Messages

61

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions

« on: August 16, 2014, 11:24:33 PM »

Eric:

In case you missed it - check out reply #318. Art issued 1.15
It works good too.

Sage

62

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions

« on: August 15, 2014, 04:15:25 PM »

Hi Art:

My report on V1.15 posted this morning seems to have vaporized. I think my session timed out and I didn't notice.  I guess that's what happens when I'm so long winded.

To summarize, it looks like you've killed all the bugs.
The leds showing the wrong states, homing, crashing, and whatever else you've tackled over the last few days are all fixed here and it seems to be doing everything properly.
Great Work !!  

I presume the issue with CPU loading has been corrected with M4 V1936??
I haven't had a problem even with the earlier versions and my system runs at about zero % as far as I can see. I ran the roadrunner Gcode at warp speed and still only had the odd quick spike up to maybe 15%.

So what were the conditions that folks were seeing high CPU load??

Seems like a lot of folks are asking what the minimum machine requirement is for M4.

Perhaps the developers should come up with a standard test condition.
1. Gcode file for all to execute with dimensions that fit on a small machine so all can execute it.
2. A standardized tool path display setting.
3. A reasonable machine movement speed that everyone can achieve (even if it's slow or a little fast for some folks)

etc. so that folks can evaluate different machines and report back what they are using and their loading. This way a set of features that are good/bad or indifferent for machine hardware can be determined.

Sage

63

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions

« on: August 14, 2014, 11:12:51 PM »

Wow:

Great information Art. I'll have to read that over a few times to understand it fully. So much thought put into homing. I guess I should use homing more. I usually just zero the axis' (DRO's) over a point on the stock that I've designated in my CAM program to be zero and work from there.
Once I understand your explanation better I should probably take advantage of homing properly. I'm not sure my home switches are too accurate or repeatable to any great degree being that they are just micro switches so I may never be able to use the feature properly.
 So are you saying that M4 has purposely been made different than M3? Because right now if I home M3 the main Y DRO goes to 6.4" because that's what I've set (I believe) in the offset.
Why do I have it this way you ask - I try to pull the table to the front for easy access which is a Y+ direction. i.e the quill is over the top left corner of the table at X0 Y6.4. Doesn't have to be that way but that's how I have it. Is that something I should change? It would only mean moving the Y home switch to the back instead of the front on the machine.


Sage

64

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions

« on: August 14, 2014, 07:44:01 PM »

Hi Art:

I checked out Darwin V145 with M4 1936 and it seems to work as good as V14 as far as stability etc. I think.

Not sure if these are new observations or if they went un-noticed before.

When I start up I noticed that on M4 diagnostics screen the Home switch status is in-correct. I have to trigger the home switches (manually) once to get the led icons to indicate the correct polarity. (according to my previous post) The Table was not on the switch so the level is high so the icon should be showing lit but they aren't. If I trigger the switch and let it go the icon comes on (as it should be) and it's fine from then on. (until I restart the machine again)

I'm confused by the Ref X,Y,Z Leds (icons).
With V145 the Ref Y icon is no longer stuck green like it was before.
When I press a Ref button the icon goes red and when the Ref is done it goes green. It stays green then even if I jog off the home switch. So I'm not sure what the icon is supposed to indicate since technically it's no longer Ref'd if I move off the switch. I goes red again if I ref again and back to green when done.

I still can't get the value entered in M4 homing and offsets for the Y axis to transfer to the DRO when the ref is done. This used to work back in (I think) Darwin 1.1 but I've done so much messing with home settings I might have screwed it up. Problem is everything to do with homing works physically and logically so I'm not sure what settings could be changed to make that work again.

Sage

65

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions

« on: August 14, 2014, 12:55:01 PM »

Hi Art:

[edit: I guess you were posting the new version while I was typing. I'll take a look. In the mean time maybe this will shed some light]

I had similar issues with Ref and homing wherein I had to cycle the enable / disable to get it to respond to jogging after doing a Ref.
It turned out to be a conundrum (if that's the right word) between what Darwin wants and what Brian said concerning "never using active low" for Mach signals. I was trying (without success) to satisfy both. It goes like this.
 My home switches issue an active low (ground) signal. This is what is required by my PMDX132 BOB in order to make it's (physical) leds light so that's the way I want to keep it so I can look at the BOB and troubleshoot problems. It's happy to pass any level along but I want the leds to light on switch activation (low).
These home signals are buffered and go straight to the parallel port so Low is active.
Darwin requires it's led (icons) to be lit when the signal is active so I need to configure the port pin in Darwin to be reversed for that to happen. Darwin is then happy. Icon lights when switch is low.
But when I get into Mach, it's expecting a High as active and lights it's LED's (icons) for a high signal. So for Mach to recognize my active low signal I have to apply the "active low" check box in Mach to make the reversal.
For reasons unknown Brain stated that you should not use the active low checkbox in M4 but there is no other way to satisfy both Darwin and M4 without it.
 With all the crashing and confusion I may have missed something but it's all working now (inverted in Darwin and M4).
Before I applied the "active low" in M4  I assume M4 never saw the home switch and even though Darwin moved the axis and stopped on home, M4 was merrily waiting for a switch activation (to high) and required an enable / disable to get it out of that loop every time I homed or Ref'd.

