Messages

181

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: How to understand Spindle readings? I am confused..

« on: April 24, 2019, 04:03:34 PM »

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182

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Can I create an Library of functions outside the Screen Load Script?

« on: April 24, 2019, 01:45:58 PM »

Thanks!

I'm going to have to watch that about 10 times to get it, but that looks perfect!

183

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: How to understand Spindle readings? I am confused..

« on: April 24, 2019, 09:57:07 AM »

Analog calibration is required across industry, most hardware will have some way of adjusting this. Haven't used PoKeys so I cannot comment directly there. I don't think the DMM DYN2 has software configuration for that. Alternatively you can adjust the Mach 4 gear ratios to accommodate this.

184

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: How to understand Spindle readings? I am confused..

« on: April 24, 2019, 09:43:54 AM »

According to the Mach 4 API:

- TrueRPM is the measured RPM from the motor index pulse multiplied by the feedback ratio (this is the speed of your tool)
- MotorRPM This is not the spindle RPM!!! It is the motor RPM without any ratios for ranges (pulleys), etc...
- CommandRPM is the current value set by the S code (will be non-zero even after M05)
- SensorRPM is the RPM of the spindle at the spindle sensor and does not include any feedback ratio.

185

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: How to understand Spindle readings? I am confused..

« on: April 24, 2019, 09:38:33 AM »

I'll do some research and try to get back to you, but if you go to the diagnostics tab in the top right corner, it shows the full calculation of spindle RPM with DRO's for each piece of data and the math operators between them. This should be the easiest way to understand what it is doing.

186

Mach4 General Discussion / Can I create an Library of functions outside the Screen Load Script?

« on: April 24, 2019, 09:20:58 AM »

I have 30 or so custom functions that I wrote to interface over serial with some servo drives. Each one reads or writes a unique piece of data such as servoGetPositon(). These are taking up a lot of space in my screen load script and I would like to move them somewhere else to maintain readability without changing the functionality.

I am not a programmer so the phrasing I'm going to use is probably wrong, but is there a way to save all these functions in a "library file" and "include" this at the top of the screen load script? something like #include "servoScript.h" from C++? Does Mach/LUA support this?

Thanks!

187

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 Bar Graph Display Element and Registers

« on: April 24, 2019, 09:15:11 AM »

Would it be possible to add a wx.wxGauge to the screen? I can programmatically set the value of this, but I have no idea if Mach 4 allows use of graphics from the wxWidgets library that are not built in.

188

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 Bar Graph Display Element and Registers

« on: April 24, 2019, 09:12:02 AM »

Just wanted to follow up on this post. I am still unsure if there is a way to interface with this object (or the rotary gauge either) for non system variables. If anyone has a way to do this I would be very interested.

Also the only way I know to display the data from my global register is a DRO. If there is any other elegant solution for showing this data, please let me know!

189

Mach4 General Discussion / Mach 4 Bar Graph Display Element and Registers

« on: April 20, 2019, 07:25:04 PM »

Another question for everyone. I have written a serial script that is able to monitor the spindle load of my machine in real time. I'd like to add a bar graph in the spindle area which follows the value of the load, preferably colored green for 0-100%, yellow for 100-150%, and red for 150%-250%.

The bar chart display object looks perfect for what I am trying to do, but I cannot figure out a way to get to the value saved in my global register. It looks like it supports only Mach 4 internal values. Is this accurate? If so, would there be a possibility of expanding the functionality of this object in the future? Are there any workarounds to accomplish what I am trying to do? Thanks much!

190

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Is a short blocking delay in PLC script acceptable?

« on: April 19, 2019, 05:15:46 PM »

Been really busy so not much time in the shop, but I did make the serial code a bit more robust with proper error checking and handling. Now Mach 4/LUA no longer crashes when a serial packet is missed:)

I have tested polling the drives at a rate of 10Hz while jogging with the MPG and while running a simple Gcode program and found no problems. The serial program misses 0 packets while Mach is Idle and maybe 2-3 per minute when it is running code. This does not pose a problem for me at all.

I am going to finalize the serial code this weekend and make many more servo functions (right now the only one I have prints the DC bus voltage). Each function will handle errors differently, so a function which updates the display with information will not care if a single packet is missed, but one which defines the pitch of a thread for rigid tapping would need to retry the transmission or emergency stop the machine before breaking a tap.

The next function I want to create will copy the spindle load to a register to be displayed on a bar graph.

I talked with the guys at Warp9TD some more and they suggested to watch the ESS diagnostics window to make sure the buffer stays sufficiently full while running my code. It does, however I find that running the diagnostic tool really messes up the motion generated by the machine both in MPG mode as well as when running code. As soon as I close the window, machine motion goes back to normal.