Machsupport Forum

Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: endrunner on April 30, 2015, 10:01:29 AM

Title: Ethernet Smooth Stepper Problems - Stops at the same place EVERY time
Post by: endrunner on April 30, 2015, 10:01:29 AM

I am running Mach3 with a smooth stepper on an old Dell Latitude Computer using XP. I am trying to do some 3d milling. When milling a piece of code that is short I do not seem to have problems. But on longer programs used for 3d milling it just stops with the "ran out of data" message.

I have run the special driver program, I have updated my computer to have 4 gig. of ram.

I don't think it is a windows interupt issue because it stops at the same line of code everytime,  Line number #238226. I have the look ahead set to 225.

Clueless where to look

Title: Re: Ethernet Smooth Stepper Problems - Stops at the same place EVERY time
Post by: Jeff_Birt on April 30, 2015, 04:28:31 PM

You need to upgrade to the latest Ethernet SmoothStepper plug-in and make sure your Mach 3 version is 3.043.058 or higher. I recommend version .062 though. There was an oddity with how Mach 3 was filling the move buffer in some cases which could result in both Mach and the plug-in waiting on each other. This issue was fixed in Mach 3 .058 and the latest ESS plug-in.

Title: Re: Ethernet Smooth Stepper Problems - Stops at the same place EVERY time
Post by: endrunner on May 02, 2015, 11:19:27 AM

I am running 3.043.066 and ESS V10r2d1, still having the same problems, do I need to go back to 062?

Title: Re: Ethernet Smooth Stepper Problems - Stops at the same place EVERY time
Post by: Hood on May 02, 2015, 02:46:51 PM

Try turning off  the toolpath view and see if that helps, you will find the button just above the Reset on the Diagnostics page.

Hood

Title: Re: Ethernet Smooth Stepper Problems - Stops at the same place EVERY time
Post by: endrunner on May 19, 2015, 12:39:36 PM

Okay I turned the tool display off, I traded computers, I added memory, I rebooted the computer between each little run, still the &*!*( stops randomly distroying hours and hours of work. My machine has no Z limit switch so I can not store offsets, my tool height touch plate or manually is not accurate enough to pickup exactly where it left off when it does this stupid ethernet lost communications problem.

My only conclusion at this point after weeks of effort, at trying everything under the sun, is the ethernet smoothstepper is not a viable product for large milling!

Title: Re: Ethernet Smooth Stepper Problems - Stops at the same place EVERY time
Post by: jimthefish on May 19, 2015, 01:10:55 PM

One silly point that I have to ask "your not running the demo of Mach which has a limit of 500 lines?

Title: Re: Ethernet Smooth Stepper Problems - Stops at the same place EVERY time
Post by: endrunner on May 19, 2015, 01:16:02 PM

yes, I am obviously running a real version, Running smaller code files of 30k are not a problem

Title: Re: Ethernet Smooth Stepper Problems - Stops at the same place EVERY time
Post by: Hood on May 19, 2015, 01:34:20 PM

What have you got the controller frequency set to?
Hood

Title: Re: Ethernet Smooth Stepper Problems - Stops at the same place EVERY time
Post by: endrunner on May 19, 2015, 01:45:13 PM

can you tell me where this setting is?

Title: Re: Ethernet Smooth Stepper Problems - Stops at the same place EVERY time
Post by: Hood on May 19, 2015, 01:46:41 PM

Operator menu the ESS Config, should be first option if I recall.
Hood

Title: Re: Ethernet Smooth Stepper Problems - Stops at the same place EVERY time
Post by: Hood on May 19, 2015, 01:47:30 PM

Sorry, Plugin Control menu.

Hood

Title: Re: Ethernet Smooth Stepper Problems - Stops at the same place EVERY time
Post by: endrunner on May 19, 2015, 01:51:38 PM

4 hz

Title: Re: Ethernet Smooth Stepper Problems - Stops at the same place EVERY time
Post by: Hood on May 19, 2015, 01:53:08 PM

Could well be your problem, set it to 1K and see.
Hood

Title: Re: Ethernet Smooth Stepper Problems - Stops at the same place EVERY time
Post by: endrunner on May 19, 2015, 01:56:42 PM

heres the problem with set it to x and see,.... It takes a day to build my blank, it takes a day to rough mill, then I start the large segmented files, which take 2 days, it might wait till the 4th day in this process to crash, and then, oops, i guess that didn't work either.

After weeks of this, I not so keen on guessing if something will work

Title: Re: Ethernet Smooth Stepper Problems - Stops at the same place EVERY time
Post by: Hood on May 19, 2015, 01:59:03 PM

Up to you.
Hood

Title: Re: Ethernet Smooth Stepper Problems - Stops at the same place EVERY time
Post by: endrunner on May 19, 2015, 02:04:10 PM

This is my point, if the only way to determine if something is working correctly, is this type of arduous trial and error, the product does not seem ready for real commercial work, where users don't have weeks to waste horsing around guessing what might work.

Title: Re: Ethernet Smooth Stepper Problems - Stops at the same place EVERY time
Post by: Hood on May 19, 2015, 02:08:10 PM

Well unless things have changed the frequency is not set to 4K as default , there is a reason why it is not set to that, the reason is it takes a very stable system to be able to run at that frequency. With 4K set the buffer is probably only 1/4 second, so it doesnt take much to interupt the flow and you end up running out of buffer.

Hood

Title: Re: Ethernet Smooth Stepper Problems - Stops at the same place EVERY time
Post by: endrunner on May 19, 2015, 02:14:36 PM

I have not changed the frequency, I will have to look into where the setting came from. What is the recommended default, is is 1?

Title: Re: Ethernet Smooth Stepper Problems - Stops at the same place EVERY time
Post by: Hood on May 19, 2015, 02:17:37 PM

I think default is/was 1Khz.
I run mine at 2KHz if I recall. Did try at 4Khz for a while but "ran out of data" errors occasionally happened.
Hood

Title: Re: Ethernet Smooth Stepper Problems - Stops at the same place EVERY time
Post by: endrunner on May 28, 2015, 04:10:15 PM

I did lower the frequency to 1hz and also found a computer setting that allowed windows to turn off the ethernet port to save power, go figure. The developer of smooth stepper gave me the computer heads up and a couple of nice support calls and was very supportive. Fixing those to things seems to have solved the problem.... I hope.

Title: Re: Ethernet Smooth Stepper Problems - Stops at the same place EVERY time
Post by: SSPW on June 01, 2015, 02:16:34 PM

I just debugged a problem with my mach3/ESS setup. Any chance you are stopping near a flood or mist or spindle change?

Title: Re: Ethernet Smooth Stepper Problems - Stops at the same place EVERY time
Post by: endrunner on June 01, 2015, 02:43:38 PM

sorry, not the case here.
thanks