Mach4 SimpleMotion drive plugin

Mach4 is a CNC motion control software developed by Newfangled Solutions. The Mach4 SimpleMotion drive 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
• SimpleMotion adapter depending on selected motor drivers

Mach4 installation

• Download and install Mach4
• Download the plugin files to the Mach4 plugin folder
• Read the Mach4 installation, configuration and operation manuals before use

Configuration

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 configuration

1. Open the Mach4 Configuration dialog

2. Enable the SimpleMotion drive plugin from the plugins tab.

The program should ask to restart Mach4 after enabling the plugin. Restart Mach4 before continuing.

• Motors
  • Counts/unit, velocity, acceleration, reverse

• Axis mapping
  • Select motors. The motor index numbers in Mach4 are one smaller than the motor driver numbers in the SimpleMotion bus. For example, Motor0 in Mach4 controls the motor driver 1.
  • One OB (Out-of-Band) axis can be selected for being used as a velocity or position controlled spindle. An OB axis can be selected for position controlled spindle in the Mach4 spindle configuration, and for velocity controlled spindle in the SimpleMotion drive plugin configuration.
  • Do not enable axes without motors

• Homing/SoftLimits
  • Set the homing order
  • The homing direction is selected in Granity software, not here
  • Set home in place if needed
  • Set soft travel limits

• Spindle
  • Set min. and max. RPM.
  • A position controlled spindle can be selected here if it's enabled in motors tab

SimpleMotion drive plugin configuration

• FTDI port number, usually 0
• Buffer max fill percentage. Defines the percentage of the motor driver buffer used for buffering motion.
• Select a velocity-controlled axis to be used as a spindle
  • To use an axis as a velocity-controlled spindle, enable it as an OB axis in the Mach4 settings and select the same axis from this list

Other

Versions

Version	Comments	Download
0.1	The first beta release

Known issues

• A possible small bump after disabling or stopping motion due to aborted buffered motion

TODO

Velocity limitCVL

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