Hi,
That situation is quite confusing to start with. The ESS has its own plugin as does Mach4. For a signal, be it an input or an output, needs to be configured in both for it to work.Having to program in both the Mach configure screens as well as the ESS configure screens is really causing me issues. I have filled in all parameters, but obviously something isn't right because I have no 0-10v signal coming out of the BOB.
Conveniently but also somewhat confusingly when you populate a signal in the ESS plugin it will automatically update the Mach Control plugin also. Where it gets confusing
is that its not apparently consistent across all signal types.
For instance if you wish to assign a probe input, then you go to the ESS plugin, assign a port and pin, with an alias if you desire on the Ports&Pins page, then connect that pin
to the logical Mach4 signal on the ESS InputSignals page. Now if you go and check out the Mach Control plugin you'll find that too has been populated with consistent data
courtesy of the ESS plugin Editor.
This is where the confusion starts: you assign axis motor step and direction signals in the ESS plugin as normal, but the motor tuning is exclusively in the Mach plugin.
The rule-of-thumb is that any signal, input or output, other than motor signals are mapped in their entirety from the ESS plugin to the Mach Control plugin.
Motor signals are a mix, the pin assignments are in the ESS plugin whereas the motor to axis and all motor tuning data is exclusively in the Mach control plugin.
The good news is that while this is confusing to start with, once you have it mastered you can forget it all over again. When I setup my mini-mill six years ago with the new ESS
I struggled just like you are now but since then I've probably opened the two plugins a dozen times since for minor tweaks.
I have an old Mach4 ESS plugin (V216) on my machine and have had since it was released probably three years ago, its not broken so I just never get around to updating it.
When I get to work I will look somewhat more closely at the Spindle page in the ESS plugin.
If memory serves all the main spindle tuning data is in the ESS plugin. Noting the difference between the spindle and the axis motors. In particular axis motors have to be coordinated
consequently Mach must have full knowledge and access to the motor tuning data whereas the spindle is just a free running out-of-band motor, albeit with some extra features
like m3,m4,m5 and Sxxx etc. Consequently the ESS plugin can handle the spindle, ergo the spindle tuning data is in the ESS plugin.
Craig