Perhaps there is no specific timeline, but does anyone have a rough idea of when the next release of Mach will be available?  Will it be Mach4? I am having some issues with a SmoothStepper and Mach and I hope a new release will address the issue.

Thanks,
Kent

It will be ready when its ready and thats all that can be said I am afraid. Things are progressing well from what Brian has said but there are still many things to be done.

What issues are you having with the SS?
Hood

I am implementing a zero touch probe for the z-axis. The routine uses the G31 command and then once touched it reads the touch point using GetVar(2002). The routine then moves the z-axis back (using a G0 command) to the touch point in case the touchpoint was overshot . It then sets the z-axis DRO to the thickness of the touchplate (0.25" in this case). It then moves upward 0.25" using a G0 command to move the probe off the plate. After experimenting with the strange problems I am having here is what I have learned:

1) After homing the machine and stopping the routine after the G31 command but before the DRO is reset, the touchpoint reported by GetVar(2002) is slightly above where the machine stopped. That is reasonable since the machine may have some overshoot when coming to a stop. However, if I run the G31 command anytime after I have changed the DRO, the reported touchpoint is below the point at which the axis stopped. That is not possible as it never went below the point it stopped at.
2) As described above, the macro sets the z-DRO to the plate thickness after the touch point is reached. Thus the DRO is set to 0.25" at that point. Note that before the Z-DRO is changed it may read something like -4" since  my z-axis zero is set at the top of the travel. The macro then sends a g0 z0.5 command to retract .25" above the .25 inch thick plate. However, the SS will retract all the way up until the upper limit is reached. It is as if it did not register the fact that the z-DRO was set to something different prior to the move. Note that if I execute  the G0 command outside of the macro it moves to the proper point.

Both of these appear to be having a problem when the z-axis DRO is changed. Greg,of Warp9, thinks there may be a problem with synchronization between the SS and development version (Mach3 R3.043.000). I am using the development version as that was what was initially suggested when using a SS.

Thanks for your help.
Kent
>>

Perhaps there is no specific timeline, but does anyone have a rough idea of when the next release of Mach will be available?  Will it be Mach4? I am having some issues with a SmoothStepper and Mach and I hope a new release will address the issue.

Thanks,
Kent

It'll likely be at least a couple of months.  Brian is making a LOT of changes, all very much for the better.  Much of the most critical, core code has been completely re-written, and a lot of new stuff is yet to be added.  It will be Mach3 v4, but it will be a very different, and greatly improved, animal from the existing Mach3.

I hear Greg is also working on a new SS plug-in, to resolve the few remaining issues.  In addition to fixing the few, rare, remaining synch issues, I understand he will also be enabling FRO over 100%, and a number of other nice new features.  I believe either he, or perhaps it was Brian, made a post on the Yahoo group in the last week listing some of the changes.

Regasrds,
Ray L.

I do probing in all three axes about a hundred times a day, and it works perfectly.  I'm using 3.042.020, which has proven reasonably stable over the last 6+ months, and the "ogb" plug-in.  You might want to give that version a try.  It is, for reasons I do not understand, sometimes seemingly necessary to put a Sleep(100) in your macro after writing a DRO, and before doing anything that depends on having the DRO updated.  But I don't believe there's any problem with the SS itself.  I have never once had a problem with probing, since using the above combination of code versions.

Regards,
Ray L.

Where do I find the older versions of Mach? 3.042.029 is the oldest one I see on the download site.

I have never reloaded Mach. Do I simply need to copy my XML file to another directory, Uninstall Mach, Install the new (old in this case) version of Mach, and then copy the XML file back into the Mach directory? I assume I'll also have to reload the custom screenset I am using.

Thank you for the info.

Kent

Your problem is very likely to be Ver 043 of Mach, it was only meant for people to try out the new comp code and was not meant to be used as a general day to day version unless you really needed the comp. It is known that there are a lot of problems with that version and really there should have been a warning posted on the site to this effect.
 You can get older versions from the ftp site and all you do is install over the top of the version you have at the moment, all the usual warnings about backing up your custom macros , xml and licence file apply but it will be very unlikely that you will get problems. If you want a version thats not there I may have it here so pm your email and I will send if I have it.

ftp://anonymous@machsupport.com/

Hood

     

    * Mach3 R3.042.029* Lockdown:
    * Mach3 R3.043.000 - This Rev is for Development testing only!

I loaded Mach R3.042.020 and it solved my touch probe problem. Thanks to everyone for your help!

Kent