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Author Topic: The machine can jog around, but nothing happens from MDI or GCode  (Read 822 times)

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Hello All,

I am quite a big newb with Mach4, this is my first time using it, and I cannot for the life of me figure out what is going on. We have built a custom rotary plasma cutter controlled through Mach4 and an Ethernet SmoothStepper.

I can jog the machine around using the buttons from within Mach4, and the machine also responds/moves to its home position after clicking on "reference all axis". I cannot however get it to respond to MDI commands or run through G-code files. Even a simple G0 X1 command in the MDI results in no movement.

When I click 'Cycle Start MDI', the line number jumps to 1, and the cycle time starts counting up, but the machine does not move, and the position numbers do not change. The cycle time counts up forever, and nothing happens.

I'd like to reiterate that we are complete newbs, so thank you very much in advance!
Re: The machine can jog around, but nothing happens from MDI or GCode
« Reply #1 on: April 08, 2021, 03:16:38 AM »
I figured it out! I didnt realize the message bar at the bottom of the screen held the answers for me the entire time! I had previously played around with an Inhibit motion pin, and forgot to turn it off. I did not know that you can still jog around with the inhibit motion active.

Offline smurph

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Re: The machine can jog around, but nothing happens from MDI or GCode
« Reply #2 on: April 08, 2021, 04:12:43 AM »
There is an inhibit motion (like a program running), inhibit jog, and inhibit MPG.  If you implement a safety light curtain, you would typically route it to all three of those signals at once to stop everything.

Steve