Recent Posts

71

Mach4 Plugins / Re: Mach4 and UC100

« Last post by redwolfxiii on August 05, 2025, 06:01:31 PM »

John,

Yes I posted there as well.

However I posted here as I am suspecting it's a Mach4 configuration issue as the UC100 connects (or so Mach4 tells me) and I get status lights for the inputs I mapped and can get them to toggle appropriately from the machine, but I am not able to get motor output to the machine for some reason. I am about 99% sure it's not on the machine control (i.e. stepper boards, etc.) because I can move the machine while in manual mode from it's MPG.

See screenshots in original post of UC100 diagnostic panel. But that is ultimately why I am posting in the forums, because I am unsure where to go at this point.

I have a set of instructions for this MIB Controller for Mach3, but it's too old at this point and was made before mach4 was released. The only thing I haven't messed with the modbus settings as they are completely different from Mach3 to Mach4 and that is supposedly only to sync the on machine mpg with Mach3/4

Any advice or guidance is greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

72

Mach4 Plugins / Re: Mach4 and UC100

« Last post by JohnHaine on August 05, 2025, 05:54:48 PM »

https://forum.cncdrive.com/viewforum.php?f=22

73

Mach4 Plugins / Re: Mach4 and UC100

« Last post by JohnHaine on August 05, 2025, 05:50:18 PM »

Uh, this is the Mach support forum...

Have you looked at the cncdrive site? They make the UC100 and support it. Also have a support forum

74

Mach4 Plugins / Mach4 and UC100

« Last post by redwolfxiii on August 05, 2025, 12:34:30 PM »

Hi,

So quick backstory, I have been a machinist and manager in manufacturing for over 25 years. In my normal day job I recently and unfortunately had to close down a facility for my company. In that process they had a small desktop CNC mill that was sitting in a corner and the boss said to just throw away because it hadn't worked in a while. They set it up to mill a feature into an easy plastic part after it was molded. Instead of landfilling it, I asked if I could take it home and he agreed.

I recently cleaned and hooked it all back up and was surprised to find it functional, or at least mostly.

Basically I am able to get the external motion controller to move the X,Y, And Z axes around with the MPG pendant and I was able to configure Mach4 to be able to see the UC100 controller that is plugged into the LPT parallel port. I am able to get Mach4 to see the UC100 and with some configuration I can even get it to recognize the E-Stop, and enable functions and such. I can see the pin outs working in the UC100 diagnostics panel in Mach4, but I cannot get it to actually move any of the axes. I believe it's a configuration setting that I missed or have wrong, but for the life of me I cannot figure it out.

I have set all the input motor ++/-- to their pins, I have set the E-Stop, Enable, and Machine Enable to their pins, and I have set the motors up. The UC100 shows connected and gives response to the E-stop function, but seems to be about it currently. I also noticed in the pin out panel for the diagnostics that pin 13 as an input seems to be on, but that is for a function I didn't map. So not sure if that is causing a problem or not. I know Mach4 is your competitor, but I am posting here as well as on their forum just in case.

Any advice if possible, would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

75

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Rapid change atc and Mach4

« Last post by Cbyrdtopper on August 04, 2025, 09:26:02 AM »

I have not watched all of this.  I just found it and I'm posting it here.
I would make my script from scratch and make it work how I want.......
But nonetheless here is a video I found with Mach4.

76

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Rapid change atc and Mach4

« Last post by Cbyrdtopper on August 04, 2025, 09:21:06 AM »

I've never seen something like that.  I just watched some YouTube videos on it.  Looks simple enough to implement into Mach4. 
It just requires some scripting.  Personally I would use #Vars for each X & Y pocket position and call those up depending on the tool requested. 

77

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: How to improve modbus latency?

« Last post by domnray on August 02, 2025, 02:36:13 AM »

Some systems allow polling time to be configured on a per-device basis, or even per-data tag or block basis, but there is not always a clear separation between Modbus “functions”.

78

General Mach Discussion / Re: Hi Guy's

« Last post by Tweakie.CNC on August 01, 2025, 12:28:52 AM »

The various jogging methods are described in section 3.2 of the manual. https://www.machsupport.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Mach3Mill_Install_Config.pdf

Tweakie.

79

General Mach Discussion / Re: Hi Guy's

« Last post by RuddyCrazy on July 31, 2025, 07:31:19 PM »

Thanks for that tip Tweakie it worked a treat and now when I edit my GCode file I just leave the % there, now going off memory when I used Mach3 back in the days of 32 bit there was a jog feature builtin to Mach3 but now I can't find it at all. I do feel the jog feature is a needed item as I can't see the point of having to make a small GCode file just move the axis to start a job.

Regards Bryan

80

Mach4 General Discussion / Possible to use M3 to start plasma and use M63 or M65 to turn torch off?

« Last post by jjonbo on July 31, 2025, 03:15:26 PM »

Hello, I'm having trouble with using M63 (with G1 movement following it) to turn off spindle (plasma torch). I'm using Mach4 hobby licensed.

I have CSMIO IP-M motion controller which unfortunately doesn't let me set the digital output pin to both Spindle FWD AND Output#1 for example.

I would like to use M3 to start since it has all the built-in probing etc. working nicely, but it would be great if I could turn the torch off fast during lead out move with M63 so cuts would be smoother.

I think it's not possible to script M63 to turn off spindle. Any ideas?