Machsupport Forum
Third party software and hardware support forums. => SmoothStepper USB => Topic started by: Chris.Botha on August 07, 2009, 03:57:05 AM
-
I still have the issue where clicking the toolpath window on will kill my job, stall my mototrs and generally cause pandemonium around my machine. i use 5 - 15mb files with heaps of path so Mach pulsing and drawing the path is not happening for me.
If i invest in a SmoothStepper will this take the load of the processor enough for me to run with toopath display on?
My mill pc is a dell gx620. 3.2ghz HT with 1gb drr800, XP Pro minimal install.
-
I am not sure if it will help as it is likely to be due to your graphics card rather than CPU, Dell often are not that great in that area (if integrated). Turning off the Toolpath will more than likely help but obviously you wont see anything in the toolpath window.
If it is an integrated card have a look in the BIOS and see if you can increase the shared memory allocated to the card.
Hood
-
its a pcie nv8200 with 512mb of ram. I think ii covered this in another thread. Most jewellers seem to have the same issue because of the density of our paths and the fact that they get rotated. I don't recall whom, but someone said that it was a known issue and would be addressed in the next revision of mach. This happens on rotary toolpaths mostly but will happen on indexed work if they happen to be rotated by the 4th axis and toolpath display is on as well. I setup customers mill on a quadcore 3ghz with 4gb of ram and a nvida 9800gtx 768mb of ram. same issues. definately not a hardware problem.
I want to use video probing to but i dare not try use it along with toolpath display on this setup. will stall me for sure. was kinda hoping that by taking the load of the cpu with smoothstepper i could broaden my usage. So im back to asking if the smooth stepper will reduce cpu load, or do i hang around for the next revision rather than investing in new hardware?
Ken, you bought a smooth stepper dude.. speak up.!
:)
-
Ok then it is due to the way Mach does the toolpath and as you suspect it should be sorted in the next revision of Mach, graphics have been seperated and improved drastically. In the testing I have done with Rev4 it is certainly much more friendly to graphics.
As said above however it is unlikely that the SmoothStepper will help you in this situation.
Hood
-
If you want to attach some code I can open it with Rev4 and see if its better.
Hood
-
ok gimme ten. supper time :)
-
ok here you go.
this is the hawks job i posted a while bback. this one stalled my machine when A tried to turn because i was teaching my wife to use mach and she forgot to turn viewport off
-
Seems much better with Rev4, had a few issues trying to get the toolpath to view but went to a different version as I had forgotten I had a test version of the test version loaded ;D
This is with the SmoothStepper and I was able to rotate the toolpath as the machine was running, it sounded fine but cant say for definite as I did not measure and verify doesnt seem to work with the SS.
I tried again with version 027 of Mach and as soon as I clicked on the toolpath window the SmoothStepper crapped out and a restart was needed.
Cant test with the parallel port, dont have one .
Hood
-
i get same behaviour with parallel port. if toolpath is on when a rotation happens or if i turn it on while a cut is happening then everything goes pear shaped.
thanks for your help. will wait itll next revision is finalised then.
:)
-
Hey Chris,
I don't seem to have that problem since I installed the SS. I was having that issue before, so my best guess is that it did free something up?
Running an old Dell 2.8 ghz, 768mb RAM, and a vid card with only 128mb RAM.
Video window hasn't crashed on me yet either...Dunno what it did, but it definitely helped something since the install. I'll load your path and see what happens.
-
thanks dude, but i suspect we both already know the answer. how much was the smooth stepper and was it a pita to install?
-
It is very easy to install. You plug it in, point the Found New Hardware Wizard to SS driver file, install the SS Plug-in for Mach 3 and then tell Mach to use the SS as your motion control device. After that you will need to configure the SS for the proper update freq for each axis and the velocity update rate. Ports&Pins settings etc are all done in Mach 3.
I have a more detailed set of instructions that I send out with each SS I sell...
-
Sounds good, im waiting on Ken to fill me in a little more on it, i believe there are still a few software issues to be resolved? Im quite keen to get one if it significantly reduces system overhead as i want to hook up two webcams, one over X and one over A so I can tip2tip at the same time while i am jogging with mach. Currently I can have a single webcam on with a large path but if i roll A everything goes to hell in a handbasket and i hit the ceiling with my processor.
i suppose i could go for a quad or dual core system and somehow try force the camera routines onto a different core than mach but seems like it should be simpler if something helps take the load off mach. in much the same way a graphics card takes the load off graphics routines on the processor.
what does it cost by the way?
-
The SS itself is $155, you'll need the correct cables to fit your application too. If your replacing a parallel port you'll likely want the LPH26 to DB25 cable. Take a look here: http://soigeneris.com/Warp9.aspx
-
Sounds good, im waiting on Ken to fill me in a little more on it, i believe there are still a few software issues to be resolved? Im quite keen to get one if it significantly reduces system overhead as i want to hook up two webcams, one over X and one over A so I can tip2tip at the same time while i am jogging with mach. Currently I can have a single webcam on with a large path but if i roll A everything goes to hell in a handbasket and i hit the ceiling with my processor.
Only one real major PITA issue I am having with it is any G00 move will only go at 90mm/min, so I have to edit out those moves in my code and replace with G01. I talked to Leo a couple of weeks ago and he is not having this issue, so I suspect it is just related to my board somehow. Also cant use the home and probe button. Have to home each axis separately, then probe.
It probably wont gain you much in speed. I think my biggest speed increase was converting to the ball screws with a lower pitch.
-
Ken.. i suppose it might be asking a bit much but the ultimate test would be to hook your mill up to the parallel port, load a big path and cut air.. monitor processor usage then do the same while running it through the SS.
Not that i would ask you to do such a thing of course.... ;)
Did you require a cable conversion as mentioned above?
At 155 dollars i suppose im not loosing much giving it a shot... but im not keen to start editting my code because of the issues you getting :(
thanks for feedback.
Regards
Chris
-
Only one real major PITA issue I am having with it is any G00 move will only go at 90mm/min,
I have yet to hear of anyone else having this problem. I certainly have not seen it in any of the SmoothSteppers I have used/sold over the past year or so. The same code runs with no modifications with the LPT or SS. I have my shop machine set up run either LPT or SS. It is an old 1.5 gHz AMD machine so I should be able to see some difference in processor load.
-
I can't explain it either Jeff...Oddly, when I run through the PP, the machine will G00 at the speeds the motors are tuned to in Mach. The jogging hotkeys (arrow keys) work fine with the SS and jog at the tuned speeds...It's only when running the code in my toolpaths that this slow G0 happens.
Chris, I'll try to take some time next week to clock processor loads both ways. I ran a 7mb rotary file yesterday with no problems with the toolpath window open.
-
cool
thanks dude