Messages

471

General Mach Discussion / Re: My mill started going backwards

« on: December 21, 2010, 09:18:21 AM »

Stepper motors can turn the wrong direction when one lead to one coil is broken. The motor will also run very rough.

472

General Mach Discussion / Re: Running mach + other apps = errors...

« on: December 17, 2010, 09:24:52 AM »

I would like to ditto what Rich said. Mach has to depend on VERY precise timing to work properly. Depending on your PC configuration (motherboard, memory, video card, etc) opening up a browser can place a huge load, (maybe just a second long), on the system. This obviously will throw Mach for a loop. One way around this is to use a motion control card to offload the more timing critical things from Mach's parallel port driver (SmoothStepper, Galil, KFlop, etc). This will free up a lot of processor time on the PC but there is still no free lunch. You still should not try to do things like run files from a thumbdrive or network drive as they are too slow and will cause problems.

473

SmoothStepper USB / Re: SmoothStepper Modbus RPM DRO conflict

« on: December 14, 2010, 12:37:15 PM »

OK. I sent Greg a note about this. He has been working on the plug-in recently so maybe it is something he can look into. Can you attach the brain that your using, perhaps a tweak can be made there to get it to work.

474

SmoothStepper USB / Re: SmoothStepper Modbus RPM DRO conflict

« on: December 14, 2010, 12:24:22 PM »

Have you tried setting the SS config to None/Relay?

475

SmoothStepper USB / Re: SmoothStepper Modbus RPM DRO conflict

« on: December 14, 2010, 12:07:08 PM »

I've not used a ModBus controlled spindle before, but I see a selection there in the Spindle Configuration page for a ModBus spindle. Is there a reason you are using a Brain rather than the built in functionality? Also, how do you have the spindle configured in the SmoothStepper configuration screen?

476

SmoothStepper USB / Re: SmoothStepper Modbus RPM DRO conflict

« on: December 14, 2010, 09:19:09 AM »

The SS plug-in tries to make sure that the Ports&Pins settings are sensible, I suspect that Greg never thought about using one with a spindle that is on ModBus such as this. Perhaps this is something he can change in the plug-in? Why does the ModBus plug-in require the spindle to be on Port 0?

477

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 and Windows 7 64 bit

« on: December 13, 2010, 10:03:33 AM »

Mach's parallel port driver will not work on a 64 bit OS. I would suggest looking at the the SmoothStepper: http://www.soigeneris.com/SmoothStepper-details.aspx (my website). The SmoothStepper is a motion control board. It basically acts like the parallel port drive and parallel port of your PC as far as Mach is concerned. Since all the critical pulse generation is done in dedicated hardware most folks see improved, smoother performance of their machines. There are also similar boards such as KFlop, DSPMS, and Galil. Depending on your machine's requirements on of them may be a better fit for you.

478

General Mach Discussion / Re: New computer MOB needs Parallel port

« on: December 08, 2010, 08:04:08 AM »

Well I'm biased towards the SmoothStepper: http://www.soigeneris.com/SmoothStepper-details.aspx, look in the documentation section (link on left of page) for the manuals, etc. (Disclaimer, this is my website.) There is also the KFlop, and DSPMC, Galil, etc...

479

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 under Windows 7

« on: December 07, 2010, 03:52:07 PM »

Yes, Windows 7 works great with Mach. If you want to use the parallel port then you must use the 32bit version. If you are using a SmoothStepper than you can use either 32bit or 64bit versions.

480

General Mach Discussion / Re: Random Loss of Position

« on: December 07, 2010, 09:08:49 AM »

Out of desperation I decided to tweek the "step pulse".  Mine was originally set to "0" I changed it to 1.

Mach likes to put out little teeny tiny step pulses. Since the parallel port driver timing and hardware vary so much this can lead to pulses that are missing or way to short for the stepper drive to 'see'. Often times this problem presents itself as a 'tick' sound in the axis. Lengthening the step pulse or selecting the 'Sherline 1/2 pulse mode' are two ways to force Mach to increase the pulse length giving a better chance for a good pulse to be generated.