Mach4 works with cautions

[joeaverage]

Hi,
I have used AutolevellerAE quite extensively over the last few weeks with great results.

I have had no recurrence of the issue where there were more data points than probe points.
The problem was discovered and extensively investigated by an ESS user. The problem he described
was not related to probing however the fix for that problem has also fixed the apparently random number
of extra data points. The ESS plugin I'm using currently is 220. The latest release is up to 232.

Given the way in which Mach4 gathers data from the ESS there is the potential for the measured data
points to be slightly in variance with the intended probe points. The macro I have written preforms that
correction nicely.

In the last few weeks the only time I've had any issues was occasionally when a probe point was missing
because of dust/dirt on the board. My macro caught that issue and reported the error.

Interestingly enough the main Mach4 developer is making progress with a 'surface probe, mapping
and correction' feature coming up. It will be interesting to compare approaches.

Craig

[sarahberard]

Hi All,
have in recent days migrated from Mach3 and parallel port to Mach4 and a SmoothStepper external motion control card
and have had some challenges getting Autoleveller to work with the new combination.

As has been reported on a similar thread on this forum Mach4 uses different # Bathmatevariable numbers. A find-and-replace edit is
required to get the early generations of Autoleveller to work, but work they do.

My own work flow absolutely requires the added functionality that a probe file confers, ie Autoleveller0.8.7, know as AL,
and its immediate forbears, and AutolevllerAE v0.7.8, known as AE.

Mach4 does not have native support for opening and closing probefiles, that functionality is conferred by appropriate macros.

Lots of stuf for i read in this thread.

[rostant]

@joeaverage, What is the software license for the code you posted for the M40 and M41 macros?

Can it be freely distributed by others?
Do you want it to be considered public domain? Or you want it's derivatives to remain open source (i.e. GPL)? Or something else?

[joeaverage]

Hi,
it can be freely distributed and/or used at will.

Craig

[adsvoo]

Thanks Craig. An invaluable post for Mach4 users.

[kcassella]

Hello,

I'm using autoleveller in Mach4. I can get it to work only by changing the 2002 callouts with 5063, which was posted by Dodger.
I tried to run the PFG but when M40 is called, a dialog box should pop up to save the file, the dialog box does not pop up. Mach4 stops on that M40 line. I did install the M40 and M41 macros that joeaverage posted into my Mach4 profile. I renamed the files to M40.mcs and M41.mcs. I also following the instructions within the M40 file.

[CFANDZ]

Hello,

I'm using autoleveller in Mach4. I can get it to work only by changing the 2002 callouts with 5063, which was posted by Dodger.
I tried to run the PFG but when M40 is called, a dialog box should pop up to save the file, the dialog box does not pop up. Mach4 stops on that M40 line. I did install the M40 and M41 macros that joeaverage posted into my Mach4 profile. I renamed the files to M40.mcs and M41.mcs. I also following the instructions within the M40 file.

Did you find a solution? I'm in the same boat. Infact I didn't even know a dialog box should pop up to save the file. It did however stop on the M4 line. I don't remember it saying M4 but will double check after I finish a run that is on the machine now.

[AlexPhilip]

Mach 3 is ubiquitous and everywhere. Mach 4 not nearly as much. I do have to give props to Mach 4 for actually working with various 3rd party companies to have compatibility... Although there is no guarantee how good each of those are. From what I see they are all reasonable options. Linuxcnc is by far the largest learning curve and most flexible and works quite well but then you have to run Linux. Mach 4 is most beginner friendly, uccnc has an excellent hardware/software pairing while being flexible although a little less support. I'd add centroid to that list as a very good software/hardware package, although with no flexibility and they charge you for every little thing, ie pendant.

I keep looking at simcnc and hoping it is good but I've never seen or heard of anyone who actually uses it.

There is no black and white winner here. Also unless you are making a monster machine (if you are considering buildbotics it sounds like no) there isn't really a need for scurve.

[TobyAdam]

Hi,

Thanks for sharing your detailed experience migrating to Mach4 with SmoothStepper and using Autoleveller. Your insights on handling probe files and your progress with Lua scripting are invaluable. If anyone else is navigating similar issues or willing to help test the new code, do reach out!