Messages

1391

General Mach Discussion / Re: Some starting advice for two steppers on one axis

« on: February 26, 2016, 06:31:11 PM »

Yes

1392

General Mach Discussion / Re: Some starting advice for two steppers on one axis

« on: February 26, 2016, 06:20:25 PM »

If you use a 32 bit version of Windows 7 or older, you can use a PCI parallel port card.
If using a more modern or 64 bit OS, you can use a motion controller that offers multiple ports, like an ESS or UC300.

1393

General Mach Discussion / Re: Some starting advice for two steppers on one axis

« on: February 26, 2016, 05:57:58 PM »

Add a second parallel port.

1394

General Mach Discussion / Re: Can other software be causing Mach3 cutting 'lag' issues?

« on: February 26, 2016, 04:42:56 PM »

With a clean install of XP, you shouldn't need to do any "optimization".
The one exception is ACPI or Standard, which is ideally done in the bios before installing windows.

1395

General Mach Discussion / Re: Master Axis and Slave Axis out of sync

« on: February 26, 2016, 04:30:10 PM »

I would guess that it's very unlikely that this is a Mach3 issue. Sounds electrical or mechanical to me.

Are all couplers/setscrews tight?

1396

General Mach Discussion / Re: Master Axis and Slave Axis out of sync

« on: February 26, 2016, 03:39:14 PM »

Does one side start moving before the other?
Can you explain in more detail exactly what happens?

Go to the Motor tuning and make sure the steps/unit are the same for both the master and slave axis, and make sure the homing speed is the same for both master and slave in Config > Homing/Limits.

1397

General Mach Discussion / Re: Can other software be causing Mach3 cutting 'lag' issues?

« on: February 26, 2016, 03:05:48 PM »

If you have a marginally powered PC, the large toolpath in the 2010 screenset can cause some lag if you have a large g-code file loaded (200,000+ lines of code).

But yes, many programs running along with Mach3 can interfere with it's operation.

On older PC, a clean installation of XP with SP3, and nothing else, should run Mach3 just fine on even 10 year old PC's.

I have my control PC on my home network for transferring files, but have never opened a browser or email program on it, and don't install anything that checks for updates on it's own. Be sure to turn off automatic uodates in Windows, as you don't need any of them.

1398

General Mach Discussion / Re: Softlimits issue

« on: February 26, 2016, 02:04:57 PM »

The macros have nothing to do with softlimits, and won't change how softlimits function.

1399

General Mach Discussion / Re: Softlimits issue

« on: February 26, 2016, 01:48:47 PM »

A screenset typically has no effect on Mach3's operation. It's just different colored buttons and backgrounds, arranged a bit differently.

1400

General Mach Discussion / Re: change from demo to license

« on: February 25, 2016, 11:39:17 AM »

Yes, you copied it to the Start Menu. Open explorer, and copy it to C:\Mach3\