Topics

11

General Mach Discussion / Version .025 is online

« on: December 11, 2006, 03:56:24 AM »

Hi All:

Version .025 is online. It has a fix for a nasty A axis overspeed bug. It also asks a new user who has an active Estop if he'd liek the input switches fix so he can do a reset. Th efix button changes the low active on any signals stopping a reset, then warns to check all switches for proper function. This can, of course, be turned off on the spot with an "Dont ask" box.

2.00.025 is very close to having had all bugs fixed, couple minor ones remain to be fixed. Next development series (unnamed as yet is about to begin, it uses a new driver, so you will be able to run 2.00 with the next series as well shoudl you wish to. The next series will be very R&D'ish with many experiments underway such as S curve acceleration to reduce jerk in low accel systems. Many things in testing and teardown will go on in the next development series. I suspect the next series will be the final one. (Though Ive said that before. ).

My appologies to John Prentice for all the changes I have stuck in 2.0 as time went on, but thats over with, nothing more will be added to 2.0, only current problems will be fixed. Any further features wil go into the next series of the program. So Mach3's interface will no longer change, no more buttons will be added, or screen changes. It is now considered to be locked and static, only bug repairs will be done.

The next series is as yet, unnamed, "Mach-Quantum" has been suggested..I kinda like it, but kick in if you feel you have a better name. This next series will indeed be a quantum leap from Mach3, and many things will change over time. With the higher speeds that are possibel from external devices, many changes are required, new trajectory planning, Flash interfaces, kinematics.. its a whole new world..

Have no concerns about 2.00, it will be maintained quickly and bug searched frequently, it is very popular, and is seemingly quite stable in 99% of its functions. The few final bugs were very tough to crack, but we think we have almost all of them. As in any program, Im sure quirks exist, and when found will be killed, but Im worried about trying to shoehorn anythign more into it, it has grown too large as it is. (12Megs at final lock).

Those *.xb* file can be deleted if you like from your main folder, all backup xml's are now saved int he xmlbackups folder to keep things neat. Many stability fixes have been added, as well as internal montitors activated to seek out problems as they develop to help me find trouble. This last 2 months has turned me to hair and eyeballs in a very hard effort to debug and lock all this down. My deep gratitude to those who have aided me with small test files, numerous tests, and various reports. Without them it woudl have taken much longer.
While some of you have applogised profusely while supplying me with such bugs, you have helped us all greatly and I am very thankfull to you all. I know my responces have been a bit short or frustrated to some of you, take it only as a sign of being tired on my part. Its been a hellish two months, runnign an avergage of 13 hours a day of codeing and code searching. Ill be taking a long break soon to get my nerve up for some of the very complex stuff facing us. The next version, "Mach-Quantum" or whatever its called will cross the boundry from the hobbiest,small shop controller, to some of the complexities available only in very very expensive packages, I suspect it will be a monumental challenge in many respects, but its a place I feel we need to go.. Mach3 needs a nice long period of stabilising anyway, without us adding and tweaking as much as we have been. So by Christmas, its time to see just how far we can reach into the bag of tricks for the future..

Thanks, Have a great Holiday season..
Art
www.artofcnc.ca

12

General Mach Discussion / G-100 update (from art)

« on: December 06, 2006, 05:32:11 PM »

Hi all:

With all the discussion on the Pod and other external devices, I wanted to keep the G100 owners updated on whats going on, I know its been a long slog for you guys. (Hey I have one too. ) , so in order too keep the information coming out, I contacted Steve and had a discussion of whats up with G100. As some of you know,
we discovered alot of limitations in the current plugin, due mostly to the methodology of the way we dealt with it. (it was the first plugin written..). Ive learned alot since , and Steve has been working on an API for a programming interface to it. An awfull lot of problems were found and fixed.

The FPGA has been tightened and has monitoring in it, and a debug facility has been written to aid us in the final plugin version, It is underway, and though its taken awhile to get there, we hope youll see some action soon in terms of things changing and a new plugin with the current limitations gone. I did look this week at upgrading the plugin to clean it up interface wise, but its not worth doing out of context of the updated library, so be patient a bit longer and we'll have somethign for you. Now that the Pod is about done, we'll be pressing on in G100 land till we see some results that work well..

Ive heard from some discouraged with the time factor, but I must say 95% of the G100 owners have been quite patient and understanding, this note is to let you know your not forgotten and things are progressing. Having an API will be a boon and will help eliminate the current sporadic errors some get with trasnmisission timing. Im told (as much as I hate rabbits..) that I'm not really blaming the right component, th rabbit actually has lots of power left to do more complex functions, and the bottlenecks Ive faced were from other causes, so I may have been giving Rabbits a bum rap, it may be doing alot more work in future in final releases.. and the capability should be quite high. (As I said in previous letters, Id like to have quite a variety of devices in the end, all with various capabilities that can be matched to the end requirement of an application your using..

