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Author Topic: Upgrading from MACH3 to MACH4 with a DSPMC/ip V2  (Read 11050 times)

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Re: Upgrading from MACH3 to MACH4 with a DSPMC/ip V2
« Reply #10 on: March 19, 2016, 10:09:18 PM »
Hi Steve,
While I am certain that they have made things more tolerant the big problem is should you have to change your network card. Last I looked you have to have a funtional network card in the computer. If you disable it or remove it the license will fail.


On a brighter note i just did my first cuts with Mach4. ;D

The machine will run faster than ever but I am not thrilled with the PID tuning at low speeds. I will be sending Vital System an email to see if they have any insight as to why it runs great at high speed, and I mean high(750ipm) but is less than stellar at low. At anything less than 20 ipm the servos are noisy and the PID tuning is significantly different than it was running Mach3. Maybe they changed the algorithm or something.

I will need to either learn to do some LUA scripting or I will need to hire someone to write a few scripts.

Things like manual tool release & air blast, coolant, and cycle start from some actual switches, not screen buttons.

Hi Gerry,
With 12 lifetime licenses, and 4 machines in the shop, a couple of computer upgrades per machine and a goof or 2 and you are out of them. That being said they have had a lenient policy in the past and I am sure a phone call and a good solid explanation of what is going on will get you a few more. Obviously they are trying to catch the guys who buy one license and then share it with 50 of their closest friends.

Mike
We never have the time or money to do it right the first time, but we somehow manage to do it twice and then spend the money to get it right.

Offline ger21

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Re: Upgrading from MACH3 to MACH4 with a DSPMC/ip V2
« Reply #11 on: March 19, 2016, 11:42:59 PM »
As I said, those of us who purchased it early (18 months ago) already went through 3 before it was even really ready to use.
Gerry

2010 Screenset
http://www.thecncwoodworker.com/2010.html

JointCAM Dovetail and Box Joint software
http://www.g-forcecnc.com/jointcam.html
Re: Upgrading from MACH3 to MACH4 with a DSPMC/ip V2
« Reply #12 on: March 20, 2016, 06:41:04 AM »
Hi Gerry,

Agreed.
We never have the time or money to do it right the first time, but we somehow manage to do it twice and then spend the money to get it right.
Re: Upgrading from MACH3 to MACH4 with a DSPMC/ip V2
« Reply #13 on: March 23, 2016, 06:07:28 PM »
Vital systems to the rescue.
They remote connected in to my computer and were able to figure out that the PID tuning was off. Using a lot less P and more I really woke the low speed up. It is now whisper quiet at low speeds and very stable past 500ipm.

More to come.

Mike
We never have the time or money to do it right the first time, but we somehow manage to do it twice and then spend the money to get it right.
Re: Upgrading from MACH3 to MACH4 with a DSPMC/ip V2
« Reply #14 on: March 26, 2016, 10:13:31 PM »
Happy Easter to all of you following my trials and triumphs.

Fresh in from several hours of running making some parts to help a friend and here is the report.

The good. ;D
Motion is excellent and better than ever. Machine ran for 12 hours without crashing over the course of several days. Win7 on a Dell SFF SX270. Not bad for a $50 computer.
Feed hold response is excellent. In Mach 3 you had to wait for the buffer to empty before motion would come to a noisy halt. Now it just stops like is supposed to do.

Was cutting with a .250 3fl ZrN carbide endmill 18k rpm with a .050 doc and .250 woc at 95 ipm. Could have gone faster but with a 1.5" stickout I didn't want all the flex.

The not so good. :(
Coolant will stay on even if you E-stop the machine or disable the machine. Not the end of the world but something that i would like to see fixed.
At the present time it is not honoring the coolant delay setting that I have setup on the general config page. I need to verify a few things before I file a bug report.

The needs to be done. ???
Lua coding for the all of my hardwired buttons. I wound up having to fudge the tool release so I could change tools. Probably not the safest thing so I won't go into detail on how I did it. I want to incorporate an interlock so I can't release the tool at 18K RPM.

 I also need to connect my spindle rpm output to the DPSMC input so I can read the RPM. There is not a spindle ramp delay setting to make the machine wait for the spindle to come up to speed. If Mach4 can read the rpm then you can make it wait until the spindle is at a certain percentage of speed and then the machine will go. Between not have the spindle rpm being read into mach and the coolant delay not working, I had to add in a delay to my code after every toolchange. (5=ms. 5. =sec Decimal or not is very different)The machine now moves so fast at full rapids that it can rapid to the opposite side of the table and start cutting before the spindle is at full speed or the coolant has decided to flow.

The nice to have done. :P
Wire servo drive and spindle drive faults to stop the machine if a drive faults.
New screen set. The grays on blues on grays has no contrast and no appeal to me.
I also hate having to go from the run tab to the jog tab to the file tab and back. I don't have a real mouse on this machine just a joystick that does mouse emulation as part of the keyboard.


