I think I like turns better but we can make it a selection.. The
other 2 points seem easy enough
______________________________
Brian Barker
Engineering / Development
ArtSoft | Newfangled Solutions
Livermore Falls, Maine (USA)
Webpage:
On 3/6/2022 2:37 PM, Andy Wander wrote:
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
Hi Brian:
?
I finally
downloaded and started to use the Coilwinder Mach4 screen a
couple of weeks ago.
?
I had to modify
it to fit my setup but I also found a couple of issues with
the screenset as downloaded.
?
-The screenset
is set up to use the A axis in units of revolutions instead
of degrees. I would bet most people use degrees as the units
for their rotary axes.
?
-The “Write G
Code” button does not do what it says; instead it saves the
Gcode to a string and then executes it immediately as an MDI
command.
?
-The generated
Gcode does not return to G90 Absolute coordinates after
running the code.
?
?
That is not Epic at all! LOL
?
I will see if I can get it to download
______________________________
?
Brian Barker
Engineering / Devlopment
ArtSoft | Newfangled Solutions
Livermore Falls, Maine (USA)
Phone: 207(618)1449
Webpage:
On 6/11/2021 12:37 AM, Andy Wander wrote:
I see that
the Coil Winder screen is on the website, but when I try
to download it I get:
?
Epic 404 - Article Not Found
?
?
?
Good question.... BRB
______________________________
?
Brian Barker
Engineering / Devlopment
ArtSoft | Newfangled Solutions
Livermore Falls, Maine (USA)
Phone: 207(618)1449
Webpage:
On 4/28/2021 9:51 AM, Andy Wander
wrote:
Hi Brian:
?
Any word on
this?
?
?
They have it and I asked them to send it to you months
ago!? Blah, I will tell them again to get it sent off..
The Coil winder screen is one of the screens set to be
released on the new screens page for Mach4.
______________________________
?
Brian Barker
Engineering / Devlopment
ArtSoft | Newfangled Solutions
Livermore Falls, Maine (USA)
Phone: 207(618)1449
Webpage:
On 4/4/2021 8:55 PM, Andy Wander
wrote:
Hey,
Brian, anything?
?
?
Hi Brian,
it’s been a couple of months again-do you know if
there has been any progress on this?
?
?
They
guys should have been testing it...
I will hit them again for a status.. Sorry they have
been using it as fill in work.
Thanks
Brian
______________________________
?
Brian Barker
Engineering / Devlopment
ArtSoft | Newfangled Solutions
Livermore Falls, Maine (USA)
Phone: 207(618)1449
Webpage:
On 11/30/2020 11:44 PM, Andy Wander
wrote:
Brian,
any movement on this?
?
?
Hey,
man, any word?
?
?
Good question! Let me talk to the
guys. This slipped my mind. I am getting old or
something :)
______________________________
?
Brian Barker
Engineering / Devlopment
ArtSoft | Newfangled Solutions
Livermore Falls, Maine (USA)
Phone: 207(618)1449
Webpage:
On 9/1/2020 10:11 PM, Andy Wander
wrote:
Hey,
Brian, has there been any progress on the Coil
Winder screens?
?
?
I don't know how long the coil
winder is going to take but Brett seems to think
the press brake tables should be ready for testing
in a few days. Coil winder is after that. Rob got
the screen done so it is just the Lua code to make
the Gcode files to drive the winder.
On 7/6/2020 12:57 PM, Andy Wander wrote:
Thanks,
Brian-I’m good for now.
?
I’ll
nag you about the Coil Winder and the Spindle
speed thing in a couple of weeks.
?
?
Rob is on the floor now
working on the laser we are putting new motors
and drives in :( We are juggling a TON right
now. If you seem to be all set lets roll with
it. We are trying hard to get a new Rev out and
I think it will fix most issues.
On 7/6/2020 11:03 AM, Andy Wander wrote:
Thanks,
Brian-no big rush on the coil winder, I just
don’t want to forget about it.
?
I
tested the Turn Cycles yesterday evening and
they are all working now as well.
?
Do
the only problem I now have is #4, the Spindle
Speed being reset when I first press ENABL
after starting Mach4.
?
I
got an email from Rob this morning, and I
tried to call him, but I just got a message
telling me your hours, and then some music.
?
