Messages

161

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: No Pings from my Smoothstepper.

« on: August 06, 2019, 09:58:34 AM »

Support for the Smoothstepper is excellent on the Warp9TD forum (not saying it is bad here  ). Don't be afraid to reach out for help there too.

I have 2 Network Interface Cards (NICs) on my PC. I use one for the Smoothstepper and one for the internet. I have never seen issues with running the internet on my machine PC, but I disable the port before running Mach regardless.

The Smoothstepper requires a static IP address for your computer (not DHCP) so that will prevent you from accessing the internet on that port unless you do some non-standard configuration of your router/modem upstream. I would not recommend running internet and motion control traffic on the same network under any conditions.

162

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Has anyone made a Parker 6k8 Motion Controller work with Mach 3/4?

« on: July 30, 2019, 03:02:59 PM »

Cool, thanks Craig.

Nice looking piece of hardware.

163

Mach4 General Discussion / Has anyone made a Parker 6k8 Motion Controller work with Mach 3/4?

« on: July 30, 2019, 02:48:12 PM »

Just curious...

I happened across the Parker 6k8 8 axis ethernet motion controller. It looks like an awesome motion platform, 8 axis with feedback, open or closed loop, Step/Dir or +/- 10V analog, expandable digital and analog I/o, etc.

Has anyone ever used one of these with Mach 4? Do you know if a plugin is available?

Mike

164

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Cycle Timer not working - 4162

« on: July 10, 2019, 11:47:48 AM »

Figured it could be that. I'll load a default profile and try it out.

165

Mach4 General Discussion / Cycle Timer not working - 4162

« on: July 10, 2019, 09:52:13 AM »

Hi All,

I don't think I have ever seen my cycle timer work in any version of Mach 4 (I'm at 4162). It is stuck at 0:22 at all times. Is this a common thing? Is it easy to correct?

Thanks,

Mike

166

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Lathe Electronic Leadscrew / Gearbox

« on: June 20, 2019, 12:02:08 PM »

I fear there may be some confusion between the original OP's question and the responses which have been given thus far (or maybe I'm the confused one!).

I believe jasonbrame is stating that he has a MANUAL lathe without a full threading gearbox. He wishes to drive the threading leadscrew with a closed loop stepper motor rather than gearing it physically to the spindle. He hopes to use Mach 4 to read a spindle mounted encoder and allow him to select a thread pitch or feedrate with which the leadscrew will be electronically geared. I don't think he stated he is planning on using the machine as a CNC and the electronic leadscrew will be a function of the manual lathe (similar to the screw on a Hardinge HLVH).

I don't have the expertise to comment on the best way to do this. Sure you could read and match RPM in a macro, but you'd never keep the correct position. Maybe you can start a threading cycle of infinite length whenever the spindle starts? Some servos that I have used have this functionality fully built into the drive.

167

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: some strange point on last mach4 version

« on: June 17, 2019, 09:30:34 AM »

@KatzYaakov, I took the jump to move many of my functions into modules. It was not hard at all, and for me it was really helpful to clean up my screen load script. I wouldn't be afraid to give it a try.

168

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Spindle RPM DRO doesn't work after migration to Build 4162

« on: May 17, 2019, 11:51:57 AM »

I created a custom screenset and restored that, however I did not modify the default behavior of the DRO at any point. I just have the spindle index going to an input on the ESS, then have that mapped to the spindle index data in Mach 4.  A recent change in the ESS firmware changed some of the register names, I wonder if the DRO is pointing to the old name now?

169

Mach4 General Discussion / Spindle RPM DRO doesn't work after migration to Build 4162

« on: May 17, 2019, 09:32:46 AM »

Hi All,

A few weeks ago, I switched over to Mach 4 build 4162. I was successful in getting all my screens and setting imported correctly, however the spindle DRO (which showed true RPM from my spindle index sensor) now sits at 0. I don't think I've changed any scripts or settings since the migration and it worked well beforehand.

Does anyone know any tricks to get this running again?

Thanks!

170

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Making a connection through rs232 in Mach4

« on: May 16, 2019, 12:47:10 PM »

Lol, didn't even see this was 4 years old when I replied. Glad to help. Been using the serial communications to pull data from my servo drives and it is very reliable. I have a lot more info on it if anyone needs it, but it is a niche application.