Calypso CNC User Forums

When I went to use midi and turn on the spindle, I can no longer use the keyboard to enter commands in to midi. Last time I use used it a couple weeks ago all was working fine. I cannot figure out what changed. This is the Pro version. Updating from 2.06 to 2.07 had no effect. The computer is running Win 8 and dedicated to the mill. Anyone got any ideas?

Hi,
When you click the mouse in the mdi line what happens?
Does a while vertical area appear above the MDI line?
Normally that is the MDI history and shows the last MDI commands used. If no commands are stored, mach puts up a blank rectangle.
IF the history area does not appear, I'd guess that mach did not see the mouse click event. I'm not sure that helps much except to lead me to ask if thr focus could have moved to another window so that mach was not getting the mouse actions.

I can't think of a reason the MDI would stop working. Since Mach handles that control internally to mach and MSM can't/doesn't process it, I would expect that changing the MSM version would not have had any effect re this symptom.

If you close and restart mach, does the MDI control come back to life?
What mach version are you running?

Dave

The midi looks normal. History is shown. As soon as I stop the spindle with the a button on my MPG, use of the midi returns. Mach is version 043.066. Restarting has no effect. So I use MIDI as long as I don' start the spindle.

I'm stumped then.
I am running 3.43.66 also; with MSM 2.0.7.9 beta (no difference between 2.0.7 and the beta for spindle or mdi stuff).
I just started the spindle both via the MSM CW button on the run page, and via MDI M3; while the spindle is running I can use MDI to command axis movement. I often to this when using the machine as a "semi-manual mill" - often as a power feed when squaring up stock etc.

I'll keep thinking, but don't know what else to suggest at the moment.
Is there any other clues or actions that this seems to be dependent on?
I know you said it used to work as I'm seeing it... any clues in thinking about what changed between then and now?

Dave

Most certainly unrelated, but I've always had trouble with the MDI box going away after clicking in it and typing. This across about 5 computers in the time I've used Mach3, about 4 years. I've learned that if I hit ENTER when I want to MDI, the box will always stay up, so that's what I do. If I click in the box I might get 4 or 5 characters or I might get one, and the box just disappears, but wait, not always!! I've posted this over the years, but it is just me, I guess. I've tried to tie this to some action, but can't seem to isolate the behavior.

You mention a button on your MPG. If the MPG uses a plugin, like VistaCNC pendants or perhaps others, disable it temporarily and see if MDI works. I use VistaCNC pendants and once in a while I've had things act abnormally with no explanation and I sometimes suspect the plugin, but I can't say I've ever proven it!!

Other than that, I know of no reason why MDI would stop working completely either