MSM and Mach3 Versions

[DaveCVI]

MachStdMill REQUIRES mach 3.43.22 or newer -
If you attempt to run an older version of mach, MSM will not initialize correctly and you will get script errors from essentially every MSM button.

Unfortunately, I can't make the error messages in this case more informative as the older versions of mach don't have the interfaces necessary to deal with the situation.

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This following is a historical record of MSM and Mach3 versions.

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Initially MSM required a minimum version for Mach of 3.43.10.

During the past weekend, Brian replaced 3.43.10 with 3.43.11. That would have been fine.... except that 3.43.11. was a bad mach version and it reported it's version to MSM as 0.0.0 - which MSM figured was just a just a bit to old .... and so MSM refuses to run with "3.43.11 or 0.0.0 as it calls itself"....

Mach 3.43.12 has now been posted. This is the usual cycle of things in the beta world.

Brian will make changes to the Mach development vresion whenever he needs to.
Alas, I may not be able to try each mach development version immediately upon release.
As Mach development versions are released, you are welcome to try them with MSM.
If you do, please let me know what happens.

I have asked Scott to make 3.43.10 available from the download archive page so that people can get that version in case something like this should happens again during the MSM beta program.

If you prefer just a little more stability, please feel free to stay with 3.43.10 for now.

Dave

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FYI - 3.43.12 seems to have a bug that can be a safety problem -

The conservative thing to do is to stay with 3.43.10 until the bug is repaired.

Dave

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Mach 3.43.16 is now the recommend mach version for use with MSM.

Mach3.43.16 has fixes for the following Mach bugs that were impacting MSM:
MDI command no longer causes loaded Gcode to start execution.
PeriodicScript execution time > script period no longer causes the script to hang.
Back to Back StartPeriodicScript calls no longer cause syntax errors from scripts being started.
Spindle pulley reverse direction repaired.

Dave

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Hi,
With the release of MSM beta 6, the minimum required version of Mach is 3.43.19.

Some basic call APIs changed definition in mach 3.43.19. MSM beta 6 uses the new definitions.

MSM beta 5 assumes the old API definitions and when running on mach 3.43.19, beta 5 may not get correct information back form The mach calls. Therefore, while MSM Beta 5 will load on mach 3.43.19 - this is a mismatched combination that should not be used.

Dave

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Hi,

Mach 3.43.22 has fixes for the following issues:
1) Probing and SS - this is now working the same as the PP for probing. So SS should be good for probing operations again.

2) Feed rates: fixes the issues with Feed Rates (both rate and display of rate) that occur with 3.43.19

3) User Macropump period is back to 100ms (It was running at 10ms period in 3.43.19)

Dave

[DaveCVI]

Hi,

FYI -
Sometime over the weekend the versions of Mach on the machsupport.com site were updated.

The "Lockdown version" is now = 3.43.22 (which is the minimum version required for MSM operation).

The "Development version" is now = 3.43.26
[1-26-2011: 3.43.26 has disappeared from the machsupport site and no dev rev is listed at all on the site now]

I didn't see any info in the posted Mach change log as to what the changes are between 3.43.22 and 3.43.26.

WRT to MSM use, I still recommend using 3.43.22 (which is now the official lockdown revision of Mach3).

Any MSM problems reported will be verified against 3.43.22.

Dave

[DaveCVI]

Feb 2 2001:
Mach 3.43.28 has been posted as a mach development rev on the machsupport site.
My understanding is that this was posted in response to some recent reports of trouble with M6End scripts in 3.43.22. The stock 1024 M6 scripts and the MSM M6 scripts all worked w/o trouble on 3.43.22 (the MSM code for M6 has been stable and unchanged for several months).

I do not yet know if this new rev will make any difference in MSM operation or not. As I get time to test MSM with it I will let you know what I learn.

Before people ask: I don't have any more detailed information for what all changed between Mach 3.43.22 and 3.43.28 - I assume something else is also contained within the 6 revs from .22 to .28...

Dave

[2-5-2011 update]:
I've run basic MSM tests with mach 3.43.28 without problem. I have not run thru a full test set - but it looks ok at first glance.

[DaveCVI]

On 3-23-2011 Mach 3.43.34 was posted as a mach development version.

DO NOT RUN MSM WITH mach 3.43.34.

Mach 3.43.34 has broken event handling code in it and this will screw up MSM (and other script code).

Dave

[DaveCVI]

Mach 3.43.35 contains a partial fix for a fairly serious Mach bug where the esc or stop keys do not interrupt and terminate script execution.

MSM 1.1.2 has been released to work with this mach development release (it will also work with mach 3.43.22).

Please read the MSM 1.1.2 release notes and then decide if mach 3.43.22 or mach 3.43.35 best suits your needs.

mach 3.43.22 is a mach lock-down release that has been pretty stable while mach 3.43.35 is a mach development release that is new and unknown re reliability and stability.

