Messages

1

General Mach Discussion / Re: Motor tuning calculations

« on: April 25, 2009, 08:26:44 PM »

I would agree that noise could be in issue if it were intermitent or unpredictable, that is not the case though.  Being a programmer with electronics and working in the electrical field I am pretty good at trouble shooting problems.  Sometimes though asking the correct questions is a problem.  In this case not alot to go on as most use the most common drives and control devices and do not have these experiences.  These devices however are overpriced and place more on a name.  The electronic part are not more then maybe 25.00 but they seem to charge alot.  Mach3 on the other hand pretty good bang for the buck but I did need to make sure it was not causing an issue with my setup and if it is how to correct it ... time will tell soon enough.   

2

General Mach Discussion / Re: Motor tuning calculations

« on: April 25, 2009, 03:10:50 PM »

It appears that the problem on mine lies with the controller code.  When the drives were tested individually one hooked up at a time they functioned correcly but together they did wierd things.  

MachineMaster not sure if you are able to test yours like this or even if it relates to your problem.

3

General Mach Discussion / Re: Motor tuning calculations

« on: April 25, 2009, 11:28:35 AM »

Newest update ...

I did not test TurboCNC (could not fing a darn floppy that would work LOL)  so I tested both KCAM ( http://www.kellyware.com/ ) windows driven and also Linux EMC both are doubling the distances as does Mach3 .... so now I am off to call SOC again to find out why this is happening.  I would have to say it would be with in the controller but this is specualtion at this point.

Machinemaster maybe we could get our systems drunk and let them mate take the offspring and we would be both set .. LOL

4

General Mach Discussion / Re: Motor tuning calculations

« on: April 24, 2009, 10:58:53 PM »

Tommorrow I am going to run TurboCNC from dos ... to see if the results repeat or are corrected ... if they remain then most definatly the controller and drives ... if not then it is the way the Mach3 is sending signal and they way the controller and drivers are interpetating the signals.

for what is is worth ....

www.soc-machines.com ... Mark4 and MM220's ... in the download section for the pdf's.

5

General Mach Discussion / Re: Motor tuning calculations

« on: April 24, 2009, 10:26:32 PM »

Michael .. interesting ... I will have to driver manufacture tommorrow and find out how they are handling the step and direction.

I have just completed an install on another computer .. AMD this time 1GhZ , 512 ram ... same thing ... so this has to me has to be the way the controller / driver is interpitating what and how Mach is sending its signals.

What gets me though ... is that it worked for almost a full month until I went to tune it a bit more.

6

General Mach Discussion / Re: Motor tuning calculations

« on: April 24, 2009, 07:14:58 PM »

MachineMaster .... are you still using Mach3 ... how long? if so have you had any hickups ? I am wondering if I can trust it not to try to correct itself in the middle of the job as it has done this a few times in past on me screwing up the piece completely.  Even if I set the drives to full step I might end up getting half the distance plus the resonance won't be good.

7

General Mach Discussion / Re: Motor tuning calculations

« on: April 24, 2009, 06:14:28 PM »

Well thank @#$%@#$ I thought I was going insane and maybe lost to many brain cells along the way!  I can now see that I am not the only one that is having this issue.  I drop the setting down but I fear that in the middle of a part it might just then decide to correct itself.

8

General Mach Discussion / Re: Motor tuning calculations

« on: April 24, 2009, 05:55:22 PM »

Okay here goes ...

Units = Inches
Stepper motor - 200 step / rev
Driver - 1/2 step -
Lead Screw - 10 tpi
X,Y Steps set - 4000 - no gear just ball screw
Z Steps set - 7000 (turns a worm gear)

Before the reformat ... I took the Z Drive and interchanged it with the X Drive ... no settings changed .. X Drive doubled ... and the Z Drive did not.  Now I changed the motor pins around X over to Z ... changed the steps from 7000 to 4000 and it still doubled the distance.  Changed the drive wires back and rechanged the Z to 7000 and it doubled the distance.  Conclusion resulted in a fresh install.  Same problem ... tried the non-locked down version same thing.  From there I reformated the drive thinking that it is a Windows problem ... nope the problem remains.

The drives are optically isolated and are programmable for Full Step, Half Step, Quarter Step or 1/16 Step
They are flashed for 1/2 step and have been verified to be this ... If I change to 1/4 step or full the issue remains the same which is that it doubles the distance. 

Since I have formated the hard drive with Windows 2000 the Z axis now also must be set to 3500 steps in order for it correctly move the distance.

Ratio's are working.
The driver test comes out excellent from 25 to 100 ... I have tried 25 , 35, 45 with a restart of Mach with each change.

9

General Mach Discussion / Re: Motor tuning calculations

« on: April 24, 2009, 04:41:32 PM »

The issue remains the same when I use the setting of 4000 steps.

I have now made sure with the manufacture of the controller and driver that it is going from full step, half step, quarter step and 1/16 step.  It does work as it is supposed to ... ie move an 1 inch it does.

The problem lies with Mach3.  How do I make sure that the 1:1 ratio is working or engaged ... it looks like it is turned off ... not sure if this would cause the problem or not.  Somehow Mach3 is not working as it should be or at least how I think it should be with the way it is configured.

10

General Mach Discussion / Re: Motor tuning calculations

« on: April 24, 2009, 11:34:08 AM »

Well, installed win2000 .. same problem .. re-flashed the drives to make sure the drives are set to 1/2 step ... x,y double the distance .. z is correct.  I am now at a complete loss to figure this out.