Messages

181

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: 2nd window

« on: July 05, 2015, 03:43:45 PM »

I will buy you a bottle of (rum, whiskey, vodka, tequila, insert your own choice of poison) if you figure out how that would work.     


Pedio

Ps. No great story started "...and I had a couple of glasses of milk"

182

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Order of tabs in a window

« on: July 05, 2015, 03:40:28 PM »

I tried that and it was very erratic on how it worked. when I finally got it to work (and rebooted Mach4) all of the buttons on the tabs had disappeared??? I had a backup 

183

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Line following (tracing)

« on: July 05, 2015, 03:29:21 PM »

I was thinking something like this https://www.sparkfun.com/products/12097 with some of these installed https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11769. It looks like most people use 3 sensors. I was thinking more of 6 in cascading sets of two. I would weight the two farthest away from the control point the lowest, the ones next closest in the middle, and the ones by the board the highest. This would give me a little look ahead sensing. Now just to find time...


Here is a whole page of FUN!!!! https://www.sparkfun.com/categories/242.

184

Mach4 General Discussion / 2nd window

« on: July 04, 2015, 01:57:41 PM »

Is it possible to have a second window in Mach? I have a control computer that is 8' away from the machine and a touch screen by the machine. I would like to have a Jog control window on the touch screen while keeping the main screen on the control computer.

185

Mach4 General Discussion / Line following (tracing)

« on: July 04, 2015, 12:11:00 PM »

I am sure I am not the first one to think of this so I am not sure if this belongs on the Mach4 board or a general CNC board; however, with the flexibility of Mach4 it is more likely achievable than previously. Please forgive me if someone else has solved this problem in a non Mach4 manner - I have found I am ignorant in so many things having to do with CNC! The more I learn the more it appears I don't know.

Here is the question
Is there any way to use line tracing hardware as a 'modified' probe?

Problem I am trying to solve
I have a large gantery style CNC table and often we take paper patterns off of real world items. I put the paper patterns on the table and jog to different locations to get the X,Y coordinate. I then write these down and enter them into my CAD program (Vcarve pro seems to be the easiest). I would like to put the template on the table as a line drawing and tell the 'modified' probe to follow the line. We have tried taking a picture of the line drawing and then trace it in Vcarve pro but we lose the aspect ratio. We spend as much time trying to tweak the image as it would have taken us to do the manual probe.

Any thoughts?

186

Mach4 General Discussion / Order of tabs in a window

« on: July 04, 2015, 11:52:09 AM »

Is there a way I can move the Jog tab to be the first tab on the OperationsTabs window? I would like for this to be the first one to appear when I start the machine.

I have tried moving it in Screen Tree Manager but I have not had any success.

Thanks,
Peter

187

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 Bug Reports

« on: July 04, 2015, 11:48:33 AM »

If I use a button to select a jog increment (e.g., JogInc.2) the TextJogInc does not seem to know about the change. It continues to show whatever the last value that was achieved by using the btnCycleJogInc.

Am I missing a parameter or is this a bug.

188

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: MDI input (Abs & Inc) through DRO to move axis....a working example

« on: July 04, 2015, 11:43:40 AM »

just delete the LED and replace it with a toggle button. Toggle buttons have a lot of features that you may want.

Louie - I tried this but the toggle button did not know when the other toggle button was depressed. Remember I was trying to do this to change between continuous and incremental steps on the Jog. If the machine was on continuous and I pressed incremental the other button did not know what was happening and would continue to appear like it was on. Perhaps it is best to look at what I was trying to do (see attached).

I am remedial and need REALLY big buttons to do common tasks or emergency tasks (like stop the machine).

189

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: MDI input (Abs & Inc) through DRO to move axis....a working example

« on: July 03, 2015, 08:25:33 PM »

Yea Success!!!!!

I now can send X or Y flying all over the place. Thanks Louie

One other question -- what does the Hidden box do? I tried to make a home button and place it over the LED on the main screen. That way the axis would home when you clicked on the red LED. I thought it would be easy as placing a button over the LED, hiding the button and then demoting the LED to level 1 to place it behind the LED. It did not work. I resorted to a small button on the top.

190

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: MDI input (Abs & Inc) through DRO to move axis....a working example

« on: July 02, 2015, 09:27:23 PM »

Louie,

I tried to implement your DRO box this evening. I think I am doing everything right but the machine is not moving. I have attached screen shots of the DRO setup and the code. I am very new to Lua so I am not sure if I am inadvertently doing something wrong.