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Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: SWATH on March 26, 2011, 12:56:08 AM

Title: Having a few issues with Mach
Post by: SWATH on March 26, 2011, 12:56:08 AM
Here are a few of them.  If you can help me solve any of these please help, I'm a little lost.


1. When jogging, the axes continue to move for anywhere up 3 sec or so after I release the key. A few days ago this was not happening the axes stopped on a dime as soon as I released the keyboard key. Also the DRO does not change while the axes are moving anymore, they only update after the axes stop moving which did not happen before.

2. Sometimes the axes stutter and freak out making all sorts of noise (and losing steps) when doing simple moves. I can jog around at 75IPM and it's smooth, then I do a G0 move (also at 75IPM) in the MDI and BWAAAGGGAGAGHHHAGH. I have a macro which sends the Z to a tool change position and it always does that even if it is an G1 F10.

3. Somehow something has changed where when I reference all home the X axis no longer does anything the light just flips to green without the table even moving. I didn't change anything to do that that I can tell.


I can post my .XMLs if that would help
Title: Re: Having a few issues with Mach
Post by: Hood on March 26, 2011, 04:16:13 AM
Yes please attach your xml but the first two problems sound like a few things, one is you have your acceleration way too slow or that you have the kernel set to one of the higher settings and it is bogging your computer down. The last problem sounds like you have disabled the X home switch in Ports and Pins, Inputs.
Hood
Title: Re: Having a few issues with Mach
Post by: SWATH on March 26, 2011, 11:14:59 PM
Well an odd thing is the supplied xml for the machine worked just fine when I first got it, then I started using it and all of a sudden I experienced these problems I guess about the time I started modifying my screenset.  So naturally I reverted back to the unmodified backup .xml but the problems are still there.  Attached is the unmodified backup (and is labeled with backup in the title) and the one I had been using (labeled default).
Title: Re: Having a few issues with Mach
Post by: SWATH on March 27, 2011, 01:46:46 AM
Here is a video of some of the problems:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfIdWuzBM5Y (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfIdWuzBM5Y)

BTW, I meant to say the Z axis homes fine and the Y axis homes fine but the X axis does not move.
Title: Re: Having a few issues with Mach
Post by: Hood on March 27, 2011, 03:38:00 AM
First thing I see is in the 2.0 1610L profile default 3.2 .xm you do not have the X axis home switch enabled, so that is why it is not homing.

Hood
Title: Re: Having a few issues with Mach
Post by: Hood on March 27, 2011, 04:58:54 AM
Ok for your jogging issue. You have the Jog mode set to Step and 1 inch movement so one press will move the axis 1 inch. Change it to Cont and you should be fine.
Its on the flyout screen that you can change it (Tab key)
Hood
Title: Re: Having a few issues with Mach
Post by: SWATH on March 27, 2011, 03:53:17 PM
Whoa that is weird, I've never messed with the X axis input signals I don't know how that got disabled but I check it later on the machine to see if it fixes that problems.

I didn't explain the jogging issue well enough.  I keep it on Step for small positioning moves but hold the shift key down when doing long continuous moves, it steps fine but the long continuous moves are what is lagging I try to mess with this later to make sure I'm not doing something wrong.
Title: Re: Having a few issues with Mach
Post by: Hood on March 27, 2011, 04:08:17 PM
You need to change it to continuous if you want to use it for jogging. If you want Fast or slow jogs then you can set a Slow Jog % and when in continuous mode it will jog at the % you set, if you press shift and a jog key it will move at full rapid. Step mode will only move a full step then stop no matter whether shift is chosen or not. Because you have 1 inch chosen as the step increment as soon as you press the jog key the axis will move one inch and wont stop unit its moved that distance.
Hood
Title: Re: Having a few issues with Mach
Post by: Hood on March 27, 2011, 04:12:34 PM
Actually I have just learned something new, having it in step mode and pressing the shift key does in fact override the Step mode so I stand corrected. Possibly your Shift key is not working?
Hood
Title: Re: Having a few issues with Mach
Post by: Hood on March 27, 2011, 04:21:49 PM
Can I ask, are you by chance using the arrow keys on your keyboards numeric pad?
Hood
Title: Re: Having a few issues with Mach
Post by: SWATH on March 27, 2011, 07:07:47 PM
Yeah I really only need two ranges, fast and continuous, and small steps so I just keep in in step and use shift to override it into continuous which works well for me.  I wish there was a way to get rid of the 1.000 step, I never use that one and am always paranoid that I'll accidentally have it set there and break my probe with a large move. The arrow keys I'm using are not in the num pad, in fact my keyboard doesn't even have a num pad.  I'm not convinced it is a hardware problem yet because it worked perfectly a week ago.  I'm going to change the batteries on my keyboard and see if that helps (although it seems to work fine in all other applications).
Title: Re: Having a few issues with Mach
Post by: SWATH on March 27, 2011, 10:54:03 PM
Ok that fixed one problem, the X axis homing.  Somehow the x axis homing got disabled, easy fix. 


