Machsupport Forum

Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: cdf on November 04, 2013, 07:15:46 PM

Title: Mach3 randomly pausing
Post by: cdf on November 04, 2013, 07:15:46 PM
Ever since I got started with my cnc table I have been having an issue with mach3 randomly pausing during tool movements. Everything slams to a stop for just a second (including the dro) and then starts again suddenly. I have turned off the screen saver and set the computer to not sleep. I have turned off the firewall. The computer is not connected to a network. Mach3 is a new copy I bought about a month ago. I cant figure out why it pauses and I have just been dealing with it. Now tonight I am trying to mill an aluminum plate and the pauses are really screwing me up. Before tonight after the pause everything has always resumed normally. Now I am having an issue where after the pause the dro will sometimes reset to x0 y0 at whatever position the pause happened at. The pauses have only been a minor issue until now but with the dro resetting to x0 y0 its ruining my work. The pauses happen in the middle of a move, not at a new line of code. My task manager says I'm using around 5-15% of the cpu capacity during machining operations. The computer is a 2.8ghz Pentium 4 with 1gb of ram. What could be causing this?
Title: Re: Mach3 randomly pausing
Post by: Hood on November 06, 2013, 03:03:59 AM
run the driver test and see what it looks like.
Hood
Title: Re: Mach3 randomly pausing
Post by: tripleblack on November 14, 2013, 12:33:14 PM
i have the same problem. have never solved it.   i cut panels 170 x72  with cutouts  holes and slots on the plasma. never has stopped on the inside holes. only when cutting the outer rectangle sections. the cut speed is 200 ipm . the torch will ramp to a stop randomly.
Title: Re: Mach3 randomly pausing
Post by: RonW on March 04, 2014, 05:19:26 AM
Has anyone come up with a resolution to the issue of Mach3 randomly pausing during a cut?
Title: Re: Mach3 randomly pausing
Post by: Hood on March 04, 2014, 07:10:31 AM
Have you run the driver test to see if there are large spikes?

Hood
Title: Re: Mach3 randomly pausing
Post by: Picengraver on March 04, 2014, 08:56:02 AM
 I have experienced a similar issue.  It only occurs when laser engraving a large file (+30MB ?), and only when the file is finished on the final X0/Y0 moves.  I use Windows 7 64 bit/4GB and a UC100 USB adapter.  My suspicion is perhaps Mach3 is resetting the buffer to the beginning of the file by reading from the hard drive.  This is only a guess as it does not happen often enough to confirm, and never happens during engraving.  Driver test is good and solid.

Any commonalities?
John Champlain
Title: Re: Mach3 randomly pausing
Post by: Hood on March 04, 2014, 09:04:39 AM
John, driver test has no bearing on yours as you are using an external controller and thus the driver is not used.

Hood
Title: Re: Mach3 randomly pausing
Post by: Picengraver on March 04, 2014, 09:07:19 AM
 ;D  ;D  ;D
Thanks Hood.  I must still be asleep.
John
Title: Re: Mach3 randomly pausing
Post by: Fastest1 on March 04, 2014, 09:33:53 AM
Hood, the others just dont want to run the driver test?
Title: Re: Mach3 randomly pausing
Post by: Hood on March 04, 2014, 09:37:06 AM
Hood, the others just dont want to run the driver test?


Not following what you are meaning.

Hood
Title: Re: Mach3 randomly pausing
Post by: ger21 on March 04, 2014, 11:20:08 AM
If using the parallel port on large files, turn off the toolpath display.
Title: Re: Mach3 randomly pausing
Post by: RonW on March 04, 2014, 11:31:50 AM
Ill run the drive test and let everyone know how it goes. I am not too familiar with the drive test is there something specific i should look out for while running the test?
Title: Re: Mach3 randomly pausing
Post by: Hood on March 04, 2014, 01:19:57 PM
You ideally want a very flat line in the graph although some small deviations are usually OK. what I would be interested in however is there are large spikes at intervals similar to the interval of the pausing you are seeing.

Other thing you could have a look at is Ctrl Alt Del and watch the CPU usage whilst running the code and see if the CPU goes very high during the pauses. If it does look at the processes and see if there is anything obvious there that could be the problem.
Hood