Messages

1

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: New Forum!

« on: February 16, 2020, 12:46:13 AM »

I would love to see a section on whats new in each release along with any documentation on the new features.

Look in the change log. 
ftp://www.machsupport.com/Mach4/DevlopmentVersions/ChangeLog.txt

Steve

2

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Create elements in Mach 4

« on: February 16, 2020, 12:41:23 AM »

The bolt hole wizard is a good example.  It is designed to run as a stand alone wizard OR inside of a Lua panel.  To test it, just copy the bolt hole wizard code into the paste buffer and then paste it into the LUA panel's script. 

You will see the switch code in there that is similar to what SwiftyJ mentioned.  If the mcLuaPanelParent variable is not NIL, then the bolt hole wizard knows that it is running inside a Lua panel.  Otherwise, it is running as a stand alone wizard and will create a frame.

It is important to realize that wxFormBuilder will most likely NOT generate drop in code.  Use it to generate the user interface and then cut and paste the needed code into your panel script. 

Steve

3

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Problems - Win10 update + PMDX_424 + LUA

« on: February 16, 2020, 12:31:18 AM »

The mcLua.mcc file is recreated each time that m4 starts.  It reads all macros (*.mcs) for that profile and then outputs the compiled code to the mcLua.mcc file.  It appears that that file is not being made due to either lack of permission or that there is an error in one of the macros that it is compiling.  Are there any other error messages thrown before that one?

It is not a permissions problem.  There is a source file (.mcs) that has an error in it. 

As rhtuttle said, the mcLua.mcc file gets built the first time you hit cycle start if it doesn't exist.  Each msc file gets "compiled" into a .mcc file.  And then all of the .mcc files are rolled up to create one mcLua.mcc file.  If a source file has an error, there won't be a resulting .mcc file for it and there definitely won't be a mcLua.mcc file created. 

The easiest way to find the problem child is to launch mach, then choose Operator->Open Script Editor.  Then open up EACH .mcs file in your macro directory and compile it.  The compile option is under the Project menu of the Zerobrane editor.  Eventually, you will see a file give an error there. 

Steve

4

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: New to jogging/ non g-code moves

« on: February 05, 2020, 04:50:11 PM »

The way THC works is by overriding the Z axis with an out of band (non coordinated axis).  So Craig has again hit the nail upon the head.  You can jog out of band axes via velocity or incrementally.

I don't have time to write this out in code, but I will give a general synapses of how it would work.

Override the Z axis with say OOB1. 
Have the PLC script track an input signal (sig lib)
If the signal changes from low to high, jog the OOB axis up .050".
If the signal changes from high to low, jog the OOB axis down .050" (if required).

Not terribly complicated, but not a one liner either.  It is left as an exercise for the user to implement it. 

Steve

5

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 Lathe. Missing tool change script.

« on: February 03, 2020, 01:27:01 AM »

Yeah, it is indeed not there.  I guess the guys that do the installer took them out for some reason.  I will inquire. 

Steve

6

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: MACH 4 LATHE POST

« on: February 02, 2020, 05:57:34 PM »

It should work with any Generic ganuc post.  We support both the single line and double line formats of G76.

Steve

7

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Manual Tool Change with Probe: How to check if position is correct?

« on: February 02, 2020, 05:53:24 PM »

This is because you have an older parameter.ini file with a newer build of Mach. 

With Mach closed, edit your parameters.ini file (in the profile's driectory) and set parameter 1801 to NIL.  This should fix the Capping Z minimum. 

Steve

8

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Modify Mach4 Wizards?

« on: February 02, 2020, 05:41:18 PM »

The lathe canned cycles came from Mach Motion.  It was their donation to the hobby world and we thank them.  But the source code is indeed closed and signing an NDA with us is useless because we don't have the source code at all. 

Note that if you have an industrial license, the lathe canned cycles will not function.  Because it is a Hobby only feature. 

Steve

9

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Touch Screen Monitor with M4

« on: February 02, 2020, 05:32:09 PM »

This MDI has an alpha keypad now since a while.  Mult-iline input even.  Try a development version from the FTP site.

Steve

10

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: 2 separate displays with independent screens, is it possible?

« on: February 02, 2020, 03:03:53 PM »

There is also Mach4GUIR.exe.  This is the remote GUI that is meant for controlling a Mach instance remotely.  But in this instance, you would just run it on the same machine and point it to 127.0.0.1 (local host IP address). 

First, design a screen that you want to use on the other monitor.  In this example, I'll name this screen "myAlternateScreen".  Do this with your current profile (you will switch back to your current screen later).  The screen that is to run on the remote GUI cannot have a tool path and you can't load G code files from it.  I think those are the only two restrictions at the moment.  Once you have the remote screen designed (and Mach4GUI.exe running with your current scree and profile), you can launch the Mach4GUIR.exe program like this:

Mach4GUIR -r 127.0.0.1 -s myAlternateScreen

As I said, Mach has to be running already before you launch the remote screen.  This could be automated in the screen load script of the primary MachGUI.exe. 

os.execut("Mach4GUIR -r 127.0.0.1 -s myAlternateScreen")

To terminate the remote GUI along with the primary GUI, you will have to do some register based communications between the GUI. 

On the remote GUI (pseudocode) :

if (some register equals 1) then
   scr.Exit(true)
end

Steve