There are no MSM beta releases available

[DaveCVI]

Hi,
With the release of MSM 2.0, there are no beta releases available.

Users of the 1.3 series of beta releases, should update to MSM 2.0 before the beta releases time out.

Dave

[DaveCVI]

Sigh,
if you got 1.0.2.d17 before I replaced it with .d18, please toss it out.
.d17 was missing a file and that prevented access to the new probing routines. Should be fixed in .d18

Dave

[DaveCVI]

.d18 was missing two page background bitmaps in the 12x9 resolution set.
This is corrected in .d19.

Dave

[DaveCVI]

Some more missing files were found -
in .d20 I have added back the missing new probing ops scripts...

Sorry guys, the failed source control branch merge messed up the release package more than I thought. I have now compared all the files and *think* I have all the corrections made in .d20...

Dave

[DaveCVI]

Hi,
I retested 1.0.2.d20 this afternoon- found a bug.

The X, Y width measurement DROs for the valley/ridge and pocket/post new probing pages were correc tin 10x7 but now 12x9. They DRO $s are fixed in 12x9 in .d21.

Dave

[DaveCVI]

Hi,
I've posted 1.0.2.dev22
This corrects some errors in the X,Y,Z touch DROs that are shown on the probing pages in the probe results area.

In prior versions the touch positions shown would be in the WC system that was in effect when the probe op was started. This made the coords hard to relate to the probe position at the end of the Op when the probe op also reset an axis zero.

In Dev22 the results will now be relative to the WC origin as of the end of the successful completion of the probe Op. This is more consistent and it makes using a probe op to make a series of measurements much more intuitive.

Here is an example:
1) use a corner probe op to set x,y,z to the corner of a block.
The results will generaly be x,y,x = 0,0,0 (we just set the origin to the corner).
2) turn on "probe only"
3) use other prob ops to find the other corners, or the center of the block etc - the results will all be relative to the zero point at the first corner.

I have been doing this to measure points on the top surface of a block to see how much the surface varies from the zero point at the planes corner... Amazing what a bit of probe work can tell you.

Dave

[DaveCVI]

I've posted 1.0.2.d23 -
This has a fix to turn off the MSM Tool Change LED if an M6 sequence is interrupted by a stop button action.

Dave

[DaveCVI]

I have posted 1.0.2.d24

The more I looked at the interactions of mach allowing the stop button to abort the execution of the M6 scripts, the more I felt that just turning off the tool change LED and going on was not a safe action.

There is no way to clean this up from MSM. Mach should never allow this to happen in the first place (it’s a violation of the GCode definition of a block as an atomic execution unit). Since the m6 scripts can get aborted anywhere, and mach does not raise an error flag when it does this, the scripts (and the M6 sequence) are left in a state that can not be determined. In reality, this should be a control fault (a word and block partially executed) so in .d24 when MSM detects this situation, it now resets mach. This is the only safe thing for MSM to do – it can’t entice the user to continue from an unknown state as if all were well.

When this happens, it is highly likely that due to the way mach handles "current tool" and "next tool" that the current tool info still matches the tool physically mounted in the spindle! This is because a mach tool change swaps "current tool" into for "next tool" info at the start of the M6 sequence (before the tool is physically changed). The operator needs to be forced to go check things before going on. Again, if the M6 is not interrupted, this would be ok - but the interruption leaves the state inconsistent. Note that this core problem is not an MSM issue, but a Mach problem. The same thing can happen with the stock mach 1024 set M6 scripts.

MSM is now just smart enough to notice this when you press the stop button and notify you that as a result of that action things are messed up. Note that this detection code is part of the MSM stop button logic – if you execute a DoOEMButton(MachStopButton) from a script during a tool change, you will create the same problem (but MSM will not know it happened), so this improvement in MSM helps the UI level but not the scripting level (that would require a fix inside mach).

The good news is that I managed to get MSM to go back to the prior page when a Stop event interrupts a tool change...
Dave

[DaveCVI]

Hi,
FYI: I have confirmed that when going from 1.0.2 (release version) to 1.0.2.d24 (beta version) that there is an installer bug that causes a config file not to be updated correctly by the beta install. The symptom shows up as type mismatch script error when attempting to do a probing routine.

The bug is fixed and and will be in a new beta once I get some other stuff under development ready to go.

