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General Mach Discussion / Re: reproducable fault makes no sense to me
« on: December 08, 2016, 06:01:48 PM »
New findings:
I can cause Mach3 to freeze by pulsing the X, Y, Z, or A axes. I can also get it to freeze by just pulsing the XZERO button. So far I have been unable to get it to freeze by pulsing the X, Y, or Z axes via the keyboard.
I was seeing Mach3 freeze this morning when the shop was at 68 degrees F and it acts the same now that it is 78 degrees F.
The fact that I can get Mach3 to freeze by pushing the XZERO button proves the problem is not related to the steppers moving. Less certain but still likely that the freezing does not occur when using the keyboard. It is also likely that the problem is not temperature dependent.
A theory: It is likely that asynchronous key presses on the keyboard are turned into synchronous events seen by the keyboard hardware so there is never a set up time problem that could lead to a logic 1/2. Otherwise, occasionally the PC hardware would miss the pressing of a key and the software would not respond. I have never seen this happen. Maybe the asynchronous events from the Xbox controller are not turned into synchronous events seen by the PC. This means that occasionally, minimum set up time would not be satisfied. Maybe that causes the hardware in the PC to see a logic 1/2 and freeze up. The built in Xbox controller diagnostic seems to not freeze up (can't prove it) so maybe they protect against logic 1/2 in the software while the Mach3's software isn't that sophisticated. I'm not positive that software can handle this case but a search of the web did not turn up any games running on XP that use the Xbox controller that freeze up once other problems have been corrected.
I sure would like to hear from others that use the Xbox controller. If you repeatedly push the XZERO button quickly about 50 times, does Mach3 freeze for you? Periodically move the cursor to test for the frozen condition.
I can cause Mach3 to freeze by pulsing the X, Y, Z, or A axes. I can also get it to freeze by just pulsing the XZERO button. So far I have been unable to get it to freeze by pulsing the X, Y, or Z axes via the keyboard.
I was seeing Mach3 freeze this morning when the shop was at 68 degrees F and it acts the same now that it is 78 degrees F.
The fact that I can get Mach3 to freeze by pushing the XZERO button proves the problem is not related to the steppers moving. Less certain but still likely that the freezing does not occur when using the keyboard. It is also likely that the problem is not temperature dependent.
A theory: It is likely that asynchronous key presses on the keyboard are turned into synchronous events seen by the keyboard hardware so there is never a set up time problem that could lead to a logic 1/2. Otherwise, occasionally the PC hardware would miss the pressing of a key and the software would not respond. I have never seen this happen. Maybe the asynchronous events from the Xbox controller are not turned into synchronous events seen by the PC. This means that occasionally, minimum set up time would not be satisfied. Maybe that causes the hardware in the PC to see a logic 1/2 and freeze up. The built in Xbox controller diagnostic seems to not freeze up (can't prove it) so maybe they protect against logic 1/2 in the software while the Mach3's software isn't that sophisticated. I'm not positive that software can handle this case but a search of the web did not turn up any games running on XP that use the Xbox controller that freeze up once other problems have been corrected.
I sure would like to hear from others that use the Xbox controller. If you repeatedly push the XZERO button quickly about 50 times, does Mach3 freeze for you? Periodically move the cursor to test for the frozen condition.