Is is possible that some motherboard does not work with Mach3

[ostie01]

I bought a motherboard on Ebay (ECS 648FX-A 478 Motherboard+2.6G CPU+1 GB RAM)

Radeon 9250 128MB 8XAGP Video Card

I have installed many boards for Mach3 in the past years but I could never make this one work

I have tried every thing that is possible. I have 5 of 6 AGP video card, tried all of them with no luck. Installed drivers for each of them.

Re-install Mach3 5 or 6 times, formatting drive each time.

Done everything on the optimization for XP.

As soon as spindle is on, computer freeze, as soon as I turn off spindle(turn off VFD) computer work again.

If I try with special driver, input like S12000 M3 on MDI line,  spindle will not start, but can see output 2 blinking on parameter page.

I had MachStdMill installed and tough that it could be the problem, but I think it is not.

When it was working (a little bit), Computer was shutting down almost at every minute or so.

Power supply is good, had 1.5G or ram

Will try with an old board I have that I know was working before(changed because it only have USB 1.0 and on board graphic)

Nothing have changer on my router, every cable is shielded, nothing more or less than with previous motherboard.

Guess this is one of those mystery.


Jeff

[Hood]

If its only when the spindle is on then it sounds as if that mobo is particularly susceptible to noise, maybe a PCI port would help if the noise is getting in due to the onboard port..
Hood

[Tweakie.CNC]

Hi Jeff,

That motherboard sounds good.
I don't suppose it's any help but my initial VFD / PC problems were caused by an earth loop. The machine frame is connected to earth and the heatsink of the VFD is bolted to the machine frame. Disconnecting the incoming earth to the VFD solved the PC problem (it now gets it's earth from the machine frame and the shop radio works again, without any 'wailing' at start up   ).

Tweakie.

[ostie01]

Thanks for reply guys.

I did not change anything to my setup except the motherboard.

Same breakout board, same everything.

When I start spindle, it is impossible to change pages in Mach3, mouse can move but does not work, cannot reset either.(mach3, not the computer)

What is so special about the special driver?

This week end, I have tried to do a small job, a lot of weird things happened during the small time I could use the router.

I did try all day to do a 10 minutes job but never finish it.

Maybe you're right, it can be more prone to noises due to VFD.

Every thing is mounted in a big electrical box (28 X 36) VFD is about 10 inches from motherboard.

I've replaced the board with the old one, still have to download display driver and install it, re-install Mach3 + maybe MachStdMill

Not sure about MachStdMill because I do not understand yet how to change Macro because it look like it is not the same functions as standard Mach3.

I have a lot of trouble reading the Manual' I had to build a list of the shortcut word use in this manual, but English is not my primary language, so this is probably my fault.

Jeff

 

[ostie01]

Jut put another computer board in the control panel.

Well same thing, but now I can have access to keyboard if I do not click button on the mouse first.

Hit F5, spindle stop and mouse work again.

Tried another mouse I had but same thing.

The only thing is I'm not sure is if it is the same Windows installation disk that previous time when it was working great.

Maybe I could try to find if I still have some old installation disk available.

Jeff

[ostie01]

Well, did some testing tonight.

I tought I had found the problem, a 50 cents problem, since I was having problems with the mouse, I have tried an small adapter from USB to serial.

This worked since I could have control of the mouse when spindle was working.

Now, there is one problem remaining.

A couple of minutes after the machine start cutting, I could ear the spindle slowing down.

They're  3 or 4 application opening at the same time, Internet wizard, calculator, search windows and some others I don't remember and bang, mach3 close and computer freeze.

One more thing I have to try, is re-format, re-install Windows XP with new CD and re-install Mach3 and every other drivers.

Will keep posting.


Jeff

[Tweakie.CNC]

Jeff,

Is it possible than in changing motherboards you have made an additional (or broken a previous) ground connection ?

Tweakie.

[Hood]

They're  3 or 4 application opening at the same time, Internet wizard, calculator, search windows and some others I don't remember and bang, mach3 close and computer freeze.

Not quite sure what you are meaning with the above. Are they opening themselves or are you opening them?
Hood

[AndrewM]

When Mach3 is running you really shouldn't be using other programs in the background, especially the internet.

[ostie01]

All those program will open without warning, I do not touch anything, the router is working and then all those program open on their own

I do not have internet installed on the router, no router, no modem no cable.

The only thing that is installed on the computer is Mach3, nothing else, fresh format of C: drive and fresh install of Mach3 V3.043.022

That version was needed in order to install MachStdMill.

This afternoon, I have removed every thing that I could, (in windows safe mode)

Rename Calc.exe oldCal.exe and other programs.

I've been able to work with the router for about 3 or 4 minutes and Mach3 shut down and computer freeze.

Spindle stay on when Mach3 close without warning.

Will do more testing to see what can cause this problem.

I have a brand new 2.2kw VFD still in the box, maybe I could swap with the other?

Jeff