Messages

4761

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: Which controller and drivers should I use?

« on: April 20, 2018, 03:41:30 AM »

Hi rcsf,
how did you get on?

Have you made any progress?

Craig

4762

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: mcCntrlGcodeExecuteWait fail

« on: April 20, 2018, 03:28:35 AM »

Hi,
could it be that Machs instruction buffer has filled up?

You could try changing the number of 'look ahead lines' in Machs Gen Setup page to 50 say and see whether extra lines from your file are read and executed.

Craig

4763

General Mach Discussion / Re: Which computer / operating system is best with Mach3

« on: April 20, 2018, 12:21:09 AM »

Hi,
an external motion controller, a good one, like an Ethernet SmoothStepper or a UC300 are in the
region $180-$200 then you can use just about any PC you like.

Check out this little sucker...$209 for Windows 10, 64bit, 4G RAM, 64G Flash and a built in Arduino and about
4 inches square!

https://www.dfrobot.com/product-1585.html

Craig

4764

General Mach Discussion / Re: Which computer / operating system is best with Mach3

« on: April 19, 2018, 06:13:43 PM »

Hi,
if you wish to continue to use a parallel port then you have to use Windows7 32 bit or earlier.
You can still get mother boards with a parallel port ans you can also fit a PCI or PCIe card.

If you wish to use a laptop or any 64 bit Windows OS then you have to use an external motion
controller like a SmoothStepper or a UC100. There are no 'adapters' which work, they have to be
proper external motion controllers.m The Chinese make swags of cheap ones if you want to take the risk.

Mach is a Windows application, Linux wont work.

https://www.mini-itx.com/store/~D2550HN

Craig

4765

General Mach Discussion / Re: Issues on referencing my Y axis

« on: April 19, 2018, 02:14:26 PM »

Hi,
did you ever get electronic gearing sorted and get the controller to pulse fast enough?

http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,36731.0.html

Craig

4766

HiCON Motion Controller / Re: HiCON 7766 Linear Encoder vs. Easy Servo (Leadshine)

« on: April 19, 2018, 03:48:53 AM »

Hi,
these are from Leadshines website.

There is a two phase open loop stepper 496oz.in.
A two phase closed loop stepper of the same size 496oz,in
A 400W servo.

Notice the two steppers start with the same high torque but lose it as they get faster. At 1500 rpm the closed loop stepper is about 1.2Nm and the open loop a little
less, maybe 1-1.1 Nm. So the open and closed loop steppers have very similar characteristics. Beyond 1000-1500 rpm they have lost that much torque that it is likely they
will stall. The closed loop stepper will try with additional steps in the pulse stream try to keep up but if the load is too great it cant do it.

The servo, a 400w unit from leadshine has about the same torque as the steppers at 1500 rpm, 1.27Nm to be precise, but maintain that torque right up to its rated speed
at 3000 rpm. Note how both the steppers outperform the servo at low speeds but the servo is way better when going fast.

While servos are good for the power output they are quite expensive, if you really have to go fast then you just have to pay. The steppers on the other hand are pretty good value.

Even with microstepping open loop steppers seldom achieve resolution of better than 400 steps per rev whereas the torque vectoring of the closed loop stepper allows much better,
maybe 2000 steps per rev, a definite win.

I found on EBay the open loop stepper for $70 and a AM882 driver for $80 or $150 for the open loop solution.
On Ebay the closed loop stepper and driver were $247, about $100 more than the open loop set.

Is there enough advantages in the closed loop set to be worth the extra?

Craig

4767

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: mach 4 plasma

« on: April 18, 2018, 03:09:42 AM »

Hi,
kool, nice features. Some of the Plasma drafting software I've seen on customers machines is very similar.

Having said that there is nothing in it that is strictly necessary and you could use Mach4 to run a plasma CNC right now in its absence.

Craig

4768

Mach3 under Vista / Re: Application Watchdog Triggered Error

« on: April 18, 2018, 12:21:56 AM »

Hi,
try opening Mach3 as normal and have a look at the check box for the Watchdog Timer. Is it checked?
Did you leave it like that last time or has it ignored your previous setting.

I suspect that either Mach is not recording the change in your profile or when you fire up Mach its selecting a different
profile to that you intended.

Craig

4769

General Mach Discussion / Re: DRO for axis target value?

« on: April 17, 2018, 08:54:22 PM »

Hi,
I suspect the reason is that Mach cues up moves in advance. You may recall seeing a setting called
'look ahead'. That will determine the number of moves that are cued up and ready to go.

If you think that you can set it to one the think again. Mach runs in small busrts when Windows decides it
time for the 'Mach application' to get some CPU service. If you have no cue then the motion controller runs out of
data and the machine stalls BEFORE Mach can replenish the data. When Windows is described as 'not a realtime
system' this is what it means...Mach does not get continuous CPU service. That Mach and associated motion controller
work as well as they do was, at the time, considered a major achievment by the computing community... make a realtime
motion controller out of a Windows PC....no not possible!. We're glad Art Fennerty thougt otherwise.

Craig

4770

Mach3 under Vista / Re: Application Watchdog Triggered Error

« on: April 17, 2018, 07:27:43 PM »

Hi,
as ger21 says, turn the  watchdog timer off on the Gen Config page.

Craig