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Author Topic: VistaCNC Pendant - Running out of luck...  (Read 4002 times)

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VistaCNC Pendant - Running out of luck...
« on: September 11, 2016, 03:17:24 AM »
I've been searching far and wide to answer a few questions, but I've run out of luck.

Mach4 Build 2914, Windows 10 Pro on Surface 1. Syil X4+ with PMDX 411 (Firmware 0.46.221). P1A4S pendant connected via USB. Pendant upgraded to latest Mach4 firmware,

(1) The Vista CNC plugin: It has a menu item under configure -> Plugins . I press it, it does nothing.

Is it supposed to? That's different from the Mach3 version.

(2) Documentation is scant, but found a thread that states the following needs to be done: Add an entry under Mach Config -> MPG's (Enabled, Encoder: PSPendant/MPG1, Counts per detent=1, Acc%=100,Vel%=100). The plugin 'seems' to enable Input signals on the Input Signals tab for the Jog entries.


It doesn't make any difference as to whether those entries are there or not, the pendant works (Badly - more of that later). Have I missed something obvious?
On the input signals, the device and input names are blank. That doesn't sound right, does it? I can select P2SPendant for the device name, but the Input names show a list of Input0 to Input28 - Pretty obscure & would require guess work / trial and error. Should these have values & what should they be?

(3) Given above, all of the functions of the pendant surprisingly works, but the jog wheel has a strange behaviour.

It feels sluggish, The table moves & the movement is rough and the positioning is not exact, it seems to overrun a little (feeling like a buffer of moves is being executed after I stop turning the wheel). On Mach3, positioning was beautiful, the table and wheel operated in perfect harmony. Something's clearly wrong - anyone have thoughts? Incidentally - moving the table with the keyboard works just fine.

I'd dearly love for someone to share their thoughts, especially if this is a config, missing something obvious (Windows C++ libraries, secret button that I haven't found yet, etc)

Please help.


Pete (UK)
Re: VistaCNC Pendant - Running out of luck...
« Reply #1 on: September 11, 2016, 11:21:03 PM »
We have had a couple customers that have tried to use these pendants on Mach4 along with out SmartBOB products.  We don't have a VistaCNC pendant in-house to test with.  But when I've examined debug logs from our customers I see truly bizarre motion data coming from the Mach4 motion planner when trying to jog via the pendant.  Things like the entire jog motion for one detent on the pendant being sent to us compressed into 1 millisecond worth of motion (grossly violating the max acceleration parameters in the motor config tab).

I haven't looked at the VistaCNC plug-in since March of this year.  It looks like they released new plug-ins in June and July.  If you can run some tests for me I can take a look at the data that is being passed to our plug-in and see what I can see.

(1) I need to add some information to your profile in order to generate the debug files I need for this.  Please send me your Machine.ini file and I will add the required lines and send it back to you.  You can attach it to this message thread or email it to me at bob at my company name dot com.  If you need help finding the Machine.ini file, see this link:
         http://faq.pmdx.com/content/3/10/en/where-do-i-find-the-machineini-configuration-file.html
Hmmmm... if you want to attach it to this thread you will need to rename it to "Machine.txt"

(2) Once you have the modified Machine.ini file, enable the SmartBOB's debug log as described here:
         http://faq.pmdx.com/content/3/3/en/how-to-capture-a-debug-log-file-and-send-to-pmdx.html

(3) After you enable the debug log, exit Mach4 and re-start Mach4 as described in the above FAQ

(4) Pick an axis to test.  For the purpose of my instructions I'll use the "X" axis, but you can use any axis.  In the MDI box enter:
Quote
G0X1.0
G0X0
Then click on the "Cycle Start" button to run those two GCode lines.

(5) Now try jogging that same axis using the VistaCNC pendant.  Try jogging it in one direction, then try jogging it back in the other direction.  You don't need to end up exactly back where you started.

(6) Now disable our plug-in's debug log as described in the above FAQ, create a profile package and send that to me.

Bob
Re: VistaCNC Pendant - Running out of luck...
« Reply #2 on: December 15, 2016, 01:16:48 PM »
I'm new to the forum searching for answers and have discovered my issue to be the same as Pete's.  I'm curious to know if Bob's instructions to Pete resolved the issue??  I'm interested in providing a test-bed to provide input to learn how Mach4 and the VistaCNC P1A issues can be resolved.

Looking forward to your comments...

Tony
Re: VistaCNC Pendant - Running out of luck...
« Reply #3 on: December 15, 2016, 07:17:14 PM »
Hi Pete
I have the same pendant (Vista P1A) and it works great on my machine with Mach4. I use an Ethernet Smooth Stepper - there may be a conflict with another plug in or something on your machine.
Steve
Re: VistaCNC Pendant - Running out of luck...
« Reply #4 on: December 15, 2016, 09:21:00 PM »
With version 186 of the Mach4 plugin for SS, Andy introduced the micro step functionality. This cured the problem above.

Re: SmartBoB. Wasn't that comfortable with the Pin flexibility (didn't match my BoB pinout & whilst a great device, I stayed with the Ethernet SS). Not sure if SmartBoB also provides a similar micro step function.

Pete
Re: VistaCNC Pendant - Running out of luck...
« Reply #5 on: December 16, 2016, 12:23:36 AM »
I'm new to the forum searching for answers and have discovered my issue to be the same as Pete's.  I'm curious to know if Bob's instructions to Pete resolved the issue??  I'm interested in providing a test-bed to provide input to learn how Mach4 and the VistaCNC P1A issues can be resolved.
My instructions to Pete were to gather information to try and figure out what was going on.  As best i can remember Pete never ran the tests as he discovered an incompatibility between the SmartBOB and his breakout board.

If you want to try collecting the data, send me your Machine.ini file. See item (1) in my previous post on finding the correct Machine.ini file.  Please email it to me at bob at my domain below.  I'll update it and send it back for you to use in the test.

Bob