Topics

1

Mach3 under Vista / strange case of mach3 lockup...w/ win7

« on: September 14, 2011, 03:48:22 PM »

hi guys,
i have a basic 3 axis mill setup ..
xyz and a hyunang vfd into a 2 hp 3 phase motor.. e-stop and mpg.. a couple of oem triggers for selecting axis  and a reset  outputs for mist and flood ... 2 parallel ports.. and a few extra o/i still to be worked with.
nothing fancy..

the vfd is in the same  enclosure as the motor drivers..  the ipx atom pc is in the pendant enclosure.. and there are rf chokes on the lines that enter the pendant...( i'm a good ham) .. power supply is separated and clean to each section.. and added many extra fans  ( it is like a refrigerator in the case.. ( 18 degrees c) and no recirculating bubbles..
 i started with a virgin oem copy and trimmed out a lot of fat...
( i have several microsoft engineer friends scratching their heads on this one too.. ( i prefer Linux though... still wondering when a copy of mach3 will be available for the rest of us... ( one can dream)))

i have been running this setup since june reliably...( still adding features slowly....) 

last week while running a section of code that takes 2:39 hours to run   i had a lockup .. motion stopped  spindle continued and no updates .. mach3 froze...

i reboot.. re-zeroed and began to cut air again... and an hour or so into it  same thing... but new twist.. the whole machine reset itself. ( went through the shutdown process) .. and came back with the no boot device found... error...  i cycled power and booted normally ...   no problem..  ran some system testing soaking  software for 2 days  no problem...   removed machine from mill and disabled e-stop and  vfd plugin  and ran the same code again.. 3 times good... 4th time  lockup...

system is not on the net while running mill... well protected behind many layers of firewalls...  remains on at all times... and has never seen this kind of problem before...

files are uploaded via thumbdrive and this is hand written code ( a very large file)

i am at a loss... driver test has no problems and the hardware is fine..  as each piece has been tested separately ..and completely.
is there a memory leak  still?

allan

2

General Mach Discussion / spindle drive questions

« on: March 08, 2011, 12:28:19 AM »

i am converting an older Anilam Eagle cnc km-750..
during the course i have gotten most everything working once again with a new drive package..
i am using  LeadShine M860 stepper driver in 1600 microstepping mode and Leadshine  4.5 NM NEMA34 motors ( 1/2" shafts) in parallel coil configuration and a cnc4pc c-10 breakout board ( one more on order  for i/o)  the axis tests are perfect ( almost better than original.. .0002 resolution) ..  someone had the brains to have a ball screw cover..

the problem..
the spindle once had a vfd and had an air controlled variable spindle speed setup...
i am converting the air system  with a stepper .. and the vfd is toast..  i have spent so much money in fancy controls and doo dads..  i am holding off on a replacement vfd for a few months.

 i am replacing it with a set of 3phase contactors.. one for cw the other for ccw  and one for e-stop that kills power to the whole motor circuit. ( for redundant protection)

the problem i am wondering is  when i issue a m3 or m4  command  is there an xor designed into the software to prevent the simultaneous  output on both the pins assigned to m3 and m4?

or should i design a safety circuit that xor's the output and ands them back into the relays controlling the 3phase contactors?

another question is the output of the signal of the m3/4  is it a pulse or is it a sustained signal high or low until i issue a m0  or e-stop.

way too many questions .. but i have not seen the topics  asked or answered yet..