Since I have the DSPMC with the Analog inputs I would like to have RRO, FRO and SRO. I also should be able to get from the spindle VFD a signal indicating spindle load and read it into Mach. Same thing with the servo drives.


More to come,
Mike


We never have the time or money to do it right the first time, but we somehow manage to do it twice and then spend the money to get it right.

Offline smurph

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Re: Upgrading from MACH3 to MACH4 with a DSPMC/ip V2
« Reply #15 on: April 07, 2016, 03:47:45 AM »
Sounds like it is coming along!!  Anymore progress Mike? 
Re: Upgrading from MACH3 to MACH4 with a DSPMC/ip V2
« Reply #16 on: April 07, 2016, 05:36:26 AM »
Hi Steve,
Somebody should have been sleeping instead of posting >:D

I made some parts to help a friend and it ran ~60 parts really well. No hiccups, no stutters and no problems.

I am currently making a coolant block to hold 4 smaller nozzles around the perimeter of the cut path instead of always having to move a noxxle to get the flow just right. At 18Krpm it doesn't take long to weld the cutter into the part if it runs dry.

I will be working on this over the next few weeks to make all the improvements listed. The Biggest one is to get the hardwired buttons working with all the safeties worked out so I can't drop the tool while the spindle is turning.

I was testing Chaotione's probing GUI which would work a lot better on a proper computer but now I have to go back to making things. I did however put the probing jack in the operators panel since I couldn't fish the wires from the control cabinet to the inside of the machine. It was easy to get from the control cabinet to the operators console.

Things to make this week. :o
1. Coolant block. In process
2. Fullsized vacuum table for PCBs and the like. Bought some nice 3/4" sanded one side plywood.
3. Dust shoe for those times when I have to do a dry materiel like wood or PCBs, don't want all the wood residue to interact with my coolant and make the machine a real mess. More of the plywood that I bought.
4. Full sized fixture plate. I hacked one together but now I need to make it properly. Fully machined and possibly a grid pattern of holes.
5. Low overall length touch probe. I don't have a lot of Z to begin with and the wildhorse probe stuck into a er-16 collet holder eats most of it.

Longer term I need to figure out the ATC. The wine rack style it came with uses a ton of the y travel. Looks like it will be a rotary tool changer. I have a nice gear driven device with a small servo that should be perfect.


If there is anything I need to do and have not mentioned it, everybody please speak up. ::)

Please stay tuned ;D
Mike


We never have the time or money to do it right the first time, but we somehow manage to do it twice and then spend the money to get it right.
Re: Upgrading from MACH3 to MACH4 with a DSPMC/ip V2
« Reply #17 on: April 09, 2016, 10:23:15 PM »
From my last post,


Things to make this week.  :o
1. Coolant block. In process.   
2. Fullsized vacuum table for PCBs and the like. Bought some nice 3/4" sanded one side plywood.
3. Dust shoe for those times when I have to do a dry materiel like wood or PCBs, don't want all the wood residue to interact with my coolant and make the machine a real mess. More of the plywood that I bought.
4. Full sized fixture plate. I hacked one together but now I need to make it properly. Fully machined and possibly a grid pattern of holes.
5. Low overall length touch probe. I don't have a lot of Z to begin with and the wildhorse probe stuck into a er-16 collet holder eats most of it.

1. Broke a drill bit when I got carried away with the feed rate. Looks like I will need to start over.
2. Vacuum table has been roughed together. Still needs some sanding and some plumbing but it is looking good.
3. Made the first part of the dust shoe today. Machine cut the plywood very nicely at upwards of 200 ipm with a single flute straight cut router bit. We will see what tomorrow brings.
4. Fixture plate still on the list.
5. Looks like I will be able to take several inches out of the overall probe length. Stay tuned.

Long term has become shorter term. I jumped in to the winerack tool changer that came with the machine but it just took up way too much of the Y axis travel. I will be mocking it up in plywood until I have a solid idea of what I want to do. I also started working on the Lua coding that was supplied with Mach4 for a wine rack style tool changer. I changed the number of tools from 4 to 10 and I added the tool positions in X. More work needs to be done. Progress reports as they happen.
We never have the time or money to do it right the first time, but we somehow manage to do it twice and then spend the money to get it right.

Offline dude1

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Re: Upgrading from MACH3 to MACH4 with a DSPMC/ip V2
« Reply #18 on: April 10, 2016, 03:37:21 AM »
you are going at a good speed
Re: Upgrading from MACH3 to MACH4 with a DSPMC/ip V2
« Reply #19 on: April 10, 2016, 08:48:34 AM »
Thanks Blockhead.

One thing I forgot to mention was that I took a good look at the rotary tool changer and I just don't have the room in the enclosure for it. I will save the rotary device that I have for another project.
We never have the time or money to do it right the first time, but we somehow manage to do it twice and then spend the money to get it right.