Recent Posts

61

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 Probing Anomolies

« Last post by shortj042 on May 30, 2025, 07:48:43 PM »

Thanks everyone for the assistance. I have it sorted out. Turns out that the motion controller had issues. I now have a new one installed.

Cheers

62

General Mach Discussion / Re: Need help. Velox 5050 CNC router w MX4660 E-stop not resetting

« Last post by mhutchy on May 30, 2025, 12:08:58 PM »

Yeah I have tried that. I have contuniuty and it seems to be working... I suppose I can start checking voltages..

63

General Mach Discussion / Re: Need help. Velox 5050 CNC router w MX4660 E-stop not resetting

« Last post by Tweakie.CNC on May 30, 2025, 06:55:10 AM »

Something very basic to check is that your physical EStop button has been reset (twisting knob to release it).

Tweakie.

64

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Re: Ship Wheel

« Last post by mhutchy on May 30, 2025, 12:09:04 AM »

That's awesome! I have had my cnc router for around 5 years and have never even thought about using styrofoam! I bet is is much faster than wood to mill and great for decorative things like this.

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General Mach Discussion / Need help. Velox 5050 CNC router w MX4660 E-stop not resetting

« Last post by mhutchy on May 30, 2025, 12:03:50 AM »

Hi All,

I have searched and seen a few posts regarding this same issue, and wondering if there is a better way to diagnose a possible faulty MX4660 than buying a new one at $400.00. I have mach 3, but am not super great with it.

The issue:
Upon power up, the machine wont reset in mach 3. I checked the e-stop for continuity and it seems ok, have not checked voltages. I never use the e-stop so this error came out of nowhere.

I tried going into ports and pins and changing the active low, and that allows my machine to reset, but the drives won't power up. I can use the keyboard to move, and mach thinks it's moving; but there is no physical movement.

Any suggestions? Should I try to contact Leadshine support? Is there anything else that I can check other than the e-stop? My limit switches all look ok, I can check continuity pretty easy on them though and that's my next step.

I found a manual online I can try checking some voltages, I'm just not really sure where to start.

Any help is very much appreciated. If I do need to replace the MX4660, is there another option I should look at that is more robust? I have had a few timout type of errors when running long programs... where I end up having to restart the program from the beginning.

Picture 1 shows status on powerup.
Picture 2 shows mach on powerup.
Picture 3 shows status after mach boots up.
Picutre 4 shows mach after disabling active low.

Thank you!
Mark from Washington

66

General Mach Discussion / Re: Hall of shame

« Last post by wormball on May 29, 2025, 04:48:13 AM »

> And what IS the bug?

https://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php?topic=49280.0

> Mach3 is no longer actively supported by Artsoft. Too many (literally) unsolvable bugs.
So they upgraded to Mach4.

But they still sell mach3 for $175.00..

> but your boss has only himself to blame

Official demo from this site behaves exactly the same.

> Ah - cheap Chinese copy of something else, missing half the functions.

But it is serbian!

> I wonder how good the hardware is anyhow?

I had tried only lpt bob and bsmce04u-pp before and i will say i am having considerably better experience with eth-mci. But it may be due to presence of limit switches and automatic tool change/measurement (which i however had to completely rewrite).

67

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 Anomolies Strike Back!!

« Last post by wormball on May 29, 2025, 04:29:02 AM »

I tried older driver/firmware for eth-mci and mach3 Version R3.043.062 demo and got exactly the same bug.

But then i found that mach3 shows not the actual g52 offset, but offset from the future! So i thought it may have something to do with lookahead parameter which i had recently set to 200 as some man from youtube advised.

I set the lookahead to 2. And the bug was gone! So it most likely is mach3's own poor future prediction issue, so i will never get a fix, unless somebody decides to revive mach3 development.

Another fun thing is mach3 shows (on "diagnostics" screen but also with message getoemdro(16)) g52 from the "future", actually uses g52 from "present" and shifts g53 movements by g52 from the "past" (sometimes with negative and sometimes with positive sign).

68

General Mach Discussion / Re: Hall of shame

« Last post by rcaffin on May 29, 2025, 04:13:33 AM »

I tried Version R3.043.062 demo and got the exact same bug.
And what IS the bug?
Details needed.

Cheers
Roger

69

General Mach Discussion / Re: Hall of shame

« Last post by rcaffin on May 29, 2025, 04:12:22 AM »

I am not sure my boss will do it.
Then he can put up with the frequent crashes, damage and lost production. Tough.

So version 066 can not be official version?
Mach3 is no longer actively supported by Artsoft. Too many (literally) unsolvable bugs.
So they upgraded to Mach4.
Some of us still use Mach3 because we know how to handle it.

The window header says it is licensed to the machine manufacturer.
Yep, they bought ONE licence and then hacked the software, so they could distribute it with their machines. It's called piracy.

My controller does not support mach4.
Ah - cheap Chinese copy of something else, missing half the functions.

Look - sorry and all that, but your boss has only himself to blame. This must be the thousandth case we (users) have met.
I wonder how good the hardware is anyhow? Probably not worth much either.

Cheers
Roger
(Not employed by Artsoft in any way.)

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General Mach Discussion / Re: Hall of shame

« Last post by wormball on May 29, 2025, 04:08:00 AM »

I tried Version R3.043.062 demo and got the exact same bug.