[vangalvin]

I am building a machine that consists of a fixed gantry with a head that moves in the X direction. The material underneath needs to be moved forward in one direction (and can only go one direction) manually. The goal is to have Mach3 print one line on the material when the material moves forward and stops at a location that will be picked up by a microswitch connected to one of the inputs.
Actually the Microswitch triggers ever mm of movement and the forward movement is quite slow so I dont really see the need to add an encoder to this.

I have altered the Post to output an M code and pass a P variable to Mach3 with the distance required to move. For instance the first movement would be a say 2mm giving Mach3 2 clicks on the input, at that stage it should print one line.

G0 X0 M666 P2
G1 Z1 F600
G1 X20 F1800
G0 Z0
G0 M666 P4
G1 Z1 F600
G1 X0 F1800
G0 Z0

Would tell the gantry to Start at X0 wait for the microswitch to click 2 times then Print one line 20mm long
Wait for 2 more clicks (making essentially a 4 mm movement from 0) then print the next line from 20 to 0 in the X

My Macro consists of this, however as I am testing this on a machine that has a powered Y i have added some code to allow for this however at present the thing is triggering on every click rather than waiting for the stipulated clicks.

Any assistance or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

TvlDistance = 0

'Location to do the next line passed by the P
FwdDistance = roun(Param1())


'The current position of the Y axis
CurrentYPos = roun(GetParam("YMachine"))


'How many Clicks from input required per mm of travel
Steps = 1




'If the current position is 0 or a negative number as will be the
'case on the first and secont pass do not work out the distance to move.
If (FwdDistance-CurrentYPos) <= 0 Then
    ToMove = FwdDistance
Else
    ToMove = FwdDistance-CurrentYPos


End If


'Do not wait for input while the file is loading
If IsLoading() Then
    'File is loading so dont do anything
Else


    'File has loaded now we can start work
    'Message "spool:" & ToMove & " mm " & "From:" & CurrentYPos


1:
'when the machine is moving wait for it to stop
    While IsMoving()
        sleep(100)
    Wend


'wait until there is input
    While Not isActive(INPUT2)
        Message "Move Material:" & ToMove & "mm"
        activateSignal(ENABLE1)
        sleep 50        
    Wend


If TvlDistance < ToMove Then
    'wait for the next click    
    TvlDistance = TvlDistance + Steps
    GoTo 1


End If


'Test Code for CNC with Stepper on Y
'If TvlDistance = ToMove Then
    Message "Moving to Position for X pass:" & FwdDistance
    'y is in position (test code only for powered cnc)
    Code "G1 Y" & FwdDistance
    sleep 100
'End If


    deactivateSignal(ENABLE1)


End If

[hub]

'wait until there is input
While Not isActive(INPUT2)
Message "Move Material:" & ToMove & "mm"
activateSignal(ENABLE1)
sleep 50
Wend

That's wrong..? The activate signal shouldn't be set every 50 us?

Try this (for 2 triggers):

While Not isActive(INPUT2)
Message "Move Material:" & ToMove & "mm"
sleep 50
Wend

While Not isActive(INPUT2)
Message "Move Material:" & ToMove & "mm"
sleep 50
Wend

activateSignal(ENABLE1)

[vangalvin]

I set it to 50us just in case the feed was faster and so not to miss a trigger. Changing this seems to only alter the delay that it is waiting for a signal to be passed to the controller. Adding a second instance did nothing.

[hub]

I set it to 50us just in case the feed was faster and so not to miss a trigger. Changing this seems to only alter the delay that it is waiting for a signal to be passed to the controller. Adding a second instance did nothing.

The 50us was a typo, sorry I meant 50ms. like you had it, It won't change much. It's just there to reduce CPU processing.

Did you remove the activateSignal(ENABLE1) from the While loop, and set it after the last "Wend"?

Hub

[vangalvin]

The 50us was a typo, sorry I meant 50ms. like you had it, It won't change much. It's just there to reduce CPU processing.

Did you remove the activateSignal(ENABLE1) from the While loop, and set it after the last "Wend"?

Hub

I increased the Sleep to 100 and removed the enable but did not make any difference, Its as if it is not counting the clicks from the input or calculating how many are required for the material to be in position for the next pass.

[vangalvin]

I may have found the problem, The Microswitch I am using is bouncing causing multiple triggers on the input. Maybe! just about to recode it, reverse the way it opperates and try it again.

[vangalvin]

And sorted that issue out as well
The secret is to use the Cypress VB format function Format(VAR, "####0" this will round anyting from the right of the decimal point to a whole number and as my passes are only 1mm I really dont need to worry about anyting that is on the right of the decimal point

I should have looked at the manual first.
http://www.cypressinc.com/enduser.pdf