Mach4 SimpleMotion drive plugin

Introduction

Mach4 is a CNC motion control software developed by Newfangled Solutions. It has been in use on Industrial equipment running constantly for over a year. The M4SM plugin is needed to run motor drivers connected to SimpleMotion bus with Mach4.

Requirements

The following things are needed for building a CNC machine using Mach4 and motor drivers connected with SimpleMotion bus:

• Atomi, IONI or Argon-based motion system, e.g. CNC mill, connected with SimpleMotion bus
• Windows PC
• Mach4 software + license

Motor driver configuration

Configure the motor drivers with Granity software:

• Motor specific settings
• Set position mode for every driver except for possible velocity-controlled spindle motor
• Set suitable max. speed
• Configure homing for all possible axes to ensure the positioning accuracy
• Set soft travel limits

Mach4 installation

• Download and install Mach4
• Download the plugin files to the plugin folder TODO: Mistä?
• Launch Mach4
• Select the SimpleMotion driver plugin from Mach4 settings
• Restart Mach4
• Select the plugin as motion control device

Mach4 configuration

• Plugins
  • Simplemotion drive plugin must be checked
• Motors
  • Counts/unit, velocity, acceleration, reverse
• Axis mapping
  • Select motors. Numbers are different here compared to driver numbers!
  • One OB axis can be selected for being used as a velocity or position controlled spindle
  • Do not enable axes without motors
• Homing/SoftLimits
  • Set home order
  • Home dir is selected in Granity software
• Spindle
  • Spindle settings
  • A position controlled spindle can be selected here

Plugin configuration

• FTDI port number
• Buffer max fill percentage
• Spindle settings
  • Position-controlled spindle
    • Select from Mach4 settings
  • Closed-loop velocity-controlled spindle
    • Select OOB axis from Mach4 settings and the same axis from the pluginc configuration dialog
  • Open-loop velocity-controlled spindle (TODO: Not implemented for Atomi)
    • Select OOB axis from Mach4 settings and the same axis from the pluginc configuration dialog

Known issues

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