Mach3 --> Mach4

[mosaicdave]

Hi everyone.

Well I have been using CamBam + Mach3 for quite a while now to operate my Taig mill.  The mill and CamBam have been great.  Mach3 has been annoying; occasional unpredictable erratic behavior that I just haven't been able to make go away.

So we're getting ready to transition to Mach4, and see if it's better.

Anyway, to my question:  Does anybody know, if the CamBam Mach3 post processor works correctly for Mach4?  And/or, what tweaks may be necessary, or other things to know about?

Thanks!

--dave

[dave benson]

Hi Dave

You should be using version .62 of Mach3, which I've found to be quite stable running on mills and lathes.
what specific trouble are you having?

Dave

[dh42]

Hi Dave

You should be using version .62 of Mach3, which I've found to be quite stable running on mills and lathes.
what specific trouble are you having?

Dave

+1
you can download this .062 version here (there is a version that include the fix for win 10 if needed)
https://warp9td.com/index.php/sw/software-mach#MachThree

I think Mach4 use the same GCode syntax that Mach3, so the same PP can be used.

++
David

[mosaicdave]

Hi Dave and David--

Thanks for your replies.

I won't try to rehash the saga of my experiences with Mach3 here, as it will just clog everything up.  However for reference, you can see some long descriptions of what I've been dealing with, over at my thread on Warp9:

https://warp9td.com/index.php/kunena/7-general-discussion/7437-system-reliability-win-xp-sp3-mach3-ethernet-ss

Basically, I don't like or trust Mach3 any more.  It was fine for prototypes, but I've been using this machine to make 1,000 copies of a small plastic part this summer, and the occasional random freezes and errors with Mach3 are a significant irritant.  On top of that, there's the known bug within Mach3 where the axes will sometimes continue moving on their own, while you're just trying to jog a wee bit here and there to set the origin.  Here's my thread where I was trying to figure out what to do about that:

http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,37608.msg257051.html#msg257051

I'm using 1mm diameter endmills for the parts we're making here, and we've already snapped off half a dozen of them or so, just on acccount of this irritating bug.

Anyway, thanks for the replies, but these are the reasons why we're heading for Mach4, or maybe something like Flashcut if Mach4 isn't better.

Thanks again and best regards--

--dave

[Garyhlucas]

The runaway problem happens if you use rapid jog. It is a known bug with all the motion cards. I have never had it happen unless I used rapid jog then all bets are off!

[mosaicdave]

Hi Gary.  When you say "rapid jog", do you mean to hold down shift while using the arrow keys to jog, at 100% speed?  (Instead of the % reduced speed of just holding the arrow keys without shift.)

If that is what you mean, then I'm not sure how it applies in our case.  Mostly when this problem happens, is not when we're jogging either at full or reduced speed.  But rather it mostly happens when we're jogging step-by-step, by holding control and then using the arrows to move in small increments at a time.

--dave

[dave benson]

Dave

The problem as I understand it is:

When doing the"Indicating In" of your part using the above method, that is rapid over to the part close enough then using the incremental/step mode to kiss the part, Mach3 sometimes takes off and break's your endmill.

This is what I do: I've never had this happen (and just tried it again now) but this is with a win7 PP installation.

I use a programmable joystick to zoom over to the part and then set the jog feed rate down to 5% (this is so slow on my mill it may as well be incremental/step mode) and kiss off the part.
This way I'm never in incremental mode.
In practice this is really easier done then said.
If you've got so many parts to do it might be worth looking into some form of jig/fixtures and do them in batches.

Good Luck
Dave

[Dragonfly]

This looks like more a hardware problem or related to the real time parallel port driver of Mach3.
If using the native PP mode There is a driver test program in the Mach3 folder to test the driver accuracy and select a suitable kernel speed.
If another type of external (USB/Ethernet) controller + Mach3 plugin is used then the problem is perhaps there.

I've never had such issues as I constantly use Ctrl+arrow to do single step moves. On P4 @ 2GHz machine with Windows XP. Driver kernel speed is 35 KHz and this is the maximum reliable speed for that PC.

[kvom]

I went to PathPilot from mach3, and I've been very happy with it.  Under mach3 my controller used parallel port interface.  With PP I'm using Mesa card.