Dave

[DaveCVI]

Mach 3.43.37 was released by ArtSoft today as a development release.

While Mach 3.43.37 still has a couple of new bugs that arrived with 3.43.35 (see MSM release notes), it does have both the patches for the "Esc/Stop don't interrupt scripts started via RunScript" (which MSM uses extensively) and the patch for the MSM ATC bug that resulted from GetCurrentTool() getting fixed in Mach.

Mach 3.43.37 is working reasonably well for me with MSM v1.1.3. However, as usual, it is a Mach Development revision and "you mileage may vary".

Dave

[DaveCVI]

Hi all,

Brian has released a new Mach dev version - the download says it is 3.43.45 and the file name you get says 3.43.45 - but once you install it and go to help about , it reports it self as 3.43.46.... so I"m not sure what to call it

This mach rev has some internal changes re mach runs button scripts. I have few more details as to what that means - but I understand that the internal thread handling for script has been changed.... that could be good or bad....

FYI - I'd treat this new mach version with caution until more experience is gained with it.

Dave

[DaveCVI]

Hi,
While www.machsupport.com remains the primary place to find Mach releases, not all the development releases are available there.

CVI has received permission from Artsoft USA to host for download some key mach3 releases for use with MSM.

Mach 3.43.037 is now available from CVI web site download area.
3.43.37 has proven to be a stable release with ley bug fixes for MSM included in it.

If you insist in sticking to the lockdown release (currently 3.43.22), you can get it from the mach site.
However, if you don;t mind using mach development releases, I currently recommend mach 3.43.37 as the most stable tested mach release for MSM.

Dave

[DaveCVI]

Hi all,

I've been trying the latest mach dev release: 3.43.45
(which reports itself as 3.43.46 when you look in help-about - which means that I am unsure what to really call this mach release).

Please do not use mach 3.43.45/46 version with MSM - the skimpy release notes say that this rev has "improved" button script handling...

This mach release seems very badly broken when I use it - scripts are not being executed reliably and strange failures happen - it has the feel of problems with internal mach race conditions.

The worst part is that the systems I try this rev with get stuck with these new problems. Installing a prior version of mach does not restore the PC to working. It seems that some file(s) are changed by 3.43.45/46 and do not get changed back by installing a prior version.

So PLEASE DO NOT INSTALL mach 3.43.45.
If you do install it, be aware that CVI will not be providing MSM support for this mach version - it's simply too broken to be worth the effort.
I may be interested to hear what you find, but I will not be trouble shooting any MSM report that are using this mach rev.


I'll report again when I learn more... but first I have to get the PCs working again and then isolate a test case that I can use to demo the issues to Brian.

Dave

[DaveCVI]

Hi all,
I've been using a 3.43.48 version of Mach - things have gone well and the issues I had with 3.43.45 seem to be gone.

I know that 3.43.48 fixes a problem with the mach tool change led (I added this to the release notes for MSM 1.1.16).

I then noticed that Brian released 3.43.49 - but I don't know the deltas between .48 and .49.... and he has not updated the mach change log since 3.43.45.

Dave

[DaveCVI]

I'm told that if you are using an ethernet smooth stepper, the you need to use mach 3.43.58. The MSM users I know using it for that reason, seem to be having reasonable luck with that version.

I've been tying mach 3.43.58 and so far so good - I just have not had enough time with it for it "to be proven" yet.

Your mileage may vary...

Dave

[DaveCVI]

It seems time for an update re mach revs.

With the release of MSM 1.3.x there are now two different mach recommendations (depending on if you want mill or lathe modes).

For MSM Mill use:
CVI still recommends using mach 3.43.37
It's stable, pretty trouble free and has the most MSM user history. Probably 90% of the MSM Mill users are on this mach release.

For MSM Turn and Mill-Turn:
These feature sets require a min of mach 3.43.38.
However there is a significant bug for lathe operation in every mach release between 3.43.38 and 3.43.62 (See MSM release notes). 3.43.62 does fix several serious (as in machine crash severity) bugs, so mach 3.43.62 is the best choice as I write this.

However, FYI I have posted this on the yahoo mach list:

It seems that there are some new timing issues with 3.43.62:
1) when using keyboard keys to jog in continuous jog mode, mach seems to sometimes to miss the first key down event. I have to release the key and push it down a 2nd time to get the jog motion started. This happens about 50% of the time. Does not happen on mach revs < 3.43.62.

2) Scripts seem to be running noticeably slower. Same scripts (no changes) that used to be quicker now seem like they lag and run slow. - I am also seeing script pauses where there did not used to be pauses.
(I've run the MSM probing scripts so many times while testing MSM releases, that I know the timing an execution pattern of the script actions.) With 3.43.62, the execution timing is noticeably different.
The scripts run OK, they just run differently.

Dave

[DaveCVI]

On 9/25/2012 Mach 3.43.66 became the latest Mach3 lock down release and it is also now the CVI recommended Mach release for use with MSM.

Dave