Messages

21

General Mach Discussion / Re: Bad Driver Test

« on: July 15, 2007, 03:38:18 PM »

Not sure if I have read sysreq anywhere but I have read many times that a CPU of 1Ghz or more is recommended.
Mach will still run lower but you might miss steps if you open/close windows etc.

Have you gone through the list of tweaks found on the download page?

I will install mach on my OLD laptop just to see what happens.

22

General Mach Discussion / Re: Bad Driver Test

« on: July 15, 2007, 12:59:12 PM »

Your CPU is way to slow!
It has a lot of problems keeping up and it will only get worse when you start using mach.

You can make a decent computer for 400$ that will run mach great.
You can probebly make one for 200$ if you have some parts.

You can turn off theme for xp and all the animations. It might help a little bit but IMHO you are under the limit.

*edit* also built in gfx might mess things up. If you have a spare graphics card you might test if it helps solve the problem.
I would however not invest any money into that computer.

23

General Mach Discussion / Re: Help needed finding stepper driver

« on: June 27, 2007, 04:42:54 PM »

I have spent the last few days reaserching for my CNC project and found this thread about a bipolar driver.
http://cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33756
I will put the HCNC driver on hold as this looks far more interesting.
HCNC seems like a less and less good alternative due to some posts I have read.
Gecko seems like the way to go for quality but they are pretty expensive.

http://pminmo.com/ Has a lot of info about this sort of stuff.

24

General Mach Discussion / Re: Configuring PC speed, motor speed, etc.

« on: June 27, 2007, 03:25:16 PM »

But do I have to multiply the 5333 by 3 axes???  5333Hz x 3 = 16,000Hz)

No you don't need to multipy it per axis as the paralell port is a (by the name) paralell interface and not a seriell.
It sends out all 8 bits at the same time through the 8 pins.

Remote desktop or VNC has never worked well with interacrive apps that redraws a lot (updates graphics). It also takes a lot of CPU and network to make it work ok. If you use TightVNC make sure you select fast compression. It would be a lot safer to just use a normal monitor, keyboard and mouse.
And as Hood said, yous an external videocard. Even if it's an ATI Rage 3D (it works fairly good despite it's age and has the benefit that it's practicly free if you can find it in a scrapbin)

25

General Mach Discussion / Re: minimum computor requirements

« on: June 25, 2007, 02:11:16 PM »

You can't turn off the graphics controller and still use VNC.
I'm not sure if windows would run without a display device. It would just initiate it's own driver at 640*480 and it would be sloooooooooooooooooooow
I would also expect a lot of displayissues using VNC if you don't have a fast cpu and network. And even then it might not work properly. Depends how mach is drawn.

26

General Mach Discussion / Re: Help needed finding stepper driver

« on: June 25, 2007, 01:30:56 PM »

It's 10 steps/sec

With unipolar steppers you can use one coil or two coils at the time.
the HCNC pro board is 114$ including SH for a 4 axis driver.
Do you know of any orker driver in that range.
Unipolar motors can be run as bipolar wich is about the same as running the unilpolar with two coils at the time. The only difference is that you connect the coil in parralel when using two coils and in series when using it as bipolar.

I don't expect great speed out of it.
I can't get a lot of speed out of it with that driver as the current drops rapidly when running fast. But with these drivers it might work. I have read that the steppers should be good for around 2kHz (2000 steps/sec) If it gets that high sped will no longer be an issue. If it does half that I would be happy.
The 2.5V id 1.8*step and i think the 4.5V is 2.2*step. Not sure about the last one.

If you know any relativly cheap bipolar driver, I have a few more steppers that was used in a printer to move the printerhead back and forth. As far as I know they are pretty strong and might work for something else.

27

General Mach Discussion / Re: Help needed finding stepper driver

« on: June 25, 2007, 11:36:20 AM »

I have test run one motor at slow speed using a cheap full-step driver (one coil at the time) and at about 10 Hz and lower I have no chance in the world stopping it. (this was with the 4.5V 1.8A) And that is with slightly lower current than rated. I don't think that i could load it that much that it starts to move at 50% current. I thought that Z would be slower anyway so that would not be a problem.

Are you saying that the motor will need a lot higher voltage than rated to get the current the same as low speed when running higher speed?
The driver has the input of 42V maximum and 12V minimum. I thought I would need to go as low as possible so that the steppers would not take harm.
The steppers are 9.5cm wide(round) and 6cm long so they are not small.

I know. I have a bunch of capacitors. Most big ones ony go up to 15V tho.

28

General Mach Discussion / Re: Help needed finding stepper driver

« on: June 25, 2007, 08:54:40 AM »

Thanks.
I asked HobbyCNC if their driver would work with these stepper and they said it would.
http://www.hobbycnc.com/hcncpro.php

I feel the extra money put into the pro would be justefied by the idle current reduction and extra protection. Am I right on this?

Are their any other drivers that I should choose instead?

Should a ATX PSU suffice as powersource? I have pleny of those.
I have quite a few capacitors as well so it can be buffered with about 1 farad. Not that I think it would need that much tho.
I can also make something around 24V if that's better.

29

General Mach Discussion / Help needed finding stepper driver

« on: June 18, 2007, 11:19:27 AM »

I have two Step-Syn 2.5V 2.1A and two Step-Syn 4.5V 1.8A
All of them is unipolar (6 wires)

It will only be a 3-axis but if it's a 4 axis driver it won't be a bad thing unless it costs a lot.
I want the driver to be as cheap as possible but better expensive than crap.
I have a driver that goes from 5v and up but it's whole step only and won't work for the other two.
I would like atleast half-step to get better accuracy and faster travel.

The rest of the table will be made from bits and peaces in a scrapheap sort of way. Nothing professional. Will be mostly for wood but also for metal.
As it looks now it will be able to work on a 80*80 cm area. It will be screw based on all 3 axis, that is if I can find some. It will be interesting none the less.
And you can expect it to be fully documented in realtime. (aka SLOOOOW)