Mach 4 - Losing Homing

[bwiab]

I am losing my y axis after a tool change... before I learned about "save visable toolpaths to one file" in v carve, I would lose y and or x axis in between tool paths even with the same tool. Now when I export multiple toolpaths to the same file as long as I'm using the same tool everything cuts fine. But doing a tool change today and cutting on the same piece, I lost about 1/2" in the Y... I had forgotten about the issue so I'm not really sure... at first I thought I selected to cut outside the vector by mistake instead of on the vector... but after checking.. the tool path commands were correct in v carve.

Avid 60120 pro with V Carve 10.515 and Mach 4 with Avid configurations. . 2.2kw air cooled spindle... Part that is confusing is I redid the x,y,z with the auto touch plate and zero'd off the same corner. I change the toolpaths file from material surface and machine surface, but the Z cut perfectly.... I'm freakin' stumped... and super annoyed...

[bwiab]

Here's some pics of what I'm talking about. Item on the left is mis cut with the y axis off and with a tool change in between pocket cuts and thru cuts. The image on the right is correctly cut using a work around (doing all cutting with one tool and one file for toolpaths... and apologies if this should be it's own thread, but seemed related...

[subnoize]

Here's some pics of what I'm talking about. Item on the left is mis cut with the y axis off and with a tool change in between pocket cuts and thru cuts. The image on the right is correctly cut using a work around (doing all cutting with one tool and one file for toolpaths... and apologies if this should be it's own thread, but seemed related...

Funny thing about these machines is they do exactly what you tell them to do.

Looking at your pictures it doesn't look like you are having your home reset, which is good.

Great news is the fact you have one cut correctly in the same picture as the one that isn't cut correctly. Which tells us this is pilot error and not software or mechanical issues. Yay! Much easier to fix the wet stuff behind the machine

If I had a nickel for every time I goofed on stock setup before a cut I would be a very rich man!

Go slow and do some air-cuts until you have the process down. Validate before you commit!

I know that isn't what you wanted to hear. Lastly, do check that you haven't entered any bad data into the tool table like a diameter or length offset.

[Goonk]

Hmm, that is a bit strange. I'm not real familiar with Vcarve's ability to put tool changes in multiple files and all that stuff. I just never took the time to learn it. I just save each path/tool as a separate file. I've never had the problem you are showing here. Looks like there is some sort of offset being changed? You might try posting at the Vcarve forum. I'm heading over there for a problem I have with 3D stuff (I almost never do that stuff - in the several years I've had this machine - maybe twice?).

I finished my chair project and used my machine quite extensively yesterday. No homing loss at all. It ran for many hours through several tool changes and everything worked perfectly. So, I dunno. I'll keep my eye out for it happening again.

Tony

[Goonk]

Hmm. I discovered something I was doing the other night that might explain what I was describing in my original post. I ran an MDI "script." Just a single line of code to make a move in machine coordinates. I think I realized I had omitted the G53 code, so I hit stop (screen button stop). That's where the machine loses home. I don't think that is an error(other than my ignorance), just the way it works. But I probably have done the same thing before.

I think what I was doing was moving the machine to the machine coordinates I had written down for where Work 0,0 was so I could reset it after the machine was shut down or something like that.

Tony

[subnoize]

Hmm. I discovered something I was doing the other night that might explain what I was describing in my original post. I ran an MDI "script." Just a single line of code to make a move in machine coordinates. I think I realized I had omitted the G53 code, so I hit stop (screen button stop). That's where the machine loses home. I don't think that is an error(other than my ignorance), just the way it works. But I probably have done the same thing before.

I think what I was doing was moving the machine to the machine coordinates I had written down for where Work 0,0 was so I could reset it after the machine was shut down or something like that.

Tony

That is new function from Mach4, not AvidCNC. It actually stems from several reports where e-stop or stop during a run can result in lost steps, if only minor.


Of course, as I can attest to, just a few steps off can cause real serious problems with a tool carousel or static tool holder posts.

This eliminates the need to re-home before each tool change to avoid crashes. Once you slap that stop or e-stop, homing is mandatory.

All this time I had blamed myself and my bad code, lol! Well, I now know I am not crazy!

Better late than never I suppose!

[joeavaerage]

Hi,

Once you slap that stop or e-stop, homing is mandatory.