The stuttering is still there but it is very weird.

I can jog the axes at 100IPM without any stutter, it is very smooth (albeit unpredictable when it will stop).  However if I enter a location in the MDI it stutters like crazy on anything above 20IPM (25 gets a little stutter every couple of seconds, 30 it constantly stutters).  I also notice that sometimes in the commotion of the stutter you can see the axis very briefly reverse direction while it is trying to move to the location like the motor is fighting against itself between trying to go forward and backwards.

The issue with the lagging jog is still there and disconcerting, I almost broke my probe and crashed it a couple of time because it just kept going, I had to hit the E-stop a few times.  The DRO still only update during a jog every few seconds.
Title: Re: Having a few issues with Mach
Post by: Hood on March 28, 2011, 03:53:33 AM
Press Ctrl Alt Del and look at the performance tab when you are running Mach, is your CPU load high?
If that is not the case then it sounds like you may have issues with noise (electrical interference) or your wiring is loose.
You can change the jog step, on the flyout screen you can select 1, 0.1, 0.01, 0.001 etc just by toggleing the button.
Hood
Title: Re: Having a few issues with Mach
Post by: SWATH on March 28, 2011, 08:51:10 AM
I looked at the CPU load before and I was surprised at how high it was when running Mach.  Without Mach running it was low, around 1-5%, with mach running it bumped up and stayed around 40-50%.  This is on a 1.8Ghz machine with pretty much nothing else on it.  That seems kind of high because when I run Mach on my laptop it hovers around only 3-9% on a 2.6Ghz CPU, that can't be normal can it?
Title: Re: Having a few issues with Mach
Post by: Hood on March 28, 2011, 10:02:48 AM
Yes, that does seem high and definitely if it is with Mach just sitting idle.
Hood
Title: Re: Having a few issues with Mach
Post by: SWATH on March 29, 2011, 01:12:56 AM
I've confirmed the issues are either with Mach or with my xmls.  Something with my xmls are hogging the CPU.  Here is a synopsis:

Here is an update, I've done some diagnostics and discovered some interesting behavior.  I uninstalled Mach completely, deleted the C/mach folder, uninstalled the parallel driver and even deleted all instances of mach in the registry.  I then reinstalled Mach, the problems were still there and I was monitoring the CPU usage.  When either the default xml or the unaltered backup xml was used the CPU usage hovered around 60% when sitting idle.  If I tried to jog it at 100IPM it would spike and flatline at 100%, jogging at 20IPM was smooth and the CPU usage hit a high of about 80-90%, jogging at 30IPM was stuttery and the CPUs went up to around 100%.  When I started mach with just the mach mill default profile the CPU usage dropped significantly and hovered around 10%.  Indicating something about my xmls are hogging all the CPU.  I then uninstalled it completely again and reinstalled earlier versions of Mach beginning with the current lock down 3.043.022 and working backwards repeating the process because I had updated to the current version as the demo version installed on the computer was an earlier version (I can't remember the version number).  I went through about 5 versions going back to 3.043.012 with no luck.  Then by accident I installed 3.042.20 which was a circa 2009 version and all of a sudden it worked.  The CPUs were much lower around 20% with mach running my xmls and the jogging was smooth and responsive, the DROs updated in real time again, and command G0 moves were smooth at 100IPM.

