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General Mach Discussion / Axis direction doesn't always change

« on: May 11, 2017, 03:21:02 PM »

Friend of mine's computer died & I had one that I had been using before making some upgrades, machine is running windows 7 32bit via the parallel port & has been optimised to run mach3. This computer had been running my CNC for a couple of years without any problems. I removed myself as a user & deleted all my files, removed my licence file for mach3 & installed my friends licence code & the profile that he had been using with his old computer. Those were the only changes to the computer.

Now it is hooked up to his cnc machine the Y & Z axis seem to be working as normal but there seems to be a random problem with the X axis. If you press the left arrow key the machine moves to the left as it should or if you press the right arrow key it moves to the right as it should. The problem is that on occasions if you move to either the right or left (doesn't seem to matter) then move in the opposite direction the machine carries on moving the way it had previously been moving rather than changing direction  
I thought this may be a keyboard problem but I have now tried 3 different keyboards & same thing happens with them all, every now & again the axis doesn't change direction when it should. Haven't tried cutting anything to see if it does the same thing when cutting just in case there was a problem  

2

General Mach Discussion / mach3 or computer problem

« on: November 08, 2016, 11:10:30 AM »

Hoping an expert can help with this problem that seems to have developed, been running mach3 on a windows 7 32bit computer using a parallel port connection for a couple of years now without any issues, the computer has been optimised from info I have read on forum, not connected to internet, no other programs other than mach3 installed, never shuts down or sleeps & doesn't run background tasks to the best of my knowledge. I have ran jobs lasting up to 7 or 8 hours without problem on the machine & its been fine with every job I have cut.
Over the last week or so i seem to have developed a problem I haven't been able to identify.

Mach3 seems slow to respond when I do anything like try to change speed or feed rates & it seems to freeze/stop for no apparent reason, today while cutting some moulding all 3 axis stopped moving, the code wouldn't advance but the spindle didn't stop & it didn't cause an emergency stop to the program.

I have checked the computer & can't find anything wrong with it, it is also clean inside. I haven't made any changes to the machine or the mach3 program that I am aware of so at a bit of a lose just now, am going to try uninstalling mach3 & installing again but work just now isn't giving me much time to investigate further

Any help or advice would be much appreciated   

3

Building or Buying a Wood routing table.. Beginnners guide.. / motor set up

« on: October 15, 2014, 03:26:16 PM »

Question for the machine building experts if you don't mind please.
I've got an old Gerber system 48 which has been updated with new steppers & runs under mach3, It runs via a parallel port bob using Leadshine Am882 drivers & 3.1Nm stepper motors that are wired in Parallel configuration.

The AM882 set up instructions are pretty good & I had no problem setting the machine up & getting it running properly, recently I had to go back to the set up guide & while reading about seting up motors in different configurations I started to think that maybe I would be better with the motors wired is series rather than parallel.

The guide briefly describes each set up & what caught my eye was the part that said that with series low speed torque was better but when operating at high speed torque was reduced & with parallel high speed torque was good but low speed torque wasn't so good.

So the question is what would be classed as high speed & what would be classed as low speed ? The machine is quite old & is belt driven so I don't tend to run it that fast, well I don't think I do but not being sure what is classed as fast & slow speed I;m not really sure, just wondering if I would be better with the motors set up to run series rather than parallel