Messages

651

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Manual touch plate probing after manual tool change

« on: February 06, 2018, 09:53:01 AM »

After the cycle is stopped in the m6 mach is then in a jogable state, you can then jog around as much as you like. before pressing cycle start again you must put your Z at a safe hight.
I have only tried this on the sim so cannot say how it will go with variables or anything else.

DazTheGas

For what its worth.....
I do this on a Bridgeport Series II here in the shop.  It only has 4" of Z Axis travel without moving the Knee, so I will sometimes have to jog left or right to be able to change longer tools.  It always goes to G53 Z0.00, so hitting cylce start again has never been an issue (as long as your code moves to  X and Y position first).

652

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Help with Mach 4 controlling a PLC for tool changes.

« on: February 05, 2018, 03:40:45 PM »

Just because I was intrigued by Carter's thought of moving the Turret to a safe position inside the M6 macro, I decided to make a module to do this.  

I've never made a module like this, so it was a nice challenge, but I got it figured out today.  
Thanks to Daz for his Module's video, it was helpful getting it setup.
Once I got it finished, I got rid of all my unnecessary notes and code, took a step back and looked at it.  It is quite straight forward and easy to understand how to use a module.  The hardest part was getting it set up, which was easy enough to do.

local CustomFunction = {}

function CustomFunction.ToolChangePosition()
     local inst = mc.mcGetInstance()
     mc.mcCntlGcodeExecuteWait(inst, "G53 G00 X20.00 Z10.00")
     mc.mcCntlSetLastError(inst, "At tool change position.")
end --ToolChangePosition

return CustomFunction

This is all the code I have in my CustomFunction Module to move to a safe tool change position.  What is nice about this is the ability to add more Custom Functions right into this module.  I had no idea modules were  this powerful.

653

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Should I start out with Mach4?

« on: February 03, 2018, 06:28:36 PM »

I would go with Mach4.  If you're new to the software, go with the newer and far better stuff.  There are so many good posts on this forum, and great people to help you out. 

654

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Help with Mach 4 controlling a PLC for tool changes.

« on: February 02, 2018, 01:20:16 PM »

I never thought about using the index pulse when I first started doing retrofits.   Home switches have always been adequate for our applications.   
The HiCON can use the index pulse of a servo motor.   I plan on utilizing this function on our current lathe project. I've thought about a 1 button startup as well.   Our Haas has a power up button that changes to tool 1 after it homes the machine.   Should be pretty easy to make this type of function.

655

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Help with Mach 4 controlling a PLC for tool changes.

« on: February 01, 2018, 11:31:39 PM »

Nice!   We've got a fadal 4020.  Only downfall we ran into was the homing.   They homed inside the servo, so we added home switches.   Other than that, it's a good machine.

656

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach Motion Lathe Wizards Bug? Help.

« on: February 01, 2018, 01:36:54 PM »

I'm with RT on that one... Make sure you're cancelling the Drill Cycle with G80. 

657

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Glad |I asked first

« on: February 01, 2018, 01:33:24 PM »

The HiCON is ethernet, but the backlash comp works very well on it.  Using it on 3 machines at the shop. 

658

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Help with Mach 4 controlling a PLC for tool changes.

« on: February 01, 2018, 09:27:32 AM »

That's an interesting point, using registers to keep track of progress.   I like it.     On the next VMC I'm going yk have the carousel rotate with buttons on the back of the machine as well as Mach.   We did this in a hurco to remove tools and replace tools in the carousel while the machine is running.   Our foreman has found this to be very helpful so we're going to so it again on this next machine.   I'm going to keep registers in mind with this one.   Should be a nice project!   Also, Carter is using Mach and physical buttons on his lathe tool changer.

659

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Help with Mach 4 controlling a PLC for tool changes.

« on: January 31, 2018, 07:40:54 PM »

I'm not able to test this.  But just looking at the Click addressing, the C memory bits have a pretty clear address, so I don't see any reason why we won't be able to see changes in bits from the click as well as set them from Mach over modbus. 

The Y001 Output I used was an arbitrary output in the Click, it was totally unused and I could probably have used a memory bit for it(will test next week).  The only thing I lost was 1 of the 64 Mach4 outputs. 

I like the thought of having all the information being sent back and forth from the Click to Mach with bits.  It would make everything synced and truthfully act like a high dollar machine.  And with the way they have Modbus in Mach4, it would be very easy to do, it may take some time mind you, but it wouldn't be difficult. 

660

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Trouble with M3 and spindle speed

« on: January 31, 2018, 07:31:33 PM »

Yeah.  It's running good on my sim as well.  If the P7 is a pause, you need a G04 P7.0 to make it pause 7 seconds.