I'm not sure what version came on the computer but I would like to know because although not current it at least worked.  However even the current version only hogs all the CPU and bogs down the system when using my xmls so I'm wondering if they are corrupted somehow (even though I've never directly loaded the backup xml that was on the desktop into mach, I always make a copy and put it in the Mack folder to use it) or perhaps the newer versions of mach just don't like them. 
Title: Re: Having a few issues with Mach
Post by: Hood on March 29, 2011, 03:19:06 AM
There were changes to the driver for threading in Turn and that may well have been about the time you start having issues, but I think you said it was fine with a standard xml but with yours its not so I cant see that really being the case. Can you attach your xml and I will see what it does on my computer compared to other xmls.
Hood
Title: Re: Having a few issues with Mach
Post by: SWATH on March 29, 2011, 08:37:49 AM
Sure here is the active one I am using
Title: Re: Having a few issues with Mach
Post by: Hood on March 29, 2011, 09:27:32 AM
Seems to be fine here, sitting idle and its using no more than 1% CPU and even running the roadrunner it was 6-7% Ths is with a 3Gig CPU but even so it shouldnt make that much difference.
I dont have the screen set you are using so could you try using the standard, also try disabling any plugins or Brains you may be using to see if you can find the issue.
One thing I noticed is I get a huge spindle override happening when I start code, this may have something to do with PWM but afraid I dont know anything about that as I have only ever used Servos for  Step/Dir spindles.

Hood
Title: Re: Having a few issues with Mach
Post by: SWATH on March 29, 2011, 10:53:00 AM
Thanks for checking, the xml runs fine on my laptop too.  On the machine I don't have anything extraneous going on, I am using bone stock Mach install, standard default screen, no brains or scripts or anything like that.  It is quite curious.
Title: Re: Having a few issues with Mach
Post by: SWATH on March 29, 2011, 10:14:26 PM
Does mach use these?  Device manager says that they are not working properly and are experiencing problems.
(http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/2830/img2574jc.jpg)
Title: Re: Having a few issues with Mach
Post by: Hood on March 30, 2011, 04:31:24 AM
Your computer itself uses the system bus so it could well be your issue, try and find drivers for your motherboard chipset and that should clear that up.
Hood
Title: Re: Having a few issues with Mach
Post by: SWATH on March 31, 2011, 02:15:38 PM
Ok I installed the chipset drivers so that alert went away, I still have the unknown device though.  The key to finding out what the problem is is identifying what is different between mach 3. 042. 020 and mach 3.043.022.  All the newer versions destroy my CPU but the old version does not.  How can I find this information?
Title: Re: Having a few issues with Mach
Post by: Hood on March 31, 2011, 02:52:16 PM
The driver did change, whether it was about that time I cant say , that could be having an effect but why the standard profile would be fine and yours not on the later version I dont know, that would also seem to point to the driver not being the issue.
Just dont really know what to suugest except maybe emailing support and getting Andrew to test things out as he has all the inside info.
Hood
Title: Re: Having a few issues with Mach
Post by: andrewm on April 01, 2011, 11:16:48 AM
Please try loading the standard profile and modifying it to what your profile is running.
Title: Re: Having a few issues with Mach
Post by: jzak3 on February 05, 2012, 03:52:08 PM
Hello, I seem to be losing steps in my Z axiis, as it begins to cut, it starts out fine and as it continues on the material it starts to go deeper and deeper into the material. I am using 1/4 x 20 rod on my axis's and on the z I have it set for 8000  ex 15 and 7  I am in the process of rebuilding a new machine with much better materials and equipment, They should never tell any beginner to build one of these out of MDF board it turns out to be a waste of time and money.so if you can let me know what i can do to fix this problem i wouls appreciate it.
                                                                                                                                                                                               Thanks