Machsupport Forum
Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: caladin on January 05, 2009, 08:58:28 PM
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Hi,
First up, I'm a total CNC Noob, so don't be afraid to ask id-10-t questions, I'm moderately pc competent as a windows programmer.
Here is my issue.
I was following the "download install and setup" video on the artsoft site.
I got as far as the driverTest.exe step (not very far alas)
First time I ran it, i got a line with a single big jag, and then the box hung.
I wasn't sure if you were supposed to use special driver for any crashes or just blue screens, but I went ahead and tried it.
Now everything on driver test seems to work, it starts give preparation successful, says system under mach3 control, then sits, eventually i get a popup saying the test was successful ("Mach 1 test complete."), but I never see any line whatsoever, not at all.
I can only assume this is a bad thing. Is it?
I've been testing the system with a vb app written by the guy I bought the controller board and the steppers from(stepperworld.com) and it
works pretty well (except for some momentary binding of the drive screws that I assume must be because I'm using all thread from HD, which isn't perfectly smooth?)
Any help is appreciated greatly.
I followed the rest of the tutorial and everything seems to work, but no motion when i hit the jog buttons and no movement on the axis position window at the center top of mach 3 when i try to run gcode (which is not surprising)
Thanks,
Eric-
P.S. I wonder if the hang was my box not the software (it's a little flakey, but it's what i have), is there an way to "un" special driver? I don't need a bat just instructions.
P.P.S. Nope, I read the bat file, undid the changes and it hung again, after 2 refreshes. so the original driver does seem to crash my box. Going to re-special driver again
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Eric,
Welcome to the mach forum! lots of good help here; but until they arrive, let me ask you a few
questions about your system. ;D
No motion when you jog?.. go to top of mach screen click "config", click"ports and pins",
click "motor outputs" put a green check mark under enable beside x, y, z, and see if you can jog.
Also, under "ports and pins" check that"port 1" is enabled.
Let's go from there to see if your axis position changes. If not we'll try something else.
Good luck!
Glenn
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Never had your problem with the driver screen. Did you reboot the PC after installing MACH?
RICH
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Hi, Eric
Some systems need the Spc. driver, Describe your Comp. a little, Win XP or 2000, CPU speed, Mem........
In Mach3, Ports & Pins, Device Mgr, your Printer port address should match the one you see in Device Mgr, P/Port Address.
You may need to set it in Mach3, If there are 2 or non-std address.
Chip
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Thanks for the help!
Addressing questions as i go through them,
1. Yes I rebooted after installing Mach 3. and twice since then (when it hung my machine running Drivertest.exe)
2. X,Y,Z are enabled on the config->ports and pins-> Motor output screen, pins are setup matching docs from card manufacturer (he even sent me a pic of his mach 3 screen so i could double check)
3. Port 1 is enabled, and set to ox378, the same setting as my printer driver, and the same setting as the test harness which does move the steppers
4. System is an xp box, amd xp 1500+ 512mb ram, Dx 9.0c, Nvida GeForce 4 ti 4200 graphics, gobs of HD space, fairly recently Reimaged from scratch, basically it was used for my son to play WOW, and surf the web before being re-tasked to Mach 3. it's always been a little flakey, hanging once a day or so when in hard use, built it myself (last time I did that I spent month dickering with it and it never did work 100% right, sigh built 3-4 machines before that that worked great.)
5. Per pic I checked to see that Mach 3 driver is installed and shows to be working correctly. Ports are still 378, only shows on iop range not two like inyour pic, and does not show any other lines other than the io range 0378-037f
Still no Jogging on the jog screen for via arrow keys, drivertest.exe still shows no lines at all
Pulse per secs in 25khz mode window blank, cpu speed 1363, apc timing constant blank... sits like that.. then I get "mach1 test complete"
Thanks,
Eric-
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Caladin
have you upgraded your motherboard bios.you might need to check on that.and also check your bios settings for your printer port so it is set for a dual function if you can.
you said your computer was a little flaky in the past. so you might need to do this before you mess with mach3.
bill
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Might want to try to redownload Mach and reinstall just in case you got a bad download. Stranger things have happened. You should back up your xml to a thumb drive or something external before you do though.
As Bill said, check to drivers for the MOBO and if the Parallel port is an add on, check the drivers for it as well.
Good advise Bill.
Brett
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Hi, Eric
Try uninstalling the mach3 driver, see pic, Then reinstall the special driver if it's the one that's at least not causing things to lockup, Then run the Driver Test again.
