HobbyCNC and SmoothStepper - Happy Customer

[pilotjunky]

Paid for my SmoothStepper on the July 17th, it arrived today July 21st.  As advertised, less than a weeks wait.

I have retrofitted my HobbyCNC board with the SmoothStepper, and it's now a working USB device.  I have some more testing to do, but initial high speed jogs and TP-100 Touch probe testing have proved quite "Smooth".  See the attached Photo.  Mounting location has good airflow and does not change the flow to the HobbyCNC chips.  From opening the package to complete physical implementation was about an hour.

Driver installation was very clean... as was the plugin.  I did not have to touch any of my existing Mach3 settings, it just worked.

The only "Minor" head scratcher was looking in Mach for the "Reset Device Sel..." under the Function Cfg's menu which allowed me to choose the SmoothStepper Plugin.  I may have missed it in the manual...

I'm sure there is more to learn, ie. Why I would want an external 5v power supply...  and how to get maximum performance from the device... but a great first impression.

Thanks!
Rich.

[Overloaded]

VERY nice !
Plug and Play....that's the way I like it.
PC or Laptop ?   Specs.   (if you don't mind)
Thanks,
RC

[pilotjunky]

I have been using an Old Dell Latitude Laptop for a couple years... not much punch, but likely the last vintage with a parallel port.  It has USB 1.2.    I also ran it tonight using my new Dell Inspiron 1420 with 4 Gig of RAM ... Duo Core... USB 2.0....  both of them felt the same...  it is "just" USB after all :-)

Over the coming days I'll run a 3D job and post further.

Rich

[rustyolddog]

I'm using the Hobbycnc controllers as well and have been pleased with them, glad to hear that the SS works well with it.

I'd be curious to know if it solves the inherent dwell issues with normal parallel port usage. There is a brief pause when the axis's change direction, most notable when the Z goes to retract, nomally not a problem but I have one issue with a small special tool that gives me fits with the finish.

[Hood]

Not sure of your problem, is it a HobbyCNC problem? If not are you using backlash? Are you in ExactStop mode?
Hood

[rustyolddog]

Dunno what the problem is, it's only an issue with one application; engraving. I guess I should mention, I'm still running Mach2, have yet to get Mach3 on line. I am using backlash comp. Don't know for certain on the exact stop setting but I think I am because the other mode skewed the lettering.

[Hood]

Oh ok been a long time since I used Mach2 so cant remember where the setting for CV and Exact stop were.  If your code has a G64 in it it is in CV mode, if its got a G61 then its ExactStop. If it doesnt have either then it will depend on your config setup in Mach2.
If you are in ExactStop then that could well add delays as the machine comes to a stop before it moves to the next line. Also Backlash may cause a delay, its supposed to be pretty good in Mach3 now but in Mach2 it was never  very good from what I understand. Never used it as my backlash wasnt much and also backlash didnt work very well with steppers in Mach2 if I remember correctly.


Hood

[rustyolddog]

I've been satisified with the backlash comp in Mach2, I tried Mach3 and there was some work around on the BC because it jerked when it comp'ed, it would break the points off the engraving cutters. I put it aside for when I had more time to mess with it. But I can say for relative certainty that I'm using exact stop because CV skewed small engraving, I guess the down side is the mometary delay when the Z axis retracts.

[Hood]

Yes ES will be your problem especially with steppers because of their slow acceleration compared to servos. Backlash in the latest Mach versions is supposedly excellent, don't use it because the backlash in my machines is minimal, mill has some on X and Y, think about 0.001"  but less than 0.0004 on the Z and the Lathe I can not even measure any with my 0.0001" dial

Hood