You have the general idea with teh SUB.  Yes you CAN access the Values of a range of DROs through Gcode directly with #vars in the Gcode (;-).

There is a list here on the site somewhere I will look for it again. This comes up about every 2years or so (;-).

What exactly are you checking for in teh M900 ?? To see IF teh Z switch is stuck on ?? I would do this in teh M3 macro and eliminate teh M900 all together.


As to making the ouput active yo MAY want o consider doing this from Gcode and use a simple brain to do teh switching eliminating 2 more macros.

Simply have the Gcode Set a #var to either 0 or 1 and have the brain watch that dro # that is matched to teh #var.  That range should work both ways modify either one and it updates the other.

Now you have eliminated any problems or delays  that you could run into from using Mcodes .

Just a thought, (;-) TP

Dave if it helps the OEMdros 1000 - 1255 as supposed to be mapped to #Vars 15000 -15255.

(;-) TP

Thanks for that, i will now need to read up on brains and #vars

this is a post modded by CandCNC for their MP3000-DTHC2 system, the odd thing is M900 does not exist in my running Mach setup so I can only guess it does absolutely bugger all??

I did a search through my backup archive and i did find a M900.m1s - it has this in it

'code to stop a touch off if the Ohmic is stuck on
if IsActive(_8_) then
Response =  MsgBox ("Touch - Off sensor jammed.  Clear and hit RUN to continue ", 4 , "Clear Z Jam")
code "M00"
end if

but i don't use the post it was related too, might be some post code overhang from another version?

I guess it checks input 8 to see if it is on at the time it wants to start IHS and stops if so???
I had to modify the input number as bracket-eight-bracket seems to convert to a smiley

Might be easier to pull the code from the post to tidy up a bit?

So my HeightSense.tap now looks like...

#? = 1
G28.1 Z3.000   
G92 Z0.000 
#? = 0                 
G00 Z#15045
G92 Z0.000
M99
%

Need to find an unused DRO number for the brain to monitor

Thanks for that, i will now need to read up on brains and #vars

this is a post modded by CandCNC for their MP3000-DTHC2 system, the odd thing is M900 does not exist in my running Mach setup so I can only guess it does absolutely bugger all??

I did a search through my backup archive and i did find a M900.m1s - it has this in it

'code to stop a touch off if the Ohmic is stuck on
if IsActive(_8_) then
Response =  MsgBox ("Touch - Off sensor jammed.  Clear and hit RUN to continue ", 4 , "Clear Z Jam")
code "M00"
end if

but i don't use the post it was related too, might be some post code overhang from another version?

I guess it checks input 8 to see if it is on at the time it wants to start IHS and stops if so???
I had to modify the input number as bracket-eight-bracket seems to convert to a smiley

Might be easier to pull the code from the post to tidy up a bit?

So my HeightSense.tap now looks like...

#? = 1
G28.1 Z3.000   
G92 Z0.000  
#? = 0                
G00 Z#15045
G92 Z0.000
M99
%

Need to find an unused DRO number for the brain to monitor

Ok, getting there now,

I have this as a Subroutine "HeightSense.tap"

#15239=1
G04 P0.5
G28.1 Z3.000   
G92 Z0.000  
#15239=0                  
G00 Z#15045
G92 Z0.000
M99
%

And the G-Code looks like,

N0190 M09 (Turn off extract fan)
N0200 M00 (Paused: Check the DTHC Settings - Hit RUN to continue)
N0210 G00 X36.000 Y17.475 Z15.000
N0220 M900 (Check for Z active) **this line will be removed soon - does nothing
N0230 M08 (Turn on extract fan)
N0240 M98 (HeightSense.tap)
N0250 G00 Z3.8000
N0260 M03

I tried to use a screen OEM LED numbered 1239 so i had a bit of bling but it would not work so i gave up on that and altered the brain to switch the output directly from the #15239 value and it works, the output has a button and LED on my screen anyway so i do get a little feedback as to where its at. I think this was the right way to go anyway as it's simpler.

One query - I pulled the var 1239/15239 from thin air - is there a way to see if vars are already used???

As the G-code loads you can see it run the macro at each call so I guess thats good?

The brain was the easy part, almost ladder-logic and i'm used to that from PLC programming.

Hardware changes next, this will have to wait until I return to work as all my pneumatic stuff is there unless i get desperate and drive in to pick it up

From measurements, a 40mm stroke cylinder at 45deg will give plenty of safety clearance when retracted, 10mm bore is plenty as no power is required, it can easily be bolted to a bracket using bolts already in place on the floating head - this makes it an easy task to fit and remove if it fails.

As it stands right now I still have made massive improvements I think as the probing and IHS is now relative to the machine and NOT the g-code so any mechanical changes will mean not having to recreate my stock code files over - nice

Thanks for the guidance, especially at this time of year, been a fun project so far.

One thing i have just noticed is that as the code is loaded, it triggers the probe output as it is scanned  clearly a bad thing,

I think i need to add an additional condition to the brain but what is best to monitor???

Ok need more help here

been messing with the brain, i want to activate output3 only if #var15239 is = 1 AND the run led is on i.e. not loading code etc.

I have tried many variations and nothing seems to work here, I had two inputs - #15239 & LED804 then a >0 comparator on each then an AND then the output3 but this does nothing at all.

Any brain guru's around??

Can't be that complicated surely?

Sorted it, couple more hours of reading and testing and it works perfectly if you use the pass-thru option and don't do any comparative ops on the signals.

input1)
         )  -->Pass-thru--> AND --> output
input2)

For the most part you can look in the screen editor to see IF you have used OEMDROs 1000 -1255 as these are tied to #vars 15000 - 15255 internally.  Also you will figure out soon enough that you cannot reference from a macro #vars 15000 - 15255 with GetVar or setvar.  Art stopped allowing you to access them at about 13000 from CB. BUT you still can use Code" #15000 = XX" to set those VARs from a macro if you need to.

Soon enough you are going to figure out that you can do most of the CandCNC stuff without all the CandCNC stuff and even a bit MORE they don't want you to know. (;-) 

(;-) TP

Thanks TP,

I will double-check the screen editor for the used DRO's as suggested just to make sure.

I have no idea why that M900 was there as there was no M900 macro so i guess it was just skipped by Mach. For the most part the CandCNC stuff works well, I won't recommend them anymore due to an issue I had previously which they did not help me out with satisfactorily and even tried to extract more money from me to replace stuff that was not faulty.

Anyway, i think what i have in place now is an improvement and when I add the new hardware it may be better or not but at least how it is now makes making changes far easier.