Messages

1

SmoothStepper USB / Re: SS Locking up mach3

« on: May 17, 2010, 03:56:23 PM »

Thanks a bunch Jeff!
I agree with your analysis about the motion plug-ins methodology, and hopefully Greg can circumvent the undesirable side effects. I do not have any other plug-ins or macro pumps running, but I like your idea about the active low ESTOP, at least I could test the rest of the SS operation. Thank you for your offer to test out my SS, Greg has done the same and if we can't get everything figured out and it looks like the SS is failing, I'll probably replace it nonetheless.
Right now however, I (sadly) reverted my mill to parallel port operation, to make parts, so the SS is not controlling anything. Hood and Greg are working on some test plug-ins, and hopefully with those, we can get to the bottom of all this stuff! Cheers, -Robert

2

SmoothStepper USB / Re: SS Locking up mach3

« on: May 17, 2010, 01:03:19 PM »

Hi Jeff,
Pressing the RESET is about the only thing you can do with nothing hooked up to the SS but the USB. I'm not sure what practical operation would ever require this situation, but I think you have to agree that nothing, meaning NOTHING, should cause a lockup, regardless of why we are doing it. That's called a bug. I may have other problems, but this demonstrates an undesired and undocumented behavior!
Yes, I have run the system without the MPG, and it still locks up. Thanks, Robert

3

SmoothStepper USB / Re: SS Locking up mach3

« on: May 17, 2010, 12:54:47 AM »

Hood,
To isolate any other potential interference with another device, I have the SS board itself with plugged into the USB port. Nothing else is connected to the SS, just computer and SS. So to the RESET is always flashing when I press it. Since there is no ESTOP feedback, Mach 3 goes back to the flashing RESET. I really don't see any reason why Mach 3 should ever lock up no matter how many times RESET is pressed or what condition it's in when it's pressed.
The original problem showed up when I was running the MPG#1 and Mach 3 locked up with the charge pump active! After reading other posts about noise and cables, I swapped cables around and eliminated any noise sources. I also installed Mach 3 and SS on a new computer with the same problem.
Thanks for helping...

4

SmoothStepper USB / Re: SS Locking up mach3

« on: May 13, 2010, 11:02:55 PM »

Nothing should have changed with my system to cause it to fail, it's only job is to make parts. There were no updates or changes to the machine or computer system so something creeping in would have a real challenge.
Not only did I try a new profile, but I installed Mach3 on a totally different desktop CPU which never had Mach 3 or SS installed. When completed, all the revs for Mach 3 and SS were new and most current, the system gave me all the LEDs with the flashing red LED. As soon as I pressed RESET a few times on the MACH screen, the red LED went dark and the new Mach 3 on the new computer became unresponsive and required a reboot.
It's really looking like there is some type of problem with the SmoothStepper. Unless there is something else I can test on the SS, I'm afraid it's a loss of a very cool interface and I'll have to go back to a parallel port type of interface. What would you do next?

5

SmoothStepper USB / Re: SS Locking up mach3

« on: May 13, 2010, 08:34:56 PM »

Thanks Jeff for helping. I got Mach3 to load up with the SS plug-in, a brand new USB cable and the SS board itself with no external connections. When Mach 3 is launching the blue and red LED glow solid. Once Mach3 screen is up and running, the blue and green LED glow solid, while the red LED flickers at a constant rate (about 20Hz). So far all is well... if I press the Mach3 RESET a couple times, the SS red momentarily stops flashing but recovers, a few more presses of the RESET and the red LED stops flashing and I'm left with a solid blue and green LED, and an unresponsive Mach3 that requires a restart to recover. I have tried 3 different versions of Mach3 and the various USB drivers and the Mach3 plug-in, and all behave the same way with the SmoothStepper. Interestingly, the red LED will keep flashing as long as I don't interact with Mach3. 

6

SmoothStepper USB / Re: SS Locking up mach3

« on: May 13, 2010, 01:25:33 PM »

I think SS is the culprit because I loaded everything up fresh on another computer and while the Device manager shows Smooth Stepper properly in its list, as soon as I launch Mach 3, it asks for the output plug-in, I select SS and the system locks up tight. Won't allow kill process to quit, must restart. Mach 3 runs fine with its parallel port interface, but now two computers have been locking up with SS. What's the next test I can perform? Please help.

7

SmoothStepper USB / Re: SS Locking up mach3

« on: May 13, 2010, 04:46:26 AM »

I have used SS for a couple years with no problems until today. While jogging into position, the servos would not stop and I had to ESTOP to halt motion. Mach 3 main screen displayed (Not Responding) and I had to task manager out to quit and restart. Mach 3 and SS come back for about 1 minute then Mach 3 stops responding again. The charge pump stays active during this problem and it is a bit of a hazard since Mach 3 is not really pumping! I downloaded the latest code from Warp9 and Mach3 site, reinstalled everything, and the problem remains. I have to restart the CPU to recover so Mach 3 can recognize the USB SmoothStepper. I have already tried a different USB cable and am not running through an external USB Hub. This problem just occurred with no changes to my system or config files. I have proper grounding and it use to work flawlessly until today. Did SS or Mach3 fail? What more can I do to resolve the problem?

8

Mach SDK plugin questions and answers. / Mach3 to DC Servo conversion

« on: February 28, 2010, 02:11:46 AM »

I use DC servos with optical encoders on my mill through a step/dir interface on each axis. Currently, I use the USB Smooth-Stepper hardware to interface the PC to my servos axis controllers (which works very well) however, with a processor running each axis, it seems a shame to be wasting it on processing steps and direction pulses.

I'd like to create a plug-in or interface code that allows me to send Mach3 position, speed and direction information directly to my controllers without going through the step-direction hardware interface. Whether through serial like MaxStepper, or USB like Smooth-Stepper, I don't mind which comms interface.

What does Mach3 send to devices like SmoothStepper that encodes the information that I can send directly into my controllers?
How do I get access to that type of real-time information? What drivers would I need to write? What can I expect from Mach3?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
-Robert

9

SmoothStepper USB / Re: Error 9991 Activating SS Plugin

« on: October 13, 2008, 06:57:11 PM »

Hood,
You pegged it! It works fine now.

In my inability to make perfect sense of the installation instructions, I selected Config Plugins from the Config Menu. I checked the SmoothStepper box and upon Mach3 restart bam!

Thanks for moving me to a successful completion of this problem.

Much appreciated,
-Robert

10

SmoothStepper USB / Re: Error 9991 Activating SS Plugin

« on: October 13, 2008, 03:40:03 PM »

Thanks Rich,
I just installed 3.041 to see if that made a difference and it didn't. I've also performed all the XP optimization techniques with no success. I tried Safe Mode, nothing, in fact I'm getting the same response whether or not the SS USB cable is plugged in or not. Of course when the USB is not plugged in, I don't get the red & blue glowing LEDs on the SS.

If there is some diagnostic I can run to give me a sanity check it would be great to know. BTW: I've used this same computer with the PP and it works great with Mach3 (any version) I've never seen any Mach3 generated errors until I plugged in the SmoothStepper.

Your help is greatly appreciated, I at a standstill here until this works!

Thanks,
-Robert