Messages

11

General Mach Discussion / Keygrabber ---> Brain

« on: April 16, 2018, 07:52:38 AM »

Is it possible to use KeyGrabber to trigger the first column of a brain?

I have no experience with KeyGrabber other than starting the application and  poking around a bit. In the translate column, I can select another key or choose a special key, not sure if the special key can trigger a brain?

12

Brains Development / Jog (Tab) display status

« on: April 15, 2018, 02:07:00 PM »

I have a brain that displays the jog tab, when ever I push a jog related button on my pendant. Unfortunately the display sometimes gets out of sync with the brain. How can I inform the brain of the present status of the jog (tab) display?

13

General Mach Discussion / Re: Licensed version, will increasing kernal speed prevent missed charge pump pulses

« on: April 13, 2018, 09:41:05 AM »

I ran the driver test, selecting 25kHz, 45kHz and 100kHz.  The results look the same, suggesting that the setting does nothing in demo mode.

When I run mach3 with 45kHz selected, motor still moved correct distance, also suggesting the 45Khz setting is doing nothing.

When I tried running Mach at 100kHz, Mach crashed on start-up, suggesting perhaps it does do something??

Does anyone know for sure?

14

General Mach Discussion / Licensed version, will increasing kernal speed prevent missed charge pump pulses

« on: April 09, 2018, 04:14:54 PM »

I have been testing the demo version of Mach3 Mill, mostly positive so far. When I monitor the charge pump signal, every second or so it drops a pulse, reducing the frequency to 6.25kHz for one cycle. This plays havoc with my watch-dog hardware that is looking for a 9-15kHz signal.

I'm presently running the kernel at 25kHz because of the demo version limitation. If I purchase a license and then increase the kernel speed, will the dropped CP pulses be fixed?

15

General Mach Discussion / Re: Motors intermittently shudder whie in reset

« on: April 09, 2018, 02:49:47 PM »

Well after determining the drive enable documentation is incorrect. I started to wonder why is my enable signal is dropping out intermittently, while in reset mode.

One of the input parameters to my enable signal is the mach3 "charge pump" signal. I use this to drive a monostable (one-shot). So I scoped my enable signal on one channel, and the Mach3 "charge pump" signal on the other channel, and sure enough every once in a while the charge pump skips a beat, instead of being 12.5kHz, it drops to 6.25kHz for one cycle, that's enough to trigger my enable circuit (my threshold is set to 9kHz).

This problem seems to be related to the Pokeys 57E that I'm using for additional I/O, because if I disable the 57E, Mach seems to be able to keep up and not skip a beat while in reset........... I'm going to have to dig a bit deeper.

16

General Mach Discussion / Re: Motors intermittently shudder whie in reset

« on: April 09, 2018, 01:59:30 PM »

I figured it out. The drive enable signal works opposite to the step and direction signals, and not as the drive documentation indicates, you have to actually apply voltage to the enable opto to disable it. I guess they prefer the fail-unsafe mode. Who designs equipment like this?

17

General Mach Discussion / Motors intermittently shudder whie in reset

« on: April 09, 2018, 01:28:03 PM »

I'm at a loss as to why this is happening.

With the Mach3 Reset button pressed (solid green) i.e. not in reset or emergency mode, the steppers are silent unless I command them to move, everything normal and as it should be.

However if i press the Mach3 Reset button (flashing green/red), the steppers intermittently shudder, when I say shudder, they don't actually move, however I can hear the coils being de-energized/energized momentarily, and I hear a slight ping from the motors. If I place my hand on the motor I can feel it, perhaps every second or two.

I scoped the direction and step signals at the parallel port and I don't see anything that looks like it could trigger the drive. Even with the scope set to single trigger mode and a threshold of about 1 volt. When in run mode with the steppers moving, nice clean 5V square waves, so the scope and triggering are working.

Unless there is an actual E-Stop (not a press of the reset button on the Mach screen), the enable signal to the drives is active.

Anyone experience something like this?

18

Brains Development / Re: Mach3 crashes the moment I click on the enable checkbox for a brain.

« on: April 09, 2018, 01:10:36 PM »

Resolved.....RTFM

When I reinstalled I worked from memory instead the instructions and forgot to reboot. At least I think that was it, it's not happening anymore.

19

Brains Development / Mach3 crashes the moment I click on the enable checkbox for a brain.

« on: April 07, 2018, 03:54:42 PM »

Some time ago I had a bunch of brains working with mach3. At the time I was using a Pokeys57E with shared data etc.

For the moment I have all those old brains disabled, and I'm simply trying to run one very simple brain....

Output 1    NOP    Delay    Output 1

The moment I click on the enable checkbox for this brain, Mach3 crashes with an Artcode 9991 error.

I tried uninstalling Mach and then reinstalling, the Pokeys57E add-on is presently NOT enabled. I have no idea what's causing the crash?

20

Brains Development / Re: How to activate output a few seconds after Mach starts?

« on: April 07, 2018, 02:39:49 PM »

Thanks, I had no idea I could do that