Pic 2, Diagnostic Screen, Your not seeing a Pulse Frequency or Time in Int. Values ether ?
Are you sure the Printer port works with a printer ?
Chip
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Brett
How far is your shop from myrtle beach,I might stop by and visit one day.
bill
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Bill, I'm about 2.5 hours from Myrtle Beach. About 60 miles south of Charlotte NC
Brett
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Bill, I'm about 2.5 hours from Myrtle Beach. About 60 miles south of Charlotte NC
Brett
Bill you just got a lucky escape, would be hell to know Brett lived closer to you ;D
Hood
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Ah......... I see the great one of Scrotish lineage has spoken. Lucky for Bill your on the other side of the pond. ;D
Brett
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Hood
If Brett was a little closer i could make the trip on one bail of hay and the small buggy.now it looks like to make the visit it will take the lumber wagon,two mules and four bails.
just can't cut corners anymore like the old days.
bill
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(http://forums.pcper.com/images/smilies/extras/yllol.gif)
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I have not printed on the machine recently, but the test harness I was using to build and align the
cnc router was communicating with the board just fine over the parallel port. I get movement on all 3 axis both + and -
With it on port 378 I get movement just fine. It's mach 3 that's not doing anything.
I reinstalled the special driver and that's the one that 's got no line and nothing on the two
controls I mentioned earlier.
I looks like Mach 3 was developed with Visual studio c++ and MFC, i guess i could load up the ide/debugger on that machine if
that would help and i could get a debug version... We'd at least get to look at the exceptions and such.
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Hi, Eric
I guess I'm missing something hear.
What software/program were you using to test the cable/router where you "get movement on all 3 axis both + and -". ?
Can you give me a screen shot of your Diagnostics & Motor Output's page's ?.
If you live in USA or CA, Send a PM message by click on my user name, I'll give you a call.
Chip
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I downloaded a new version of mach three it looks like the installer I had on the
cd from the manufacturer of my board was a mach 3 r1, so I've got mach 3 r3 series running now (the latest)
that that was probably part of my problems right there.
Will my r1 xml file work with r3 or do I need to set it up again?
Under the new install:
I've run driver test.exe 4 times, 2 system hangs, 2 successful test, but with a few seconds of amazing wave forms followed by
_terrible_ wave forms. Like walls of black... bad.
Can anyone point me to the optimization.text they spoke of on the tutorial video? Aparently I've got some ugly processes running
As to my test harness app, the guy who sold me the board included a VB app he wrote that
communicates to the Board over the parallel port and it's working fine. I get full movement on all 3 axis
with it on the same port ox378
I guess I'll try the special driver on this install too.
I tried to PM you, but i don't have icq and that's the only way i saw to pm you. I'm on windows messenger as caladin <at> io <dot> com, if that's any help
Thanks,
Eric-
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Hi, Eric
Nice talking with you, Now with a little tweaking, Your on the way, The finish line is just around the corner.
Have Fun, Chip
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Thanks for the Help Chip, it's whirring and making noise now, that's a huge step forward!
One more quick question, whats the best way to figure out how big the roadrunner gcode is supposed to be,
I thought i did the math correctly, 200 steps/ rotation, 20 tpi all thread, = 4000 steps per inch,
but the road runner was coming out _really_ tiny.... I figured out that the units were in MM not inches, and switched it
and now I'm guessing the roadrunner would be about an inch or 2 big if i set the z zero point where it actually would cut.
Is that about right?
Thanks,
Eric-
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Hi, Eric
Finding size, Look a the ToolPath screen top right corner will show Program Limit's in "Units", Depending on how your machine is set up will determine how the file is treated.
On this Roadrunner G-code file, Being there is no G20 "inch" or G21 "mm" code in the file, It will be cut in your default Native Units "Inch" mode.
If you want to cut it in mm you will need to MDI a G21 or Edit in a G21 in the top of the G-code file in your case.
Edit:Added, If you put a G21 in the G-code file then at the bottom of the code just before the M30 end, You need to put in a G20 to return back to your default "Inch"
unit's, MDI a G20 to set inch mode back if you used it also, Systems using "mm" just reverse the G20 & G21 usage, There Pre Amble / Post Amble settings in the G-code.
Yes, You'll need to use the Scale feature, Setting it to 0.7 to make it fit, I think is about right. see pic's.
To scale it click on the x and Y axis (scale) 1.0 digit's and you can enter a scale value of 0.7 then "Enter".
Hope this Helps, Chip