Messages

241

Mach4 General Discussion / Mach 4 crashes within 3-5 minutes of starting a Gcode program

« on: February 11, 2019, 09:12:17 AM »

I just migrated from Mach 3 to Mach 4 and I am still running the demo version of the software. I understand the limitations of the demo timeout but I am fairly certain that the following issue is completely unrelated to the timeout. I wanted to ask here before I jump to conclusions and call it a bug.

System Setup:
Computer: Allen Bradley VersaView 5400 PC, 4 core Intel Atom E3845 chipset @ 1.90GHz, 4.0Gb of memory and runs Win 10.
Computer #2: HP Omen laptop, Intel i7 6700HQ 3.5GHz, 32Gb memory, running Win 10
Mach 4 version: 4.2.0.3804 Unlicensed
Warp 9 Tech ESS plugin version: 232 (1.0.1.232)

The issue I have run into over the weekend with Mach 4 is that it hangs after 3-5 minutes of running code. This is the demo version right now, but it is not the timeout (I have seen the timeout message and know what it looks like).  The machine will be running and BANG, all the servos stop dead but remain enabled. The software ESTOP does not shut them down (thankfully I also have a hardware ESTOP to kill drive power). The Mach 4 greys out and the cursor is the blue Win 10 waiting circle. I cannot click any on screen buttons and task manager lists the program as "not responding". This happens repeatably both running Artsoft sample GCode (roadrunner and outhouse) as well as a 2 hour long program I recently ran without issues on Mach 3. The program never recovers and has to be closed with task manager. The Smoothstepper remains waiting for Mach signals and won't reconnect when Mach opens leading to me having to power cycle the machine.

At first I thought that this was due to an underpowered computer. The VersaView 5400 computer that is on the machine runs on a 4 core Intel Atom E3845 chipset @ 1.90GHz. It has 4.0Gb of memory and runs Win 10. This is very much on the bottom edge of the system performance requirements for Mach 4 (especially the memory), but there are posts in MachSupport about people not having issues running mach on much less powerful computers without issues. During loading of Mach 4 the CPU is between 70-80%, at idle it is 30-40%, when loading a Gcode program 70-80% and while running the machine it holds quite steady at the mid 60's%. The memory utilization never got above 2.0Gb (50%). This all seems like the computer was doing just fine, but I was convinced that this computer just didn't have the guts to run Mach 4. Until...

To test the situation, I installed the same version of Mach 4 and ESS utilities onto my laptop (Intel i7 6700HQ 3.5GHz, 32Gb of memory, Win 10). I copied the configuration file from the CNC computer to my laptop and connected to the smoothstepper without issues. I ran the same test files and sure enough, Mach 4 crashed about 5 minutes into the code same as the other computer. I tried this several more times and had the same results. I then tried running the machine from Mach 3 on my laptop and it finished the 2 hour and 20 minute program with no issue whatsoever.

My experience is that once I start running code, within 5 minutes Mach 4 will crash and become unresponsive. This seems to not be related to the computer it is being run on, and so far doesn't seem like it is caused by an underpowered PC. I have gotten the demo timeout message while jogging the motors, but this is not what I'm used to seeing.

Any experience or thoughts would be greatly appreciated. My first impressions of Mach 4 were very good, but if I can't run my machine without the program crashing then I'll probably have to stay with Mach 3.

Edit: I remember testing mach 4 on this laptop a year ago without any other issues than the demo timeout. Is it possible that I am having issues with this specific build of Mach 4 or the ESS plugin?

242

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 CNC Controller Build and asking for LUA scripting help

« on: February 08, 2019, 09:53:46 AM »

Just a short update on this project. Control panel is wired and installed. Panel mount PC is installed. Servos are hooked up and running on an old Mach 3 test program. Next step will be to setup the PC for Mach 4 and start checking out the I/O.  Will be asking for help very soon!

