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  #1  
Old Wed 18 December 2013, 01:48
sailfl
Just call me: Nils #12
 
Winter Park, FL
United States of America
MACH 4 Videos

Hi MechMate Owners and Builders

If you go to the link, you will find some videos about the new Mach 4. There are 3 videos you can watch to learn about the new software.

http://www.machsupport.com/forum/ind...c,22539.0.html
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  #2  
Old Wed 18 December 2013, 17:26
Mrayhursh
Just call me: Hurshy
 
Riverview, Florida
United States of America
any signs of version 4 being released. The website still states coming soon.
How you doing?
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  #3  
Old Sun 22 December 2013, 15:59
pblackburn
Just call me: Pete #98
 
South-Central Pennsylvania
United States of America
I wonder how many upgrades we would have to make and backward legacy support will be included.
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  #4  
Old Sun 22 December 2013, 18:36
Mrayhursh
Just call me: Hurshy
 
Riverview, Florida
United States of America
yep!. The new program looks like it is written in a object oriented language. I hope the person(s) writing this is good. The debugger will handle a lot of loose ends that get overlooked. Should we ask Mike to create a new section for Mech4?
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  #5  
Old Sun 22 December 2013, 18:54
danilom
Just call me: Danilo #64
 
Novi Sad
Serbia
I would not be so optimistic and hope to use Mach4 soon, maybe at the end of 2014.
Also you will need to buy the new version, no upgrade and it will only work with external motion devices like Smoothstepper etc.
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  #6  
Old Mon 23 December 2013, 01:02
sailfl
Just call me: Nils #12
 
Winter Park, FL
United States of America
Danilo,

Where did you read that it will only be used with external motion devices? It is my understanding nothing has been released.
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  #7  
Old Mon 23 December 2013, 02:51
danilom
Just call me: Danilo #64
 
Novi Sad
Serbia
Quote:
Mach4 itself will not be doing anything but the front end for a seperate motion controller.
https://www.machsupport.com/forum/in...?topic=25613.0

second post
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  #8  
Old Mon 23 December 2013, 09:18
sailfl
Just call me: Nils #12
 
Winter Park, FL
United States of America
Danilo,

Thanks for the thread.
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  #9  
Old Mon 23 December 2013, 09:44
ger21
Just call me: Ger
 
Detroit, MI
United States of America
Art has written a parallel port driver for Mach4, but Mach4 is being written specifically for external motion controllers. The parallel port driver will function like an external motion controller, so there should be no difference in operation regardless of what controller method is being used. I've seen more and more trouble with newer PC's and mach3, however, that I'm not sure for how much longer the parallel port will be a viable option.

Motion control device developers will have to work directly with Artsoft to get their devices working in Mach4, so stability and functionality should be greatly improved with Mach4.

I believe that there are a handful of alpha testers currently running machines with Mach4, but I have no idea on it's release status.
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  #10  
Old Thu 26 December 2013, 13:45
pez1008
Just call me: Paul
 
Deltona
United States of America
Quote:
Originally Posted by sailfl View Post
Hi MechMate Owners and Builders

If you go to the link, you will find some videos about the new Mach 4. There are 3 videos you can watch to learn about the new software.

http://www.machsupport.com/forum/ind...c,22539.0.html
Hello, I'm just down the road from you (30 miles in Deltona). Have you made the MechMate machine? Sure would be nice to get a few pointers before I jump in with both feet.
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  #11  
Old Fri 27 December 2013, 12:46
smreish
Just call me: Sean - #5, 28, 58 and others
 
Orlando, Florida
United States of America
Paul,
A few MM builders are in Orlando. Sailfl and myself are a few....Hurshy in Tampa.
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  #12  
Old Sat 04 January 2014, 14:59
spank
Just call me: Spank
 
New Hampsire
United States of America
Any good external motion controller usually comes with their own interface. I've never understood why people still want to use Mach when the included software is usually a better user experience..ie less cluttered pieced together.

Quote:
Originally Posted by ger21 View Post
Art has written a parallel port driver for Mach4, but Mach4 is being written specifically for external motion controllers. The parallel port driver will function like an external motion controller, so there should be no difference in operation regardless of what controller method is being used. I've seen more and more trouble with newer PC's and mach3, however, that I'm not sure for how much longer the parallel port will be a viable option.

Motion control device developers will have to work directly with Artsoft to get their devices working in Mach4, so stability and functionality should be greatly improved with Mach4.

I believe that there are a handful of alpha testers currently running machines with Mach4, but I have no idea on it's release status.
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  #13  
Old Sat 04 January 2014, 15:03
danilom
Just call me: Danilo #64
 
Novi Sad
Serbia
Because they are almost 90% not intended to be customized and are good to OEMs mostly. And have no support for all sorts of low tech pendants and other devices.
Need upgrading for all sorts of features from more axis (4,5) or some g codes or macros.

