Machsupport Forum
Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: g_coder on October 11, 2011, 06:28:46 PM
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I have been using Mach 3 on my older Supermax YCM-30 knee with a desktop PC mill for a while, mostly it has worked well. Lately, I hear a beep just as the machine makes an errant move. No beep, move will be OK... I uninstalled/reinstalled Mach 3, same problem.. I can shut it all down, and the next day it's like nothing ever happened. Anyone have an idea?
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I would venture a GUESS that somewhere the PC or MACH3 is throwing an error ( THE BEEP) and is causing a problem for mach3 after that.
when it happens LOOK for an error message, Even window DOWN mach3 and see IF there is one behind the Machscreen.
THE BEEP is a clue.
(;-) TP
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I did get the driver watchdog saying the pulse rate was too high before uninstalling/reinstalling Mach 3. Have not seen that since but still get the beep and bad move sometimes. Of course it's completely unpredictable...
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TURN OFF the watchdog.
(;-) TP
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Attach your xml please so I can check config but think its likely a computer issue, whether some programme interfering such as Acrobat Reader or Quicktime or your computer itself is having power issues.
Hood
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Also check if it's actually the beep that is causing the move error.
I had an issue where if the PC beeped it caused the steppers to stall. I assume it was an IRQ conflict between the sound card and the Mach3 driver. I disabled the sound card and the problem went away.
Look to see if there is a comment line in the Gcode that you are running. A comment line causes the PC to beep. In my case the beep then caused the steppers to stall.
Alastair
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BR549: why turn off watchdog? I got the watchdog message thing before I uninstalled/reinstalled Mach3, but now I don't see it...
HOOD: How do I send (what is) xml? Where will I find it?
ALCWELL: How would I tell whether the beep causes this?... I'm too busy trying to stop the machine from destroying things when this happens... I don't even have speakers, so how does it beep?... I have always used comment lines before with no beeping... I have my computer optimized as best I know how...
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The xml is your config file, if you look at the main screen in Mach you will see at lower right the name of the profile you use. Look in the Mach3 folder for a file with the same name and xml extension. You will likely need to copy that to your desktop and rename it to g_coder.xml as the forum only accepts a file name once so if its a standard named profile you use it would be rejected as it will have been uploaded before. To upload use the additional options button on the reply page.
Hood
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I don't even have speakers, so how does it beep?...
If you are hearing a beep without any speakers attached it is probably coming from the on board speaker on the motherboard. If this is the case then it is unlikely that what I suggested is your problem as the PC you are using probably doesn't have a sound card installed, doesn't have the sound card drivers installed or it's soundcard is disabled already.
It affected me and one other user that i know of. In my case it was very easy to reproduce once I realised what was happening. Everytime there was a comment line in the program the PC would beep and the steppers would stall a split second later.
Unfortunately I don't have the knowledge to be of much further help. Random issues can be a real pain to track down but I hope you manage to get sorted.
Alastair
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OK thanks guys I'll try to save the .xml file and post it here with my laptop. Meanwhile I'm gonna try to get my other computer ready, it's a P4, the old one is an AMD64... a leftover from the dorm rooms at OU Athens. I've never been completely satisfied with it anyway...
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Ok I'm putting my .xml here..
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I use mainly AMDs in my computers and love them, the machines all used to be on XP1500+ mobiles (overclocked a wee bit ;) ) and never had an issue. Now because I use the Via Pico mobos on two machines they have embedded 1Gig Via CPUs and on the Bridgeport its an Intel Atom mobo and all run well, I use external controllers rather than PP with the small mobos though :)
Hood
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Hello all-
I connected my other computer and installed Mach 3 on it. I do not have my machine connected to the computer yet. I think it's mostly OK but when I load gcode it comes up in the window in a way that the font looks too tall and the bottoms of all the characters are cut off. I went to function config's, fonts, and found all were at 18pt Arial. I reset most of them to 12pt, and the problem returned as soon as I reloaded my gcode. They were the same (wrong) size. I went back to fonts, and they were all at 18pt Arial again. I tried this again with rebooting the whole system and the same problem occurred... Any suggestions? Thanks, Victor
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Change your windows fonts to Normal (right click desktop then choose properties then appearance tab and then finally choose normal for font size)
Hood
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Hood-
Thanks for the reply, but I just tried what you suggested on my windows font and it was already set to normal- problem persists... Victor
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As I never mentioned it before you cant change the font size in Mach, it was added by Art to change the font type but size cant be changed so it has to be something in Windows, if not the font size as mentioned earlier then it could be your screen resolution, try changing to 1024 x 768 if not already there. You willhave to either restart Mach or reload the screen to see if it helps I think.
Hood
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Hood-
My screen was already at 1024x768 as you suggested it could be. I switched to yet another PC and that seems to have fixed the font problem. Now I feel safe to actually hook up my machine to it and give it a try.... Wish me luck- Thanks, Victor
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Must have been a windows option on the last computer that was still causing font issues but good you have it sorted with the new comp :)
Hood
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OK I did try it, I can get no machine movement, and the computer keeps crashing...
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Not so good, computer crashing is unlikely to be a setting but no movement is, so if you attach the xml I will have a look.
Hood