Messages

51

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

« on: March 02, 2008, 10:45:08 PM »

It may very well be an electrical issue as all 3 axes are doing it. But I would make absolutely sure that there is nothing wrong mechanically.
But that's just me. I'm more of a mechanic than electrician.
Good luck Monte,
RC

Man, you're QUICK !
Well......that shoots my thoery in the arse.
I'm sure there is someone on this forum that can help here.
Regards,
RC

The table and headstock is fine mechanically.  Loosed the leadscrews and moved everything around by hand, slides fine.

Monte

52

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

« on: March 02, 2008, 10:30:02 PM »

Just took all the steppers off and set them on the table, it still does it.

Monte

53

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

« on: March 02, 2008, 10:15:58 PM »

>Hello Monte,
>Have you verified that you have NO undue mechanical loads on the motors ?
>Are the ways free and well lubed ? Screws, nuts and bearings clean, lubed and free ?

No, but I think it's fine mechanically.  It's lubed and clean.

>You mentioned that it had been idle for some time. (I get gummy when I do that)
>You might disconnect the motor couplings or remove the belts and see if the motors miss any steps with no load on them.

I guess I could try that.  It's a hassle, but I'll give it a go.

One thing else, it's inconsistent.  It's running at 5 ipm right now.  It started out fine, but it's starting to miss steps again as the program runs.

Monte

54

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

« on: March 02, 2008, 08:58:40 PM »

First post here.  I've had a Taig CNC for a couple years now, never got it working really well.  Just started to work with it again hoping to get it running.  Been following Mach since Mach1, using Mach3.

Running Mach on a 1.5ghz Pentium 4 machine, 640mb ram.  The cpu has been overclocked from 1ghz to 1.5ghz.  The Windows XP installation is not very old, though several programs have been installed and uninstalled, etc.  If I have to, I suppose I could re-install it, again.

Here's the issue, I wrote a little program that goes
F10
G90
G1 X2 Y1 Z1
G1 X1 Y.5 Z.5
G1 X3 Y1.5 Z1.5
G1 X2 Y1 Z1
.....
G0 X0 Y0 Z0

I took a digital camera video so you could see the movement and hear the steppers.  I sounds like they're losing steps, at 10 ipm.  I did a FRO 10%, and it sounds the same at 1 ipm.  I can see the motors stutter, all 3 axes do it.  Mach3 is running at 25,000hz, it did it at 35,000hz too.  Step pulse is 1, Dir pulse is 0.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVW-lYR9Yyg

Does anyone have an idea what I need to do?  Is it the computer?  Setup/motor tuning?

Thanks,
Monte

55

General Mach Discussion / Re: Axis only goes one way

« on: March 01, 2008, 09:12:57 PM »

Got the axes going the right way, had to change the Pin#'s for the Motor Outputs to match the Xylotex Pin#'s.

Still not too sure about Merlin.

Monte

56

General Mach Discussion / Axis only goes one way

« on: March 01, 2008, 08:29:47 PM »

Just starting up a Taig Mill and Mach3 for the first time.  The mill (and controller) have been run with Mach2 in the past (at least a year or more ago).  Everything worked fine, cut some stuff.  When I use the cursor keys to jog, the X axis will only move one direction with either the left or right arrow key pressed.  If I enter a positive or negative value (g0 x1 OR g0 x-1) into the MDI line the axis still goes only one direction.  Granted, I've just hooked the PC and controller together for the first time in over a year, but they did work together with Mach2.  No changes electronically have been made.

Thanks,
Monte
PS: Is the animated Merlin character part of Mach3, or Windows XP?  I'd really like to make it disappear.

57

*****VIDEOS***** / Re: New unofficial tutorials section added .......

« on: February 23, 2008, 07:53:50 PM »

I tried to log onto the tutorials at youtube and got "This group does not have open membership" when trying to become a member.