Messages

21

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: trouble with rotary axis tool path

« on: July 08, 2023, 09:58:01 PM »

Make sure you have "Display A Axis Rotation" set to "Rotate around X" in the Toolpath tab of the control configuration. 

Steve

22

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: How to re-pack (zip) a Screenset?

« on: July 08, 2023, 06:19:10 PM »

You have to provide all of the files on the command line.  Here is an example of using unzip and zip:

Code: [Select]

C:\Mach4\Screens> mkdir wxMach
C:\Mach4\Screens> cd wxMach
C:\Mach4\Screens\wxMach> unzip wxMach.set

Archive:  wxMach.set
  inflating: screen.xml
  inflating: images/DRO_Icon.bmp
  inflating: images/ERRe.bmp
  inflating: images/TOOL1.BMP
  inflating: images/TOOL2.BMP
  inflating: images/TOOL3.BMP
  inflating: images/TOOL9.BMP
  inflating: images/TOOLT1.BMP
  inflating: images/TOOLT2.BMP
  inflating: images/TOOLT3.BMP
  inflating: images/TOOLT4.BMP
  inflating: images/TOOLT5.BMP
  inflating: images/TOOLT7.BMP
  inflating: images/TOOLT8.BMP
  inflating: images/TOOLT9.BMP
  inflating: images/Tool10.bmp
  inflating: images/Toolt10.bmp
  inflating: images/X+ Edge Finder Disabled.png
  inflating: images/X+ Edge Finder.png
  inflating: images/background-inputsigs.jpg
  inflating: images/background-lower.jpg
  inflating: images/background-outputsigs.jpg
  inflating: images/background-port1pins.jpg
  inflating: images/background-right.jpg
  inflating: images/background.jpg
  inflating: images/btn-background.jpg
  inflating: images/button-4+.jpg
  inflating: images/button-4-.jpg
  inflating: images/button-large-arrow-down.jpg
  inflating: images/button-large-arrow-left.jpg
  inflating: images/button-large-arrow-up.jpg
  inflating: images/button-large-down.jpg
 extracting: images/button-large-up-g54.png
 extracting: images/button-large-up-g55.png
 extracting: images/button-large-up-g56.png
 extracting: images/button-large-up-g57.png
 extracting: images/button-large-up-g58.png
 extracting: images/button-large-up-g59.png
  inflating: images/button-large-up-savetoff.png
  inflating: images/button-large-up-savewoff.png
  inflating: images/button-large-up-sto.png
  inflating: images/button-large-up.jpg
  inflating: images/button-load.jpg
  inflating: images/button-small-arrow-down.jpg
  inflating: images/button-small-arrow-up.jpg
  inflating: images/button-small-down.jpg
 extracting: images/button-small-led-tcneg.png
 extracting: images/button-small-led-tcpos.png
  inflating: images/button-small-regen.jpg
  inflating: images/button-small-up-atz.png
  inflating: images/button-small-up-gozero.png
 extracting: images/button-small-up-jogmode.png
 extracting: images/button-small-up-jogstep.png
 extracting: images/button-small-up-minus.png
 extracting: images/button-small-up-plus.png
 extracting: images/button-small-up-ref4.png
 extracting: images/button-small-up-refx.png
 extracting: images/button-small-up-refy.png
 extracting: images/button-small-up-refz.png
 extracting: images/button-small-up-reset.png
 extracting: images/button-small-up-spincw.png
  inflating: images/button-small-up.jpg
 extracting: images/button-small-up.png
  inflating: images/button-small-viewmode.jpg
  inflating: images/button-up-closegcode.jpg
  inflating: images/button-up-code.jpg
  inflating: images/button-up-diag.jpg
  inflating: images/button-up-editgcode.jpg
  inflating: images/button-up-hold.jpg
  inflating: images/button-up-home.jpg
  inflating: images/button-up-loadgcode.jpg
  inflating: images/button-up-material.jpg
  inflating: images/button-up-offsets.jpg
  inflating: images/button-up-program.jpg
  inflating: images/button-up-recentfile.jpg
  inflating: images/button-up-reset.jpg
  inflating: images/button-up-reverse.jpg
  inflating: images/button-up-rewind.jpg
  inflating: images/button-up-settings.jpg
  inflating: images/button-up-start-green.jpg
  inflating: images/button-up-start.jpg
  inflating: images/button-up-step.jpg
  inflating: images/button-up-stop-red.jpg
  inflating: images/button-up-stop.jpg
  inflating: images/button-up-toolpath.jpg
  inflating: images/button-x+.jpg
  inflating: images/button-x-.jpg
  inflating: images/button-y+.jpg
  inflating: images/button-y-.jpg
  inflating: images/button-z+.jpg
  inflating: images/button-z-.jpg
  inflating: images/button-zero-4.jpg
  inflating: images/button-zero-x.jpg
  inflating: images/button-zero-y.jpg
  inflating: images/button-zero-z.jpg
  inflating: images/button-zero.jpg
  inflating: images/diag-background.jpg
  inflating: images/dro-background.jpg
  inflating: images/fidia-logo.bmp
  inflating: images/gcode-background.jpg
  inflating: images/gcode-background2.jpg
  inflating: images/led-off-down.jpg
  inflating: images/led-off-up.jpg
  inflating: images/led-on-down.jpg
  inflating: images/led-on-up.jpg
  inflating: images/mpg-background.jpg

