Messages

621

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 Bug Reports

« on: May 05, 2014, 12:33:31 PM »

Yes, please provide an example.  The sub stuff is all new code (as most of Mach 4 is), so there is bound to be something that doesn't work the same as Mach 3.  The example will help me make it more compatible.

Are you talking about macro A?  Because that will not work at this time.

Steve

622

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Probing and reporting

« on: May 04, 2014, 02:17:50 PM »

Terry, I just gave the way to do it right above.  I wasn't arguing.  I was giving you what you wanted!  Or did I miss something?

I'm talking just a few lines of code in a script file (not tons) and you can have what you want.  That is why we built Mach 4.  So that people could make it do the things they want without having to wait on some programmer to do it.

Now, the torque limited move is something a little harder to do because it requires that the motion controller be able to do this.  But everything else you wanted can be done rather easily.

623

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: M4 screen set with user selectable 1 to 4 tool path views

« on: May 04, 2014, 01:01:24 AM »

GUYS could you do a BUTTON that emulates a probe trip.  I would like to test probing (;-)

I have tried but cannot do the LUA thing. It is about a mile above my abilities, been trying about a year now between SheetCam and Mach4 . NOTTA going to happen.

(;-) TP

Well...  this is not possible.  In Mach 4, the motion controller handles the probe input.  There is a signal that is "lit up" (digitize I think) but it is more for diagnostics than anything.  The core does not actually do anything with the signal during a probe move.  However, it will prevent you from starting a probe move if it is high.  But the core will not stop the motion upon a state transition.  That is the motion controller's responsibility.  The Sim plugin doesn't "simulate" probing at this time.

Steve

624

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Probing and reporting

« on: May 04, 2014, 12:52:04 AM »

Well...  Fanuc labels it a skip or high speed skip.  You, the programmer, programs an end point in what amounts to an exact stop G01 move but a probe strike "skips" the rest of the move.  The skip is not mandatory and therefore not an error if the probe does not strike in the strict sense of the move.  However, that may not be what you want for a certain situation.  But it can be desirable in other situations.  So what do you do?  Well...  You can look at the G code variables where the probe position is recorded and compare them to the position.  If the probe position is the same as the end point, you know that your probe did not strike.  Two ways of handling this in Mach 4...  custom macro B and LUA scripts are both capable.

Probe protect can also be handled in the LUA scripts.  I do this on my machine.  Basically I virtually "wire" the probe input into the e-stop unless I'm actually running a G31.  If you sneeze on the probe, the machine will halt.  I do this with probeon and probeoff scripts that are executed right before and right after a G31 (if they exist).  These scripts should be placed in the macros directory.

probeoff would be a good place to compare the probed position with the end point.  It is executed at the end of a G31 regardless of a skip or not.

There is a lot more power available to the user in Mach 4.  So try to get into the habit of thinking outside of the Mach3 box.  A lot more is possible now.  Just because you don't see it in this early stuff doesn't mean that it can't be added rather easily by the end user.  Mach 4 is ALL about letting the machine work for you.  As you get to know Mach 4, you will start to realize where you can add this functionality most effectively and just how different it is from Mach 3.  But it is sooooo hard to break out of the Mach 3 world.  After all, it was a good world.  But it is not the Mach 4 world. 

Steve

625

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Comments about Mach4 in Demo

« on: May 04, 2014, 12:07:41 AM »

Thanks!  I'll look at that switch.  But if you are using a RS232 port, it doesn't make any difference.  The switch is there to make those RS232 to RS485 converters work... well...  better.  I still am not convinced that any RS232 to RS485 adapters is going to be a real solid solution.  But that is basically what that switch does.  It needs to be fixed.  Just don't let it stop you from using it with a RS232 port.

Steve

626

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 Feature Request

« on: May 03, 2014, 05:13:08 PM »

Look ahead doesn't work that way.  It is not at buffer load.  It is continuous.  Each movement IS known at the look ahead time  Because it is a continual track of what has been read so far.  Look ahead knows where the machine is supposed to be in the future.  Otherwise, how would we ever calc CV?  So all of the position information is known at anytime during the look ahead process.  Now, what is NOT know at look ahead time is any external inputs.

My comment thing is like this:
if #100 == 1 and #200 == 3

G1 X#100 Y#101 (X#100 Y#200)

Would output "X1.000 Y2.000" in the message line and show in the history (if comments in history is turned on, of course).

627

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 Feature Request

« on: May 03, 2014, 01:24:35 PM »

But my point is that a lot of the special features that people want are capable of being done in the screen sets.  It won't be long before there are tons of examples.  Some guys are already blowing my mind with the ideas that they have implemented in the screens!  And I think that is most cool.

Steve

628

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 Feature Request

« on: May 03, 2014, 01:20:01 PM »

Torque limited move mode to protect the machine. (nice to have)

Control  page showing ALL the System # vars values  accessable from Gcode (VITAL)

Gcode window to dispaly Gcode #var as VALUES on the fly. ( Very Nice to have)

(;-) TP

The first one is motion controller dependent.  I don't know if we can ever do that.

The last two can be done in the screen set.  Almost anything is possible now!  However...  you must remember that the G code variables get updated in look ahead time. 

One thing that I was thinking of doing was letting the user put a G code vars in a comment so when the comment is processed those G code vars get evaluated and printed as part of the comment.

Steve

629

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 Bug Reports

« on: May 02, 2014, 08:25:23 PM »

Open task manager and kill the hung Mach4GUI.exe process.

630

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Comments about Mach4 in Demo

« on: May 02, 2014, 08:21:44 PM »

What does your m6 macro look like?  Is it the one we provided?  If it is, it should be waiting on you to press cycle start.  The m6 in the build is just an example and it does things for demonstration purposes that really isn't valid.

Single block through the conditional stuff is a work in progress.