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General Mach Discussion / Re: Odd problem: Z axis stalls X or Y or both
« on: March 17, 2013, 10:59:36 PM »
Thank you for the replies.
Overload, your questions got me thinking about how to troubleshoot the software and rrc1962, I appreciate your response, but I'm not sure you understood the problem correctly.
I spent sometime testing out my Mach 3 configuration today and managed to find the problem, the culprit - backlash compensation. More specifically, too quick of a Shuttle Accel time.
To begin testing the software, I detached the 3 stepper motors and placed them on my workbench and began playing with Mach 3's settings. I noticed that the Z axis output only caused the other axis to stall when I changed the Z direction - I hadn't noticed this detail before. When I slowed the rapid speeds to the point where they didn't stall, I noticed that the X or Y axis motor would "skip" on the workbench when I changed the direction of the Z output as the other axis was moving. This "skip" didn't happen when only the X and Y outputs were jogged simultaneously. This brought to mind the backlash compensation settings and when I called them up, sure enough, I had only set the Z axis. After disabling backlash compensation altogether, the problem was gone!
After testing the backlash compensation settings, I discovered that I needed to reduce the Shuttle Acceleration settings in the general config. This makes complete sense as the X and Y axis motors would jog along nicely until the Z direction was changed. This causes the X and Y axis to temporarily pause while the Z axis makes the adjustment. As I increased the rapid speeds, this pause became too abrupt and would stall the motors. Reducing the shuttle accel time to a more appropriate time for my rapids has solved this problem!
Thank you! It is nice to learn a bit more about these machines and the software through this.
Justin
Overload, your questions got me thinking about how to troubleshoot the software and rrc1962, I appreciate your response, but I'm not sure you understood the problem correctly.
I spent sometime testing out my Mach 3 configuration today and managed to find the problem, the culprit - backlash compensation. More specifically, too quick of a Shuttle Accel time.
To begin testing the software, I detached the 3 stepper motors and placed them on my workbench and began playing with Mach 3's settings. I noticed that the Z axis output only caused the other axis to stall when I changed the Z direction - I hadn't noticed this detail before. When I slowed the rapid speeds to the point where they didn't stall, I noticed that the X or Y axis motor would "skip" on the workbench when I changed the direction of the Z output as the other axis was moving. This "skip" didn't happen when only the X and Y outputs were jogged simultaneously. This brought to mind the backlash compensation settings and when I called them up, sure enough, I had only set the Z axis. After disabling backlash compensation altogether, the problem was gone!
After testing the backlash compensation settings, I discovered that I needed to reduce the Shuttle Acceleration settings in the general config. This makes complete sense as the X and Y axis motors would jog along nicely until the Z direction was changed. This causes the X and Y axis to temporarily pause while the Z axis makes the adjustment. As I increased the rapid speeds, this pause became too abrupt and would stall the motors. Reducing the shuttle accel time to a more appropriate time for my rapids has solved this problem!
Thank you! It is nice to learn a bit more about these machines and the software through this.
Justin