Messages

1

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: Final Machine!

« on: July 20, 2015, 03:41:23 PM »

Yes, the part is loaded into the fixture and has both sides cut on a middle mirror point so they come out lined up perfectly.

The part is flipped using a pneumatic rotational cylinder and shuttled in and out using a (long) piston cylinder.

2

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Final Machine!

« on: July 20, 2015, 02:48:38 PM »

Hi everybody!  We just finished and delivered the machine we've been working on for the past 6 months to the customer!  Our thanks go out to everyone who helped answer questions we've had on this project throughout the way.

It is a CNC plasma cutter that cuts patterns for door inserts that is completely automated (except for user input to start the job).  This project is the culmination of the efforts of a couple people.  I wish I had more pictures to share of the assembly process but due to the production process of the machine I was only allowed to post the final outcome video.

This machine was programmed using PLC/HMI ladder logic (Allen Bradley), Kepware OPC Server, C++ (used MachRemote from the SDK as a boilerplate starting point, THANK YOU FOR THIS TOOL!), Mach 3 (vbscript macros were very important), and this utilized an SQL server to pull jobs from a table.  The gcode job files were all generated automatically by another company and were placed into a directory made available to us.

https://youtu.be/iNm1ICjzpO8

Hope you enjoy it!

3

General Mach Discussion / Mach 3 Profile selection on Windows startup?

« on: July 17, 2015, 01:23:40 PM »

Is there a good way to load a specific profile into Mach 3 on Windows startup?  I have a shortcut in the startup folder in the start menu with the location C:\Mach3\Mach3.exe -p Profile1 which I thought I read somewhere that this was the appropriate thing to do, but it just makes a default profile and loads that.  Any suggestions?

4

General Mach Discussion / Re: codes manual

« on: June 18, 2015, 03:06:01 PM »

Regarding M22 code for HyperTherm:

This code is used by Mach 3 to provide a temporary pause to allow the proper settings to be set in Mach 3 for plasma cutting.

5

Mach SDK plugin questions and answers. / Re: Transferring MachRemote

« on: June 16, 2015, 10:33:29 AM »

Nevermind, here is the process we ended up using to make this work:

Went into Windows registry using regedit
1. Added registry key to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT called Mach4.Document
2. Added key to Mach4.Document called CLSID
3. Changed Value of CLSID to {CA7992B2-2653-4342-8061-D7D385C07809}

MAKE SURE TO BACK UP YOUR REGISTRY FILE BEFORE YOU MAKE ANY CHANGES TO YOUR REGISTRY!

6

Mach SDK plugin questions and answers. / Transferring MachRemote

« on: June 16, 2015, 08:54:48 AM »

Hi, I'm currently in the middle of developing a MachRemote-based application to run Mach3 automatically in conjunction with a PLC.  I am using the MachRemote application and am able to compile it and get it to connect to Mach3 on the computer I have Visual Studio on, but when transferring the MachRemote program over to the computer connected with the plasma cutter, I can open the application but it will not connect with Mach3.  Even just the basic MachRemote App with no frills will not connect.  Does anyone know the fix behind this?  The computer I'm compiling on is running Windows 7 Pro 64, the computer with the plasma cutter is Win 7 Ultimate 32.

Please note, I can get MachRemote to load on the other computer, it just won't connect to Mach3.

7

Modbus / Re: TCP over Ethernet help

« on: June 13, 2015, 10:53:30 AM »

I truthfully didn't consider the modbus settings to be relevant as they are easily changed, the focus is more on the relationship between the test screen (which CAN write to the PLC) and the Brain, which is what I'm having issues with.  If I were to say there are 8 registers in each of the configs, and the modbus address for the registers begin at 0 for cfg# 0, then Address Modbus Bar would have "0" in its field, "# of Registers" would have "8" in that field, and the brain's modbus dialog box would have the following filled in:

"Enter Modbus Address to use:" 0
"Output" Radio selected
"Bit Only" Checked
"0" Bit 0-15
Source: "TCP Modbus" Radio button, Cfg# "0"

This would display in the brain Terminator as MOD:0-D0-T:0, correct?

8

Modbus / Re: TCP over Ethernet help

« on: June 12, 2015, 02:56:26 PM »

Thanks for the link, I tried doing what you listed in the paper, but it still has not worked.  I don't know if its because of an issue with brains, or there's some other issue that will prevents the brain from writing to the register the same way the test dialog does.  Any ideas on this?  I have also read the "Users Guide for Brains" in the Member Docs folder and it is still unclear what is causing the issue.

9

Modbus / TCP over Ethernet help

« on: June 12, 2015, 10:22:52 AM »

Hi everyone,

I am looking for help regarding reading and writing IO between Mach 3 and a CompactLogix.  I actually am not having any issues with getting the two communicating over Modbus TCP.  That part seems to be easy enough to set up as I can read/write values in the Test dialog and have them appear on the PLC as being written.  I can also modify these same values on the PLC and read them in the test screen of the Modbus setup so I know they are communicating properly.

My issue comes when I try to use brains to read/write to the coils that the test dialog can read/write.  I can't figure out what the settings would be in the brain to correspond to the settings on the test window.  Included are images of the two screens.  I have tried multiple setups and I just can't seem to get it to work.

Thank you for any help!

10

Mach SDK plugin questions and answers. / Re: Macro trigger in C++

« on: May 12, 2015, 05:37:38 PM »

Thanks for the reply, unfortunately this did not resolve the issue.