Messages

1

General Mach Discussion / Pulse engine noise

« on: April 29, 2011, 03:54:08 AM »

What can I do to reduce the "Noise" on the parallel port test? I have time variation of 9-12us when using the pulse test engine. I am using a machine with XP Pro, Intel E4600 CPU, 1G ram. I have done the XP optimization but with no improvement.

The system will only be used for Mach3, no Internet or anything. Is there more I can do to try and improve the pulse engines consistency? The Mach3 config PDF doesnt actually say what to do if your system responds with spikes(unless I just can see it in the doc).

2

Mach3 under Vista / Re: Windows 7 Problem

« on: April 25, 2011, 12:21:17 AM »

I have the machine setup so pin2 is X step and pin3 is X direction. (I have tried this on other pins too)

Yes, but make sure they are not set to Port 0. They should be set to Port 1.

Problem solved. I officially feel like an idiot although those ports settings are kind of illusive and in my opinion really should be set as port 1 by default although Im sure there is a reason they are set port 0.

Thanks for the help Ger21!

3

Mach3 under Vista / Re: Windows 7 Problem

« on: April 24, 2011, 05:09:14 PM »

In ports and pins, for your motors, are the pins set to port 1?

Jog back and forth, and measure the voltage on the direction pin. It should change from 0V (one direction) to 5V (other direction).
If it's working, then you may have a problem with your drives.

I have the machine setup so pin2 is X step and pin3 is X direction. (I have tried this on other pins too)

If I try and jog the machine I get no resonce on either pin using a scope directly on cable or on my C10 breackout boards output. Then I disable the X motor output and assign those pins to Flood and Mist (I do not adjust any other settings). Then with the scope I get 3.3v directly on the cable and 5V on the breackout Boards output when toggling those outputs on the Mach3 diagnostics page.

4

Mach3 under Vista / Re: Windows 7 Problem

« on: April 23, 2011, 05:21:08 PM »

Have you tried just entering 0378?

And try bi-directional, or EPP.

I have tried both EPP and Bi and I get no motor function. Which is recommended or is either setting fine?

Have since discovered that if I set an output pin ie flood on pin 1 and Mist on pin 14 they both work under Mach3's command. The outputs also work on the pins i am using to try and control the motors.

5

Mach3 under Vista / Windows 7 Problem

« on: April 23, 2011, 12:27:46 AM »

I have just built myself a new machine fro my CNC. It is running Win7 x86 and the latest Mach 3 fully licensed. The machine has a single physical Parallel port on the motherboard. I have check with an oscilloscope and am getting no outputs on the Parallel port pins.

I have reformatted the PC and reinstalled Mach with no luck. The Drivertest.exe seems to be running fine.

In BIOS
Port mode set to Normal, other options are Bi-Directional, EPP, ECP.
Port IRQ set to IRQ7, other option IRQ5

What should the port be set as? (I cant find any documentation anywhere)

In Windows device manager
Filter resource method set to never use an interrupt, other options try not to use and interrupt, use any interrupt.
I/O range 0378-037f

If I use the Mach3 getportaddress.exe to identify port address. LPT3 comes back correct as &H378 while LPT1 is &H3F8 and LPT2 IRQ 4 Co.

Shouldnt it find LPT1 as &H387? Why is it finding multiple ports when there is only one

In Mach3 config I have used 0x378 as the port address with no luck. I have actually tried just about every combonation of the above settings with no luck.

Any help would be greatly appreciated as I dont know were to go from here. Is there something simple I have missed because I dont remember having any problems on my old machine with Win XP

6

VB and the development of wizards / Re: Moving an axis

« on: June 16, 2008, 05:11:16 PM »

Big thanks poppabear.

that has solved my problem and pendant works sweet now.

7

VB and the development of wizards / Moving an axis

« on: June 16, 2008, 04:19:07 AM »

How does one move an axis in the VB script editor.

I have tried the activatesignal(0) and deactivatesignal (0) to move the x axis + but it does not seem to work. I want to emulate pushing on arrow key on the keyboard and the asix moves.

8

VB and the development of wizards / RS232 Comms

« on: June 05, 2008, 04:27:07 PM »

Hi

I am new to Mach3 and VB although have done some work in VB6.

I am wanting to send and recieve data through the serial port on my computer to a microcontroller but I read on one of the posts that one cant recieve data through RS232 into Mach3.

Is this true? If not is there some code I can look at to see the commands for send and recieve, setup port, baud, parity etc. I have searched the forum but have not been able to find anything usefull.

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