Messages

351

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

352

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

353

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

354

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

355

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: MACH4 HOW TO DISABLE 1 AXIS

« on: February 02, 2020, 02:48:20 PM »

You can also use a different profile.  One with the 4 the axis enabled and another one with it disabled.  Then just launch with the desired profile.  No scripting needed. 

Steve

356

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Set Rapid Override insurmountable limit with panel keys.

« on: February 02, 2020, 02:45:44 PM »

mc.mcCntlSetRRO(inst, percent)

Put a global RRO control variable in your screen laod script

masterRRO = 0 -- let 0 equal the normal state where the potentiometer controls both the FRO and RRO.

Then in a button left up event script for the 25% button:

inst = mc.mcGetInstance()
local rc = mc.mcCntlSetRRO(inst, 25);
if (rc ~= mc.MERROR_NOERROR) then
    mc.mcCntlSetLastError(inst, "RRO to 25% failed!!!")
end
masterRRO = 25 -- set the global variable.

Now, you will probably have to do some work in whatever code evaluates your potentiometer and make it NOT adjust the rapid rate override while one of your % buttons is in effect.  Test for masterRRO == 0 for normal FRO/RRO operation and masterRRO ~= 0 for keeping the pot from affecting RRO. 

Steve

357

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Serious problems with G76 cycle in Mach4 Lathe and CSMIO IP S

« on: February 02, 2020, 02:34:46 PM »

We have a Mori at the shop that threads all day every day.  Threading is a motion controller dependent function.  For Mach, we treat G32 moves (the basis for all threading ops) as a regular feed moves.  But we mark them so that the motion controller can sync them with the spindle.  There is nothing else Mach can do, at this point, because the motion hardware has to do the real-time stuff. 

Steve

358

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Installing Mach4 on Windows 10 Pro 64

« on: February 02, 2020, 02:25:33 PM »

That is the OS I use to develop Mach with so it is the preferred OS.  XP is dead, Vista was crap, nobody knows what Windows 8 was, and Window7 was good but the world has moved on.  There are probably not a lot of Windows 7 installations out there because MS offered the free upgrade to Windows 10. 

And of the different versions of Windows 10, I like Pro the best.  With Windows 10 Pro, you can postpone updates for a year and the bi-annual refreshes for 6 months.  But still, not connecting it to the internet is the primary means of keeping Windows 10 from automatically updating you at the worst possible moment.  But on an initial installation, I would suggest updating the OS fully, then install Mach, and then never let it see the internet again (unless you want it to update). 

Steve

359

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

« on: February 02, 2020, 02:14:50 PM »

These folders are in the installer.  If they are not in your installation directory, you probably deleted them.  Download the installer and install to another directory like Mach4Hobby2.  Then copy the examples from Mach4Hobb2 to Mach4Hobby.

Steve

360

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: movement very slow and also there other instance of mach on background

« on: February 02, 2020, 02:09:23 PM »

This single instance checking is done in the GUI.  To Craig's point, this is what tries to prevent multiple Mach programs running. 

When the Mach4GUI.exe program is executed, it loads the Mach4Core.dll file.  Mach4Core.dll then loads the plugins.  If something is hanging the core (most likely a motion plugin) after Mach4GUI is closed, then it is possible that the GUI shuts down and the cores remains running in the background.  In this scenario, it is possible to re-launch Mach4GUI.exe and startup another GUI, core, and a set of plugins.  Because the original instance of Mach4GUI is not running, but the core still is! 

Now, this is not a good thing at all, obviously.  It is why we don't allow two Mach programs running at the same time.  My GUESS at this point, because I have no information about what Mach build you are running or what motion controller you are using (things you should really mention when you are having problems), is that is what happened.  Two motion plugins fighting over the same motion hardware is probably going to affect performance at the very least!

Steve