Messages

11

SmoothStepper USB / Re: PMDX-126 and SS K1 relay (spindle power) control

« on: January 31, 2011, 06:33:11 PM »

I'm not sure I follow. If you have the SS externally powered and turn off the external power supply it will of course shut off and the PC won't see it any more. If you have the SS powered by the USB cable it should always show up.

I have *not* tried several things (had a job to run today) -- USB cable is unchanged, computer is unchanged, etc.  Much to try before I truely throw my hands up.....

12

SmoothStepper USB / Re: PMDX-126 and SS K1 relay (spindle power) control

« on: January 31, 2011, 06:31:50 PM »

The SS *is* powered by the PMDX-126.  It powers off when I turn off AC power to it and the G540, is all on same AC switch.

Problem is that the comms to the SS drops out, then the M3 plug in reports no SS found during USP port scan.  Dev Mgr shows it there. 

I may have found a clue -- it sems if I force a "scan for hardware changes" it makes the SS USB device available again.  I think. 

Problem *may* be this comouter, it's an Athlon 64 running Win7 Ultimate 32 bit.  Laptop is an Intel i7 CPU, may load different code during the USB driver install.  Or, maybe USB hardware on this computer is flakey. 

When it runs, it runs great.  It just periodically drops USB comms.

13

SmoothStepper USB / Re: PMDX-126 and SS K1 relay (spindle power) control

« on: January 31, 2011, 06:07:27 PM »

I am getting two "Microsoft Raw Ports" in the "eject removable device" gadget.  Hmmm.  It's being a piggy mystery why it sometimes works and sometimes does not.  Going to get the laptop soon and see if that works more reliably.  In the middle of a cut job, too! 

14

SmoothStepper USB / Re: PMDX-126 and SS K1 relay (spindle power) control

« on: January 31, 2011, 04:52:12 PM »

Arrgh.  Smoothstepper appears in device manager.  Turn off power to SS and it goes away.  Turn power back on and it comes back.  Mach plugin won't see it.  Making me crazy.

15

SmoothStepper USB / Re: PMDX-126 and SS K1 relay (spindle power) control

« on: January 31, 2011, 03:46:46 PM »

Well.  I implemented your suggestion regarding the spindle motor control relays assigned to an output and set the approprite output and THAT works. 

Got the FTDI USB driver error again, switching to the v.17 plugin now, have reset pwr management in device manager, going to see if it's more stable now.

Wish me luck!  (It ran 90% through a 10,000 line gcode file and then I accidentelly pulled the USB cable.  Arrgh.  Do-Over)
-dg

16

SmoothStepper USB / Re: PMDX-126 and SS K1 relay (spindle power) control

« on: January 31, 2011, 12:06:50 PM »

You just need to tell Mach to let you back off the limit switch (in configuration). Or, better yet get the Soft Limits set up and you'll never have to worry about hitting a limit.

Is this the "home switch safety" check box in config? 

17

SmoothStepper USB / Re: New CNC member – – Mach3 crashes/unstable

« on: January 31, 2011, 11:06:27 AM »

Hiya Jeff,

Two questions:

1.  What Mach 3 SS plugin was he using?  The beta version, i.e., version 17bd, or the lockdown version, v015ogx2.m3p?

2.  I assume you checked for the USB pwr management thing in the device manager when trouleshooting remotely?

I have seen a few instances of Win7 app / process lockup where the screen sort of greys-out and Mach is unresponsive, requiring a task manager end process to regain control of the PC (and subsequent reboot to clear the decks for another try, of course...)

- Don Gates

18

SmoothStepper USB / Re: PMDX-126 and SS K1 relay (spindle power) control

« on: January 31, 2011, 10:23:31 AM »

I will check the config for that option.  As for soft limits, seems when I turn them on they keep annoying me and getting in the way, my work pieces seem to push right to the edge of the working envelope.  But you're right.

-dg

19

SmoothStepper USB / Re: PMDX-126 and SS K1 relay (spindle power) control

« on: January 31, 2011, 10:02:27 AM »

Thanks, Jeff, I think you have something there, I will give it a go this evening!

Reading the doc you reference, I can see how power management of USB can cause problems. Even if the SS itself is externally powered, which mine is via the PMDX-126 board, as opposed to using the USB power.  In fact my symptoms sort of point that way in that the FPGA state stays in "done" (vs "init") indicating that the FPGA software is still downloaded and present onboard the SS itself, just the comms piece is going away on me.  Perhaps the FDTI USB chip is still powered by the PC +5V coming across the USB cable?  If that's the case (and I suspect that it is) then when the PC shuts down USB power then the USB connection goes away, resulting in the Mach3 SS plugin throwing a comms assert exception.

Nice catch! 

On a brighter note, I notice a huge improvment in the axis motion of my machine with SS.  I was getting stalling and skipped steps with the PP interface, upon reflection probably due to the DMA associated with the mobo's onboard graphics doing DMA and stealing cycles from the pp driver ring 0 process... just speculating though.  It truely *is* a smoother stepper!! ;-)

On the down side, the SS plug in loses the - sometimes handy - PP driver based feature of that pop-up window saying "a limit switch has tripped, would you like for Mach to fix this", which allows one to back off a limit switch via a couple of jog cycles.  With SS I have to estop the machine (and I have estop tied into both the PMDX-126 *and* the G540, so that the steppers go limp) and then back out of the limit switch by turning the lead screws by hand.  Of course, ya'll never hit limit switches because you are MUCH better machine operators than I!



-- Don Gates

20

SmoothStepper USB / Re: PMDX-126 and SS K1 relay (spindle power) control

« on: January 31, 2011, 05:23:00 AM »

That's why the forums are so great!  I was using step/dir because there is a "spindle" in the "motor outputs" tab, an error in intuition and not very well covered in the docs, IMHO.  I will give your idea a go and see if it gets things going. 

Now, if I could just get keep the  USB driver from dropping offline between the computer and teh smoothstepper....  I am going to try a couple of things there, a different computer and a different USB cable for starters.  Also, I rolled back to the lockdown version of the SS plugin -- I noted in the release notes that the developer 'doubled the current from the FPGA to the FDTI (USB) chip' so there is the potential for different USB charisteristics, perhaps. 

On a totally unrelated note, I'm making chips!  It's funny, folks are coming out of the treeline with "can ya make me a ____" requests.  Have made about 8 signboards so far, just basic ones using the "Write" wizard.  Which is *terrible*, but it gets the job done....