Messages

121

General Mach Discussion / Un-install & re-install changes Mach3

« on: August 01, 2012, 01:01:57 AM »

Hi All,

I'm messing with 2 versions of Mach3 - 3.42.020 & 3.042.029

A plasma cutting plugin is installed once Mach has been installed. For certain reasons I've been un-installing Mach / plugin then re-installing to the other version of Mach.

I noticed the THC (torch height control) button was not working. This is a toggle button with an LED to go with it. I checked on another computer which had recently had the very first install of Mach and the THC button worked fine. I un-installed Mach on this computer then re-installed and the THC button did not work any more. So I've managed to repeat this problem on two independant computers.

It seems the un-install and re-install of Mach3 is corrupting something. I am now going to format the drive on my workshop computer and re-install XP. If this issue is repeatable then in my case an un-install of Mach3 means a re-install of XP just for Mach to install correctly.

Another point of note is that when I re-installed Mach3 (no plugin install yet) I opened the plasma profile and the THC button would not work (just in case the plugin is being blamed).

Anyone got any ideas ??

Cheers,

Keith.

122

VB and the development of wizards / Re: What variable number do I choose

« on: July 09, 2012, 02:30:10 PM »

Much appreciated Terry 

123

VB and the development of wizards / What variable number do I choose

« on: July 08, 2012, 10:38:52 PM »

Hi Everyone,

I'm just getting into screen design, VB macros, etc. I'm managing to get some grip on the code in macros written by others, but one thing I can't find info on is the variables numbers used in the VB code.

Example:
SetVar(601,Getdro(2))      'Set variable to Z position

Why did the author choose the number 601 for this variable.

Is there any info, or a list of variables that are used in Mach3 (a question I've noticed others have asked in the past and don't seem to have got a straight answer to).

I've read there's over 10,000 variables in Mach but have no idea if some are "special / reserved / used" for certain purposes, and if others are general use for anything.

Can anyone enlighten me please.

Thanks,

Keith.

124

General Mach Discussion / Re: Driver test does nothing - no test line

« on: May 25, 2011, 02:56:31 PM »

Hi Gerry,

no luck I'm afraid but I did learn how to hack the bios. This computer has an Award bios where disabling ACPI is not an option. Spent several hours Googling and learning and finally managed to access the hidden bios options with a utility called Modbin6 (made me feel slightly Geeky).

Did a fresh installation of XP & Mach with ACPI disabled in the bios but same results. I'm giving up on this computer now, better off spending another $40 and getting another computer. Does get to me though when I can't find the root of the problem.

Thanks very much for your help,

Keith.

125

General Mach Discussion / Re: Driver test does nothing - no test line

« on: May 23, 2011, 03:35:52 PM »

The reboot was done immediately after installation on any occasion, plus after I tried the Special Driver although I don't know if that one was necessary.

As part of my optimisation I go and look at processes to see if there's any "rubbish" running in there. I also totally remove any programs which aren't necesary, mainly Windows programs seeing as there's nothing else installed at this stage, so I'm talking about Internet Explorer, MSN, Outlook Express, etc.

Bit of a head scratcher this one. I'm just going to reformat and re-install XP and see what happens. If I get the same problem I'll look into the bios settings. Nothing to lose if I stuff something up there, but I can always re-set them to there defaults via the motherboard.

Thanks guys,

Keith.

126

General Mach Discussion / Re: Driver test does nothing - no test line

« on: May 23, 2011, 04:44:55 AM »

Hi Tweakie,

this is about the only one of my computers which isn't using on board graphics, it has an AGP graphics card and no on-board video.

Something interesting I noticed is that after the Mach install I don't get the pop up box telling me the computer will now reboot, so I had to manually reboot. It's the exact same Mach install file as I've used on the other computers and the reboot box comes up at the end of each install so the fact it doesn't on this computer tells me something is wrong

127

General Mach Discussion / Driver test does nothing - no test line

« on: May 22, 2011, 07:40:16 PM »

Bought three PCs and am onto my 2nd one formatting hard drive, installing XP in Standard PC Mode, optimising XP, etc.

First computer everything installed great and ran Mach driver test at 100 khz and great.

2nd computer - all install files are the same but this time the Mach driver test does nothing. Well it goes through the initialisation then finally says system is under Mach control but there is no test line in the graph area.

