Messages

401

General Mach Discussion / Losing Steps on x

« on: November 27, 2012, 09:02:53 AM »

Russ any input is good. It is a new PS 48v/12A, PMDX-126, 5056D's. During calibration I was running speeds up to 331ipm with no measurable loss of position (with my .0005 indicator). I ran many warm up wizards at that speed though during rapids the max speed is divided by how many axis are in motion. Still no loss. As the holes have 2 rows parallel I would have suspected an error in the transition from 2-3 also had the carriage or gibs been too tight. I did spend considerable time trying to adjust all gibs with an indicator. All of my fasteners are tight. I do have the typical backlash of a linearmotion2008 ballscrew, somewhere in the .002-.003 per axis. Backlash comp deals with it spectacularly.

402

General Mach Discussion / 4th Axis Addition!!!

« on: November 27, 2012, 08:51:24 AM »

Are your limit switches sharing 1 pin or does each axis have its own pin? I wouldn't think using the PP and USB at the same time would be synchronized correctly.

403

General Mach Discussion / Re: Losing Steps on x

« on: November 26, 2012, 09:16:37 PM »

Hood, I have tried lengthening the pulse width with no change. I have not changed the state of the step pin however why would it only fault at 1 time after 2700 lines of similar code? I am using a PP.

404

General Mach Discussion / Re: Losing Steps on x

« on: November 26, 2012, 06:01:11 PM »

The power spec is doing the exact same thing as the Dell. The Power Spec is running an AMD Semperon 3100+ 1.8Ghz 1.25G Ram HT1600 motherboard, 500g Sata HD, 8400GS 256MB graphics card, XP Pro SP3 with the latest updates. Very lite SW wise. XP Pro and Mach 3. Also a dedicated PC for machine use.

405

General Mach Discussion / Losing Steps on x

« on: November 26, 2012, 01:45:13 PM »

Is yours doing the same error in the same location? Mine is consistent. The optiplex was being used. I brought the power spec back from the dead to test as it has all of the minimum requirements Mach needs. The optiplex didn't have a separate graphics card. It didn't perform any different either.

406

General Mach Discussion / Losing Steps on x

« on: November 26, 2012, 11:07:50 AM »

John it is the latest lockdown as of 11/24/2012. It all works great except this issue. I am not sure if it is a Mach or Cad/Cam problem. I just know it is A problem. Tweakie just suggested it as a possibility. I have to rule out all variables. It is just odd as my machine seems to operate smoothly and controllably in all axis otherwise. I see nothing in the code that looks suspicious. The line where the loss of position occurs is no different. This particular hole pattern is 2 rows of 4 holes. Parallel and symmetrically spaced. Seems like the other transitions would be affected too but they are not.

407

General Mach Discussion / Losing Steps on x

« on: November 26, 2012, 09:32:50 AM »

Well over the last few days I have installed a new CPU fan and hard drive. Fresh install of XP in the new drive along with Mach. Followed all optimization tips. Running a separate graphics card as required. I still get this weird loss of position in between the finish pass of holes 6 & 7 of 8. The rapids should be the same between all holes and no errors occur til line 2700 or so.

408

General Mach Discussion / Cannot get backlash to work.

« on: November 24, 2012, 01:04:22 PM »

So are you saying when you go back to verify the changes, they aren't where you set them? Or the changes are not being performed? I would think the 200% is definitely the wrong way to go. 100% is the rapid or velocity setting of your motor tuning. You can not exceed this setting. I have always used values of 50-100%. This is only in regards to the speed at which Mach takes up the backlash. Since you are attempting to use values above an attainable speed, I wonder if Mach is disregarding your request?

409

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / First Litho LED Frame

« on: November 20, 2012, 01:52:57 PM »

Nice job I am sure the wife will love it. Is that Corian? I did a litho of 1 of my children early in my mills assembly. It was so odd til it was back lit. I remember my BobCad instructor, Sorin having a small litho of his daughter he carried. He handed it out in class proudly, his daughter looked terrible in the carving until you held it to the light. We laughed so hard as everyone was so quiet, unsure of how to address his daughters appearance. She was quite attractive once back lit. LOL

410

General Mach Discussion / Re: Losing Steps on x

« on: November 19, 2012, 01:20:24 PM »

   I replaced 3 of my PC's after a failure of an old power spec I had been using to run a mill via mach. That power spec had the max of ram and an extra graphics card. Ran flawlessly too. The replacements I used are Dell Optiplex GX280's. They do run Mach however I have had issues that never existed before, like the loss of steps at seemingly reasonable speeds. Oddly enough if IIRC, it was always in the X axis too. I liked the replacements for their slimmer form factor which I hope doesnt turn out to be a PIA. No real investment as I do use older computers.

At this moment I am powering up the old power spec to find out what had failed, then repair it and run a test. It was an intermittent issue I think. The more I thnk about it, I had just implemented 1 of these computers on a different machine and was loosing steps there but abandoned it for a while to play with the G0704. If that is in fact the culprit it is best anyway. The threads I read on machine set up and tuning only made my understanding and operation of the machines that much better. There has to be easier ways to learn it though.