Messages

1

General Mach Discussion / Re: "Safe Z off" + "go to zero" = lost steps

« on: November 12, 2013, 02:31:58 PM »

Oscillates about 2 (1,9 - 2,2) sometimes goes up to 2,5. Ah, my processor has Speedstep enabled and changes multiplier all the time so it can affect it I guess.  Is it good? Bad?

Yes SpeedStep clearly affects Time in int: At about 2,3GHz I get about 2,5, at 3,2GHz about 2,0)

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General Mach Discussion / Re: "Safe Z off" + "go to zero" = lost steps

« on: November 12, 2013, 02:15:51 PM »

I have Intel C2D 2x 3,2GHz with 4GB RAM running on Foxconn P35A-S (the only MB i remember at time when I bought my PC to have both LPT and COM), so I assume speed is not an issue. I remember running it on P4 3GHz (which is much slower processor) at that speed with no issues.

What I understand is that Mach3 is running at constant speed of xx kHz and it can only give (or not give) a STEP signal on each cycle, so at higher speeds when it comes out that STEP signal has to be made eg. every 3,5 cycle it ends up running either too slow or too fast. At 25 kHz instead of 1500 mm/s it goes about 1680 mm/s, while at 100kHz I get 1531 units/min. As I need to set speed rather precisely (I also measure how much sample deforms at given force and I calculate position from time and speed) going with higher kernel speeds gives me more accurate results. Right?

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General Mach Discussion / "Safe Z off" + "go to zero" = lost steps

« on: November 12, 2013, 04:28:48 AM »

Hi!

I've struggeled with this problem for few days. I use Mach3 to drive stepper motor in my stress testing device, just one axis. I've disabled splindle outputs, other axis and also "safe z" feature as I don't need them.

I'm running at 100KHz, motor is tuned to 750 RPM (1500mm/min with 2mm screw) with acceleration "300" (up to 500 works nice) driver is providing 1/8 step division (800 steps/mm, 1600 steps/rotation) It is able to keep that speed with axis loaded with 150N. The problem was that every time I've pressed "go to zero" I recieved a message like "safe Z turned off ignoring...." and I instantly lost steps even with acceleration 100 and speed reduced to 500rpm (1000mm/min). Driver and Mach kept going but motor just made some noise.

Then I've enabled Safe Z again (which is useless as I have no Z axis) and problems dissapeared.

What happened? Does Mach3 lose steps on error messages?

4

General Mach Discussion / Control Mach3 from external program / feed G-code on the go

« on: August 05, 2013, 06:21:41 AM »

Hi there!

I'm looking for a way to control stepper motor from PC and this idea came into mind: Why not use Mach3 and Mach3 - dedicated electronics (that we alredy have) to do it?

Basically what I need is the ability to somehow control Mach3 from external program, probably by sending G-codes as the program does it's job. That program would set the speed and send commands to stop when certain conditions are met, then ask Mach to go back to zero.

Is it possible to do so?

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Mach4 General Discussion / Re: New people welcome !! Come in here and introduce your self!

« on: August 05, 2013, 06:12:34 AM »

Greetings from Poland!

We are using Mach 3 to run our old Emco CNC mill converted to modern drivers and planning to use it to some other things