In the mean time, the work around is to uninstall 1.0.2 (start menu / mach /Machstdmill / uninstall) before installing the d24 beta. This causes the beta installer to install the correct config file and the problem is then avoided.

Dave

[DaveCVI]

MSM beta v1.0.2.d49 is now available.

Lots of small changes (see release notes).

A major addition is the support for probing operations to help setup the A and B axes. You can now
find the center of the A & B axes;
measure the axis' alignment with the corresponding linear axis;
Position WC zero at the center top, bottom or side of a cylinder;
Find the rotation angle around A or B (this can also be used to find the angle of an inclined plane).

MSM will now rotate the WC system to match and edge angle measurement - please see the user manual for notes on why this may or may not be a good idea. PLEASE BE AWARE of how Mach handles jogging when coordinates are rotated!

Dave

[DaveCVI]

A new beta has been posted: v1.0.2.d69

Since the 1.0.2 release of MachStdMill in January, MSM has been quite stable and work has been progressing to add the features that were on the list for a v1.1.0 release.

A new beta (v1.0.2.d69) is available which now has all the features slated for MSM v1.1.
Beta development will now enter a stabilization period where any bugs discovered will be fixed, but new features will not be added while stabilization is ongoing.

For those running release 1.0.2, this seems an appropriate time to summarize the more significant features that have been included since that release.

For MSM CVI uses an internal bug prioritization of
Class 1: Safety issues or problems that prevent usage of the software.
Class 2: Most things fall into this category.
Class 3: “Yeah, someday, maybe, when there is nothing else to do”.

There is one recently discovered Class 1 bug V1.0.2 which is fixed in dev69.

As I write this there are no open Class 2 or 3 bugs in the production release, and no known bugs in dev69.

The later part of that statement may be a tad misleading…. Dev69 is a beta release and it really needs more beta user testing. Some of the features implemented between dev49 and dev69 required changes to some of the core components in MSM. This carries with it a risk of having introduced problems which have not been discovered yet. While dev69 is behaving in the shop here, I won’t be too surprised if some things crop up as others start poking at it.

Please treat dev69 with healthy skepticism until more hours are accumulated with it.

Please report any bugs you find and I’ll do my best to promptly fix them.

When you see a bug, please refer to the release notes’ “known Mach 3 Errata” section. This lists the known bugs in Mach 3 which have impacted MSM use. MSM just has to live with these unless/until ArtSoft decides to fix them.

1 Major feature enhancements since MSM 1.0.2
It is hard to know what has happened without combing thru the release notes, so I’ve summarized the most significant changes here.

(Hey I admit it, this is intended to entice you to try the beta and thereby get you all to help me get a v1.1 release ready <grin>)

1.1 V1.0.2 Class 1 bugs fixed:
• Fixed bug where a license file date could get set to an incorrect date. This could only happen if MSM was installed on a windows version that did not use the US short date format. Under some conditions, the MSM license could get an incorrect date stored in it. This caused MSM to incorrectly determine that the current installed version was unlicensed.
The recovery process is to
A) install a version of MSM with this bug fixed, then
B) reactivate MSM to get corrected license date recorded

It is currently undecided if the fix will be retrofit into v1.0.2 to create a v1.0.3 release. The bug has only impacted one user, the work to retrofit the fix to v1.0.2 is non trivial, and it was discovered and fixed just as the stabilization for a v1.1 release is starting. Given resource limitations, I’m leaning toward letting 1.1 be the official fix for the bug.

1.2 Probing Enhancements
• The probing facilities of MSM have been significantly enhanced. MSM now provides the most extensive set of probing operations known to be available for Mach.

• Supported operation groups now include:
o Edge, Surface and Corner finding (with edge angle measurement)
o Ridge & Valley center finding
o Rectangular and Circular Pocket center finding
o Rectangular and Circular Post center finding
o A and B Axis alignment support
o Surface rotational angle measurement
The WC can now be rotated to match the measured angle.

• Probe Tip calibration
o Calibration can now be done from a circular pocket or a post.
o Calibration now utilizes diameter wear to store the calibration adjustment.
o Implemented replace & average for wear diam tip comp value

• Misc additions:
o Implemented “Extra Probe Depth” input parameter.
o Implemented a “1st Z only” button to the post and pocket probing page.

