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Author Topic: Getting Disillusioned with Mach3.  (Read 34302 times)

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Offline stirling

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Re: Getting Disillusioned with Mach3.
« Reply #30 on: January 17, 2012, 07:24:21 AM »
All good intersesting stuff but let's not forget the distinction between asking for new features and asking for broken features to be fixed. Also let's not forget that it never hurts to ask - but that doesn't mean it's going to or has to happen. Let's not play the blame game.

Ian
Re: Getting Disillusioned with Mach3.
« Reply #31 on: January 17, 2012, 09:50:56 AM »
Hello Guys,
I would love to post more about what we have done in Mach4 but I don't feel that the time is right. We have a few more things that we need to do that are very open ended. As soon as they are done it will allow use to get a very good idea on the date for release or even for me to tell you what the feature set is. I have an API doc for mach4 but it is a little over the top for a regular user ( talks about how to use C# as a GIU and all that junk). the fact is that we are moving at a warp speed on this project and the quality is amazing. We also have taken what I have learned from Mach3 and trying to make it as safe as we can for you the user to make your own customization. The true goal is simple.. Make a simple app that can have items added to make it be what you would like it to be. Having said that there was a question about if we could add Tempest.. Yup.. We can! Can I add a new scripting engine.. YUP! Can you have a new Gcode interpreter? YES! Can we add Canopen YES! Mach4 is built to be more flexible then mach3 ever thought about being.. We may make it so you can run more then one machine at the same time . So as you can see I will post but let us get past the rest of the road blocks. The road block that we just got past was how to pass OpenGL to C# so an OEM could make a new GUI and not know how to program OpenGL.. And yes that could also be changed out :)

Mach3.. Ron and Steve  talked to me at the show and they have the idea that we should post the bugs that we are working on.. I don't test anymore I have Andrew doing that, so the idea is that I will have Andrew make a webpage where he can post what we will be working on so you can see what the heck it is that we would like to do for the next rev (Bug fixes). Having said that I have no idea how long that will take but that is the plan..

Thanks
Brian
Fixing problems one post at a time ;)

www.newfangledsolutions.com
www.machsupport.com

andrewm

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Re: Getting Disillusioned with Mach3.
« Reply #32 on: January 17, 2012, 03:25:09 PM »
I have made a Forum topic for the time being of the "Bug List"

http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,20609.msg143156.html#msg143156

Thanks
Andrew

Offline simpson36

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Re: Getting Disillusioned with Mach3.
« Reply #33 on: January 18, 2012, 03:37:48 AM »
Mach3.. Ron and Steve  talked to me at the show and they have the idea that we should post the bugs that we are working on..  . . . make a webpage where he can post what we will be working on so you can see what the heck it is that we would like to do for the next rev (Bug fixes).

An indispensable tool available in many development environments. My number one frustration with Mach has been spending hours fighting with an issue only to find that it is a known bug. Until my current motor controller project, where I had no choice, I have avoided building anything around Mach for that reason. With a known bug list, which is at least as important as any other debugging tool, I would go to that resource at the first sign of irregular behavior to see if debugging the issue will be (temporarily) futile or more important, if there is there a current work around . .  which should be part of a known bug listing, incidentally.

Other than staying focused and prioritizing fixes over features . . . . and perhaps further organizing the still splintered and incomplete documentation . .(hint, hint) . . . this bug list is probably the very best tool you can provide for developers who want to work with Mach. It demonstrates that ArtSoft is acting to respect a developers time.

Kudos . . .

Offline ART

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Re: Getting Disillusioned with Mach3.
« Reply #34 on: January 18, 2012, 01:07:53 PM »
Tweakie:

   Quite a discussion here since your question on E0P1 etc.. :)

  Andrew tells me that function was not removed, it shoudl still work. Can you describe exactly what its doing?
Does it just stop.. or does it stop working after so many lines??

Art
Re: Getting Disillusioned with Mach3.
« Reply #35 on: January 18, 2012, 02:27:04 PM »
Hello guys I think I see the error.. in the Fix I added for the SS it made an error for the E0P1 type stuff.. but the good news is that the M10P1 and M00P1 should work fine.. I have sent out a rev for testing so we will see what we get :)
Fixing problems one post at a time ;)

www.newfangledsolutions.com
www.machsupport.com

Offline ART

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Re: Getting Disillusioned with Mach3.
« Reply #36 on: January 18, 2012, 03:10:59 PM »
Thanks Brian, thats was the original request on this thread, I think it was misunderstood as a gripe about somethign not being available, but I knew the code was tied to
output so it shoudl have worked. Its mainly for lasers or impact printers, but the impact printing has been a busy thread and Ive been impressed with Tweakies results in that as well as the interest others have in impact printing, so thats a functionallity that should stay for extenral device makers who wish to offer it. Any printer port plugin will have a hook for it.

 Preciate the clarification.
Art

Offline BR549

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Re: Getting Disillusioned with Mach3.
« Reply #37 on: January 18, 2012, 05:14:41 PM »
I think from looking back at trouble notes a problem with the function was also a DELAY that had somehow crept in causing the laser problems most had to move away from the function and go to the Dir pin method.

Just a thought, (;-) TP

Offline Tweakie.CNC

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Re: Getting Disillusioned with Mach3.
« Reply #38 on: January 19, 2012, 05:12:59 AM »
Hi Brian and Art,

I have sent emails with attachments of the test results etc.

Tweakie.
PEACE

Offline Tweakie.CNC

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Re: Getting Disillusioned with Mach3.
« Reply #39 on: January 20, 2012, 04:49:44 AM »
Hi Guys,

Well, as Art has said, this topic certainly stirred up some discussion.
Brian has been just brilliant and has now restored these, undocumented, commands M10P1/M11P1 and E1P0/E1P1 and in the latest version he sent me to test they work just perfectly. There is now no noticeable delay with these commands as can be seen from the picture of the test sample I used.
A big thanks to Artsoft, Brian and the Team who responded so rapidly to restoring these commands which (as others have said) only benefit a very small proportion of the total, worldwide, Mach users. These changes will be incorporated into version R3.043.056 as and when.
Obviously I will no longer be looking at alternatives for my machine control but this has perhaps demonstrated, at least to me, just how fickle we (I) can be.   ;D

Tweakie.
PEACE