C:\Mach4\Screens\wxMach>dir
 Volume in drive C has no label.
 Volume Serial Number is 0474-045E

 Directory of C:\Mach4\Screens\wxMach

07/08/2023  05:08 PM    <DIR>          .
07/08/2023  05:08 PM    <DIR>          ..
07/08/2023  05:08 PM    <DIR>          images
11/12/2020  06:08 PM           418,838 screen.xml
11/12/2020  06:09 PM           297,592 wxMach.set
               2 File(s)        716,430 bytes
               3 Dir(s)  265,903,362,048 bytes free


Now I'm going to zip all of it back up.  The syntax of the command is:
zip <zipfileName> <fileList>

In the example below, we want to zip screen.xml and the images directory with all of its contents.

Code: [Select]

C:\Mach4\Screens\wxMach>zip wxMach2.set screen.xml images\*.*

Steve

23

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: How to re-pack (zip) a Screenset?

« on: July 07, 2023, 04:46:06 PM »

We use just plain ZIP and UNZIP from INFOZIP.  Old school. 

https://sourceforge.net/projects/infozip/files/

Steve

24

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 toolpath not smooth in screen

« on: July 07, 2023, 04:41:48 PM »

This has EVERYTHING to do with the OpenGL support in you video card driver.  See if there is an updated driver available for your GPU. 

Steve

25

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Can Master - Slave have different Axis screw pitch Settings?

« on: March 27, 2023, 07:17:11 PM »

Hi,
does that mean that the number posted to the motion controller (per motor) is a 64bit double precision float or an integer?

Craig

Yes.  Well, the number posted to the motion controller's plugin is double precision floating point number (F64 or float64).  The actual motion controller itself may only use an integer.  But we certainly allow for fractional counts/steps IF the motion controller can use them.

Steve

26

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Can Master - Slave have different Axis screw pitch Settings?

« on: March 27, 2023, 04:44:01 PM »

Craig,

Both the planner positions and the motor counts are double precision numbers.  I was always of the mindset that a count was a count or a step was a step and thus it would be an integer whole number.  But some motion controllers actually will take a fractional step count!  So the step/counts storage is also a double precision number.

Steve

27

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Can Master - Slave have different Axis screw pitch Settings?

« on: March 27, 2023, 01:48:43 PM »

With Mach 4, this is certainly possible.  As Steve said, the counts per unit are by motor, not the axis.  What happens under the hood is that the planner positions are kept in machine native units, and this is what makes it possible.  Say we have a machine that uses inches as its native units.  And the gantry axis is traveling .0001" where one motor is 10000 counts per inch and the other is 20000 per unit.  When .0001" is pushed down to the motors, it applies the counts per unit calculation to each motor.  .0001 * 100000 == 1 for the first motor and .0001 * 20000 = 2 for the second motor.  So it all works fine.  The counts per unit field in the motor tuning is also a double precision number with allows for the very fine tuning of the counts per unit.  However, if it is a stepper motor, the steps per revolution is ultimately the limiting factor on how granular the motor can be. 

Steve

28

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: M4 update to 5000 version, result: system failures

« on: January 26, 2023, 04:21:05 PM »

Mach 4 support will not make the Pokeys plugin work.  So they will close the case pretty much instantly.  They test with Sim and the Galil plugin.  Both of which we wrote and if Mach is running with them, they are going to assume that there is a problem with the motion plugin you are using.  But Pokeys will get it corrected.  They are good guys. 

Steve

29

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: M4 update to 5000 version, result: system failures

« on: January 25, 2023, 05:33:40 PM »

I have been in contact with Pokeys and they know what to do.  But in the interim, there is a new build 5028 that pretty much solves the race condition the faster core created with the motion plugins.  I would say that if their plugin worked with 4612, then it will also work with 5028.  Barring some unforeseen issue, that is.

Steve

30

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Any documentation on the "simulator" plugin?

« on: January 21, 2023, 07:45:28 PM »

For motion in the DROs, yes.  For inputs and outputs, they will probably not match your real world motion plugin.   

Steve