Anyway, I wont drone on, but I wanted to make sure no-one was getting discouraged thinking the Pod would replace the G100, or that you wouldnt get your firmware, while delayed for many reasons on both sides of the development equation, we will be working on it in earnest, and Ill keep you posted occasionally on where we are. When it gets close to testing phase, Ill ask you all for a list of those that have one, and will send you all updates as test runs as they are compiled..


Thanks,
Art
www.artofcnc.ca

13

General Mach Discussion / Version 2.020 is online

« on: December 01, 2006, 11:30:42 PM »

Hi All

Version 2.020 is online. It repairs various feedhold issues, a newly found error in velcoity calculation in small segment mixes at high speed. It also inclused a new LazyCam version.

Thanks,
Art
www.artofcnc.ca

14

Feature Requests / 5-Axis Kinematics.

« on: December 01, 2006, 01:02:06 AM »

Ok here it is. The Official start of my pain in the butt 5-axis begathon.

I would like Mach to do the math for tool length offset in a 5-axis machine.

Simple! 

Chad
 

15

Feature Requests / Stock and work probing

« on: December 01, 2006, 12:52:00 AM »

This could be tied together with the work offset post above.

I would like to see some more probing functions built in to mach. Things I would like to see are the ability to set the probe diameter, jog into the x and y edges and have mach set the dro's to 0,0. Also some basic measurment stuff would be great. The ability to to find the centers of holes, measure from one hole to another, basic cmm stuff.

Chad


ps. I know poll's have a section but i wanted an easy way to judge feedback.

16

Polls / What version of Mach are you using? (Voting poll)

« on: November 07, 2006, 04:52:54 PM »

I See a lot of people using Mach 2 and while it is a functioning version it is not as well supported, the vast majority of work is being done on Mach 3.

So if you are new user using Mach 2 please post and let us know why you chose Mach 2 over three.

Thanks 

Chad
 

By the way, If Mach 2 is working fine for you then by all means go with what works, I am just curious.

17

Tangent Corner / Ynneb web- video

« on: November 07, 2006, 06:32:23 AM »

What do you use to get videos shrunk to something reasonable and in a easy flash form like brian't "got my machine running" /!?



Chad

18

General Mach Discussion / Fog Buster - mist / flood coolent review

« on: October 20, 2006, 02:49:02 AM »

Just a little fyi for those looking at coolant options.

I received my fog buster today and after a day of playing with it I have to say that it is awesome. It is like a mister that doesn't atomize the coolant. You still get an air stream and coolant but you don't get the haze around the machine. It is adjustable from just air to a downpour of coolant and works very well.

I am not affiliated in any way just a happy consumer. linky:

http://www.fogbuster.com/frame.htm

Chad

19

General Mach Discussion / Tapping on a mill--- HELP !?!

« on: October 20, 2006, 02:26:28 AM »

Hi All,

I am making just for fun a optics breadboard. It is just a slab of 6061 with 8/32 tapped holes every 1/2 inch. For the first little one i am building it is 15 x15 grid of holes that works out to 225 holes to tap. My wrist hurts just thinking about it. I could do the old tap in the cordless drill trick but i was hoping to get them all straight and would like to figure out a way to do it on the mill.

I have a grex so rigid tapping is out of the question. I do have a cheapish auto reversing head that I can use in the mill but the problem is it reverses out at 1.75 times the down speed. The other problem it takes about 1 inch to engage the reverse gear.

So I would need a way to set up the grid, feed in at the pitch/rpm to the correct depth, rapid up about an inch then feed out at 1.75 times the pitch/rpm.  yuck.

Any one have any ideas??

thanks
Chad

This would be a great addition to the drilling operations wizards Brian? lol

20

General Mach Discussion / Kudos for the excellent support.

« on: October 03, 2006, 07:29:25 PM »

Just thought I would relate a little story about what happened today.

I have a converted Bridgeport style mill with a g100. I had been holding off on updating mach and the plug in because things were mostly working and I have some stuff to get done by this weekend. I was having a problem with mach and the g100 just stopping mid job. I know art has been working on this and it was probably time to update.
I updated to the latest 2.0g and the latest g100 plug in. I loaded gcode and did a dry cut and the thing would hang just after start, no jog no Nada. Not good.
I sent a couple of panicked emails to art and an hour later I had a new g100 plug in and have been cutting without problems sense.

Art and the artsoft team offer astonishing customer service, especially for the price.

Thanks!

Chad