Messages

31

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 G01 interpolation

« on: August 23, 2016, 04:24:56 PM »

Also on the general tab you can set up the motion mode to be exact stop.

I made a number of squares that used different feed speeds in order to predict what would happen if I used constant motion mode.

32

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Unable to complete RefAllAxisHome

« on: August 23, 2016, 08:20:47 AM »

I am not sure if Mach 4 has implemented the referencing of both ends of a gantry axis. I know this was not working a month or so ago. It could be my plugin. Try removing the A axis from the homing sequence and see if that works.

You might want to send a note to your motion controller manf and ask if this is currently supported. I square my gantry by running it into the stops. Not optimal but works for now.

33

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 V2 Windows 10

« on: August 22, 2016, 04:57:40 PM »

On my windows 7 computer I was able to not agree to the Microsoft Licensing agreement and the Windows 10 upgrade went away. We will see if it stays gone.

34

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: MACH4 CNC3040 Spindle rpm, PMW, control

« on: August 21, 2016, 01:37:09 PM »

Do you have the spindle set up correctly in M4? Also, there may be a spindle control in your motion control plugin. Make sure you have the min and max defined correctly. It sounds like you may have them backwards (not sure if that would work because I have never tried it).

35

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: mcX360 Mach4 Controller Plugin

« on: August 19, 2016, 02:35:32 PM »

I have an Xbox One controller and it works GREAT!

Love it thanks

36

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: CNC movements not smooth

« on: August 19, 2016, 02:30:27 PM »

I do use the spindle control for turning on and off my laser. It works pretty well with Vcarve Pro. You can see how I do it in the post processor for Vcarve.

Attached is the post processor for Vcarve. You need to change the file extension back to .pp from .txt

I also attached a file for a humming bird.

Let me know how it works

37

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: CNC movements not smooth

« on: August 19, 2016, 09:32:58 AM »

BTW - I am using a PMDX motion controller board. You may want to check with your motion controller to see if there are any settings that may cause this problem.

38

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: CNC movements not smooth

« on: August 19, 2016, 09:29:28 AM »

Phil,

I assume you have your Mach 4 set to constant velocity and not exact stop. I am using a laser on M4 and don't appear to be seeing the same problem. I generally use it for art work where I fill in areas with hatch or solids so there are LOTS of lines to be drawn. The Gcode files get very big even for little pieces. In order to get a dark fill with the laser the lines are separated by .005" so it takes a lot of them to make a fill.

Are you turning off your laser between the moves? If not there should be a small black dot where the machine stops. I have really been able to get some remarkable pieces out of M4. I use Vcarve Pro as my CAD/CAM. I had to write a new post processor to get everything to work correctly.

39

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Problems with upgrade to 4.2.0.2914

« on: August 16, 2016, 08:42:52 AM »

The guys at PMDX were great in helping solve the problem.

Great after sale service!

40

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Starting off with MACH4 and Macros

« on: August 15, 2016, 12:03:09 PM »

I am using a gantry style CNC with an 8' gantry. I use the PMDX motion controller and Mach 4. It is simple to set up the slave axis in Mach 4. My motors turn in the opposite directions on the slave and this was simple to assign. Also, once you slave a motor in Mach 4 it will force you to keep the velocity and acceleration for both master and slave the same. Not that I have ever tried to set the master and slave to different values and seen the Mach 4 error box 

It is very easy on Mach 4.

Also, I am no Lua coder, however, I have been able to add lots of buttons and Lua scripts. I tend to find something close to what I want to do and just copy it.

There is a lot of new stuff being made for Mach 4.

I am not sure if this would work for you, but perhaps you could have a different folder with Mach 4 for each configuration of the machine you would want to use. I know you can have multiple copies of Mach4 in different folders. You could have an icon on your desktop for each configuration of your machine. Mach 4 will not let you run two configurations at the same time so it would avoid conflicts or race conditions. I would do something like make the background of the screen a different color so there would be no doubt about what version of the machine the operator was running.

This would seem to be a much easier way to approach the machine you are talking about, however, I am sure the pros on this board can offer a better option.