Machsupport Forum
Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: ghagen on February 21, 2007, 08:54:51 AM
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My name is Geo Hagen and I am a newbie.
I am just setting up mach3 with the drivers and motors
I have a problem with some mach3 screens and the behavior of the motors.
In the program run, offset, settings and diagnostics screen my motors don't run smooth.
In the other screens, MDI and Toolpath, everything runs smooth.
Any suggestions?
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What kind of machine (computer and mill) do yo have? How fast, how much ram?
are you running any cam prorams in the background?
Chad
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Chad,
Thanks for the reaction.
Mill:
homemade conversion of a Cincinnati Millacron PF25
tree 6.4 Nm 1.8 full stepper motors
tree bipolar drivers up to 25600 microsteps/rev.(jumper selection) 20 Vdc- 50 Vdc
Computer:
Dell Latitude D800 notebook
1.5 Ghz
1 GB Ram
Breakout bord:
CNCdirect breakout board for Mach3
When I run a test g-code program I only use Mach3.
I even tried to turn of all the start up programs at windows start up.
Turned off all the energy power saving programs and screen protection.
I ran drivertest.exe and this looks better with all those programs turned of, but the result is exactly the same with or without turning the programs on or of.
What I don't get is what is the difference between the screens in Mach3, what could cause the difference in behaviour of the motors?
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Hi, Chad
Try this, It could be In Config, Motor Tuning the Pulse Width set to low, Step, Dir Pulse's, If there set to 0 set them to 5,
If that fixes it, back them down till problem is back, then set it backup 1 level. ( time that the Opto's have to see Mach Pulse's), it may
change from screen to screen not sure.
If it's ver. Mach32.0.049 re-download it, may have the giters.
Hope this Helps, Chip
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also you can check Sherline mode under the ports and pins... that will give you a much longer pulse for your opto's
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Thank for the reaction.
I did everything mentioned above, with no results.
I noticed that in the Toolpath screen the processor of the computer uses 70-100 % of the capacity.(task manager)
In the screen Program run only 15-17 % of the capacity.
Isn't that strange?
Any explanation?
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Run the Driver test and tell me what you see (BTW you can't have mach3 open at the same time)
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Brian,
I ran the driver test and hereby a screenshot.
This looks clean to me.
I attached a small video (zip file) with switching from screen Program run to Toolpath.
You can hear the difference clearly.
I was also thinkingh off a limitation off the free downloadable version I use.
Geo Hagen
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That is a bad driver test.. it should look like a flat line...
Do you have a desktop that you can test with? if you are going to use that computer you need to use the optimization doc to see if you can get the driver test better.
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Brian,
Where I'm still confused about is the difference in motor behavior between the screens?
How can that take effect on generation off pulses or the performance off the computer?
At this moment I don't have an other computer available.
I will see to get a desktop computer to test.
Maybe I borrow the computer from my wife.
Don't tell her!!
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It is all power saving in a computer and laptops change the voltage going to the processor all the time (Changing the speed). So as the load on the computer changes your pulse stream will change (Not a simple problem).
You will have no problem with a good desktop :)
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Brian,
I looked at the windows setting file and changed some settings in windows at my notebook.
The result is excellent!
The motors run very smooth now.
I've also changed the motor settings, now 2000mm/min and 300mm/sec2 with no problems
Old settings 500mm/min and 40 mm/sec2
No matter what screen I'm using.
Thank for the help right now.
Next thing is to make my electronic cabinet all wired up and then mill my first part.