Hi Eric:

 Sorry, I did mean to get back to you. I have tested the step/dir spindle here with no problem and no requirement to restart or reset any registers.
Can you refine the problem. Are you using Mach4's step/dir, or simply a frequency output in Darwin as the method of step/dir. M4 can do step/dir
two ways. ( I tested both with no problem, restarting several times and immediately getting any M3S********* I selected. )

 Can you describe how your setup? Are you using an OB axis with step/dir, or not using the spindle as an axis and simply telling Darwin to use a frequency?

Art

Hello Art

I'm just having Darwin use frequency control. There isn't enough documentation on Mach 4 on how to configure a step/dir spindle as an OB axis. If you or someone can tell me how to do it I sure would like to try it. Right now I have Darwin configured to switch on a relay for M3 and a relay for M4 and just running frequency into a cnc4pc C6 board for an analog voltage to a KBIC speed controller. I looked at the Darwin configuration under Diagnostics and wondered what would happen if I set the Low hz to 1 under Ferq Ctrl and left the Hi hz at 1000. I closed Mach 4 and restarted and now I can do M3 S*** in MDI and I have spindle movement. So changing 0 to 1 in the Low hz window fixed it.

Eric.

Hi Eric:

 Ahh, thcx. Glad to hear its working. TO use the M4 step/dir way, you set up a motor as your spindle. You turn the motor on but select it as an OB ( out of band) motor. DO that as well on the spindle page. It then works as a spindle step/dir.

 On the other hand if what your doing works....

Art

Let me start by saying I have a lathe setup with Mach3 that works fine.

2 days ago I downloaded the latest Mach4, Darwin plugin and test license from this thread. Ive watched the videos now 3-4 times and I am fairly certain I am setting everything up the correct way.

I am having a few different issues, perhaps all the same issue but the symptoms are as follows:

• In the plugin configuration, I was able to jog my axis 1 time using the little click drag jogger thing. Now I am unable to jog them at all, and the little jogging indicator doesn't turn green either.
• When I change the Hz in the plugin to the recommended value from the wizard, the plugin never saves that. Every time I go back into the plugin its back to 100Hz.
• From Mach4, I can jog either X or Z one direction one time. As soon as you let go of the button, all motion will stop. If I disable and enable Mach4 I can do that again and again.
• If I enable a motor in both the plugin and mach for a step and direction spindle, the plugin will throw an error something about out of buffer motion error.

I am not sure if any of this is related to it being a demo, I cant seem to find any clear documentation on how long motion will work when in demo mode. I would really like to get this working before shelling out the money for a copy, and I hope that would be possible with the demo.

Thanks for any help\advice you can give.

Hi:

  You should get full motion with your testing. First, an OutofBounds error mens the steps/unit is too high, which makes sense if its forgetting its
settings. Never set it up from the drivertest, only from within mach4. Try this with just frequency, set it to 30K or whatever, then exit. Restart mach4 and go back and look, is it still 30K? If so continue, if not, let me know. We'll see if we can figure out why..

Art

Hi Art thanks for the reply. I didn't mean to say I am setting up from the driver test area, I am getting to the plugin through Mach. I just tried what you asked and its still not saving. I thought perhaps the profile was corrupt so I tried it on the standard mill profile and it does the same thing.

Just FYI:
The Darwin version shows  1.22 over 1.23
The Mach version is 4.0.1.2568 Build 2568

Thanks

Hi Ben:

   Im afraid the only advice I can give is to delete the installation and try again fresh. I tested this morning with
those versions, licensed and unlicensed, and the driver worked fine, the pulse rate saved, and motion was proper.

  Im thinking the only thing that coudl screw you up that way, is if the profiles are screwed up somehow. It seems to be
an inssue with the installation of Mach4 rather than a darwin issue.
Sorry, wish I coudl advise better..

Art

Hi Art:

So I have uninstalled everything, deleted all the folders and installed a fresh copy of mach4 and the plugin from the main download page. The issue is still there. Just to be clear that I am not missing something, its the Max Jog Speed (hz) slider on the Motor Config tab that I am setting at what the wizard says is correct (in my case 20000hz)?

If that is the case, where is that number stored, maybe I can just manually update a file somewhere so I can get past this? My next step is to try it on a completely different PC to see if that works.

Does it matter if Mach3 is on the same machine?

Thanks for all the help.

Hi:

  Makes no difference to the machine. When you use the slider and then exit the wizard, Mach4 stores the value in the machine.ini profile under [Darwin]
as ( Im pretty sure ) "Pulse Freq". TO be clear, this means you have selected config/plugins, then pressed config on Darwin. The pulse screen slider is then changed to 20,000 and you exit. This should be permanent unless changed due to the entry in the machine.ini for [Darwin] under "Frequency"

  As it starts up it runs this line
mcProfileGetInt(m_cid , "Darwin", "Frequency", &rval, 25000);, so it defaults to 25K if nothing is stored.

  So when you exit it should then read 20000. It sounds liek for some reason your configs arent saving.

Art

Depending on the WINDOS version . Permission to write to a file can be denied in certain areas.  Try opening Mach4 in Admin mode. to see IF it still happens.

If so CHECK the directory where the save file is stored to see IF it is read only.

It does work OK here.

Just a thought, (;-) TP