Messages

1

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 Rebooting on Startup again - Is Smooth Stepper the solution?

« on: April 07, 2011, 08:49:14 PM »

The tests showed "excellent" but the problem remained.

After a lot of trial and error it seems to be fixed.  Somehow a few of the windows services either turned themselves on when they were previously off, or somehow they started to interfere.  So I went in and started turning things off.

Attached is the screen capture of the services configuration utility in XP with the settings that seem to work... in case anyone else runs into this.

I was going to get the smooth stepper, but just the thought of having to mess with it all over again... oh well, may be next time.

2

General Mach Discussion / Re: Calibrating PWM Spindle RPMs by hand

« on: March 25, 2011, 02:49:43 AM »

Thanks, but unfortunately that video does use a "C3 index card" for electronic feedback.

I'm looking for a manual method to do that sort of calibration.

3

General Mach Discussion / Calibrating PWM Spindle RPMs by hand

« on: March 21, 2011, 10:29:55 AM »

Is there a way to calibrate the RPMs on a PWM Spindle by hand?

Meaning instead of having the electronic feedback we can just measure the actual RPMs for a series of "S" instructions and then somehow use that to derive the calibration curve for Mach3 to use.

Thanks!

4

General Mach Discussion / Mach3 Rebooting on Startup again - Is Smooth Stepper the solution?

« on: March 21, 2011, 10:22:07 AM »

Hi.

It seems random.  You start Mach3 and after a few seconds the computer reboots.  After the computer reboots and windows comes back you start it up again and cross your fingers.  You have to keep trying until Mach loads up successfully.

I had this problem 2-3 months ago and after reinstalling XP and Mach3 from scratch the problem went away... until this week.

Is this caused by the printer driver?

I can not be rebuilding the computer ever 2-3 months.  Would using smooth stepper instead prevent this problem?

If so, is there a way to uninstall the printer driver or do I have to reblast the machine?

Thanks!

5

General Mach Discussion / Re: Shared limit/home switches not limiting *confused*

« on: March 04, 2011, 10:50:27 PM »

:lol:

Ah!

So that is what X++ and X-- means.

Thanks!!!

6

General Mach Discussion / Shared limit/home switches not limiting *confused*

« on: March 01, 2011, 10:35:19 PM »

Hi,

I'm using the same switch for homing and to limit travel.  Homing is working, however, when the machine is moving and I trigger the switch nothing happens.

I thought I would get the equivalent of an eStop or the same we get with a softlimits violation, but right now it just keeps on going.

Is there a flag I forgot to set someplace?

Thanks!!!

7

General Mach Discussion / Re: Reboot in the middle of the Program

« on: March 01, 2011, 10:34:42 PM »

Weird it has not happened again ever since. Oh well.

:-)

8

General Mach Discussion / Re: G73 Pullback Setting - Possible Bug

« on: February 21, 2011, 03:35:04 PM »

Hi, here is a video with the 0.01" pecking retract -- first operation in the video.  Perhaps this would help make a case to release a new version where the setting is initialized from the XML as opposed to always defaulted to 0.1"  :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Cfh2yQZwK4

Thanks.

9

General Mach Discussion / Reboot in the middle of the Program

« on: February 13, 2011, 04:23:23 AM »

This is the first time it happens with this new install.  I really do not know what the issue is.  It is a clean PC.

The part is lost, time is lost, the tool did not break -- still very frustrating :-(

I'm wondering if (1) could this be a mach3 problem, (2) could it be a driver problem, (3) could it be a hardware issue -- someone once told me that some sort of signal fluctuation in the parallel port could reboot your PC.

2 questions, if you can help me...

1) What could be causes for a spontaneous reboot in an install that is/was otherwise working.

2) Would it help any if I upgraded to something like Smooth Stepper?  I would be pretty upset if I upgrade the computer, got a Smooth Stepper and a month from now I had another crash.

Is there hope?

Thanks.

:-(

10

General Mach Discussion / Re: G73 Pullback Setting - Possible Bug

« on: January 06, 2011, 01:26:51 AM »

Are you running in demo mode?

(;-) TP

Don't think so.  It is a licensed version and that is in the machine I normally use it in.

:-)