Messages

1

SmartBOB controllers and dedicated accessories / Re: PMDX424 - Lathe threading - Mach4

« on: February 25, 2021, 03:04:34 PM »

I hate to bring this thread back, but was threading ever corrected for the 424 board? It is probably obvious that I don't use the lathe much and only now have a new job that has come up where threading is required. The previous issues of the spindle not shutting down and the program stalling still exist, though admittedly I haven't done anything to fix it in a few years since I was told it was a firmware problem on the board itself. Has the 424 threading issues been ironed out over the last 36-40 months?

Please advise.

2

SmartBOB controllers and dedicated accessories / Re: PMDX424 - Lathe threading - Mach4

« on: February 06, 2018, 04:37:44 PM »

FYI, I just setup my lathe with a 424 board with a 407 piggyback for the spindle. My initial impressions are pretty good and it does thread very nicely with the single pulse per rev signal I'm inputting into the board. There is an issue with shutting off the spindle after the G32 (threading) moves are complete but I've been told they are working on that. I was previously threading with an ESS on Mach3 and the threads being cut by the 424 and Mach4 are significantly cleaner. As with all G32 routines, the lathe cuts the thread at the designated inch per revolution and then retracts first in the X, then in the Z with a rapid move.

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SmartBOB controllers and dedicated accessories / Re: New 424 user, no love with my VistaCNC pendant

« on: February 03, 2018, 10:10:17 AM »

 Ok. I don't know why, but I owe Steve a partial apology. I actually have a new P1A-S pendant on the shelf and I thought "what the heck, I'll try it". It loaded up and everything worked right out of the gate. PMDX should be able to work with any Mach4 enabled VistaCNC pendant, but it apparently does not. I can confirm that the PMDX 424 board does NOT work with the P1A or the M1 pendant. I don't have a P2S or a P4S pendant handy so I can't  verify those, but the P1A-S pendant does work and does not require any special settings within Mach4 other than enabling the pendant plugin within the Mach4/Config/Plugin tab.

Hopefully this bit of hair-pulling will benefit others who are considering using a VistaCNC pendant, and hopefully they read this before purchasing the "wrong" one.

Now I get to see whether the 424 board can run a threading routine any better than the ESS can.

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SmartBOB controllers and dedicated accessories / Re: New 424 user, no love with my VistaCNC pendant

« on: February 03, 2018, 08:31:11 AM »

Brushing off the problem as somebody else's issue when this is my first experience with PMDX hardware and support isn't exactly comforting...

And that is not a great way to get people to want to help you out :( 

I expect more from a company I spend my money with. This is all I will say about it since I'm here to fix a problem, not start a dialogue on customer service.

Regardless of that, thank you for jumping in. The plugins are activated in Mach4 the same way they are in my other machines. The lights on the pendants power up when they are plugging in prior to starting mach4 up. All drivers are registered within Windows. Mach4 does not recognize any inputs from the pendant, either in the DRO's or in the history bar. There is no indication from Mach that the pendant is installed and plugged in. This is the first time I've experienced this problem, and I've been using Mach4 for a couple years now, and VistaCNC pendants since they started selling them. As previously stated, I've had no issues with ESS-based and Vital Systems based systems, both of which just start moving when the pendant is activated. I did notice in Mach4 under PMDX control that the inputs, outputs, and mpg tabs have the pendant as an option in the configuration drop downs, this is why I thought maybe there were some settings within Mach that the PMDX motion control requires to recognize the pendant. These drop downs do not contain any reference to the pendant in my other Mach4 systems.

I guess if PMDX doesn't actually work with VistaCNC pendants, that what other options are there? I see an encoder input into the 424 board but I'm not interested at all in creating my own scabbed together pendant or splicing something else in.

Thanks for any help toward the resolution of this issue.
 

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SmartBOB controllers and dedicated accessories / Re: New 424 user, no love with my VistaCNC pendant

« on: February 02, 2018, 09:01:24 PM »

Both the M1 and P1A have mach4 plugins and associated firmware updates available on the VistaCNC website. I have used both in Mach4 applications, so this isn't a pendant issue. I can plug either into my mach4 mill or router without a single issue. Are there any settings required in the 424 plugin that I should know about? Brushing off the problem as somebody else's issue when this is my first experience with PMDX hardware and support isn't exactly comforting...

6

SmartBOB controllers and dedicated accessories / New 424 user, no love with my VistaCNC pendant

« on: February 02, 2018, 10:59:24 AM »

I just installed a 424/407 into my lathe, getting rid of a woefully inadequate C32/ESS combo when I swapped over to 4. I've got everything working again as it should, except for my VistaCNC pendant. It doesn't work at all with the PMDX unit. I see others have had some luck but I'm not one of them. I have tried both an M1 pendant and the simpler P1A, both of which don't do a thing. I'm an experienced Mach4 user so all of the plugin settings are correctly addressed (on the VistaCNC side, at least). I have never had to do anything other than plug the pendant in and make sure the plugin was activated for it to work in other environments (ESS and Vital Systems products) so I'm stumped. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks