Messages

1

General Mach Discussion / Re: Y axis move when just X axis is homed

« on: December 25, 2010, 09:32:22 PM »

Merry Christmas everyone....

Spent a couple fooling with the mill today ...

I have the soft limit enabling again.  Not sure how but with all the switching around or something I must have changed my limits on the Z axis.  I found I had it set to be 0 to 6 instead of 0 to -6.

Still not totally happy as for some reason once I got the soft limits to enable I found that homing all causes the X and Y to work as expected but the Z axis seems to obey the slow down near the extremes set in the soft limits even when homing...this would not be all bad except as it sneaks up on the zero position (up) it gets slower and slower then just before it trips the switch the soft limit is exceed (as zero is just in front of the switch) and this causes Z to be non referenced.  My work around was to actually spec the soft Z max limit as .05 instead of 0.0 this allows the Z to actually hit the switch before the soft limit and thus it is referenced.  I think there might be a slight bug that fails to turn off the soft limiting when refing the Z.  X and Y do not exhibit this behavior.

Darren

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General Mach Discussion / Re: Y axis move when just X axis is homed

« on: December 24, 2010, 09:16:39 PM »

RE: the soft limits....

I can't seem to enable softlimits at all.  Mach aways reports:  "Machine is out of limits for softlimit activation".
This is even after just homing the machine with auto-zero on so it is sitting at 0,0,0
I have tried playing around with different max and min numbers and being sure the machine coordinates are
well inside but still it won't enable.  I am starting to think a full remove and reinstall of the Mach, and SS software
might be the answer.  I have removed and reinstalled the SS plugins and drivers already but maybe there is something
messed up in Mach...or I am just cursed.

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General Mach Discussion / Re: Y axis move when just X axis is homed

« on: December 24, 2010, 06:09:57 PM »

As a side note after playing around with the v16 SS plugin I note another odd sorta related issue and that is that I can no longer seem to set soft limits.
With x and y limit switches this is not a big deal though I miss the slow-down when jogging near the edge, since I have no lower Z limit switch I also
have to be careful here as I tended to use the soft limit and it's slow down factor to allow me time to react when jogging down...

Not a big deal but thought I mention it, for those who might have tried it out.

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General Mach Discussion / Re: Y axis move when just X axis is homed

« on: December 24, 2010, 05:40:45 PM »

Hi Jeff,

I tried your suggestions in order, first turning off the limits then reducing my large homing numbers...I tested with the above test at both steps but no change.
I then installed the plugin you linked to and amazingly the problem was gone.  So I think it is now related to the SS plugin.  The new plugin however has some other issue
related to homing....first it seems to keep turning on the auto-zero in Mach...not sure how but I turn it off and then after I do a ref-all it is back turned on.
Even weirder is even when it is showing as on sometimes the Y-axis (the only one I tested) seems to not zero on home....getting stuck at .0001 usually.
It almost seems as if it is a false auto zero condition showing in mach .. maybe because somehow the plugin does something tricky but then things are not really auto zeroed.
I think this is clearly better than the previous condition where Y moved when it should not, though it might really be partly a mask for the condition as
it forces the Y to zero or .0001 depending on what I don't know but in that situation it doesn't move the Y and with the old plugin it only moved the
Y when it was non zero, and de-refed a condition which the new plugin seems to simply prevent from occurring.

Well at least this issue has lead to where the problem is and I guess the SS people are working on it since the function of this
new plugin is clearly different from the old one.

thanks
Darren

5

General Mach Discussion / Re: Y axis move when just X axis is homed

« on: December 24, 2010, 11:44:06 AM »

I disabled the backlash adjustment to see if that might be the problem, but the problem persists.
SmoothStepper is installed and being used by Mach.

I notice from the SS site that maybe it does control the homing somehow....there is some old talk about that on their forum.
But I don't think it could just be the SS messing up if the DRO in mach changes, but I could be wrong there.

