Messages

21

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Shuttle Pro plugin - When?

« on: May 09, 2015, 05:09:21 PM »

So it is possible.
 I guess gone are the days of the users jumping in to make the product better. We'll have to leave it to the entrepreneurs I guess and just pay the bucks.

Sage

22

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Shuttle Pro plugin - When?

« on: May 09, 2015, 03:51:56 PM »

 I guess it's a catch 22. I can't see manufacturers of pendants losing money writing interfaces for something is still in beta either. I would have thought the user interface would be quite a ways along and well defined such that pendants (most of which just emulate keystrokes) would be able to move ahead. Perhaps not. The Shuttle Pro interface was never written by the manufacturer anyway.
 I know Ron was quite excited about how easy it was for Brian to add some screen controls to do some thing or other on a demo version of Mach4 at NAMES. I wasn't too impressed because I have no use for operating it with a mouse and the screen (for the most part) because my screen and mouse are not near the machine.
 Perhaps it's a sign of the overall feeling about Mach4 that people are not jumping in to make it useable. If I had any knowledge at all about how to program a pendant interface I'd be all over it.

Oh well. Back to sleep for a few more months I guess.  

Sage

23

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Shuttle Pro plugin - When?

« on: May 09, 2015, 01:22:03 PM »

So, Some time has passed.
When I was at NAMES, Ron Ginger indicated that Brian (or someone) was about to release a Shuttle Pro add-on (or whatever it's referred to ) for Mach 4. Has there been any action on that. Mah4 will be a waste of money for me unless I can extend my operating capabilities away from the keyboard.

If pendants (of any sort) aren't going to be supported any time soon then I'm mot wasting any more time on Mach4.


Sage

24

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Shuttle Pro plugin - When?

« on: February 23, 2015, 09:34:20 PM »

I'm not is a hurry. Although it would be nice if I could somehow make a complete usable package with a pendant so I can really give M4 a good workout. They say it's really great :-)
But I really hate using the keyboard.
I'll go back to sleep again for a few months and see what's up later.
:-)

Sage

25

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Shuttle Pro plugin - When?

« on: February 23, 2015, 09:17:32 PM »

Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought the "individual" you mention is Art Fenerty (as in ARTsoft) and Scott Shafer. And yes they were very kind to donate it to the group. And I REALLY appreciate it. I'm hoping they'll be so kind as to update it for Mach4. I know Art is pretty busy with the parallel port driver too.
Just asking. 

Sage

26

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Shuttle Pro plugin - When?

« on: February 23, 2015, 10:12:52 AM »

>> I think that request is right behind getting the AC unit working in hell.....

Hmm. Typical
A lambo with no wheels. Looks fantastic but you can't drive it.

Oh well hopefully my donation will help the project progress - however slowly.

Thanks

Sage

27

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions

« on: February 20, 2015, 11:05:35 AM »

I presume you mean  Help/about/plugins/Darwin?
It shows enabled and valid.
Or on the Darwin about screen with the picture of Darwin It shows it's licensed (or something that implies that).

In any case I got everything going again by copying the ini file from the backup I made before I upgraded to the new version(s). Not sure if the ini file from an old version (November I think) is compatible but it seems to run. It still would be nice to know what item I missed in the config - for future reference. I'll have to take better pictures of all the screens. I must have missed one.


BTW Art.
I posted on the general Mach discussion about the fact that I really haven't used MAch4 (and probably never will) unless I can get my Shuttle Pro to work. Do you have any plans to write a new plugin for that or should I go looking for another one that will work? I don't think I've seen any yet that work. Operation without one is very cumbersome. Perhaps a comment there would be useful to everyone.

Thanks

Sage

28

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions

« on: February 20, 2015, 09:32:01 AM »

Art:
Re settings: Thanks, I'll transfer that file next time I do an upgrade. In fact maybe I should retrieve the old one from my previous install because it WAS all working.

I figured out that the charge pump wasn't working because I didn't have a frequency value in the "frequency when active" box. Not sure what to put there but 100hz seems to work.

Disturbing that the necessity to toggle the enable / disable button on the main Mach screen is still required to get the charge pump signal to be issued. I thought this would be fixed by now.

BUT I still have issues. I don't see any input signals in Mach (X,Y,Z HOME or E-stop. I have no limits per se, they trigger E-stop I like it that way).

In Darwin each switch works on the individual input signal configuration page LED and if I look at the Darwin parallel port configuration screen the LED's for each signal pin toggles for the home switches and E-stop.
In the Mach config inputs screen I have the Motor home signals pointing at the named signals from Darwin and they are enabled but the Mach diagnostics screen LEDS never toggle. Same for E-stop. I can negate the logic in the Mach config screen for the home switches and the LEDS go off or on in the diagnostics screen but no response to the switches themselves. Negating them in Darwin makes no change on the Mach diagnostics screen.

It's like the Darwin input name assignments aren't being recongnized by Mach.

I probably missed something somewhere. I guess I need to better document my settings once it's all working.


Sage

29

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions

« on: February 19, 2015, 10:22:19 PM »

Patton:

In this case I was upgrading several versions so backing the whole thing up would not help. Now that I'm messing about with the same version that would be helpful in case of problems. I was more hoping that, all the settings were kept in a file like the XML file for Mach3 and that could be transplanted and be compatible with a newer Mach version. There must e something similar for Mach4. Having to re-configure the whole thing is ridiculous.

Art:
I didn't reboot. I just restarted Mach. Maybe that's my problem. I'll check that out tomorrow.

Sage

30

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions

« on: February 19, 2015, 04:22:11 PM »

Hi Art:

It's been a while. I figured I'd let things mature a bit instead of pulling my hair out every few days.

I downloaded the latest Mach4 2230 and also your latest Darwin from a few posts back. It's showing 1.21 over 1.23 is that correct?
Having to reconfigure EVERYTHING from scratch is very annoying. Is there a file(s) or something that can be preserved to keep all the settings - both for Mach and Darwin?
I took photos of all the setting screens and I think I have it all back to the way it was previously but I'm having a few problems. It WAS working very well.

Are there still issues with the charge pump being generated from Mach?
I have the output set up in Mach to point to the named port in Darwin and the correct port pin set in Darwin but I don't see any frequency display in Darwin diagnostics. (frequency when active display is zeros)
I know there were issues with having to enable/disable a couple of times to get the charge pump to activate.
My BOB is dead in the water without it. (unless I set some jumpers - which I don't want to do).

Any ideas.

Sage