Can you control a huanyang vfd with its non standard modbus (Mach needs a plugin) to any other motion control interface?
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  #14  
Old Sat 04 January 2014, 15:08
ger21
Just call me: Ger
 
Detroit, MI
United States of America
Quote:
Originally Posted by spank View Post
Any good external motion controller usually comes with their own interface.
Not the ones designed to be used with Mach3. Only the KFlop has it's own control software.
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  #15  
Old Mon 06 January 2014, 08:25
Mrayhursh
Just call me: Hurshy
 
Riverview, Florida
United States of America
Spank what is the name of this software you are referring to and where can I download it? Thanks.
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  #16  
Old Wed 30 April 2014, 18:31
DocTanner
Just call me: Don Ross
 
Blue Ridge, Texas
United States of America
Demo - to see what it looks like.
http://www.machsupport.com/software/mach4/

DonRoss
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  #17  
Old Wed 30 April 2014, 23:52
sailfl
Just call me: Nils #12
 
Winter Park, FL
United States of America
Don

Thanks for posting the information about Mach 4. Maybe the release will be soon.
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  #18  
Old Sat 10 May 2014, 19:17
DocTanner
Just call me: Don Ross
 
Blue Ridge, Texas
United States of America
Well that didn't work out so well for me.
Demo wouldn't run on Linux.
The only windows machine on the place runs the router. <--- not for playing
Grabbed another hard drive and loaded LinuxCNC. Easy enough to set up.
For 1/2 the price of Mach4 you can get a Mesa 5I25.

Thanks,
DonRoss

Last edited by DocTanner; Sat 10 May 2014 at 19:17.. Reason: spelling
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  #19  
Old Sun 11 May 2014, 01:55
KenC
Just call me: Ken
 
Klang
Malaysia
I prefer running the MESA 7i76+5i25 combo.
Having the 7i76 daughter board makes life easier. You have plug & play port for the VFD controls, no more fiddling with Modbus...etc. Don't forget you have the luxury of 36 I/O
for all the bells & whistle INCLUDING THE SINK & TOILET BOWL to indulge you never-ending needs....
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  #20  
Old Sun 11 May 2014, 02:14
racedirector
Just call me: Bruce #122
 
New South Wales
Australia
Never heard of these boards, what exactly do they replace/do?
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  #21  
Old Sun 11 May 2014, 03:38
KenC
Just call me: Ken
 
Klang
Malaysia
Replace the simple parallel port & BOB.
The MESA 5I25 is a low cost, general purpose, FPGA based programmable I/O card which will go into a PCI slot. its compatible with gecko such as G540.
The 7I76 is a step/dir oriented breakout with 5 axis of buffered step/dir outputs, one spindle encoder input, one isolated 0-10V analog spindle speed plus isolated direction and enable outputs, one RS-422 expansion port, 32 isolated 5-32V inputs and 16 isolated 5-32V 300 mA outputs.

http://www.mesanet.com/fpgacardinfo.html

Won't be any use with MACH.
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  #22  
Old Sun 11 May 2014, 05:20
racedirector
Just call me: Bruce #122
 
New South Wales
Australia
Thanks Ken, something for the future maybe....
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  #23  
Old Sun 11 May 2014, 05:37
danilom
Just call me: Danilo #64
 
Novi Sad
Serbia
To go even further in offtopic I am investigating these mini linux SoC board.
They replace the whole computer have 1ghz and 512 ddr3 ram, and further have 2x PRU inside SoC (programmable realtime unit in SystemOnChip)
which work on 200mhz and generate very precise step/dir signals

can be attached to hdmi screen or lcd 10" touchscreen and run LinuxCNC, currently at 50khz until better support is achieved for running PRU's

Whole computer and software for 55$

more on the subject
http://blog.machinekit.io/2014/05/ma...an-images.html
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  #24  
Old Sun 11 May 2014, 06:45
pblackburn
Just call me: Pete #98
 
South-Central Pennsylvania
United States of America
Danilo and Ken,
Both very interesting items.

I downloaded Mach4 demo to preview it. It has a nice layout but it is indeed nothing like Mach3 and will have a steep learning curve like their website states. Customizing will take a little time reading but they have the screen designer much better. The toolpath display is a lot cleaner.
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  #25  
Old Sun 11 May 2014, 07:49
ger21
Just call me: Ger
 
Detroit, MI
United States of America
Quote:
Originally Posted by pblackburn View Post
Customizing will take a little time reading
If you're not fluent in Lua, it will take a lot of time.

When I finish my dovetail software, I'll start working on a Mach4 screenset.

In the meantime, I'm reading all the beta testing threads at the Machsupport forum to try to get an understanding of how everything works.
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  #26  
Old Sun 11 May 2014, 08:48
pblackburn
Just call me: Pete #98
 
South-Central Pennsylvania
United States of America
Any good resources in Lua available?
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  #27  
Old Sun 11 May 2014, 08:59
ger21
Just call me: Ger
 
Detroit, MI
United States of America
Quoted from a post at Machsupport.com forum:


Please be aware that you have to deal with three different things, when programming wizards or shiny UI stuff. Main documentation overview can be viewed here: http://wxlua.sourceforge.net/documentation.php

1. Lua
Replacing Basic, this is the new scripting language used in UI callbacks, scripts and wizards. API documentation: http://www.lua.org/manual/5.2/

2. wxLua
This UI library was originally built on C++. It makes you able to build windows, frames, input fields, buttons and has been ported to Lua (not all of it, but most). You can either refer to wxWidget original API documentation (starting at http://docs.wxwidgets.org/2.8/) or to the sparse wxLua doc (http://wxlua.sourceforge.net/docs/wxluaref.html, please scroll down for partial API).

3. Mach4 API
No functionality without a CNC... You can connect to Mach4 core by using its API in your scripts. The API commands are listed in Mach4 documentation file Docs/LuaCalls.txt. For further info, please read this thread: http://www.machsupport.com/forum/ind...c,27141.0.html


Where to start?
Mach4 comes with some example wizards in Wizards subdirectory. Click Wizard -> Select Wizard to start them. The (so-far-default) UI also contains some scripting examples (see Operator -> Lua script for an overview).
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