Messages

81

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 Driver Test

« on: June 14, 2007, 10:01:15 AM »

Check to make sure that your monitor is not hooked to the mother board connector. If it is, you are probably using the on board video on the mother board. If so do the following:

If the video card you removed was a pci type card, put it back. Hook the monitor to it.

Go into the bios setup when the computer starts up and look for an option to disable the onboard video.

If you find this option disable it.

See if that fixes your problem.

I am currently running Mach on a computer that has onboard video, but the bios allowed me to disable it. I am using an el cheapo PCI video card.

My dad's mini mill on the other hand was a nightmare. I disabled everything, took out all the cards, and used a pci video card all to no avail. There was no way to disable the onboard video even if I ran a pci card. So I just had to replace the motherboard.

Mach just won't work with some on board video.

Hopefully your bios has the option to disable it.

You might also look to see if there is a jumper on the MB to disable the on board video.

If that doesn't work we'll go from there. 

Monty

82

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 Driver Test

« on: June 13, 2007, 10:45:10 PM »

Does your computer have onboard video or a seperate video card?

I have had a lot of trouble with motherboards with onboard video that share ram.

Monty

83

Mach3 and G-Rex / Re: how to config motors with G100

« on: June 13, 2007, 10:25:56 PM »

Well,

Close, but no cigar.

Although not a qualified proctologist, I can state that Grahm's butt crack is problematic. Although the problem is not terminal .

The file runs well enough. Most motion is smooth with no big catastrophies. The one problem seems to be with inflection points. Especially into and out of the "crack". At or just after the inflection the motors will miss steps. This mostly occurs with the Z but also with the X and Y. It definately is inflection (change of curvature) or just after that causes the problem. Although the majority of the problems occur into and out of the "crack" they can also occur on the top of the "cheek" and also towards the "thigh". Always at or just after an inflection point in the tool path. The sharper the inflection the worse the problem. A slight inflection may go bump-bump. A larger one bump-----bump-bump--bump-b-b-b-bump.

Monty

84

Mach3 and G-Rex / Re: how to config motors with G100

« on: June 13, 2007, 08:22:23 PM »

I'm a little concerned about your file naming convention .

Although not a qualified proctologist, I will attempt to explore Grahms_Butt_Crack with a 3000Lb power tool. All in the interest of science of course.

Seriously though; you guys should be carefull, poppabear and Mr Chaos naming files in such a way. I am starting to have visions of the village people. What exaclty are you guys doing at this "workshop"? Is Mr. Smithers there?


Monty

85

Mach3 and G-Rex / Re: how to config motors with G100

« on: June 11, 2007, 09:23:02 PM »

Doing some additional testing I found that when homing an axis individually it is much more stable. It did fail to home all the way a few times, but it did at least back off the limit. Hitting home again would fix the problem.

I also noticed that when you hit the goto Zero button the X and Y move before the Z so don't hit goto Zero if your Z is down in a workpiece.

Monty

86

Mach3 and G-Rex / Re: how to config motors with G100

« on: June 10, 2007, 12:26:25 PM »

Guys, I am experiencing exactly same problems! However, my setup was working for long time just fine with one of the older versions of Mach3, Grex plug in and Grex software (I think I installed this earlier this year or late last year). As I had a problem (as did others) with the CNC program stopping for no reason in the middle of a job, I recently decided to update the software. I updated to the latest version of everything which I downloaded two days ago. And this is when these problems started... I am also using a common switch for axis limit and home for each axis. There is no problem with Z axis homing, just like on Monty's machine. And I see all the problems Monty has. As he did, I tried everything, but nothing works. My switches are magnetic with schotky (very clean) output and everything is well screened (and as I said, it was working with older version of software perfectly). There is another common thing in Monty's and my setup - we are both using NC (Normally Closed) limit switches (which Brett isn't). I really cannot think of anything else but that the problem is in the software and we need Art to look at it. Perhaps Brian can ask him? What version of Mach3 and Grex software are you running, Brett? By the way, even if changing switches to normally open would possibly work, I do not want to do this for safety reasons. If any wire to a swich or a switch itself breaks, with Normally Closed switches the machine will simply stop immediatly. But with Normally Open switches it will not stop even when it reaches the limit position!!! Not a good prospect as you can imagine.

Regards, Ivan

Ivan,

Thanks for responding, for a while there I thought I was going crazy. I spoke with Brian on the phone and he wanted me to try homing on the diagnostics page with each axis independently rather than using the reff all home button. You might try the same thing. If we get the same problem (or not) it will help Art and Brian track down the cause. The way I uderstood what Brian said was that each piece of hardware handles things differently and they have to write the plugin/interface for that specific hardware. Some hardware gives them more freedom to handle the limit switch event. Others (like Grex) handle the routine in the firmware. (Brian correct me if I have this all wrong)

The regular debounce settings have no effect on the Grex.

One thing I have learned the hard way is that if this problem occurs, your best bet is to exit and restart Mach. Once it happens the limit switches become unreliable and you might crash the machine. Be safe and overide the limit, drive off, and restart Mach if one axis fails to home properly.

The bottom line is the people experiencing this problem can help isolate the cause by homing each axis individually and seeing if they have the same problem. So far I have not. I will do some more testing today.

Monty

87

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: Monty's Problematic Contraption

« on: June 10, 2007, 12:01:07 PM »

Tidy looking mill, looks to be in slightly better condition than mine. What backlash do you have? mine is about 1.5 thou on X and 1thou Y and 1/10th on Z.

Hood

Hood,

This one has X-1.5 Y-1.7 Z-0. I'm thinking of having the X and Y axis ballscrews rebuilt. I'm currently trying to find the source of the backlash, sometimes the bearings at the end of the screws need to be replaced. It may also be in the ball nut or the balls may be worn. I would like to get the backlash down under .5 thou.

Monty

88

Mach3 and G-Rex / Re: how to config motors with G100

« on: June 06, 2007, 11:37:02 PM »

Just so you guys don't think that I have a rats nest next to a Tesla coil for wiring I posted some pics of the offending machine in the show an tell area:

http://www.artsoftcontrols.com/forum/index.php?topic=3379.0

also attached my latest .xml

Monty

89

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: Monty's Problematic Contraption

« on: June 06, 2007, 11:31:01 PM »

Here is a pic of the ways, the cabinet and how I mounted the computer.

90

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Monty's Problematic Contraption

« on: June 06, 2007, 11:16:24 PM »

Well here is my mill. It is a Bridgeport Boss5. It was once an AH-HA retrofit. I replaced the computer and original AH-HA control card with a new computer and Mach3 with a G100. I kept the AH-HA stepper drivers and power supply. One reason I got rid of the HA-HA control was the lack of ethernet, CD drive, USB or anything other than RS232 and crappy floppy drive. It was great 10 years ago, but not anymore. I replaced the Floppy with a USB hub on the pendant. Now I can use a USB camera, a mouse, or a Shuttle pro pendant. .

The pics are of the mill,  the old screen under AH-HA control, and the new pendant with the USB hub.