Mach4 has always been that way in the eight years I've used it. There is s setting that explicitly de-references the machine on Stop/Estop. If it is not checked the machine does not
de-reference but may also mean that its now 'out' by a few steps, often no big deal but it could be with an ATC.

Craig

[subnoize]

Hi,



Mach4 has always been that way in the eight years I've used it. There is s setting that explicitly de-references the machine on Stop/Estop. If it is not checked the machine does not
de-reference but may also mean that its now 'out' by a few steps, often no big deal but it could be with an ATC.

Craig

Correct. So somewhere between September 2019 when the machine was setup and this year, around January 2022 that value was set to true during a software update. I myself never touched it. I tend to leave AvidCNC's configurations alone. It has only been recently that I have set up a new profile entirely and I do not use their configurations anymore.

For the record, this is the only machine I own that runs on WIndows. While I have owned licenses for Mach3 in the past, I never installed them. So this is my first WIndows based machine. It will be my last. It's not that it is "bad" or anything like that. It's just not open. I have no insight because I can't read the source. So like in this case, I am extra blind

[joeavaerage]

Hi,
Mach4Hobby allows you to have five PCs actively licenced for one licence purchase, thus you could reuse the Mach4 licence at no extra cost on another machine/machines.
My guess is that once you start to customise your machine with Lua scripts and so on you may find Mach4 rather more useful than it may first seem.

Craig

[subnoize]

Hi,
Mach4Hobby allows you to have five PCs actively licenced for one licence purchase, thus you could reuse the Mach4 licence at no extra cost on another machine/machines.
My guess is that once you start to customise your machine with Lua scripts and so on you may find Mach4 rather more useful than it may first seem.

Craig

Uh, actually I built a fully retracting tool carousel and tool length sensor for my PRO60120. I have added current control and water table level control for the plasma side of my dual process machine.

I think I have a lot of my machine already customized in Lua so I can have a strong opinion.

Now that you opened the topic, quick points because we are off topic;

While I am no fan of Python I would take it any day over Lua and that is the most common language used in LinuxCNC.

LinuxCNC also gives you the opportunity to download and compile the source code. Which I have done extensively since I favor my components being written in C++.

I am still waiting for Newfangled Solutions to respond to my request for access to their APIs... 4 years I have been waiting.

So there you go. I just don't get Lua. Out of all the languages they could have implemented at no charge, they choose Lua....

[joeavaerage]

Hi,
according to Smurph, one of the lead developers of Mach4, 'Lua has a syntax only a mother could love'. So even the person whom chose Lua also recognises its shortcomings.
So why? Lua is extremely fast, very much faster than all but a few scripting languages and has a very small code burden, very much less than Javascript for example.

Remember Mach4 is a CNC software solution, not a software development environment. Lua is meant to be a scripting language that extends Mach core abilities. That it does well.
Additionally Mach4 is a commercial product, NFS sell it to make a living. Are you proposing that in order to be useful that the software be open source? Of course if that were the case
then Mach4 would never have been developed in the first place, nor would Mach3 which preceeded it.

LinuxCNC also gives you the opportunity to download and compile the source code. Which I have done extensively since I favor my components being written in C++.

So why did you bother with Mach4 at all? You must have known that its closed source as are the firmware plugins for the motion controllers, and that would preclude you from viewing/editing
the source code of either?

There are many whom cannot code in C++, and for those people a scripting language like Lua is a very useful tool. Would you remove that choice?

Craig

[subnoize]

So why did you bother with Mach4 at all? You must have known that its closed source as are the firmware plugins for the motion controllers, and that would preclude you from viewing/editing the source code of either?

We are way off topic so to square you away and wrap this up, I purchased a turnkey gantry style, large format, dual process solution from AvidCNC.

I find it odd you wouldn't have considered that before asking.

Anyways, as such AvidCNC supports that machine as agreed to when I purchased the system. That includes the controller hardware, firmware and software.

There are many whom cannot code in C++, and for those people a scripting language like Lua is a very useful tool. Would you remove that choice?

What a strange question. It certainly doesn't have anything to do with "Mach 4 - Losing Homing" so I will just wave and say, Goodbye!

[joeavaerage]

Hi,

LinuxCNC also gives you the opportunity to download and compile the source code. Which I have done extensively since I favor my components being written in C++.

This is your quote....is that on topic either?

Craig

[subnoize]

Hi,



This is your quote....is that on topic either?

Craig

Of course not. I was responding to your off topic post. Lol