6

General Mach Discussion / Re: Y axis move when just X axis is homed

« on: December 23, 2010, 06:26:14 PM »

Mach version R3.042.40

Switches are your basic sealed pin switch with roller lever.

Pretty sure it is not a switch thing or any other mechanical issue as Mach knows what is happening and is the one moving things...I can imagine no reason for a ref-x to ever move y but it seems to happen.
The idea of a modified macro seems possible...maybe something got changed by accident in the latest version of mach...pretty sure I didn't change anything
and I reverted to a alternate XML from someone with similar setup and I believe that would get me fresh macros too...at least looking in the macro directory
it appears they get created new when a new xml is used....at least the modification dates are old.

If anyone wants to try this here are the steps to see the problem..

First do a Ref-All with the homing/limits config set to auto zero the axes when homed.  (kinda the normal situation)
now with the machine at zero, change the homing/limit screen so that Y is not auto zeroed on home.
now go to the diag screen
click ref y a few times y moves as expected.....typically mine ends up at .0001 or similar after a few moves I gather my switches are not super rigid and of course I have back lash and such.
At any rate Y is not zero but it is pretty close to its home position, this is important if it is zero you won't see the problem (also note that the ref-y led is red)
now click ref-x (I would expect only X to move as it seeks the switch)

what happens for me is X moves back toward the switch (since it is slightly backed off the switch from the previous ref-all)
as X is moving Y is also moving (in my case away from its switch)
X reaches the switch backs off it and resets it's DRO to zero
Y is now reading and presumably is at something like .05 not the .001 you last moved it to.

there are lots of combinations that result in this odd dual motion.  note that if you followed the steps above and ended up where I did
now go to the main screen and hit ref-all x and z will of course end up at zero since they are still set to auto zero.  Y should also (I think) end up close
to zero since we have nothing that should cause it to be anything but where it should be from the initial ref-all at the beginning but in my case it won't be close to zero, it will be around .05.

I don't think this really affects things too much in the normal course of events...typically you home all and have the auto zero set
But in some cases I do home an axis independently (often Z which exhibits the same behavior)
Seldom do I work so close to the home switches and being off them a more significant amount seems oddly to prevent the double motions.

I did have a case just recently where I am suspecting this odd motion resulted in a couple broken tools when Y moved unexpectedly
as I was trying to recover from a fault condition.

Darren

7

General Mach Discussion / Re: Y axis move when just X axis is homed

« on: December 23, 2010, 03:14:48 PM »

LEDs act as expected....lighted when on the switch off when off the switch.

8

General Mach Discussion / Re: Y axis move when just X axis is homed

« on: December 23, 2010, 10:14:39 AM »

Mach reports SS config version Beta2 0.015ogx
Device Manager reports: SmoothStepper v1.2   Driver Version: 2.4.6.0

I don't know what a homing macro is for sure, though I can guess, and I have no idea how to change it so I do not think I have.
How would I look at them?

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General Mach Discussion / Re: Y axis move when just X axis is homed

« on: December 22, 2010, 08:25:41 PM »

Well I tried 10 in the filters settings on the SS.  I also tried 1 just to see what happened.
I didn't have any bounce problems so clearly 200 is probably excessive, however the new filter values didn't solve the problem.
Using smaller numbers seemed to change the amount of Y movement reported in the DRO but it still happens.
I have now set things to 10 just for reference and future testing.
What I have found in testing this that it only happens when the Y axis is non-zero.  (the Ref-y led is red)  if it is .0001 it will move to something like .025, if it is zero it will stay at zero.
Clearly something is happening here in Mach where it decides to move this non zero axis when zeroing another axis

darren

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General Mach Discussion / Re: Y axis move when just X axis is homed

« on: December 22, 2010, 03:05:39 PM »

okay I'll try 10 tonight and post my results.

I was wondering too about the max homing distance...I have no idea what that number is measured in....unless it is motor pulses or something very tiny
then my value of 500000 seems pretty large.