Messages

31

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

32

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

33

General Mach Discussion / Re: Shut down Windows services, which ones?

« on: March 23, 2008, 02:28:30 PM »

The optimisation list is on the main downloads page.
Hood

Thanks, I have that one.  There used to be one listing Windows Services that could be shut down.  I found some lists on the WWW that describe what services can be shut down.

Monte

34

General Mach Discussion / Re: Shut down Windows services, which ones?

« on: March 23, 2008, 12:18:34 PM »

I've found there are several lists on the WWW to be found.  I've gone through a couple, see what happens.

Monte

35

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

36

General Mach Discussion / Re: Missing steps at 10 ipm? Taig, Mach3, Xylotex

« on: March 22, 2008, 01:45:57 AM »

try and borrow a scope or even get one cheap on eBay, you dont need anything special so should get it cheap enough.
Hood

I wouldn't know what to get, or how to use it.  I did buy a TPI Scope Plus 460 a couple years ago, haven't used it.  Don't know how, not sure if it would even work for this sort of stuff.  Can you give me an idea if it would work and how?  2 Channel, 20mhz.

Thanks,
Monte

37

General Mach Discussion / Re: Missing steps at 10 ipm? Taig, Mach3, Xylotex

« on: March 19, 2008, 12:47:06 AM »

Hi all,
If you can hold the stepper....RICH

Thanks for all that Rich, it's not mechanical.  It's from the PC.  I had a Xylotex board, now have Gecko drivers and they both sound the same for the most part.  Not losing steps like I was, but the weird interruption is still there, but I don't think I'm losing steps.  Could Mach be sort of burping, but still know where it is?

Monte

38

General Mach Discussion / Re: Missing steps at 10 ipm? Taig, Mach3, Xylotex

« on: March 18, 2008, 08:54:09 AM »

Hey all,
Thanks for the tips.  Been tied up with other stuff (this is a hobby).  I've since changed stepper drivers, now I'm not losing the steps.  I think it was a resonance issue.  But the motors still have a slight tick in them.  The buzz they makes a slight repetitive pause on long straight runs, all three axes do it when they're all moving at the same time.  Seems like there's something in the pulse stream from the computer to me.

I have a computer with an AMD cpu in it that I can try, but that's it for other computers except the one I have with 64 bit XP on it which doesn't load the Mach driver.

Monte

39

LazyCam (Beta) / Re: LazyCam 3.00.1 from ftp site, can't install

« on: March 17, 2008, 04:05:41 AM »

I had downloaded 3.00.1 from the ftp site a couple times, same error each time.

The copy/version you linked to worked, thanks.

Monte

40

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