Readings are:
CPU Mhz:            3001
Shortest time      33674.794
Longest time       33674.794
Apic Timing Constant       50
Interrupt Used     0
Max variation        0
Average Int         33674.794
Longest Int         0

I re-installed mach after uninstalling the parallel port driver in Device Manager but get the same results.

Installed Machs Special Driver and the driver test seems to work except instead of a straight line I get a black block up to where the line should be and this black block has evenly spaced spikes coming from the top and the bottom.

So far I,ve had only one PC out of four where everything has installed and worked without any issues. Seems to be an element of luck involved with what pc works and which one doesn't.

128

General Mach Discussion / Re: Can a slaved axis have different steps/mm in motor tuning

« on: March 12, 2011, 04:49:58 PM »

Tpetmed,

I'm so happy I'm not the only one who has this problem. Since actually theorising about this situation I measured the travels on both sides of my gantry and got a difference of 1mm. So by doing the same thing as you and squaring the gantry in the middle of it's travel I'll get +0.5mm out of square at one end and -0.5mm out of square the other end.

Your post has actually been very valuable in another sense. From my previous posts (other forums too) on this subject it was made obvious that many members just assumed chain lengths would be exactly identical in length (over 2.4 metres) and what surprised me more was that they believed they would wear exactly equally too. Your post has shown that even leadscrews can have slightly different lengths, so perhaps so can gear racks. Definitely worthwhile checking pairs of items to be bought to make sure they are exacly the same length.

Heavy industry knows about this issue and they don't rely on hope that gear racks are made perfectly. They travel lengths are much greater of course. They use some precision means of measuring the travel bit by bit and their computers store the REAL travel distance in memory so that even over runs of many metres their gantries always remain square. Each side of their gantry is individually calibrated using this method.

I'm glad that my theory turned into reality, primarilly because a few members (over various forums) were telling me I don't need to worry about it and that new chains SHOULD be an equal length and that they SHOULD wear exactly equally over time. Nobody who said this mentioned if they had ever even measured their chains. My chains are pretty much brand new, same make, good quality, and I have a 1mm difference from the start.

Keith

129

General Mach Discussion / Re: Can a slaved axis have different steps/mm in motor tuning

« on: January 13, 2011, 02:59:03 PM »

Terry, 

I totally agree BUT as a beginner and this being my first table I built it the way it is. I know a heck of a lot more now than when I first designed my table (thanks to helpful guys like yourself).

I WILL change it when money and time allow, but for now I just wanted to fully check out that there is no workaround for it. I'm not "caught up" in it, simply exhausting any possiblity of a software workaround which if it had been possible, would have been fast and cheap. How do I know if I don't ask. It is the first time I've asked on the Mach forum where if there was a workaround it would most likely be found. Regarding this matter on the other forum, this question was not addressed a great deal. The post ended up more about the issues of my chain design rather than the original question of a software workaround. Hence the way I started this topic.

Hey by the way you are totally right about my chain design. A lot more bouncing with mine. I've got quite good acceleration but the sudden direction changes cause a small but fast bounce in my chains which show up in the cuts as a "hacksaw blade" edge. The way my table is at the moment it will be smallest tips possible to get the lowest speed and looping corners wherever I can, that's where my "sawtooth" cut edge comes after.

Cheers,

Keith

130

General Mach Discussion / Can a slaved axis have different steps/mm in motor tuning

« on: January 13, 2011, 05:39:56 AM »

Hi All,

Let's say you have any sort of cnc table with one of the axis dual drive. Just for arguments sake lets say it was a gear rack on each side and due to terrible manufacturing one gear rack was a few mm longer than the other (please don't get caught up in the aforementioned sentence, it is just hypothetical and the next paragraph is the question I'm trying to find an answer for). To compensate for this you'd need to have different steps/mm for the master and slave motors. Now here's my question.

In the Mach manual it says that a slaved axis recieves the same steps pulses as the master (under normal conditions !?). Is it possible for a slaved axis to have different steps/mm as the master axis. This of course would mean that the slaved axis could not get exactly the same pulses as the master. Rather the slave would recieve the correct number of pulses to move it the same distance as the master.

A member on Cnczone said he tried programming different steps/mm in his slaved axis but Mach ignored it and sent the same pulses as the master. Anyone know of any workarounds for this one.

What is meant in the Mach manual when it says "under normal conditions". Does this imply there are non-normal conditions where they don't get equal steps.

Thanks,

Keith.