Machsupport Forum
Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: FriendOfGhost on February 19, 2011, 05:55:40 PM
-
Dear friends,
I'm trying mach3 in my computer. Its fine. Today I changed my computer to compaq-hp nx 8220. installed fresh xpsp3. I installed mach3. I noticed that I cannot "ZERO" x,y,z axises. I cannot jog with keyboard and even with mouse (after I open jog panel with TAB key). keyboard works fine. Same problem happend if I use external keyboard. Funny thing is, If I use ZERO buttons with mouse BEFORE hitting arrow keys or TAB key (to open jog panel) I can zero x,y and z axises. No step motors nor drivers attced at this time. I compared all parameters, including hotkey setups with working computer. nothing is different. Also I noticed that in diagnostics screen, timer is not counting. on the working computer it continuiously counts some numbers. It appears that for some reason timer engine is not working. but there's no error messahes, warning messages on the screen. I tried different cpu speeds, but failed. this laptop have an ltp1 port to use with dock staton. I disabled it, changed lpt modes from bios (epp, ecp, birectional) but failed.
I installed different versions of mach 3 but owrking version on my orher computer is 3.42.20. I uninstalled driver and installed again, used driver.bat and special driver.bat files, reformatted computer, re-installed mach3 and even copied the mach3 folder from working machine to new one. still no results. I could understand if it could not run steppers and driver board but not able to jog with up/down keys and not-counting-timer in diagnostics screen is stange.
Also on drivertest.exe pulses for second textbox shows zero.
any suggestions ?
-
Have a look in device manager and see if the driver is loaded.
On Diagnostics page is there anything in the frequency DRO? If it says external then go to System Config menu and Reset Device Select then restart Mach and choose the parallel Port option.
One other thing t mention is you may not get very far with a laptop, they are not officially supported unless an external controller is used as the power saving options often play havoc with the pulsing.
Hood
-
You are using a laptop computer. The newer models that still have parallel ports on them are notorious for having low power drive and auto power save. This combination makes for lousy CNC operation. Your best bet is to go back to a desktop unit with a real parallel port. As far as I know, a USB to parallel printer adapter will not work either.
With this said, I have a 8 year old laptop that runs the CNC through the parallel port just fine. So you might look for an oldie good used laptop
Good luck,
Bill
-
all devices are loaded in device manager. In XP and now I'm trying windows7. same problem continues.
in dagnostics page in the middle, "Time in int" should change all the time but it's ZeRO. and at the right side, pulse frequency is also zero. I could not see anything like "frequency DRO" in the diagnostics page but I beleive you pointed "time in int" value.
In config menu I could not find any "reset device select option" can tou explain that please.
actually machine is not bad. I used dual core cpu, 2ghz with 2ggis ram before. then I switched that laptop witn IBM netvista which is almost 7 years old computer and works fine. not that new laptop made me crazy. there's a problem with mach3's internal sore engine. its not working...
thanks.
-
@hood: I found reset device. its under function cfg. it said I'll be asked on next startup what device to use (if plugins are available) but I beleive I dont have plugins because it didnt asked anything and problem continues... I dont know which plugin it talks about.
I wonder what can be the reason that timer doesnt work. because on my other notebook, event lpt port does not exist but I can jog with keyboard up/dows keys.
-
I uninstalled mach3, uninstalled AND DELETED mach3d driver from device manager an installed mach R1.84.0000 downloaded from ftp site.
it is working fine.
-
When I install mach3 R3รง043.028 (latest) without paralel port driver , Pulse Frequensy is "simulate" and jogging is working fine. So it is mac3 paralel port driver.... interesting because this situation happens on computer with NO PARALLEL PORT. strange...
-
Can you attach your xml please.
Hood
-
here it is. but I dont use any special configuration. To understand the source of problem, I just install mach3 and use its default config. after installing mach3 I imeediatelly go to diag screen and check clock pulses. then I hit arrow keys to check if jogging is working.
strange thing is, until you predd jog keys, you can ZERO the axis values with zero buttons, by clicking with MOUSE. after you hit any key, you cannot hit them with MOUSE, buttons dont work.
-
For some reason the Mach driver is not being seen on the computer if you are not getting a pulse frequency or time in int value, why I dont know as you are saying the Mach driver is in device manager, so it should work.
Hood
-
my friend,
What I am saying is, when I fully load mach3 with its driver, nothing goes wrong on device manager. Every driver is loaded. But in this case, keyboard jog does not work, frequency is ZERO. When I uninstall everything(I also tried to re-install windows) and then install mach3 WITHOUT driver, jog is working but of course frequency says "SIMULATE".
What I'm interested is, laptop hardware maybe cannot run with mach3, okay. in this case pulses must be delayed and steppers cannot follow the mach3. but even in this case frequency must be run and keyboard arrow keys, jog should work. Loading driver stops the timer. Even if there's no physical parallel port exists on computer. that makes me crazy. because this means laptops and/or lpt ports can always cause problems without any error message. You cannot select a specific computer to run mach3. problems can raise EVEN system DOES NOT HAVE parallel port and you cannot know until you bought computer, bring home and install mach3.
I believe the design of mach3 driver causes it. And there's no solution. this laptop has parallel port. so it should work. OR should miss steps. But should NEVER stops its timer.
-
I know that because it is a laptop is not the problem. I dont know what the problem is other than the driver is not working properly on that computer, why I have no idea. Usually when this happens then the special driver works but you have said it doesnt.
I have no answers for you I am afraid, maybe ask Mach support but I suspect they will tell you to get a desktop computer.
Hood
-
You probably have this working now, but I had a similar problem with my Mach 3 program. Everything would work, except the timer would randomly stop or reset.
I found that the problem was with the Network Adapter. All of my problems went away if I DISABLED the network adapter using the XP Device Manager. So, I only activate the network adapter when I need to update my system ... otherwise it stays deactivated.
-
actually no, I could not make it run. first thing tomorrow, I'll try this. thanks....