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General Mach Discussion / HELP!!! Mach won't work after update

« on: August 03, 2012, 02:58:36 AM »

Hi,
I'm really, really hoping someone out there can help me: I updated mach finally, from the old version I was running, and now I can't get any response from my machine if I try jogging, etc from the newly installed version. I've been putting off updating the software since it seems as if I'm cursed: anytime I try something like this, regardless of the program, I seem to run into some issue and the update is a disaster. Case in point, my attempt to bring mach up to date. I'll describe what I did and hopefully someone will be able to help me get things up and running again (cus I absolutely NEED to have my machine working, as it's for my job, so this is truly truly bad for me): I downloaded the new lockdown version off of the artsoft website, renamed it to "mach3.5"when prompted so it was saved in my computer/c:/ directory under that heading (since my original version of mach was already saved there under "mach3", and I'm neurotic/was worried I'd overwrite my first version and lose my license info). That seemed to work, i.e; I was led through all the screens where I had to click "accept" for licensing, etc, was shown the "under mach3 control" screen - basically, the install seemed like it went smoothly, without a hitch. I re-booted, as per instruction, then copied the license file from my old version of mach to the new "Mach3.2" folder in myy C:/ directory, and when I ran the new version it showed that the updated software had been correctly registered/my license had transferred. I re-entered all my settings, then tried to just quickly jog my axes to see if there were any issues, and nothing. I can't get any response from the motors, and there isn't any indication in the diagnostic screen if I trip either home or limit switches. I'm gonna go back through (again) the documentation available on installing the software, in case I'm missing something but PLEASE if anyone should read this and can suggest something I should try, I would be unbelievably grateful. If I can't get this working I am, no exaggeration, screwed

2

Galil / second opinions...

« on: July 24, 2012, 03:00:46 PM »

Hi,
First, thanks to the folks who posted all the info re: comprehensive Galil/Mach compatibility issues. It's great to have that as a resource, especially as I'm shopping around for a Galil set up for my own machine at the moment. While I know this is probably touched on under that topic, I'm sorta neurotic (plus not in too much of a position where I can afford either spending money in the wrong direction, or losing time), so I'm hoping anyone could provide some reassurance about what I've narrowed down for possible DMC choices. I'm looking at either a DMC 2160 or DMC 1842 for a motion controller - at present I've got a stepper based machine running, but I'm building a larger servo unit that has Kollmorgen S300 and S600 servostar drive's, if that helps at all. Really, I'm just trying to make absolutely sure I don't end up wasting money w a controller that either doesn't work, or needs so much finessing to get running it'll prove to be a nightmare. Thanks in advance to anyone who can spare a few minutes to put my mind at a ease w this....
Thank you

3

General Mach Discussion / crashing....

« on: July 23, 2012, 05:53:24 AM »

I'm hoping someone might be able to help me out w this: I've been running my machine, no problem for about a week. Right now I've been using vectric's demo version of photo v carve so I can dial everything in, just clamping a pencil to my z axis and fooling around w the available images in order to see what sorta precision, etc I can get after building my set up. I was curious to try another program geared towards engraving photographic images, so I downloaded the demo for "image to g-code", and that's about when my troubles started. First, I tried importing the g code that program had generated into mach, but I got nothing back: no motion, the code would start scrolling then stop, then I'd get an error stating mach had encountered problems and needed to close. After a few times w this, I tried switching back to the vectric software and the problem followed me. Now, I can't get the slightest motion outta my setup and mach kee[s freezing and/or and/then crashing. I've erased the imagetogcode program and run all the malware, etc utilities on the computer but so far nothing has restored what, til this event, was a perfectly operating little machine. This is driving me nuts, so I really (REALLY) hope someone might have some suggestion about what I could try in order to resolve this. Many thanks in advance