I
don’t know if we really need to talk, though,
since ESS 258 and Mach4 4517 seem to have
solved almost all of my problems.
?
?
Hi Andy,
1. I have Brett working on a screen for an OEM
and it is taking a bit more time than I would
like :( When that is done he will go over what
Rob has and building a release.
2. Rob had a setup to test the ESS on the
machine by his desk Friday. I didn't know he
didn't get back to you, sorry about that. I
have informed him of your progress.
3. Check the mill manual, I have someone going
over the manual and checking them for the next
release. Attached you will find a section of
header file, look at that and tell me what you
think (start at line number 2113)
4. I don't fully understand why you would want
to have the Spindle Speed at start up but lets
do that after the rest of this is done please
:)
Thanks
Brian
On 7/5/2020 3:45 PM, Andy Wander wrote:
Hi
Brian:
?
1_
Has there been any progress on that Coil
Winder Screen?
?
2_
I didn’t hear from Rob, but I wanted to
report that most of my issues appear to have
been solved by ESS v258 along with Mach4
4517. I still need to confirm that the issue
with the Turn Cycles getting locked out is
solved; haven’t had a chance to test that….
?
3_
Is there an accurate list anywhere of the
Pound Variables for Mach4? I have only been
able to find one dated 2015 by Scott Shafer,
and I know that at least one of the
variables in there is wrong…..
?
4_
I’ve got the issues with Mach4 not
remembering spindle speed and such between
shutting down and restart solved. I took the
code that wrote the saved values on startup,
out of the Startup Script, and put it in the
“first-Run only” section of the PLC code.
This seems to work fine, EXCEPT that when I
hit ENABLE for the first time after startup,
it overwrites the correct value that has
been put into the S DRO by the PLC script,
and sets it to 0. This only happens the
first time I ENABLE MACH4, after that, if I
set a value for S, it stays there through
DISSABLE/ENABLE cycles. Any idea on what to
look for? I couldn’t find anything in any of
the screen scripts that does anything to the
S word on ENABLE, or any place that treats
ENABLE differently on the first time it is
pressed after startup
?
?
?
Rob is done the first
round of getting machines ready for release
testing so I have told him today is your
test of turn. He may be contacting you... As
for the coil winder screen Rob got most of
that done before his return back to work. I
was going to have Brett continue on with
this as soon as he is done the bending
software I have him doing. We have lots of
projects we are working on so thanks for
asking about the progress!
Thanks
Brian
On 6/28/2020 4:35 PM, Andy Wander wrote:
Hi Brian:
?
Did they get
anywhere with the coil winder screen?
?
What about this
weird problem with the Turn Cycles? (they
sure are great, when they work!)
?
?
?
Hi Brian-new update:
?
I was able to finish
the part I was working on, but I started
getting FIFO Velocity Buffer underrun
errors from the ESS.
?
Then, the ESS
started randomly going offline without
telling me.
?
I reverted to ESS
v254, and Mach4 V4.2.0.4322, and these
problems went away(the FIFO and the ESS
going offline.)
?
I made a couple more
parts using Late today, and everything was
working fine, using the Turn Cycles for
Facing, Turning, and Threading.
?
Then I tried a
Rounding operation using Turn Cycles.
?
The Gcode looked OK,
so I ran it, and it did all the roughing
cuts about ?” out from the end of the
stock, without actually cutting
anything-then it moved in to where it
should have been and did the single
finishing cut, taking off all of the stock
that should have been done during
roughing.
?
I attached a screen
shot of the Mach toolpath window, as well
as the .tap file for the Rounding
operation.
?
I “may” have entered
an incorrect setting in the Turn cycle
entry screen, but when I went to check, I
cannot get the saved cycle to open for
editing, and I can’t get any of the Turn
cycles to open when clicking on their
buttons. I get a message that says,
Unable to show
wizard 4: wxLua: Expected a 'wxColour'
for parameter 2, but got a 'nil'.
Function called:
'SetBackgroundColour(wxButton, nil)'
- wxWindow::SetBackgroundColour(wxWindow(self),
wxColour)
?
I’ve tried closing
and reopening Mach4, and also reinstalling
Mach4, and I still can’t get at any of the
Turn Cycles.
?
?
