Machsupport Forum
Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: dandumit on January 28, 2007, 11:12:31 PM
-
Hi All,
I have installed Mach3 and I was trying to move my stepper motors (from HPLJ3) and drivers made with A3977 (like those from www.pminmo.com or CNCZone ).
I have configured and it seems to "work".
The problem is that motors are not spinning smoth (I don't know how to tell you because my english has only few words) sometimes are stucking for a very short time and after that they are continuing to spin normally and some other times are speeding up more than normally.
I have looked with an oscilloscope on parallel port and I have seen that the computer is giving the step signal in this way.
I have started Task Manager, I have ordered tasks after CPU time and I have seen that when steppers where stucking in the same time top 3-4 processes where changing between them. I have killed some processes wich I have seen that where consuming some processor. The situation has improved a little but not enough.
Could somebody tell me if this is normal and this is the way wich Mach3 normally works ? What I should try more ?
Regards,
Daniel
-
Try running in Sherline mode and tell me how that works for you...
(You get to the setting on the ports and pins page)
-
Hi Daniel,
Try tuning your motors down in motor tuning. For trouble shooting, try about 50% of what they are now. If that doesn't fix it, post your xml for us to look at. To attach them, go to the full reply page and you will see a button for advanced options, use that to attach the files by browsing to your Mach folder and selecting the .xml you are are talking about.
Try Brians first, he is fast and some would say good. ;D
Brett
-
Hi,
The problem is more complicated. I have borrowed another computer and this is an AMD Sempron at 1600 Mhz.
On this machine using Brian's, suggestion it is working well and I was able to achive a good speed.
By the way http://www.dioda.ro/images/articles/CNC_microstepping_schema.png the driver schematic has a kind of low pass filter at input and those short spikes could cause problems.
On my Laptop Pentium Mobile at 1725 Mhz isn't working well at all !
I have noticed that on Diagnostics screen on Sempron the Pulse Frequency indicator stay's almost still at 25********* (only the last digit is changing).
On laptop - Pentium M, the Pulse Frequency has big variations from 50000 to 80000.
Please help me to fix it !
Mach3 doesn't work on Pentim M ?
Regards,
Daniel
-
Daniel
This is going to be a pain in the butt to TRY to make that work... the problem is that your laptop is changing the voltage to your processor and changing the speed of the processor! We CAN"T fix Mach 3 until you get that to stop! After you do that (I wish you good luck) it "should" work...
-
Meanwhile I have installed on my laptop 3 software's wich are pretending that controlls the CPU behaviuor.
One is : sswitchxp - has limited features and didn't help.
The second : Notebook Hardware Control - has more features and it pretends that it is able to fix the multiplier and the cpu voltage.
Using this in DriverTest I have achieved "better" fluctuations for Pulse/Second (btw 21000 and 36000 - more near 22000) but with huge timer variations.
I have tryed also RMClock. this is giving some nice graph about procesor load and os load but doesn't help at all.
I have tryed also diferent power schemes without any success.
If those software's are right then this issue hasn't to do with speed and voltage multiplier an it is related how processor is executing tasks and especially interrupts.
Please advise others pasionates to be aware that Mach doesn't work on newer laptops and they should make some tests before anything else.
I have lost too many hours for this and I could tell you that for Dell lattidude D610 it cannot work.
Do you have any hardware controller outside of computer that can handle communication with steppers ?
Regards,
Daniel
-
Finally (after 2 give-up's) I made IT !!! It promise to work on laptop too !!!!
Look - this is without tunning :
And with tweaking.
It seems that Mach3 it can be used on laptops with special functions like SpeedStep (in my case Intel Centrino).
In few hours I'll try it with motors too and I'll let you know !
Regards,
Daniel
-
Last evening I have made tests with motors connected and they run very smooth.
Shortly I'll make an short tutorial about how to make Mach3 work on laptops.
-
Daniel,
This is great news for those like myself who have a laptop
that is too unstable for Mach3, I am anxious to read your tutorial!
Thanks,
Glenn :)
-
Below it is an word with explanatory print screens . I hope that many people will benefit from this.
For me is working on a Intel Centrino Dell D610.
If you have questions please ask and I'll try to answer as soon as possible.
It is possible that on different machines to be necessary other configurations but we'll find a solution for shure.
If you have made this customisations and is working for you please tell us on what machine did work.
Regards,
Daniel
-
Thank you for sharing that with us Daniel.
Brett
-
Thanks for the tip! Works for my Dell 610 well enough for testing (until I get a PC built for the control).
-
I'm glad that my effort has been usefull to somewone.
I would be intrested if someone else has made tests on other machines.
Daniel
-
I had this same problem on a Dell Inspiron 8200 2ghz. I followed your directions and it now works like a champ. Thanks!