Machsupport Forum
Mach Discussion => Mach4 General Discussion => Topic started by: wgpeters on May 09, 2018, 08:59:53 AM
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My setup is Win10 HP Laptop, Mach4 Hobby, UC100, Vista Pendant,Sherline Lathe, Sherline Nexgen Mill
System does not jog correctly when backlash setting is non-zero in Mach. This affects all axis.
Backlash adjustment is applied after each jog even though direction has not changed. Sometimes, the stepper goes the wrong direction, and often the jog amount is wrong. For instance a .01 jog may go .01, or may go something less. This happens whether the jog was done from the pc jog button, or the pendant, so I believe the pendant is not the problem.
Smaller jog increments result in more erratic behavior, especially when the jog amount is less than the backlash setting (which in my case is set to .003".
When making successive jogs of .001, the movement is often .001, 0, .002, 0, .002, etc.
When stepping by multiple gcodes, like g0 z .001, g0 z .002, g0 z .003 ..... the system seems to work correctly as shown by test indicator and visual observation.
UC100 is set to 25khz, but testing with 100khz had the same result.
Backlash should only be applied when changing directions.
System works correctly when driven by LinuxCNC so problem is not stepper malfunctions or the Sherline motor drivers.
Any ideas?
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Hi,
I wasn't aware that the UC100 supported backlash. Backlash compensation is a controller enacted feature, not really Mach at all.
Craig
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Yes, it is advertised to support backlash compensation. If it doesn't, I just wasted $300
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Send an email to CNC Drive and ask them about it. They're the only ones that will be able to answer this.
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Hi,
yes I agree with ger21, I can certainly find that the UC100 supports backlash compensation with Mach3 but cannot find anything
specific about Mach4.
Given that the UC100 Mach4 plugin is so new, probably less than a year, it would not surprise me that its not yet available.
Craig
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Yes, it is advertised to support backlash compensation.
Where? I've never seen a list of supported Mach4 functions for any of CNC Drives motion controllers.
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https://cnc4pc.com/uc100-usb-motion-controller.html
At top of page, it says it supports Mach4
Near bottom, it says it supports backlash compensation.
It certainly implies that it should work.
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No, it doesn't imply that it should work.
It's listed under "Supported Mach3 functions".
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Hi,
yes I also interpreted that as a supported Mach3 function not necessarily Mach4.
Craig
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Well then why does it say it now supports Mach 4.
It does not say it partially supports Mach 4 or that it supports Mach 4 with exceptions.
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By supports Mach4, it means it has a Mach4 plugin.
Most Mach4 motion controllers only partially support Mach4. Meaning they don't support all of Mach4's features.
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Hi,
a quick email to CNCDrive will clear it up.
Craig
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I have sent an email to them.
Days ago I also posted the same information on their support forum, but so far, they haven't bothered to release my post.
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I am having the same issue:
"System does not jog correctly when backlash setting is non-zero in Mach. This affects all axis.
Backlash adjustment is applied after each jog even though direction has not changed. Sometimes, the stepper goes the wrong direction, and often the jog amount is wrong. For instance a .01 jog may go .01, or may go something less. This happens whether the jog was done from the pc jog button, or the pendant, so I believe the pendant is not the problem.
Smaller jog increments result in more erratic behavior, especially when the jog amount is less than the backlash setting (which in my case is set to .003"."
I have submitted a post that links to a video showing my experience:
https://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php?topic=44858.new#new
Any help about why a setting of any non-zero backlash amount causes spurious behavior when jogging would be greatly appreciated.
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I am engaged in a lathe project. I have had this running on Mach 3 with a UC100 controller but a couple of functions did not work successfully and i was advised to go to Mach 4 .
I downloaded and installed Mach 4 hobby and installed the plugin for UC100 in M4 but when I try to run Mach 4 I get an error message to say that the file is not found
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Hi,
I am not familiar with the UC100, however all motion controller plugins should be in the Mach4Hobby/Plugins folder.
There you should see the plugin, it will be of type '.M4PW', but also there should be a signature file of the same name but of type '.sig'.
Are both of those files present?
Craig
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A newbie jogging question, with Mach 4 and UC100 motion controller. With Mach 4 incremental jogging set at 0.0010 successive clicks of the X+ button produce the following DRO readings:
.6222
.6241
.6232
.6251
.6242 and so on.
This happens with X, Y, and Z sometimes with bigger jumps.
I am thinking this is a settings issue but not sure what.