AXBB-E G31 probe move locks up Mach4 if probe not triggered

[codymnelson]

Hello,
I have been trying to work out an issue when probing on my CNC mill. I have found that for preparatory moves where I want to use G31 in case the probe does make contact, but I'm not actually looking for a probe contact, Mach 4 is hanging while waiting on the motion controller if I understand the log correctly. I have included it below.

When using G31 in the simplest sense, it works. IE, machine starts to move, and it stops when the probe is triggered.

What i want to do is use G31 to take me from the center of a part past its edge to subsequently drop down in Z and then probe the outside edge. I want to use G31 in case the probe is triggered so that it stops instead of breaking off the probe. The probing scripts in Mach4 do it this way and they watch for unexpected probe contact. It is my understanding that it is the best practice versus using G01 to make the setup moves.

Here is the error I see when I input the following in MDI, it is worth noting that the machine moves to the position X -1.000 correctly but the code hangs waiting for the motion controller after the move from what i can tell in the log.

G31 X-1.000 F20

Code: Select all

2021-11-24 05:26:29.134 - API: mcCntlMdiExecute(inst = 0, commands = 'g31 x-1.000 F20') (unknown caller)
2021-11-24 05:26:29.243 - Attempt transition from "Idle" on event "MDI Start" controller.cpp:2364
2021-11-24 05:26:29.243 - Signal id 1127, (Jog Enabled), changed from HIGH to LOW.
2021-11-24 05:26:29.243 - S_IDLE_on_exit
2021-11-24 05:26:29.243 - Signal id 1172, (Machine Idle), changed from HIGH to LOW.
2021-11-24 05:26:29.243 - ACTION_start_mdi
2021-11-24 05:26:29.243 - SoftSync()! Clearing planner.
2021-11-24 05:26:29.274 - S_MDI_RUNNING_on_entry
2021-11-24 05:26:29.274 - SoftSync()! Clearing planner. stateinterface.cpp:1351
2021-11-24 05:26:29.274 - S_MDI_RUNNING2_on_entry
2021-11-24 05:26:29.274 - Signal id 1114, (Gcode Running), changed from LOW to HIGH.
2021-11-24 05:26:29.274 - Attempt transition from "MDI Running" on event "Probe" runcanon.cpp:536
2021-11-24 05:26:29.274 - S_MDI_RUNNING2_on_exit
2021-11-24 05:26:29.274 - Signal id 1114, (Gcode Running), changed from HIGH to LOW.
2021-11-24 05:26:29.274 - ACTION_start_probe
2021-11-24 05:26:29.274 - S_MDI_PROBING_on_entry
2021-11-24 05:26:29.274 - Signal id 1173, (Machine Probing), changed from LOW to HIGH.
2021-11-24 05:26:29.274 - Probing: Waiting on exit event... runcanon.cpp:267
2021-11-24 05:26:29.274 - Waiting on planner to drain before waiting on SetStill... runcanon.cpp:92
2021-11-24 05:26:31.383 - Waiting on SetStill...
2021-11-24 05:26:31.383 - Signal id 1180, (Feed Hold Disabled), changed from LOW to HIGH.
2021-11-24 05:26:31.383 - Controller::RunCanonBuffer called AddStopReportRequest() runcanon.cpp:101
2021-11-24 05:26:31.383 - Requesting a stopped report for axis 0 motors.
2021-11-24 05:26:31.383 - Requesting a stopped report for motor 0.
2021-11-24 05:26:31.383 - Requesting a stopped report for axis 1 motors.
2021-11-24 05:26:31.383 - Requesting a stopped report for motor 1.
2021-11-24 05:26:31.383 - Requesting a stopped report for axis 2 motors.
2021-11-24 05:26:31.383 - Requesting a stopped report for motor 2.


It just hangs here after calling AddStopReportRequest()
In case it is helpful, the machine just sits like this with the cycle time counting up until i toggle the enable button off. The log file then continues as below