243

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 LED's

« on: February 05, 2019, 11:17:05 AM »

Wow. I honestly really like that screen layout.  Never thought I'd like the "old school" machine controller view, but it is simple and fast to find information. Nice Job.  I'm sure you're keeping the design proprietary as you said it is your business, but if you'd ever consider sharing the screen set I would love to try out that setup.

244

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 CNC Controller Build and asking for LUA scripting help

« on: February 05, 2019, 08:43:37 AM »

Craig,

Thanks for the very detailed response! Your plan you laid out in the last paragraph is exactly where I am hoping to go with this. I need the power drawbar and enable signals, MPG would be incredibly useful, drives communications... mostly fun. I added all the wiring ahead of time so all that would be required in the future would be software configuration.

The separate axis enable and spindle enable signals would allow me to release the servo locked spindle to check the cutter or get a pin wrench on it. The link you sent looks like exactly like what I will need to do (unbinding the button script and throwing my own in). I can't imagine it would be hard to set an output from a button script.

For 3), are there native timers to LUA or do you need to build your own by incrementing a counter?

For 4), I will only have the single software ESTOP, so I should use my terminology correctly, but I have lots of inputs which should trigger a machine stop (requiring a reset) with a custom message.

On 5), I purchased a low cost MPG that has two rotary switches (axis select and resolution), an ESTOP which is wired into my ESTOP string, and the actual MPG. It was only $50 or so but it is pretty rugged. I already have all those input wired into the smoothstepper.

Even without any of the communications in 6), the servo drives will do exactly what they are meant to do. I never planned on relying on the communications. That being said if the simple statement "I can write the string 'abc' over the serial port from Mach 4" is true, then I have 100% confidence that I can make this communication work, and it would just be putting the data in the right place on the screen.


Thanks again for the quick response!

245

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 CNC Controller Build and asking for LUA scripting help

« on: February 04, 2019, 12:19:16 PM »

Also for anyone who is interested, this panel will be setup on a G0704 for the time being, however is was built with growth in mind, so the panel should be easy to hook up to a much larger machine if I outgrow this one.

246

Mach4 General Discussion / Mach 4 CNC Controller Build and asking for LUA scripting help

« on: February 04, 2019, 12:12:15 PM »

Note: If this is a double post, I'm sorry. Something happened while uploading this the first time and I don't believe it actually posted.

Hi All,

I am nearing completion of a CNC mill upgrade using AB Ultra 3000 servo drives and migrating from Mach 3 to Mach 4. I have a number of thing I hope to accomplish and I am asking for resources or advice on where to find information on them. See the attached image of the control panel.

1) Basic Mach 4 configuration: I feel pretty good on setting up the Smoothstepper and configuring basic I/O. I have a working test setup in Mach 3 so matching settings shouldn't be too terrible.

2) Basic Servo enable logic: I would like to add buttons to the screen to separately enable the motion axes and servo spindle using digital outputs. I have watched as much as I could on the screen editor and feel pretty solid on this, however I haven't yet gotten to the point where I feel comfortable using LUA to set outputs using on screen buttons. I knew Mach 3 VBS very well, but this is a whole new adventure! Any links to sample code would be greatly appreciated.

3) Basic power drawbar control: I have a pushbutton on the machine which I will need to link to a pair of outputs for drawbar release and clamp. I'm assuming this will be a very similar script to #2 except it adds a timer.

4)I have 3 separate "ESTOP" type inputs (normal system ESTOP, excessive cabinet temperature, DC supply or contactor failure). I'd like them all to stop the machine, but have custom messages for each type of input.

5) Pendant interface: I have a MPG which I'd like to set up as my primary method of jogging the machine. I have no clue if this is native functionality to Mach 4 or if scripting is required for each function. Advice or examples would be wonderful here.

6) RS485 ASCII to drives: Here is where I think things will get complicated    . I am controlling all of the servo axes using step/direction or quaderature outputs from the Smoothstepper. That will get just about everything working by itself, however the Ultra 3000 drives I am using have an amazing feature set that is available through serial communication. I have tested these features and find they work very very well. For anyone interested, here is a link to the manual that shows all the settings and data available over serial (https://literature.rockwellautomation.com/idc/groups/literature/documents/rm/2098-rm003_-en-p.pdf).

