Messages

11

General Mach Discussion / Z-Probe macro for inches and millimeters

« on: April 09, 2016, 05:56:11 PM »

This Z-probe macro that works fine for me, as long as Mach3 is in inches:

Code: [Select]

Message( "Auto Zeroing..." )
If IsSuchSignal (22) Then
code "G31 Z-1 F10"
While IsMoving()
Wend
Call SetDRO( 2, .996 )
code "G1 Z1.5"
End If
 
But if the previous program is in millimeters, the distances and speeds are all wrong. I've tried adding a G20 ahead of the G31 in the code statement, but it appears to have no effect.
Any idea how to make this work?
Thanks

12

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: Radius to end of arc differs from radius to start - again

« on: September 05, 2015, 10:34:57 AM »

What do you mean by run in the simulator ?  If you mean the mach3 simulator in the MDI screen . It uses the SAME interpetor as the main screen run does (;-) How could it be different .

(;-) TP

I mean the "Simulate Program Run" button in the Toolpath screen. How do you simulate from the MDI screen?
As to your question "How could it be different?", well, that's exactly what I asked, isn't it.  In fact, I even said that it runs in the simulator on a different PC.
But it's all repeatable.

13

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: Radius to end of arc differs from radius to start - again

« on: September 04, 2015, 07:52:22 PM »

If you have a G91.1 on the same line as a G90, the second one is ignored, in your case the G91.1.

Change your code to this:

G20 G90 G64 G40
G91.1

Tried that. No change. Code still fails in the simulator, but will run the router flawlessly.

14

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: Radius to end of arc differs from radius to start - again

« on: September 04, 2015, 04:35:43 PM »

It just gets weirder and weirder.
I decided to try running the code, error and all.
When running that actual machine instead of simulate, the code runs fine.
Go figure.

15

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: Radius to end of arc differs from radius to start - again

« on: September 04, 2015, 04:34:56 PM »

goto teh mdi line type in G91.1 then hit enter then try the code again.


If that works then goto the gen config page and reset the IJ's to inc.

That had no effect, as I would expect, since the code itself has G91.1 as I noted.
Also, gen config is already set to incremental.

16

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Radius to end of arc differs from radius to start - again

« on: September 04, 2015, 03:27:08 PM »

I've read the previous posts on this, but they don't seem to apply.
I've got some g-code generated by CamBam that generates the error in the title.

The first line of the g-code is this:
G20 G90 G91.1 G64 G40

So it is indeed setting to incremental mode.

From there we do some cuts:

Code: [Select]

G17
M3 S18000
G0 X9.6381 Y7.9253
G1 F25.0 Z-0.0625
G3 F75.0 X9.5305 Y8.0994 I-5.7097 J-3.4091
G3 X9.7452 Y8.1213 I-0.5667 J6.6258
G3 X9.6381 Y7.9253 I5.7815 J-3.2859
G1 F25.0 X9.8152 Y7.8324
G3 F75.0 X9.65 Y7.4938 I5.7114 J-2.997
G3 X9.1676 Y8.2784 I-5.7216 J-2.9776
G3 X10.1402 Y8.3834 I-0.2037 J6.4468
G3 X9.8152 Y7.8324 I5.3865 J-3.548
G1 F25.0 X9.9923 Y7.7394
G3 F75.0 X9.6637 Y7.0005 I5.5343 J-2.9041
G2 X9.6589 Y7.0111 I0.3796 J0.1779
G3 X8.762 Y8.4785 I-5.7305 J-2.4948
G3 X10.5185 Y8.6716 I0.2018 J6.2467
G2 X10.5008 Y8.5655 I-0.2609 J-0.0112
G1 Y8.5654
G2 X10.4689 Y8.507 I-0.2433 J0.095
G3 X9.9923 Y7.7394 I5.0578 J-3.6717
G1 F25.0 X10.1694 Y7.6465

so far, so good. Numerous straight line cuts and arcs as well.

Then we come to this:

Code: [Select]

G3 F75.0 X9.7499 Y6.6331 I5.3572 J-2.8111

and I get the error. This is in the Tool Path screen, running Simulate Program Run. And for what it's worth, the graphics window shows exactly what I expect the path looks like.

To make it even more confusing -
This error occurs on the PC in the shop controlling the machine.
If I run this on the machine in my office to which I copied the machine's XML file, the error does not occur.

I'm lost here.

17

General Mach Discussion / Re: Save/restore machine position

« on: July 25, 2015, 12:09:12 AM »

 I believe saving fixtures saves the *offsets*, not the machine position.
Any time I launch Mach3, the DROs start in the same place, no matter where the machine was left. It doesn't even ask me if I want to save fixtures unless I've changed one or more of the offset values.

18

General Mach Discussion / Save/restore machine position

« on: July 24, 2015, 11:47:48 PM »

Is there any way to save the machine's position when shutting down Mach3 and restore the values on startup? It doesn't appear that there are a macros reserved to run at startup or shutdown, which would allow development of a macro for this purpose. I realize that for stepper-motor based machines this might not be the most accurate way to go if the machines moves a couple of steps when powered up (as far as I can tell, mine doesn't suffer this malady). Even if not fully accurate, it would allow writing a macro that moves the machine very close to home, the ref all axes.

19

Mach SDK plugin questions and answers. / Re: MPG over USB?

« on: July 14, 2015, 11:39:37 PM »

thanks for digging out this information. I had seen references to reverse engineering the protocol, but didn't track them down far enough to see the part about the MPG encoding only supporting 21 discrete values. This seems pretty crazy. Perhaps if the sampling rate is high enough this might be enough, but it sure seems odd. I've pretty much resigned myself to not having MPG capabilities. That's what comes when with an inexpensive device whose manufacturer is essentially impossible to reach. Same goes for my controller card (AKZ250). The card actually supports a direct wired MPG. If I decide I want it bad enough, I 'll guess I'll have to wire one directly to the controller board. I did find a US outfit that sells the pendant and this controller card. They claimed it worked, but when I probed farther there were questions. They promised to go to their lab to test it out, but never called me back. I took that as confirmation they couldn't get it to work.

Apparently Mach3 does support MPG over USB, but the implementation for this controller and/or my card are inadequate to the task.

20

Mach SDK plugin questions and answers. / Re: MPG over USB?

« on: June 13, 2015, 05:26:58 PM »

Thanks for the clarification. As far as I'm concerned, velocity mode is the only interesting MPG mode. Step mode is dangerous, as you can't predict where the machine will stop if you're not counting clicks. Even worse if you're trying to eyeball movement to a position.