1.3 Auto-TLO and On-Machine Tool Measuring:
This is a major set of enhancements which gives MSM the most advanced tool measuring support available for Mach.

• There is a new “Measure tool” button on the tooling page.
o MSM now provides the ability to use the TCP TP to do on machine measurement of tools. This can eliminate the need for expensive offline tool pre-setters.
o Tools can be measured on the machine and TLOs are entered automatically into the tool table.

• Auto-TLO: Tool Measurement is now supported as part of a stop & wait tool change for all three documented TLO techniques (TLO=PTL, TLO=WCZ0 and Master Tool mode).
o The requirement to use Master Tool Mode (MTM) with Auto-TLO has been removed.

• There is a new option to randomly distribute wear on the TCP TP over a user specified wear area.

1.4 Tool Table Handling:
MSM Tool Table handling has been significantly enhanced.

• The MSM v1.0.2 distinction between MSM tool table files created by an imperial (inch) setup units machine and a metric (mm) setup units machine has been removed. A V1.1 tool table saved by any MSM machine can be loaded on any MSM machine.

• Support for mixed units tool tables at the user level has been added.
Tool diameters can be entered in the natural units of the tool independent of the setup units of the machine. A 10mm Drill diameter can be entered as 10mm. (It is no longer necessary to enter 0.3927 inches on the imperial machine for a 10mm tool).
Note: This caused an internal rev of the MSM Tool Table file from v1 to v2. However, MSM v1.1 can load either file version so the user will not be inconvenienced.

• Revised TT report to support new TT features and to be easier to read.

1.5 Installation Improvements
• The installer now has Auto uninstall ability. If the version change requires an uninstall of the prior MSM version, the installer now does it automatically and no longer asks the user to do a manual uninstall first.

• MSM Install no longer always forces an overwrite of the MSM Configuration and Probing debug configuration files to default state. Once v1.1 is released (the beta devXX releases are marked to force a full uninstall and new install), for minor updates it will no longer be necessary to reconfigure editors / readers / debug states after installing a minor update.

1.6 Improved hardware diagnostic support
• There is now support for Parallel Port 2 in output mode. MSM now displays the correct LEDs for PP2 in both input and output configurations.

1.7 Misc User features:
• Re-enabled the MSM alpha feature to save the state of mach menus on/off and to start up in that state.

1.8 Customer Support tools:
• Under the hood, the MSM debug login facilities have been revamped. It is now possible to turn on MSM internal diagnostic tools at run time. This means that there will be much less need for CVI to provide a user with debug modules to help diagnose a problem. Which is expected to enable faster info gathering and thereby reduce turn around time for fixes if a bug is encountered.

[DaveCVI]

beta 1.0.2.d72 is available from www.calypsoventures.com

This fixes the hang if bad tool table is put into the tool table bug that was reported in .d69.

Dave

[DaveCVI]

Beta 1.0.2.d77 is now available from www.CalypsoVentures.com

This fixes a couple of bugs discussed in the support forum since .d72.
This release also improves the "1st Z only" rect/cyl post probing by replacing it with independent "First Z" and "Last Z" contols.

See user manual / release notes for more info.

Dave

[DaveCVI]

Beta 1.0.2.d81 is now available from www.CalypsoVentures.com

A bug was reported re corner finding: The corner location was not correctly accounting for a rotated block.
The repair turned into a revamp of the corner routines and teh addition of separate edge angel finding measurements.

See user manual / release notes for other changes.

Dave

[DaveCVI]

Beta 1.0.2.d87 is now available from www.CalypsoVentures.com

This beta release is very likely to become MSM V1.1 - think of this as MSM 1.1.0 RC1

If you are using the beta series, please update to this release as the more exercise .d87 gets the less chance there is of bugs in MSM 1.1


.d87 has two key changes:
1) A bug was found that caused MSM Beta > d69 to not start when running on Win 7 Home Premium. IF you are running the beta MSM on win 7 please update to d87.

2) The "rotate XY" button has been removed from the MSM edge group probing page. Further detailed testing has exposed multiple serious bugs in Mach wrt to G68 (Rotated WC systems). It did not make sense to temp users into using a feature of mach that causes problems, so this is gone until such time as Mach gets fixed.

As usual more details are in the release notes.

Dave