In order to access this data, I will need a LUA script to write ASCII data over my computer's embedded serial port. I have seen a small handful of people posting about trying to use LUARS232 package/module, however never anything definitively successful. I am hoping to work with everyone on this wonderful forum to get this working. If I can, here are some of the things I will be able to do:

• Absolute homing using encoder position data stored in the drive. I may never need to home to a switch again!
• Real time motor load monitoring
• Drive diagnostics like temperature, amperage, voltage, etc.
• Reading fault codes and displaying them in a user readable format in Mach
• A ton more that I haven't yet thought of!

I will be so grateful for anyone who has experience with any of these things to share their knowledge. I will continue to post updates on this build as I go along, as well as answer any questions there might be. My day job is designing industrial control systems, so I have a ton of electrical panel, PLC, and software experience (just not with Mach 4... yet).

Thanks,

-Mike

247

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Understanding Mach 4 LUA scripting capabilities

« on: February 04, 2019, 12:08:36 PM »

Thanks for everyone's responses her and sorry it has taken me so long to get back. Work picked up and I haven't had a ton of time to commit to projects lately.

But I think it is time to take the leap into Mach 4 (I will be purchasing my license in the next few days).

cbyrdtopper, joeaverage, and smurph. It sounds (based on what you guys have said) that there is nothing I posted about that I shouldn't be able to accomplish. I've spent a lot of time reading the manuals and I feel that I have at least a rough understanding of how LUA will work. I have a few very simple scripts that I want to write first, and will work my way into the more complicated stuff. Its great to know that LUA is fast, and it seems to be a lot more flexible that VBS/cypress enable was in MACH 3.

For now I'll stick to the basics and avoid trying to incorporate what I'm comfortable in (C++) into what seems to work well (LUA). Thanks again for all the advice!

248

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Understanding Mach 4 LUA scripting capabilities

« on: January 16, 2019, 12:45:01 PM »

Chad,

Thanks for the response. I've been using Mach 3 for years and I am very comfortable with the VB scripting. I've done many custom applications over the years including a pre-load tool changer on MODBUS. The LUA script looks very powerful, but it is a little intimidating to a non-programmer who hasn't used it before and needs to recreate my old Mach 3 scripts 

The serial port question was mostly focused around writing raw text out of the port, it wouldn't need to be a MODBUS protocol. I will download and read through the documentation.

5) It looks like the generalized LUA (not necessarily for Mach 4) has tons of libraries and can interface with compiled C++ code. Does the Mach 4 version of LUA allow you to add libraries? Can you write compiled C++ code and call it from the LUA script?

249

Mach4 General Discussion / Understanding Mach 4 LUA scripting capabilities

« on: January 16, 2019, 11:22:07 AM »

Hello all,

I am preparing to switch to Mach 4 upon completion of a machine rebuild and I am trying learn the extents of the capabilities of the LUA scripting included with Mach 4. I have a few questions which I'll list below:

1) Where can I find an inclusive list of the LUA functions included within Mach 4? I know LUA is a general purpose language, but I'm looking for something akin to the Mach 3 macro programmers reference which the Mach specific instructions and constructs are enumerated.

2) I'd like to formulate ASCII serial strings to communicate with 3rd party servo drives. This would be for diagnostic information, not motion control. Is LUA capable of communicating through a hardware RS232 serial port? What about USB?

3) What is the update rate of the LUA main script? I know there are screen load and unload scripts, but I understand there to be one that runs fairly continuously. Will this hamper machine performance, or is it only executed with the remaining computational power after motion control?

4) Are there any good examples of LUA scripts which others have written that can be referenced to help create my own?

Thanks in advance for any information you can provide. These are the questions which I couldn't find answers to so far, but if I missed them, a link to the page would be very much appreciated.