Messages

61

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 not for sale in a year or so ???

« on: July 16, 2015, 08:48:22 AM »

Mach 4 is already at least 2 years behind and far from a finished product. There are too many problems that need to be resolved. Artsoft doesn't have a marketing plan that makes any sense by releasing a half developed product and expecting the costumer to pay $200 for the privilege of debugging it. From what I have read the numerous CV issues that plague Mach 3 still haven't been resolved in Mach 4. As a matter of fact, ArtSoft never even mentions CV in the Mach 4 manual.

Until Mach 4 is a stable consumer useable product, which may never happen at the rate it's going now, I see no rush to jump on the Mach 4 band wagon. Read the Mach 4 part of the forum and that will give you an idea of the problems and issues.   

62

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 issues on Windows Xp! Please help!

« on: April 22, 2015, 09:23:12 PM »

No sure what bar553 really means... Seems the response is totally frigg'in irreverent to the topic.  Listen... running pirate software has its risks including loading viruses and malware. Almost all illegal software has some sort of "payloads" of crap code to infect a system. There is no free rides my friend.

Go ahead and run a bogus version of XP or Win2000 and hope for the best.... but don't post here looking for help when things don't work. You already stated on a public forum you are using a pirated copy of XP... pretty stupid on your part. Now you want help because your OS is corrupt and Mach 3 doesn't work. Do us a favor and buy a legal copy of the OS & mach 3 (like the rest of us) and try again. If not go away.

63

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 issues on Windows Xp! Please help!

« on: April 21, 2015, 09:57:25 AM »

Try 2000 and see if it works if you have a licensed copy. If its a bogus copy like the XP you have it may end up with the same results. IMO It's really a no brainer to go with licensed copy of XP instead of 2000 OS. There are a number of OS improvements over 2000. XP is readily available on Ebay for low cost. Do a clean install and move on.... it's not rocket science. 

64

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 issues on Windows Xp! Please help!

« on: April 20, 2015, 10:14:49 AM »

Not sure if Windows 2000 will work. Windows 2000 is one step up from Windows 98 and may not work with Mach 3 plug-ins and stepper drivers. I know Win98 and 2000 have USB limitations as well.

Most if not all pirate (unlicensed) XP OS use a "crack utility" to unlock the OS so it's a good possibility not all of the OS is being loaded properly. Especially if it's happening on two separate pc's and the only common denominator is the same OS being loaded on both. Ebay has tons of cheap XP computers and XP OS disks with a license.

65

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 issues on Windows Xp! Please help!

« on: April 19, 2015, 10:06:41 AM »

I would do a clean reinstall of Windows XP first and see if the problem goes away before installing Mach 3. Sounds like a corrupt OS and not a Mach 3 problem. It could be possible the copy of Windows XP you are installing is corrupt. XP is probably the most stable OS MicroSoft ever developed.

66

General Mach Discussion / Re: Using Drawings and Cam programs on a computer running Mach 3

« on: March 11, 2015, 05:32:01 PM »

You could link the cnc computer with the design pc via file sharing. Just drag and drop the file to the cnc pc. I use that option and it work great. Personally I have found its best to keep the cnc pc just running mach. There was a Youtube video of some guy running mach 3 and checking his email at the same time on a laptop.... he closed the email window and the tool bit crashed into the work. Priceless.

67

General Mach Discussion / Re: Yet Another Z-Axis question (Safe-Z)

« on: March 11, 2015, 04:37:39 PM »

It's probably defined in the cad/cam program you are using for the gcode.

68

General Mach Discussion / Re: Runaway axes

« on: March 09, 2015, 08:08:39 PM »

Try using V0.62... 0.66 has problems.

69

General Mach Discussion / Re: new hardware same problem

« on: March 06, 2015, 07:41:23 PM »

If it's a chinese machine there is a 100% chance the ball screws are metric.  The most common is 5mm pitch.

70

General Mach Discussion / Re: HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM!!! THIS IS GROUND CONTROL TO MAJOR TOM!

« on: March 05, 2015, 12:45:39 PM »

Looks like the accel rates are way too high and losing steps when trying to slow down. Still things seem to point to the Dell LPT port if its happening on all axis. Try another pc if you have one available.