I have a Hypertherm Powermax 65 plasma cutter with serial port interface, and Hypertherm uses Modbus ASCII protocol. For Mach3 I used a Modbus RTU to ASCII translator (built with Arduino) to establish the interface, as Mach3 does not support Modbus ASCII. Can anyone tell me if Mach4 supports Modbus ASCII protocol? I've yet to own a copy of Mach4 and I'm still thinking very hard about getting Mach4 license for it. Thanks!

FWIW 

Russ

Hi,
I'm not 100% on it but yes I believe it is Ascii capable. Personally found the Mach4 Modbus plugin way superior to
Mach3.

Why don't you download Mach4, run the Sim(ulator) plugin, all for free and try it out. If I'm not mistaken the Modbus plugin is fully functional in demo mode.

Craig

FWIW 

Russ

This is beautiful, I can finally get rid of my Arduino now!

Hi,
I'm not 100% on it but yes I believe it is Ascii capable. Personally found the Mach4 Modbus plugin way superior to
Mach3.

Why don't you download Mach4, run the Sim(ulator) plugin, all for free and try it out. If I'm not mistaken the Modbus plugin is fully functional in demo mode.

Craig

I did gave it a try last 2 years ago, I got irritated by it after the demo mode stops the entire cutting process after a certain line or time. But now I'm downloading the latest Mach4Hobby to give it a try!

Thanks guys!

Hi,
demo is still demo. If you have an active motion controller Mach4 will run for about 5-6 minutes before it needs to be reset.

If you use the Sim plugin it will run without limit, being a simulator it will not run a physical machine. The Modbus plugin is to my knowledge fully functional
and so you could use it to control a spindle or any Modbus device without limit with demo.

If you want to control a machine for longer periods of time you'll have to buy a licence.

I personally think $200 (perpetual) for the Hobby version for up to five PCs/ machines is good value. If I had the extra I would now buy the Industrial variant,
the main added capability that I am aware of and would really like is functionality of all six out-of-band axes. At the current time Mach4Hobby is limited to one out-of-band
axis and its always a spindle.

Craig

I have a Hypertherm Powermax 65 plasma cutter with serial port interface, and Hypertherm uses Modbus ASCII protocol. For Mach3 I used a Modbus RTU to ASCII translator (built with Arduino) to establish the interface, as Mach3 does not support Modbus ASCII. Can anyone tell me if Mach4 supports Modbus ASCII protocol? I've yet to own a copy of Mach4 and I'm still thinking very hard about getting Mach4 license for it. Thanks!

hello,
could you share ,how arduino rtu to ascii builtin code generate?
actually i want connect my servo motor which that have only ASCII mode option,
so if possible must share how this possible mach3 communicate to ASCII Modbus,
+923009614414 this is my whats app
shakeel is here

Hi,
the Mach4  Modbus plugin supports ASCII and RTU protocols.

Modbus however is not a realtime communication protocol and so can not be used to control synchronous
axis servos.

Craig

I want. When i ll open mach3 software,then first get servo position of all axis via modbus communtion.and my all servo on absolute positioning mode,via ascii communication i could get servo real position.but main problem is this. Mach3 didn't support ascii modbus communtion.is there any way ascii communicat to mach3?

Hi,
as I have posted before Mach4 has ASCII Modbus.

Craig