Messages

71

General Mach Discussion / Re: Missing program

« on: August 05, 2015, 04:03:33 AM »

Can you expand on the display will halt?

Well, from what I've read, you can abuse the hell out of the PC by trying to make it do a zillion other things but that will not crash the running gcode. Linuxcnc runs what it is supposed to run FIRST then see to the other stuff "when it has time".

So if the screen needed updating but Lcnc was busy with something more important, the screen may appear frozen until Lcnc can attend to it.

Keith

72

General Mach Discussion / Re: Missing program

« on: August 03, 2015, 05:35:13 AM »

Hi Craig,

if you're into making PCBs you might find my Youtube video a bit humerous. I'm using my 8' x 5' cnc plasma table to drill the holes in my etched PCB.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eb8oN5rHYxM

Keith.

73

General Mach Discussion / Re: Motor stall killing me!

« on: August 02, 2015, 02:33:07 PM »

I had that problem with my crappy Chinese motors - "Smooth" brand LOL. In the beginning I had a Leashine drive. It required a pulse width of 8. The Leadshine drive could run the motor slow but when the speed got up (like in your video) it would just stall and scream (no load).

I changed to Gecko G203V drives which run fine with a pulse width of 2, and can run my rubbish motors up to speed.

Hope there's something in the above can help.

Keith.

74

General Mach Discussion / Re: Missing program

« on: August 02, 2015, 02:25:56 PM »

Thanks Craig,

any knowledge is good to have.

Been having a little play with Linuxcnc too. Seems the opposite way around with that system. The display will halt and must wait for the code to run. I especially like that latency test where you abuse the computer to see what it's worst case jitter will be. Can't have your cake and eat it though, it's a pig to learn if you want to get into customising things.

Keith.

75

General Mach Discussion / Re: Kernel Speed Question

« on: August 01, 2015, 07:18:11 PM »

Thanks Gerry,

I was wondering that very thing yesterday. My rapid speed is 10,000mm/min and my steps/mm are about 94.

Anyway that works out to be only under 16,000 steps/sec so I should be able to comfortably run at the lowest 25K kernel speed. Prior to this time I've always had it running higher thinking that would be "safer". I'll drop it down to 25K now and leave Windows with more time for other things. Can't have too much improvement in stability with Windows LOL.

Keith.

76

General Mach Discussion / Re: Missing program

« on: August 01, 2015, 07:08:13 PM »

Thanks heaps for that info Craig.

After your first post where you mentioned the embedded version, I googled for it. I see there's even a Compact version which is a "real time" operating system. You might be right about the embedded version adding to stability.

With basic XP I remove / un-install / disable anything I possibly can so XP is as barebones as possible.

Seeya,

Keith.

77

General Mach Discussion / Re: Missing program

« on: July 31, 2015, 06:07:24 PM »

Thanks very much Craig,

I wonder if your New Zealand dealer ships over to Australia.

Yep, I agree that once you are making money with your toys, the extra cost for stability and reliability is well worth it. Just one unhappy customer can cost you a lot more than $750. Having a brand new new reliable board means it's not as much of a worry buying a Microsoft license because you won't be expecting to be asking to transfer the license to another PC when it stuffs up. Should be good for a few years.

I've seen the Mini-ITX site but like I say, the first thing I wonder is "Which board does Mach work great on". I've been looking into Linuxcnc a little bit and they too seem very picky about motherboards and which chipsets work great with Lcnc.

Well now I now at least one board that works.

Cheers,

Keith.

78

General Mach Discussion / Re: Missing program

« on: July 30, 2015, 05:56:32 AM »

Craig,

thanks very much for that info.

Could you specify the make and model board you are using. I've looked at those but I get worried that I buy an "unproven" one and despite it being a lot more powerful, it won't run Mach3 good. The main thing I want is at least one PCI slot so I can throw in a dual parallel port card. I don't actually need the built in parallel port.

I've had mixed luck with computers. A relatively powerful one for instance gave a crappy driver test. I've experienced two that just didn't work at all with the Mach parallel port driver. Just today I've been setting up an old, and much less powerful P4 computer with XP/Mach3, it doesn't even have an AGP slot for a graphics card, only 4 PCI slots. However I pushed the driver test up to 100K and still got decent results. I'm guessing different motherboards/chipsets have a big effect on how well they work with Mach, whether they are fast/powerful or not.

It would be good to have a list of tried and tested Atom boards so users don't take pot luck and hope the one they choose works OK with Mach. I think I'd be happy to get one of those if it definitely known to work.

Keith.

79

General Mach Discussion / Re: THC Problem

« on: July 29, 2015, 05:22:21 PM »

Hello,

maybe somebody know, why THC function not working in Mach3 with USB cards? Why THC can work only with LPT port? What Mach3 need to start work?

Thanks in advance

An external motion controller card (USB/ethernet) usually has a plugin written for Mach3. A plugin is a peice of software that you install "inside" Mach3, and it tells Mach how to "communicate" with the external card. The card must have been designed specifically for THC use. If it hasn't been designed for that use it won't work. It's a bit like trying to open a spreadsheet in a word processor. It won't work because the word processor was not designed for that.

Your 2nd question has a similar answer. Mach was designed with the parallel port as it's main high speed I/O portal. The THC functionality was designed around the parallel port. Mach3 THC only works with the parallel port because it was designed that way.

Google for "UC300" or "UC-300". I believe that USB card has THC functionality but contact the manufacturer first and ask questions to see if it's suitable for you. If that board is suitable for you, then I think you must also add a breakout board to it if you want optical isolation.

If you want to learn more about the built-in THC functionality in Mach3, then check out the older Mach2 manual:
http://www.machsupport.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Mach2Mill_6.11.pdf

One option you have it to actually use the parallel port. Buy a dual parallel port card for one of the computers PCI slots. In Mach configuration you can set the second parallel port to make pins 2-9 as inputs, giving a total of 13 inputs on that port alone. You would then need to find breakout boards for your two parallel ports, that will give you the needed 24v levels.

80

General Mach Discussion / Re: HELP PLEASE, Mach 3 on a windows XP system

« on: July 27, 2015, 06:15:22 AM »

Did you install XP in "Standard PC" mode.

Did you do the XP optimisation

Are all the PC drivers installed (e.g. motherboard chipset drivers).

Do you have any other programs running on the PC.

I normally wipe the hard disk, do a fresh install of XP (in Standard PC mode), install the PC drivers, go through the XP optimisation, install Mach.

I haven't bothered with XP updates in the past, the ethernet port is even disabled in the bios. I pretty much switch off anything I don't need.

I even see what services and processes I can completely disable, I want XP to do absolutely nothing it doesn't need to, so it can dedicate itself to Mach much more. I don't know if I'm going overboard but I just think if it's not needed, kill it.

Keith.