Hi Andy,
This is a step in the right direction! We
have a few more machines we need to get
working so we can get to the testing of
the next release testing. We have the
Matsuura 500 and the plasma table we need
to get ready. The goal is to have them
both finished this week so we can start
testing Friday. This is when we will setup
and test the ESS.
Thanks for the report
?Brian
On 6/13/2020 3:16 PM, Andy Wander wrote:
Hi Brian:
?
I have some more
info and results on the threading cycle
not working.
?
Today, I backed up
my current installation, and installed
ESS v257, and Mach4 4.2.0.4517
?
I needed to make a
part that had a couple of different
diameters, and an external M14 thread at
each end.
?
The turning was
uneventful, but when I used the Turn
Cycles screen to generate code for the
first M14 thread, and tried to run it,
it hung up on the G76 line just as the
Internal thread had been doing earlier!
Then, I realized that I had accidentally
generated code for an Internal thread,
but, this time, it was different, as the
actual Spindle Speed display on the
screen was very intermittent, usually
staying at “0”, but occasionally
flashing the actual measured RPM. This
didn’t happen with the installation that
I originally reported this problem on.
?
So, I thought
maybe my lathe Spindle Speed sensor had
gotten damaged or something. At this
point, I set the machine back to in/min
mode, and started the spindle up, and
the on-screen Spindle Speed display
worked perfectly. Going back into the
threading cycle, and in/rev mode, the
display was wonky again.
?
Then, I remembered
that the release notes for the ESS v257
plugin had mentioned something about a
new check box to tell the ESS whether or
not to report the spindle speed. I found
that check box in the ESS setup, and
unchecked it. Testing showed the same
problem still remained.
?
I then looked at
the Spindle setting on the ESS setup
page, and changed it from PWM to “OB”.
?
That did it, the
threading cycle now works, whether ID or
OD threading.
?
I still have the
smaller problem of the spindle making
the CLUNK when it gets turned on again
while it is already on. I went into
config and disabled the Spindle ON,
Spindle FWD and Spindle REV pins in
Mach4. This stuff was all in there
because I never disabled it when I went
to my Modbus controlled s[pindle. Alas,
this made no difference, I still get the
Clunk…
?
?
?
?
They are
working on a coil winder screen and have
the first part of it done.
They did a bunch of testing and could
not make your issue happen. We have just
started working back at the office where
we have all the hardware for testing. We
are getting the machines ready for
release testing now and one of the
things that will be tested is your
issue. We are doing the best we can in
this screwy time.
Thanks
Brian
On 6/11/2020 8:07 AM,
Andy Wander wrote:
Hi Brian:
?
Have you had a
chance to work on this?
?
Also any?
progress on the coil winder screenset?
?
?
That may be from
my PLC script. I am interrogating the
Modbus MPG register on my pendant.
?
?
Do you have any
idea what is spamming for the MPG? I
don't think this is causing you an
issue, it is just bad practice and I
would like to eliminate as many vars
as I can. I was going to see if I
could clean the profile and figure
this out! I have a few things going on
but I am trying to get this done as
quickly as I can.
Thanks
Brian
On 6/3/2020 12:46 PM, Andy Wander
wrote:
I used to use
relays and PWM to control my
spindle, but now I use the Modbus
plugin.
?
I think that I
left the relay/PWM config alone, and
just added the modbus stuff. So
Mack4 may be sending controls for
both methods.
?
Pretty sure I
disconnected the relays and
PWM/0-10V from the VFD though. I
will check that in a bit.
?
?
I need your
profile please. I don't understand
what is firing output #54 I think I
am getting a better idea what is
going on!
Thanks
Brian
n 6/3/2020 11:09 AM, Andy Wander
wrote:
Hi Brian:
?
The logging
window is confusing because the
SAVE button is at the bottom, but
there is also a “log to file”
button up at the top. What does
that top button do?
?
I don’t
think this can be a hardware
issue, as external threading code
from the Turn Cycle works fine
every time.
?
Also,
yesterday, after I STOPped an
unworking internal threading
program, I came back a few hours
later, rewound and ran the same
code, and it worked! Just once
though, after that it would hang
on the 2nd G76 line
uust like before.
?
Attached is
a log file; can you? see anything
strange in there?
Attachments:
- G76 that
stops on second G76 line.log
?
?
?
?
?
?
Attachments:
- MachAPI.h
?
?
?
?
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