

Which ever way you choose to go there is quite a learning curve with Mach and CNC in general. If you stick
with hopefully the sense of satisfaction will out weigh the frustration encountered. The forum and those dedicated
experienced hands who contribute will undoubtedly be valued.

Welcome to the hobby/obsession.

Craig

7373

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 or Mach4 MDI Serial Input

« on: October 03, 2016, 06:32:28 AM »

Hi,
I'm not sure is the short answer.

The longer answer is I think its possible.

If you sent a text string corresponding to a Gcode line then Mach could execute that
line by line.

If using M3 then something like:

while(true)
   gcodeLine=(a text string from serial input device)
   if(gcodeline !='EOF')then
         code(gcodeLine)
   else
          break
   end
end

Please not my VB skill is absolute rubbish and the chances of that working as is nill but
the idea should work.

I have only recently bought a licence for Mach4 so can't say for sure that this will work
but there is a 'serial plugin' in M4 which sounds rather hopeful for what you wish to achieve.

Loop
Get some serial data from the plugin;
construct a Gcode line from that data;
mc.mcCntlGcodeExecute(inst,yourGcodeLine)
end loop.

The Lua scripting language in Mach4 is a bit baffling to start with but its ultimate flexibility
and power exceeds VB. If you're going to write scripts and so on I think Lua is where you
should invest the effort. Certainly that was the conclusion I came to. Whereas Mach3 is good
Mach4 is shaping up to being brilliant.

Craig

7374

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Loading G54.1 P1-P120 Automatically

« on: October 02, 2016, 12:06:32 AM »

Hi Scott,
some of the stuff I read has actually stuck....shame I didn't think or remember berfore I opened
my gob!

Look in the 'help docs', easiest access is the 'help docs?' button on the M4 screen.
Open the scripting manual pdf, section 4 is about registers and 4.4 and 4.5 about
saving and retrieving them.

Also have a look in the Mach4 Toolbox child board of this board and find poppabears
post on enums.....I took a little chunk so you could see:

Fixture offsets, G54, 55, 56 etc. have a Gap of 20 between them.
fixture offset values start with G54 at #5221
G54 X = #5221
G54 Y = #5222
G54 Z = #5223
G54 A = #5224
G54 B = #5225
G54 C = #5226
--20 point gap between G54 and G55, i.e. 522x to 524x
G55 X = #5241
G55 Y = #5242
G55 Z = #5243
G55 A = #5244
G55 B = #5245
G55 C = #5246

So the basic process is in the screen unload script:

Save those registers that you want, say
#5221, #5222, #5223, the xyz of G54

And in the first run of the PLC script:

restore #5221, #5222, #5223

Sorry I don't know enuf about coding to give any more but the luaexamples in the
Mach4 folder will no doubt have some examples to follow.

Craig

7375

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Loading G54.1 P1-P120 Automatically

« on: October 01, 2016, 11:11:20 PM »

Hi Scott,
I believe it is possible but being new to M4 cannot say exactly how.

I guess you wish to load your fixture offsets from your last session?

In order to do that you must 'remember' those offsets and in M4 that occurs in the
'screen unload' script that ocurrs at shutdown. It has the effect of storing certain data
variables that you nominate typically to your .ini file.

When you start M4 the first script to run is the 'screen load' script and in that script you
would write code to retrieve that offset data from your .ini file to the new offset variables.

The second script to run is the PLC script which of course runs at intervals throughout your
session. I have seen instances where M4 experts have done things like loading offsets only
on the first run of the PLC script. My understanding is that this ensures all the M4 variables
and GUI components have completely loaded before you try to update them with new data.

You can view the current scripts by going to the 'operator' tab and checking 'edit screen'. In the
'screen tree manager' highlight 'wx4' and click the 'events' button in the properties window below.
If you highlight the event your interested in, say 'unload script' you can view and edit the code
stored there. The version I have for instance has no code in the unload script yet but no doubt
will as I transition to using M4 on my machine.

Hope this will get you started.

Craig

7376

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Rename A axis to U axis?

« on: October 01, 2016, 06:12:47 AM »

Hi,
not quite sure what you're hoping to achieve. Even if you did successfully change Aaxis to Uaxis throughout
your Gcode will still have to use 'A' unless you can change how Mach interprets Gcode.

It is possible to relabel the buttons and similar so they would display 'U' instead of 'A' but the underlying
code and actions would remain Aaxis actions/signals.

Craig

7377

General Mach Discussion / Re: Transfer from reseller ?

« on: September 30, 2016, 01:53:03 AM »

Hi,
I have only recently bought a licence for Mach4 myself. I doubt you can
transfer as you would like.

Why do your computers keep blowing up? One reliable platform
and this question would never have arisen.

Craig

7378

General Mach Discussion / Hall of Fame?

« on: September 29, 2016, 02:37:43 AM »

Hi all,
I note there is a 'Hall of Shame', dodgy suppliers and the like.

How about a 'Hall of Fame'. As a beginner I've had so much help from
a number of regular posters and could nominate half a dozen or so without
having to think that hard.
I'm extremely grateful and I'm not the only one. The forum and the regulars who
deliver the 'help goods' add immeasurably to the hobby.

Craig

7379

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Macro - Pause until input triggered

« on: September 29, 2016, 02:14:12 AM »

Hi Guys,

reading Robs post and I saw:

if (rc == mc.MERROR_NOERROR) then
      wx.wxMessageBox("MERROR_NOERROR")

I have been writing code similar to:

if(rc==0)then
                wx.wxMessageBo("MERROR_NOERROR")
 
ie I've been testing the numeric value of rc against a list provided by DTG but
this suggests that mc.MERROR_NOERROR is a defined quantity. Is this correct?

If so 'gotta luv C'

Craig

7380

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 with ESS with C62 CNC4PC BOB

« on: September 29, 2016, 01:50:37 AM »

Hi Dean,
good news that you're making progress, not so good that its a faulty board.

That the supplier is going to provide a new one and sounds like they've done so
fairly promptly is a matter of praise. I'm sure you've read on the forum where
getting that sort of backup from Chinese suppliers has left many feeling ripped off.
Any supplier who will not back up his gear is on a hiding to nothing given that
the forum is extensive as it is. Likewise we should 'talk up' those suppliers who
do the right thing.
Score 1 for CNC4PC.

Craig