Code: Select all

2021-11-24 05:28:33.223 - API: mcCntlEnable(inst = 0, FALSE) (Mach4GUI Button)
2021-11-24 05:28:33.239 - Signal id 1018, (Enable #0), changed from HIGH to LOW.
2021-11-24 05:28:33.239 - Signal id 1019, (Enable #1), changed from HIGH to LOW.
2021-11-24 05:28:33.239 - Signal id 1020, (Enable #2), changed from HIGH to LOW.
2021-11-24 05:28:33.239 - Attempt transition from "Probing" on event "Stop" controller.cpp:5235
2021-11-24 05:28:33.239 - S_FILE_PROBING_on_exit
2021-11-24 05:28:33.239 - Signal id 1173, (Machine Probing), changed from HIGH to LOW.
2021-11-24 05:28:33.239 - S_MDI_RUNNING_on_exit
2021-11-24 05:28:33.239 - ACTION_stop
2021-11-24 05:28:33.348 - S_IDLE_on_entry
2021-11-24 05:28:33.364 - Signal id 1172, (Machine Idle), changed from LOW to HIGH.
2021-11-24 05:28:33.364 - Waiting on SetStill is Done!
2021-11-24 05:28:33.364 - Signal id 1120, (Machine Enabled), changed from HIGH to LOW.
2021-11-24 05:28:33.364 - Probing: Exiting probe state because of end of move. gcodeexec.cpp:1552
2021-11-24 05:28:33.364 - Attempt transition from "Idle" on event "Probe Complete" gcodeexec.cpp:1574
2021-11-24 05:28:33.364 - Can't transition from "Idle" on event "Probe Complete" gcodeexec.cpp:1574
2021-11-24 05:28:33.379 - Signal id 1180, (Feed Hold Disabled), changed from HIGH to LOW.

For background, at the risk of making this post too long to be interesting, my probe is hooked up to Port 2 pin 5 of the AXBB-E. It is an NPN switching probe @5volts. I have its output hooked up to i5- and 5VDC going to i5+. I have it set up as active low in Mach4 config. It works perfectly and is very consistent. I'm quite certain i don't have a hardware issue, but i wanted to give that context in case it mattered.

I have the most current AXBB-E plugin that i can find. It is listed as V 1.002 in Mach4.

If anyone has any ideas about how i can resolve this please let me know. If it is not a bug in the AXBB-E plug-in I apologize for my mistake. I will post this over on Machsupport as well to get some more feedback.

I found one other forum post here of another person struggling with this specific issue and Mach4 but it was over a year ago and they never got any replies to their post. https://www.forum.cncdrive.com/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=2600

I also read about something similar happening to people with another vendors product (Ethernet Smooth Stepper), and they added functionality to their plug in to prevent it hanging in this situation. I only include this for context of me suspecting it as a bug.

Please let me know if there is other information i can provide that would be helpful and i will get it to you.

Thanks in advance for any help or clarity you can provide!

[codymnelson]

Hello again,
I just wanted to follow up on this problem. I did hear back from Mach Support about this issue. Below is the response i got.

Hello,
Controllers like the ESS have a setting that allows you to proceed if using a G31 and you make no contact.
By default a controller will error out however unless they've included a setting in their plugin that ignores the no strike condition.
Best Regards,
Trevor

I had a similar reply on the mach support forum as well.

Since the AXBB-E plugin does not have this option i get the previously described error. I am documenting this here for future users who may come across the problem. Based on the lack of response, I assume that CNCdrive doesn't have much interest in further plugin development for Mach4 since you have UCCNC now. If I am wrong about that I apologize. For me the easiest solution seems to be switching to an Ethernet Smooth Stepper since i know they provide the functionality I'm looking for.

Thanks to those who took the time to at least read thru my problem.

[cncdrive]

Sorry for the delay with getting back to you.,

Unfortunately the Machsupport guys did not notify us about some serious changes in their plugin interface.
We now need to figure out those changes, the compilation of the plugin do not even work with the new Mach4 verison due to those changes they made, we had to install new library, new Visual Studio etc. to even be able to recompile and debug the plugin. This takes time for us as it is fully undocumented, so we had to figure these out ourselves, but this part of the issue was just resolved.
We currently working on debugging the issue and will fix it asap, but as it is close to Xmas holidays, our last working day with be the 23th we can fix this issue only in January.

[cncdrive]

And slow response does not mean that we not reading and not working on problems, we just not responding until we know what is going on.

[Robertspark]

to the OP

the easy fix is to install a previous version of mach4..... one that is compatible with the plugin.

the problem with mach4 is it has never really got out of "development". it's been in development mode for around 10 years. in the early days it was very common that every time artsoft updated mach4 it broken the plugins

the developers of plugins (such as warp9 for the ESS that I was using then) always listed the version of mach4 that the plugin was developed for / compatible with.

that is the reason why I changed to uccnc .....
mach4 has never been very good at documentation or communication with either its users or plugin developers

just for info (before someone unloads on me), no I don't work for cncdrive and have no vested interest in uccnc or cncdrive. above is just my personal recommendation of a fix, be it temporary to get you going until cncdrive can catch up with their plugin for mach4. yes it's a pain.... but that is why many of us dumped mach3 / mach4 and made the transition to uccnc (and on to other things now)

mach4 FTP server is here listing the previous versions of mach4, one of the older versions may work with the mach4 cncdrive plugin

https://www.machsupport.com/ftp/Mach4/D ... tVersions/