Anyway, everything works now. The only confusion now is the icons in the M4 diagnostics page show off (not lit) when the home switches are activated. This makes sense though as apparently high = lit and I have low signals. I can live with it.

On another topic:
Do you know if the issue with M1 not being recognized has been looked at?
and I assume the next version of M4 will correct the issue with the enable / disable having to be toggled a couple of times to get the charge pump to come on (and stay on).

Thanks for you efforts

Sage

66

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions

« on: August 14, 2014, 09:13:53 AM »

Hi Art:
Things are fast and furious here for you so I'll just summarize my findings on 12a version. I didn't see the 14 version until just now. I'll try soon but I'm not using a spindle.

1. Losing settings seems to be fixed for me now. I restarted several times and it was ok. I'm sure I would have lost settings before.
2. The Y offset setting I put into home/offsets in M4 does not seem to be acted on. I have to enter 6.4" because my table ref's at the far end. Yesterday the DRO would pick up the 6.4 value after a ref and put it on the DRO but today with 12a it remains at 0.0

3. My ref Y (or the LED next to the Y DRO) is always green. No settings seem to change it. The port status leds in Darwin follow the switch status fine and in the diagnostic screen the switch led follows the switch on/off ok. Settings for X axis logic are the same. X Ref led acts normally. It's just the Y that's stuck green. Homing, REF and Ref all work fine.

Sage

67

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions

« on: August 13, 2014, 02:40:20 PM »

Hi Art:

Should the new Darwin 12a show up as a different version in the water fall display page? (old one 1.09 1.08) ?

Sage

68

General Mach Discussion / Re: Something to fix for Mach 4 ??

« on: March 26, 2014, 09:47:39 PM »

Russ:
Thanks I'll check out those options.

Gerry:
"Exactly what I need to do" can not be defined ahead of time. As I explained, I'm more moving the table around to get things out of the way to do things like move clamps and add / remove hold down screws. There's no way of knowing exactly where one needs to go to make clearance for a screwdriver to get in under the head (mill drill).

As Russ suggested maybe a tool change position far and away from the work area is the place to go. I assume Mach knows how to deal with and recover from that move safely.

I'll have to give it a try.

Thanks
Sage

69

General Mach Discussion / Something to fix for Mach 4 ??

« on: March 26, 2014, 10:51:38 AM »

So, here's the scenario:
I have a typical Gcode file with multiple procedures, drill a hole, mill a profile, mill a pocket etc. I do manual tool changes so I have Mach stop on tool change. So the code is halted on a the tool change line of code. No problem. Usually after changing the tool I need to move the table over to a clear piece of material surface to set the tool zero. Sometimes I also need to move clamps etc. to accommodate the upcoming procedure. Sometimes I need to move it a lot to get a screwdriver in under the head to remove a screw that was being used to hold a piece down. You name it. Still no problem.
 The problem comes when I press start after the tool change. Mach insists on returning to the position it was at when it finished the last procedure before it turns around and goes to the location spelled out in the code for the next procedure. Makes no difference if you manually put the cutter right over the position of the next procedure. It still moves back to the previous location first.
It does this at G0 speed as well. This return move is not part of the code it's just something Mach wants to do. It also does it with a combined X,Y and Z move so even if I have a proper rapid clearance for clamps etc. It can still hit clamps because it does not do the Z move first and independently.
 Sorry I can't give you any code file to replicate this because it's not in the code. It's something Mach does on it's own.
Anyone can emulate it by doing what I've described.
Stop on tool change
Move the table around while it's stopped
Leave it anywhere you like
Start the code again and see where it goes first. It will be to the last position it was at and then immediately to the position in the next line of code. No stops.

It's a bit dangerous, I think, and there is no real good reason for it (that I can see).

Sage

70

General Mach Discussion / Re: Elapsed Time counter bug?

« on: November 14, 2013, 09:54:08 PM »

So Brian:

Is this something that will be corrected in Mach 4??

Sage