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Topics - montejw

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1
I just started probing and looked at the output .txt file and see that the retraction point (Z up) is being recorded as well as the contact point (Z down).  Is that correct?  Doesn't seem like I'd want those points.

Monte

2
SmoothStepper USB / Picture of your controller/SmoothStepper?
« on: March 29, 2008, 11:49:04 PM »
I would am on the list to purchase one of these.  Does anyone have a picture of their controller with the SS they could post up?  Having a hard time wrapping my head around how 2 parallel ports on the board are used, or if they're required to be used?  Can the drivers be connected directly to the SS?  It doesn't look like it from the pictures of the proto board I've seen.

thanks,
Monte

3
Mach3 and G-Rex / Is the G-Rex plug-in still being developed?
« on: March 29, 2008, 10:00:06 PM »
Is the plug-in for the G-Rex and Mach3 still in development?  Is it going to be developed to the full potential of the G-Rex ($400).  I bought one because I'm not getting good pulse stream from my PC and don't want to start "swapping" PC's trying to find one that will work.  And if I can get it to work I can use it on my 64 bit Windows XP computer that won't load the Mach3 driver.  Or maybe from a Wintel Mac.

I like Gecko products, and some of the future things Mariss is working on sound very cool.  BUT, if the G-Rex isn't going to be fully supported by Mach3, it might be an expensive breakout board.

I've read that Gecko isn't going to develop it any further.  I've also read that there is a new servo stepper driver that will hook up to the G-Rex and make the unstallable stepper driver, that's what I'm sort of waiting for.  But it still needs signals from Mach.  I would eventually like to control a spindle (tapping) and such if possible which I understand doesn't work right now, will it?

thanks,
Monte

4
General Mach Discussion / Shut down Windows services, which ones?
« on: March 22, 2008, 09:03:13 PM »
There used to be a list of Windows Services that could be shut down/disabled that would help Mach, is that list around anymore?  The optimization.txt file that I've seen lately doesn't have that.  Did shutting down the services end up not helping?

Monte

5
LazyCam (Beta) / LazyCam 3.00.1 from ftp site, can't install
« on: March 17, 2008, 02:59:16 AM »
I get a dialog titled "Setup Specialist" with the message "INTERNAL ERROR B109-11 Cannot decompress setup program."

What could be wrong?  I did purchase a Pro Upgrade, but don't have my key yet.  I do have a Mach license.

Thanks,
Monte

6
I just installed Mach3 on Windows XP Professional x64, the 64 bit version of XP.  Tried DriverTest.exe, got the error message "No Driver sensed installed.  Run Driver Test.", so I did, and I got the error message "No Driver sensed installed.  Run Driver Test.", so I did, and I got the error message "No Driver sensed....

Well, I really only ran it once.  Or twice.  Anyway, has Mach3 been run successfully on 64 bit Windows XP?

If you've seen my other thread, I reinstalled Windows XP (32 bit) on that computer, reinstalled Mach3, and I still have the same problem.  I'm looking at other things now, harmonic dampers for the steppers and such.  But I thought I'd try to run Mach3 on a different computer, and the 64 bit XP is the only other one I have.

Thanks,
Monte

7
First post here.  I've had a Taig CNC for a couple years now, never got it working really well.  Just started to work with it again hoping to get it running.  Been following Mach since Mach1, using Mach3.

Running Mach on a 1.5ghz Pentium 4 machine, 640mb ram.  The cpu has been overclocked from 1ghz to 1.5ghz.  The Windows XP installation is not very old, though several programs have been installed and uninstalled, etc.  If I have to, I suppose I could re-install it, again.

Here's the issue, I wrote a little program that goes
F10
G90
G1 X2 Y1 Z1
G1 X1 Y.5 Z.5
G1 X3 Y1.5 Z1.5
G1 X2 Y1 Z1
.....
G0 X0 Y0 Z0

I took a digital camera video so you could see the movement and hear the steppers.  I sounds like they're losing steps, at 10 ipm.  I did a FRO 10%, and it sounds the same at 1 ipm.  I can see the motors stutter, all 3 axes do it.  Mach3 is running at 25,000hz, it did it at 35,000hz too.  Step pulse is 1, Dir pulse is 0.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVW-lYR9Yyg

Does anyone have an idea what I need to do?  Is it the computer?  Setup/motor tuning?

Thanks,
Monte


8
General Mach Discussion / Axis only goes one way
« on: March 01, 2008, 08:29:47 PM »
Just starting up a Taig Mill and Mach3 for the first time.  The mill (and controller) have been run with Mach2 in the past (at least a year or more ago).  Everything worked fine, cut some stuff.  When I use the cursor keys to jog, the X axis will only move one direction with either the left or right arrow key pressed.  If I enter a positive or negative value (g0 x1 OR g0 x-1) into the MDI line the axis still goes only one direction.  Granted, I've just hooked the PC and controller together for the first time in over a year, but they did work together with Mach2.  No changes electronically have been made.

Thanks,
Monte
PS: Is the animated Merlin character part of Mach3, or Windows XP?  I'd really like to make it disappear.

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