Messages

1

Galil / Mach as motion control Galil RIO as I/O

« on: May 11, 2009, 01:02:46 PM »

I am not sure if this is possible but, Could you use Mach to control step/direction drives but use the RIO for analog I/O like analog feedrate override?

Thanks,
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2

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach Ballbar test?

« on: May 04, 2009, 06:00:50 AM »

Hi all,
I too have been trying to come up with a cheaper Ballbar device than the Renishaw version. FYI there was a used one on Ebay for $6000.!

I have found a LVDT which will output a quadrature signal or an Rs232 signal.  You can download a free version of the Renishaw ballbar software.

I want to develop something which will work within Mach that woud allow eveyone to have the ability to quickly evaluate their machine's health/accuracy.

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3

General Mach Discussion / Re: Steppers run rough in program run/ smooth in tuning?

« on: April 24, 2009, 10:58:35 AM »

Thanks again Jeff,
i just read that whole thread. I think My system has that same processor. I will have to look at the Mobo though to see if that's the same as well. if so maybe that combo is the problem.

I will try a pci parallel card as well, just to see.

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4

General Mach Discussion / Re: Steppers run rough in program run/ smooth in tuning?

« on: April 24, 2009, 10:21:02 AM »

Thanks jeff,
I thnk i have a parallel port card somewhere, Maybe I will try that.

BTW,
I did click the link you had posted but I didn't find a thread just your link to the Smoothstepper. Did I not get the right link?

Thanks,
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5

General Mach Discussion / Re: Steppers run rough in program run/ smooth in tuning?

« on: April 24, 2009, 09:01:56 AM »

And now for the rest of the story...
Last night I tried the suggestions, Hibernate, Bios settings, Sherline mode. all with the same results, Motors ran smooth in the drive tuning but as soon as I saved the settings and went back to any main screen, the motors ran rough and periodically stalled. the motors would smooth out if I moved the mouse.

O.K. time to try something different I thought. Disconnected the lathe computer, Hooked it up to the Router. Put all the same step resolutions, Accels, Velocities in. Voilla! Smooth as silk! I was able to actually increase the rapid a bit from what I could run with Wincnc.

Lathe computer, 1.8ghz P4 IBM Netvista able to run @ 199khz. XP service pack2

Computer I WAS going to use for the router, Dual core 3ghz IBM Netvista, XP service pack2

I have to conclude that either Windows, or Mach do not utilise the dual core processor properly, at least in my case.

Hope that helps someone else,
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6

General Mach Discussion / Re: Steppers run rough in program run/ smooth in tuning?

« on: April 23, 2009, 12:20:23 PM »

Thanks for the tips Jeff,
I did do  the driver test and it came up probably the smoothest of any of my Mach pc's yet!
I did try the signals for both step/direction in the active hi, and active low. I changed 1 at a time. man lots of combo's you can test!

I did not however try the sherline mode as i didn't know what that did.

Cool. More things to test!

Thanks,
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7

General Mach Discussion / Re: Steppers run rough in program run/ smooth in tuning?

« on: April 23, 2009, 11:39:53 AM »

Thanks Hood,
i didn't think of the Bios settings.

I want to run a test of Mach vs Wincnc on my router with a 3d file I recently ran. The run time with Wincnc was 6.5 hours.

Hopefully the bios setting idea will help,

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8

General Mach Discussion / Re: Steppers run rough in program run/ smooth in tuning?

« on: April 23, 2009, 11:25:22 AM »

I did try shutting the screen saver off as well as dis-abling the hibernation mode. Even set the configuration to desktop.

I am stumped! It does sound like some sort of Windoze   sleepy thing though!

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9

General Mach Discussion / Re: Steppers run rough in program run/ smooth in tuning?

« on: April 23, 2009, 11:09:30 AM »

Thanks Hood,
Sorry I forgot to mention,
I tried the puse width at from 1-5, the Kernel speeed at 25Khz- 100khz, Re-tuned the motors each time.  Cv on, Cv off, Step, direction Active low checked, un-checked.

Also I had initially set the machine up with Mach running on a laptop (2ghz processor 2 gig ram) With the same results, which made me think it was worth trying on a desktop system.

the thing that baffles me is that, I was testing a program on the laptop, and when I had Mach on the Program run screen the motors were running 1/2 decent, i switched to the diagnostics screen and the motors were smooth. Every time I moved the mouse the motors would smooth out while moving the mouse,both the laptop and the desktop. i even un-plugged the mouse but the motors were still rough.
 
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10

General Mach Discussion / Steppers run rough in program run/ smooth in tuning?

« on: April 23, 2009, 09:14:48 AM »

Hi,
I have a practical cnc router that originally came with Wincnc. I wanted to try Mach on this machine as I use mach on my lathe. The set up is,
Pc Dell desktop, dual core processor, 1 g ram.
Stepper drives IMS 483's running 48v.
Motors Pacsci 270 oz/in motors.

Mach v3.042
Steps per- 2038 on the x and Y (rack / pinion), 10000 on the Z (Ball screw)
Accel 100, Velocity x,y (400) z (100)

The weird thing is that in the motor tuning, These settings work smooth as silk. As soon as I save the changes and go back to the program, Mdi screens the machine runs like crap! However, If I am manually jogging and move the mouse, the motors smooth out! At least while I am moving the mouse.

In Wincnc i can run these motors @ 600"/min rapid. In Mach only about 450"/min before the motors are stalling.

Any help appreciated,
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