Machsupport Forum

Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: Bfive on November 08, 2009, 02:11:30 AM

Title: Z-axis motor tuning problem - resets to 0 automatically (Smoothstepper)
Post by: Bfive on November 08, 2009, 02:11:30 AM

Hi,

I have a new installation of Mach3 (lastest version R3.042.031) and my Motor Tuning for Z-axis resets to 0 as soon as I touch the slider bar or input a number. The X and Y axes work fine but the Z axis starts at the default value of 120 mm/min Velocity and 4 mm/sec^2 Acceleration, then as soon as I touch the slider the blue line on the graph disappears and no matter what I do - input a value or adjust the sliders - the blue line never returns to the graph and the Velocity and Acceleration values stay at 0. Any idea what's wrong? As it is I can't tune the Z-axis.

Thanks!!

Edit: Problem occurs only with Smoothstepper, not with Printer Driver.

Title: Re: Z-axis motor tuning problem - resets to 0 automatically
Post by: Hood on November 08, 2009, 02:57:19 AM

Can you attach your xml please.
Hood

Title: Re: Z-axis motor tuning problem - resets to 0 automatically
Post by: Bfive on November 08, 2009, 02:55:08 PM

Also, I'm using Smoothstepper.

I've attached my XML file.

Thanks!

Title: Re: Z-axis motor tuning problem - resets to 0 automatically
Post by: Bfive on November 08, 2009, 03:02:49 PM

Another thing I discovered: When I run Mach3 under Normal Printer Port Operation, the Z-axis motor tuning works fine. However when I run it with the Smoothstepper driver (beta2_v015ogx) the problem appears.

Title: Re: Z-axis motor tuning problem - resets to 0 automatically
Post by: Hood on November 08, 2009, 05:23:52 PM

Afraid all I can see is that something is screwed in the xml, as you don't have much set up (only motors so far) then I think you would be best just making another profile.
Hood

Title: Re: Z-axis motor tuning problem - resets to 0 automatically
Post by: Bfive on November 08, 2009, 07:55:18 PM

Hood,

Thanks for your help. I've tried making new XML files, still getting the same problem. It's weird.

Title: Re: Z-axis motor tuning problem - resets to 0 automatically (Smoothstepper)
Post by: Hood on November 09, 2009, 02:17:20 AM

That is strange indeed. I loaded your xml and had the problem, looked but couldn't find the issue so decided I would just make a new xml with the settings you had and it was fine.
 Maybe a reinstall of Mach is needed for you.
 Also if you have more than one SmoothStepper plugin loaded it might be an idea to delete them as occasionally people have had problems when more than one plugin has been present.
Hood

Title: Re: Z-axis motor tuning problem - resets to 0 automatically (Smoothstepper)
Post by: Bfive on November 10, 2009, 04:18:02 AM

Hood, thanks for the suggestion to reinstall Mach. I uninstalled, deleted any leftover files in C:\Mach3\ and reinstalled. Along with the newest Mach and driver versions, the problem seems to have gone away. Now I can focus on actually getting the Smoothstepper to work... it doesn't do anything with the same exact XML that works perfectly with the printer port. Not sure where to go from here... I'll post in the Smoothstepper forum.

Thanks again

Title: Re: Z-axis motor tuning problem - resets to 0 automatically (Smoothstepper)
Post by: Hood on November 10, 2009, 04:22:22 AM

Have you chosen to use the SmoothStepper rather than the printer port?
Also there is a newer version of Mach and the SS plugin, Art had made changes to the threading part of Mach and that screwed up a few things in the rest of Mach and also interfered with the SmoothStepper plugin.
Hood

Title: Re: Z-axis motor tuning problem - resets to 0 automatically (Smoothstepper)
Post by: Bfive on November 10, 2009, 04:35:21 AM

Hood,
Yes I selected the Smoothstepper plug-in on start up of Mach3.

Do you know which versions are compatible? I'm using Mach3 R3.042.032 (released Nov9), smoothstepper USBDriver2.04.16.zip and Plug-in Beta2_v015ogx2.m3p (released Nov7). The problem I'm having now is two of my drives do not enable, the third one enables but does not move. I didn't change anything to the working XML.

Thanks

Title: Re: Z-axis motor tuning problem - resets to 0 automatically (Smoothstepper)
Post by: Hood on November 10, 2009, 05:53:08 AM

Those are the latest versions and should work together.
 Not sure where your problem lies but if you attach both your SS xml and PP xml I will see if I can find a problem there.
Hood

Title: Re: Z-axis motor tuning problem - resets to 0 automatically (Smoothstepper)
Post by: Bfive on November 10, 2009, 11:55:58 AM

I've attached both. Thanks!

Title: Re: Z-axis motor tuning problem - resets to 0 automatically (Smoothstepper)
Post by: Hood on November 10, 2009, 03:07:15 PM

You have the E-Stop set to Pin 0 in the SS xml, not sure if that would be an issue or not as it will depend how you have things set up.
Another thing to check is that you have chosen to use Pin2-9 as inputs in the SS config page. and make sure you have the cables plugged into the correct ports on the SS.
 Do you see the red LED flashing away on the SS?

Hood

Title: Re: Z-axis motor tuning problem - resets to 0 automatically (Smoothstepper)
Post by: Bfive on November 10, 2009, 10:43:00 PM

My E-stop is setup as a hotkey. I've tried changing the E-stop pin but it doesn't seem to help. I changed Pin2-9 to output but that doesn't seem to help either. My cables are plugged into Port1 on the smoothstepper, step ports and enable ports are set to Port1 in Mach3... that's correct right?

The LED flashes when Mach3 is running with SS plug-in.

Title: Re: Z-axis motor tuning problem - resets to 0 automatically (Smoothstepper)
Post by: Hood on November 11, 2009, 03:04:01 AM

Sounds like its set up right and that the SS is communicating with Mach.
 Just double check that you have the cable plugged in the right way round as it is possible to put it in wrong if there is no key on the ribbons plug.
Other than that I dont know what to suggest, maybe have a look in the SS Diagnostics and see if there is anything flagged that shouldnt be.

Hood