Messages

641

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 Driver Test - no line & zero pulses per second

« on: August 01, 2013, 05:10:09 AM »

Well that's me told... I'll get my coat.

642

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 Output For DC Motor Control

« on: August 01, 2013, 05:00:12 AM »

Not speaking for PurpleThumb here but as I understand it he's suggesting this as a way to implement your own drive that DOES accept PWM rather than use an off-the-shelf drive that expects an analogue voltage.

Personally I think it sounds like a nice (and dirt cheap) idea for those that want to roll their own.

(But then I know squat about driving large DC motors so I might be backing the wrong horse here for all I know).

Ian

643

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 Driver Test - no line & zero pulses per second

« on: July 31, 2013, 06:45:44 AM »

I don't beleive it, the driver test is working on a normal XP installation and no optimisation, ha ha.

Now I'll have to disable things one by one to see which one it is that killed it.

Ian

644

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 Driver Test - no line & zero pulses per second

« on: July 31, 2013, 05:53:58 AM »

XP installed in Standard PC mode
Go through XP optimisation
Motherboard drivers installed
Install Mach3 and reboot
Run driver test - no line, and zero pulses per second, even though says system under Mach3 control

Keith - don't know if this is the issue or not - but you did read THIS from the optimization guide first right?

NOTE: ***** Before doing ANY optimising, run MAch3 first, odds are you dont need to optimise.
          ***** and before optimising, use msconfig to shut off all Startup Items, then reboot.
          Killing stratup Items fixed 90% of computers having any troubel with MAch3.
         Optimising should NEVER be done priot to knowing a problem exists.

Ian

645

General Mach Discussion / Re: Save DROs to text file

« on: July 30, 2013, 10:16:12 AM »

sittinduck - I reckon you'd be better off sorting the freezing issue rather than saving the DROs. When you restore them it may not do what you might think it will. For example - you don't say whether you're using the parallel port but if you are you get all sorts of random signals from it when you boot so that would cause your axes to move. You could of course turn off your drivers but that causes other issues especially if you're microstepping.

Ian

646

General Mach Discussion / Re: Really basic spindle control question

« on: July 30, 2013, 09:49:59 AM »

The reasons I need to pause are to change tooltips, tweak Z zero, and check part dimensions.  Is there an accepted way to do this without restarting the spindle manually?

I might be missing something here but if by "change tooltips" you mean "change tool" then surely you don't need to feedhold and run from here - you just have the correct toolchange sequence in gcode (M6 T.../M3 etc.) and tick "stop spindle - wait for cycle start in toolchange on the config screen.

Ian

647

VB and the development of wizards / Re: ismoving() error message

« on: July 30, 2013, 05:07:33 AM »

Well you still have questionable logic in there. Also - why have you re-instated the API sleep - didn't you believe my earlier answer? Also - the while isMoving that fails should have a short sleep in it. I'm not saying this is WHY it fails or that it will fix your problem but it's not good practice.

Re: the speed of VB (CB) - trust me it's way faster than your mechanics - this is NOT the reason for slowness.

BTW - can you explain exactly what INDEX and OEMTRIG1 do? - I'm not sure why you appear to need TWO signals for alignment?

648

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: New people welcome !! Come in here and introduce your self!

« on: July 27, 2013, 01:58:20 PM »

Hi George - welcome.

Just post your question in General Mach Discussion and I'm sure someone will be along to help pretty soon.

Ian

649

VB and the development of wizards / Re: Need help: VB macro compile error

« on: July 26, 2013, 10:53:38 AM »

Not sure if I'm off track here but when you say "using the home button" how do you mean? I ask because you can't "hit" the screen home button from code (like you can with say cycle-start with doOEMButton etc.). The home BUTTON (on the standard screen anyway) is just a script and doesn't have an OEM code. If you want to home C from code you'd just do a doOEMButton(1027).

650

VB and the development of wizards / Re: Need help: VB macro compile error

« on: July 26, 2013, 10:31:31 AM »

I'm guessing the short answer was yes. (But nicely avoided BTW  )

Not a good idea to create macros under 100. They're "reserved".

Also not a good idea to call a macro from a macro. It's likely to turn around and kick you up the ***.