Messages

351

Mach3 under Vista / Re: Win7 32 Bit W/PCI PP card

« on: August 01, 2011, 01:32:19 PM »

I had looked at Mesa a while back.  Maybe it's time to revisit that.  We really need a cost effective solution that is not USB.  A PCI card would be great.

352

General Mach Discussion / Re: G31 Probe problem

« on: August 01, 2011, 10:19:08 AM »

I'm on 3.043.022.  I'll test some more but I noticed it again yesterday when I slowed the X and Y way down. 

353

Mach3 under Vista / Re: Win7 32 Bit W/PCI PP card

« on: August 01, 2011, 10:13:38 AM »

All different, but almost always something on the MB.  I have one with bad USB, one with a bad CD...but it's not the drive and one that won't power up.  That's just this week.  Last week there were two with blown caps on the MB.  Never had a problem with the big towers, just these small form factor desktops.

354

General Mach Discussion / Re: G31 Probe problem

« on: July 31, 2011, 08:17:58 PM »

What's your X and Y acceleration set at?  G31 uses that, not the axis that the G31 is using.  If you have a slow accel and a high probe feedrate, it WILL take forever to stop.

If that's the case, it's a serious bug that needs to be reported to Brian.

I'm reminded of it every time I reset acceleration so X and y are significantly lower than Z.  Perhaps someone who is doing G31 probing can verify.  Just reset the X and Y acceleration to something very slow...like 5 or less,and set the Z at 30 or 40.  Run a G31, then bump the X and Y back up and see if the G31 accel increases.

I mentioned it back in 2009 in this thread....

http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,13364.0.html

355

Mach3 under Vista / Win7 32 Bit W/PCI PP card

« on: July 31, 2011, 06:17:54 PM »

Is anyone running something like this?  Of course finding a new PC that is 32 bit will be a challenge, but they must be out there.  We've been using refurbished Dells, but the failure rate lately has been high.  Looking at the possibility of using new PC's. 

356

General Mach Discussion / Re: G31 Probe problem

« on: July 31, 2011, 05:47:59 PM »

This sounds kind of like my problem
http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php?topic=2965.0
"Here is the real problem ,if I Ref'd Z 0.0 say 1" to 8 " off of the plate the Z Axis starts to  move down trying to find the switch or 8 " and it does ,then once the switch closes the Z Axis takes forever to come to a stop(say about 1") ,"

What's your X and Y acceleration set at?  G31 uses that, not the axis that the G31 is using.  If you have a slow accel and a high probe feedrate, it WILL take forever to stop.

357

General Mach Discussion / Re: G31 Probe problem

« on: July 31, 2011, 03:18:45 PM »

get an isMoving in there after that code "F30" in post #23 - that should put the cat amongst the pigeons - sorry

Cheers

Ian

That hasn't been a problem, but I can see how it could blow past the feedrate update without a IsMoving().  I'll add that.  Thanks for pointing that out.

358

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 and Small form factor PCs

« on: July 31, 2011, 03:12:51 PM »

The GX270/280 has a known issue with blowing capacitors as well as motherboard problems.  I have a collection of them.  Never had a problem with the full size towers.

359

General Mach Discussion / Re: Breakout Board

« on: July 31, 2011, 01:44:27 PM »

However if you are willing to write down some details of what you would like to see on a basic "Industrial" board controlled by Parallel Port, I'll look into it and see how achievable it woud be with minimal change to my current design or using minimal microcontroller functionality.

I think the point was more that in the industrial world, they are not using the PP.  TCP/IP is far better and more reliable, but beyond that, most external controllers such as offerings from Hypertherm, Thermal Dynamics, Burny, etc.  are stand a one controllers where everything is housed in one enclosure. 

In the light industrial environment, you still find PC's and separate controllers...and the PP, but I/O is usually done with PLC's using 24VDC inputs.  For that, a breakout board is still needed, but it doesn't have to be full of bells and whistles.  IMO, if the PMDX-122 could accept AC input power, it would be perfect.

360

General Mach Discussion / Re: Breakout Board

« on: July 31, 2011, 01:06:39 PM »

All the features of the 126 for the price of the 122 would be great.  The 126 has some nice features, but the 122 does what we need it to do.