Machsupport Forum
Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: Zaae on March 25, 2015, 03:42:55 PM
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Hello again all,
Short version: Within the last couple weeks, numbers have started appearing in my tool table that I did not put there, I don't use the tool table at all, every entry should be zero.
Full version:
I've been running mach3 on my machine for several years, I've run thousands and thousands of programs through the machine, but something has started happening within the last couple weeks I just cannot seem to solve. I should probably first mention that I generally run the same gcode I've been using for a very long time, this is not new code. I haven't touched the mach configuration at all for many months.
I use my touch plate to zero my Z axis, it touches, retracts, and sets the Z to 5mm above the surface as expected. - Sometimes - but not always - this oddity occurs when I start the program, right before the first tool change. If I watch the Z DRO on the main mach screen, it starts at 5mm, but when I run the code pictured below, the number suddenly changes, the first time I caught it a week ago, it was just over 26mm. It should stay at 5mm. I did some digging, and found an entry in the tool table length that matched the 26mm. The thing is, I have never used the tool table for anything, all the entries should be zero. I set the offending entry back to zero, pushed apply, and went on with my work. Yesterday, it happened again. This time, the magic number was -33.7268 on tool number 46. Once again, I checked the tool table, and sure enough, -33.7268 was entered into tool length for number 46, while every other entry in the entire table was zero. Again, after setting the table cell back to 0.00, pressing apply, everything worked fine for the rest of the session.
I haven't found a pattern to the problem. It seems it can happen with any tool.
Thinking it must be caused by the gcode itself, I used the Linux grep command to search through file contents of all the files I use, trying to see if that -33.7268 number existed anywhere in any of my gcode, but it found nothing. I did some testing to make sure my grep command was right, and it works for other numbers. (Fyi, the files are stored on a Linux server, hence the grep command)
grep -r -e '-33.7268' /home/z/machine/
Here's the header from the file I ran when it happened last. All my files use the same post processor, and have the same header. I broke it up a bit to make it more readable.
(http://i.imgur.com/7GrnSRi.png)
Is there anything you guys can think of that would cause this? I'm drawing a blank here. How in the world are these numbers getting into the tool table?
Thanks for reading,
Z
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Is there a G10 L__ anywhere in the code? That can alter the tool table.
I may be wrong, but think you must apply any tool change with the table open.
RICH
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Rich,
Thanks for that, I'll work out a regex grep to check if there is.
Z
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Rich,
No, I didn't find a G10 anywhere. After it happened this morning, I ran another 14 tool paths without incident. I'm keeping an eye on that Z DRO though, I predict it will happen again, hopefully I'll see some sort of pattern and get this sorted.
Thanks,
Z
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Mach3's XML CAN become corrupted and you may see strange numbers in places that they never were before. Reload your KNOWN good backup XML not the autosaved version.
Just a thought, (;-) TP
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TP,
I do think I have a backup within the last month or so, I'll give that a shot. I haven't had any power outages that I can think of, but who knows, it's worth a try.
Thanks,
Z
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Power outages have nothing to do with it.