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Mach4 Plugins / Re: XHC WB04 plugin
« on: April 28, 2021, 11:43:23 PM »
Fist off, the Fn "function" button is orange, which would lead one to believe that the orange labeled part of the button is what is run when the Fn button is held down. However, if the MPG is setup this way, the screen does not properly display the Spindle Speed or Feed Rate override. Those values are supposed to be displayed when either of the Feed+/Feed- or Spindle+ of Spindle- keys are pressed. But instead, the firmware acts properly when the buttons are setup as if the Fn button should be blue!
So the default setup on the MPG is to act as though the Fn button is blue. Just pretend. Use your imagination.
And the Fn button has to be depresses to get any of the Macro functions. In this mode, the Feed Rate and Spindle Override are displayed correctly. Pressing a Feed or Spindle key once displays either the Feed Rate or Or the Spindle Speed, respectively. Pressing a Feed or Spindle key again will start to adjust either the Feed Override or Spindle Override, respectively.
However, this is NOT how the Mach 3 plugin (written by some XHC people, I guess) worked. So I put an option in the plugin config to operate like the Mach 3 plugin where the Orange Fn button does indeed have to be depressed to get the orange labeled functions. But at the sacrifice of the proper update of the Feed Rate and Spindle Override values.
Other than that, the axis DROs and other values display correctly, within reason. Again, I wish I could fix that firmware! The rest of the MPG is pretty decent. Not up to a Vista CNC MPG's standards, but close. The screen refresh is ok, but not instant. But it doesn't need to be instant. I would much rather watch the DROs on the Mach screen anyway. But the DROs on the MPG are good for validation.
Another thing I noticed is that the MPG rounds the DROs a bit. It can show 4 places to the right of the decimal. But say the the X axis is really at 0.00015" and the Mach DRO shows 0.0001 because it is only showing 4 digits, the MPG DRO will show 0.0002. It will round up! Not a big thing as most of us mere mortals don't have machines that are accurate to the tenth of a thousandth and we really don't cut any materials with that much dimensionally stability when the temperature changes. And again, one could just look at the Mach screen to see the real value.
Steve
So the default setup on the MPG is to act as though the Fn button is blue. Just pretend. Use your imagination.
And the Fn button has to be depresses to get any of the Macro functions. In this mode, the Feed Rate and Spindle Override are displayed correctly. Pressing a Feed or Spindle key once displays either the Feed Rate or Or the Spindle Speed, respectively. Pressing a Feed or Spindle key again will start to adjust either the Feed Override or Spindle Override, respectively. However, this is NOT how the Mach 3 plugin (written by some XHC people, I guess) worked. So I put an option in the plugin config to operate like the Mach 3 plugin where the Orange Fn button does indeed have to be depressed to get the orange labeled functions. But at the sacrifice of the proper update of the Feed Rate and Spindle Override values.
Other than that, the axis DROs and other values display correctly, within reason. Again, I wish I could fix that firmware! The rest of the MPG is pretty decent. Not up to a Vista CNC MPG's standards, but close. The screen refresh is ok, but not instant. But it doesn't need to be instant. I would much rather watch the DROs on the Mach screen anyway. But the DROs on the MPG are good for validation.
Another thing I noticed is that the MPG rounds the DROs a bit. It can show 4 places to the right of the decimal. But say the the X axis is really at 0.00015" and the Mach DRO shows 0.0001 because it is only showing 4 digits, the MPG DRO will show 0.0002. It will round up! Not a big thing as most of us mere mortals don't have machines that are accurate to the tenth of a thousandth and we really don't cut any materials with that much dimensionally stability when the temperature changes. And again, one could just look at the Mach screen to see the real value.
Steve
