Messages

41

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions

« on: August 19, 2014, 06:41:19 PM »

Hi Art:
As mentioned On the waterfall display I show 1.11 on top and 1.08 below it and there's now way I can get it to change. I found your last post on where to look for the particular numbers confusing. The sentence was a bit jumbled (I think)
If what I'm seeing is not correct in the waterfall display then I have no idea where M4 is getting those files because I've deleted the Darwin dll from M4hobby root and the Darwin .m4pw file from the plugins sub directory. Cleared the trash can, rebooted, copied the new files and still I get the same thing.
 I'm afraid I've gotten it really cocked up.
In the mean time a low disk space error started showing up. Maybe something is going on there. I un-installed one large program to free up some space. Maybe that was contributing.

Can you give me instructions to start over such that I can keep my configuration or maybe I should just erase the M4 directory and re-install it.
And start over from scratch and re-config everything. I have photos of my previous config. so it won't take too long.
I'm away for a few days starting tomorrow so I may not get to it until Monday.

I notice if you create a new config it asks for a screen set. Which one should I choose?

Sorry for the confusion.

Sage

42

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions

« on: August 19, 2014, 05:08:12 PM »

Hi Art:

This is so weird. Is there any way Windows can be screwing around with the files. A cache or something. So many times I have unzipped the files into a new directory. Even deleted the dll and the m4pw from the C:\mach4hobby... directories, made sure they were gone and copied the new ones to the proper sub directories. I've even checked the dates on the files copied into M4 and they show a current date.
 Yet when I run M4 (which wouldn't run without the files), and go look at versions in config I see the old versions. This has happened over and over. I have tried again once when I was suspicious and the new versions showed up. It's not like I don't know how to copy files 
So I'm wondering if because they are the same file name windows is somehow screwing things up. 

I'm afraid I've been stringing you along with this troubleshooting because I haven't seen a new version reported in config for quite a while (as you can tell). But I've been ignoring it because I thought perhaps you were making minor changes without changing the version number. Sorry.


It's all very strange. I'm going to reboot and try again until I see the versions 1.16

Sage

43

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions

« on: August 19, 2014, 04:02:04 PM »

Hi Art:

I don't see any difference with 16-4.
Same symptoms.
 You got my comment about the relay requiring a high to activate - right (post 401)?
Config screen still shows 1.11 / 1.08 is that correct? I copied dll and m4w..
I still get a freeze as follows:

Open config plugins but don't wait for waterfall to get any more than about 1/2 way down the page. Then X-off the config page and select Ok. For me it freezes there.

Sage

44

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions

« on: August 19, 2014, 12:54:49 PM »

Ok. I'll pretend I understand what you've discovered and wait for the new version. :-) but according to the schematic for the PMDX 132 it's a high that turns on the LED and relay. The light DOES NOT come on when you first start the PC or M4. You have to toggle the disable once M4 is up and running to turn it on.  It then does not go off until you EXIT config and only comes on again when you toggle the disable again.


BTW over the last few versions I'm noticing crashing when I exit Darwin configuration "causing a program not responding' pop-up and requiring a reboot to get rid of the Darwin config window. Not sure the status of M4 because I can't get rid of Darwin window.
I may be rushing it a bit. I open config (about as long as it takes for the waterfall to go about 1/2 way down) then close it again in order to test if the relay drops out. That's when config hangs.

Sage



Sage

45

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions

« on: August 19, 2014, 12:32:19 PM »

Art:

>>Normally I think this is the pin getting pulled high.. So if you then enable a signal on that pin and dont use it, the pin will get pulled to whatever inactive state is called for ( depends on the "negate" setting ). Could this be what your seeing?

To be clear a high is what activates my relay. But I get your point and that's probably what's going on.

 I'm going to have to experiment to see what makes it stop toggling. But regardless of what I select, if the port pin is being changed then the relay is going to toggle. I can't see where enabling the pin and inverting it will make any diference other than have the relay activate opposite to what it is now.
 But this is not really a good solution as one does not really want to have to program every port pin used or not and you don't really want unused (un-enabled) ports turning on and off on their own.
Perhaps the "pull them all low" on startup and keep them that way unless they are used would be a good thing to do.

Sage

46

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions

« on: August 19, 2014, 12:15:33 PM »

Peter / Art:
Would it make any sense to create a setup that only deals with one port at a time. Rather than both ports. It might make it easier to see which port  is issuing which signals. It appears you have BOTH ports issuing possibly different rogue signals to each other confusing the issue.

Sage

47

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions

« on: August 19, 2014, 12:07:14 PM »

Peter / Art:

It's probably a marginal test to jumper pins with the cable open because of floating pins. Lots of funny things can happen. From experience this can drive you crazy. It would be a lot of work but terminating the cable with a bunch of pull-ups would be more reliable.
 Art: As you mentioned the hardware on the parallel port inverts some of the input signals to suit a parallel printer "normal" needed to be inverted (to low). Presumably so that if the cable was unplugged the interface could tell if the printer was present or not. (no printer - pin floats high - printer not there to pull it low)

Sage

48

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions

« on: August 19, 2014, 11:57:11 AM »

Hi Art:

This will be a very short report 16-3
The history shows nothing - nada - zip. Immediately after startup and even after I enable/disable a couple of times even though the charge pump and K2 relay on Port 1  pin 14 changes state. Nothing in History.
I thought at first history was broken but I pressed a home switch and it showed in in the history bar.
In an earlier version you said you made it so more stuff would show up in history and lots of things showed up after that.
The version numbers are showing up on my Darwin config  as 1.11 and 1.08 is that correct??
I replaced both the dll and the plugin by mistake.
Maybe I screwed something up copying the files?

I didn't understand Peters port address as dcc8. But does that have any addressing bits in common with 0378. Maybe you're not addressing to the full number of bits required to distinguish between the two. Just a thought.

Sage

49

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions

« on: August 19, 2014, 08:10:48 AM »

Hi Art.
I was about to report that we had gone backwards with 16-1 because I was back to having to disable/enable to get jogging back after a Ref. But 16-2 fixed that again.

BUT otherwise 16-2 is the same with respect to pin 14 coming on (high) and activating my K2 relay.
It seems that pin 14 is following pin 17 (my charge pump) because they both seem to come on together when I have to disable/enable to get the charge pump going.

BUT
If I look at pin 14 in the Darwin control port screen pin 14 ledicon is always red regardless of relay condition. But then pin 14 is disabled in Darwin so maybe it's not indicating the status properly.

There are no other outputs configured in M4 other than the charge pump and it's pointing at the named signal "charge pump #1"

Sage

50

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions

« on: August 18, 2014, 10:18:26 PM »

Ok. I'll look around in M4. For something mapped to pin14. But now that everything has a name, wouldn't I see an output mapped to  Aux output K2 (or whatever I called it in Darwin). I don't recall anything like that.

One thing I did notice is a bunch of lit up ledicons called enable 1,2,3 (or something) on an M4 screen somewhere. Where do those get enabled? I don't remember anything labelled "enable". Maybe one of those is mapped to pin 14.


Sage