Recent Posts

81

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Loses Z Motion Reference After Idle

« Last post by cd_edwards on January 31, 2026, 12:01:29 PM »

motion controller would help. Also if your using external drives, make sure and turn off the driver sleep function. DM542's have a switch for half-current

82

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Loses Z Motion Reference After Idle

« Last post by cncmagic on January 30, 2026, 09:28:38 PM »

the forum probably needs to know your motion controller.

83

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach-Pro??

« Last post by gorf23 on January 30, 2026, 08:51:52 AM »

The only thing i could say is there are beta plugins for ESS and Pokeys so should be compatable with mach4 hardware, plus others

84

Mach4 General Discussion / Mach4 Loses Z Motion Reference After Idle

« Last post by jadongreen on January 29, 2026, 05:33:44 AM »

Hi, I’m Jadon and I’m running Mach4 on a CNC router with an external motion controller, and I’m seeing a strange issue that I haven’t been able to track down. If Mach4 is left idle for more than a few minutes with the machine enabled, the Z axis still jogs and homes normally, but the moment I start a G-code job, Mach4 suddenly reports a motion fault and ignores all Z moves in the program while X and Y continue running. There’s no E-stop triggered and no following error shown, but the DRO for Z freezes at the last jog position and the tool just air-cuts. Restarting Mach4 temporarily fixes it, which makes me suspect some kind of state or buffer problem rather than wiring. I’ve checked soft limits, probe settings, and motor tuning, and nothing stands out. Has anyone run into Mach4 losing axis motion control only after sitting idle, and where should I be looking to diagnose this properly?

85

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach-Pro for Mach4 Users

« Last post by dramainsight on January 28, 2026, 08:11:23 PM »

I've been looking into Mach-Pro for Mach4, and I'm pretty intrigued. The customization choices appear to be huge! I'm particularly curious about how you guys strike a balance between performance and complexity in your setups. Have any of you encountered problems with specific plugins or features? I'd love to hear about your experiences!

86

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 future status

« Last post by Steve Stallings on January 27, 2026, 07:18:05 AM »

The current thinking is that Mach4 is getting one last bug fix and cleanup release and then will transition to a status similar to Mach3, still available but only community support.

87

MachPro General Discussion / MachPro Demo

« Last post by TOTALLYRC on January 27, 2026, 05:37:05 AM »

Good Morning,
I am playing around with the MachPro Demo and I have to ask. Is there a designer out there who understands color and contrast? Why, oh WHY, does anyone think that greys on greys on off black makes for a readable screen? Off white(grey) text on a grey/black background just washes out for me and is difficult to work with in varying lighting conditions. The black text on a shaded grey blue background isn't much better. Just because it looks cool on a website or a word document doesn't make it correct for a machine control. Neither does the fact that some other machine controller does it this way.
Is it just because Microsoft started it?
Hopefully there will be some other, more useable screens in the future.

Step one, give up on Dark mode already. My shop is properly illuminated and dark mode is useless.

I will now get off of my soapbox and get some coffee.

Mike
 

88

Mach4 General Discussion / Mach4 future status

« Last post by TOTALLYRC on January 27, 2026, 04:35:50 AM »

Since MachPro is now the new kid on the block,
Does this mean that all development on Mach 4 will stop?

Mike

89

MachPro General Discussion / "Upgrading" from Mach4 to MachPro

« Last post by TOTALLYRC on January 27, 2026, 04:27:03 AM »

Hi All,
Long time no post!
I don't see it explicitly stated, but can I run MachPro on more than one machine like we do with Mach 4 or is it $550/machine?
Is there/will there be support for an analog controller?

Mike

90

Modbus / Re: Need some help with the inital setup

« Last post by Tweakie.CNC on January 22, 2026, 01:54:02 AM »

Those who continue to use a ‘Pirate’ Mach3 license will not receive support on this forum.

This thread refers;  https://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php?topic=24331.0

Tweakie.