Messages

21

General Mach Discussion / Re: Confusion on Jog Mode / MPG / Shuttle Mode

« on: November 04, 2006, 09:47:18 PM »

Thanks for responding Graham.

I will post the code when I get the CNC machine powewred back up (probably tomorrow sometime).

However, I am unable to toggle to the MPG mode without the Shuttle mode On while using my workstation as well. And it has no macropump code running. That's why I figure I must be missing something very simple.

David

22

General Mach Discussion / Confusion on Jog Mode / MPG / Shuttle Mode

« on: November 04, 2006, 04:50:03 PM »

Hi All,

I have been working on a pendant with MPG using ModIO. I have been successful in moving the three axis with the MPG through the ModIO driven by the Macropump I've been working on (Modeled after the sample code in the Mach Customization Wiki).

The problem is that I have now gotten myself in a position that I cannot get the MPG mode to come one WITHOUT having the Shuttle Mode to be on. An no matter what I do, I am also unable to toggle through the MPG Axis.

My understanding is that the Shuttle mode is used to step through G-code at a speed of your choosing by rotating the MPG -- Very Cool!! Trouble is, I want to move the table, and to do that I need (I think) to have the Shuttle Mode in the Off position and the MPG in the ON position. When I toggle Jog Mode, all I do is move between Cont and Step. And the only way I can get the MPG in the ON position is by toggling the Shuttle mode which puts me back where I don;t want to be.

I must be missing something very simple as I could find nothing on this in any of my searches. What am I missing?

Thanks a bunch for any help on this!!

David

23

General Mach Discussion / Error Triggered -- Art Code 1 & 9991

« on: November 04, 2006, 03:44:05 PM »

Hi All,

I've been working with Mach3 2.00x (currently 2.007) building a pendant and working with my macropump.

Recently, Mach3 has been throwing a lot of exceptions at startup with the first window showing Error Triggered -- Art Code; 1, Attempt Recovery?, and then 9991 in a new but similar dialog with the same yes/no buttons. This has been happening on both the CNC machine and my do-all workstation (which has no macropump.m1s, nor is the Mach3 driver loaded)

After click OK or Cancel I then get an OS error dialog titled Mach4 CNC Application error (Tell Microsoft about this problem yada yada). I then click to see what the error report contans and I get the AppName: Mach3.exe, ModName: msxml3.dll. When I close the dialog, Mach immediately closes.

Indeed, I am unable to successfully open Mach3 on the workstation as I write this after many attempts. But on the CNC machine, I can usually get Mach3 to open after one or two Art Code 1 & 9991 failures. It do not see any repeatable pattern on the CNC machine. The only way I have been able to solve this problem on the workstation is reinstalling Mach3 into a fresh c:\Mach3 folder.

Any ideas on what this could be?

Thanks,

David

24

General Mach Discussion / Re: X-Axis stutters when moving X &Y with Cursor-keys

« on: April 18, 2006, 09:36:28 PM »

Brian,

I took the file and loaded it. First thing I did was test as you configured it. Everything worked fine. Then, I turned off the OUTPUTS I configured on Pins 8 & 9 on Port 1 and tested again. Everything works as well.

I looked for changes you had made in the file, and noticed the 5 micro second entries in both Step and Direction, but did not notice other changes. Are there other you entries you made that I did not recognize??

Thanks for your time and attention. I appreciate it!!

David

25

General Mach Discussion / Re: X-Axis stutters when moving X &Y with Cursor-keys

« on: April 18, 2006, 01:56:57 AM »

Brian,

Well, I may have screwed up sending you the wrong file... If I did, sorry to have wasted your time.

The file I am including here is from the machine C:\Mach3, with a time stamp of 4/17/06 10:47 PM--Just closed the app.

Thanks,

David

26

General Mach Discussion / Re: X-Axis stutters when moving X &Y with Cursor-keys

« on: April 17, 2006, 12:28:08 AM »

Hey Brian,

The xml file is zipped and attached.

I'm using a pair of NetMos PCI ECP Parallel port cards driving the PMDX boards, though I get the same behavior when connected to the parallel port on board the ASUS motherboard which is a P5LD2 running in Standard PC mode.

Thanks for taking the time to look this over. I do appreciate it!!

David

27

General Mach Discussion / Re: X-Axis stutters when moving X &Y with Cursor-keys

« on: April 16, 2006, 09:12:40 PM »

OK. I have a more complete view of what is happening and have solved the immediate problem. My previous description of the problem was incomplete; the issue effected all three axes. However, I want to explain the whole situation, the solution as currently deployed, and get feedback on the whole.

By observing the status LEDs on the PMDX board, I could see that the DIR signals for the 3 axes go HI or LO depending on the most recent direction the axis was told to move (I say TOLD, because even if the axis is not moving, the DRO says it is). If the axis moves in the minus (-) direction, the DIR signal stays HI; move in the plus(+) direction and DIR goes LO. If I move two of the three axes (say X &Y) in the minus direction (2 of the 3 DIR signals are HI) I can move both X & Y simultaneously in any combined direction in the proper fashion. But when I tried to move X & Z or Y & Z in the combined minus,minus (-,-) direction, (Thus all three DIR signals are HI when -,- is tried) one or both stutter and lose their position.

More concisely stated, if all three DIR signals are HI, then the combined-axis moves will fail.

Additional notes:
1) The brightness of ALLthe LED status indicators dim further for each HI DIR signal displayed. (This seemed rather suspicious to me, but I'm a bit ignorant of such things).
2) If all three DIR signals are HI, then the X & Y will move in the minus direction if moved individually. However, the Z-axis will not move; it will only move small increments (a few degrees) in the minus direction.
3) I also noticed that Pins 8 and 9 on the breakout board controlling X, Y, & Z were both HI but unused.

I was a bit curious on Pins 8 & 9, and decided that they realy did not need to be lit up and using current. I went into Ports & Pins/Outputs and configured two of the OUPUTS as enabled, and set to Port1 , Pins 8 & 9, and Active LOW. Then after doing the RESET, pins 8 & 9 were off. OK, great. I then tested the axis moves and all three Axes move in any desired combination; even all three at the same time in the minus direction.  

I am a bit mysitifed by this behavior, but I'm quite sure someone can explain why this was happening, and I would like to hear that explanation. But more to the point, is this indicative of some other problem I have not uncovered??? Is there some circuit that is drawing more current than it should? I have the 5 volt circuit fused at 1 amp, but maybe that means nothing.

Thanks for wading through the details here. Feedback greatly appreciated on this one!!!

David

28

General Mach Discussion / Re: X-Axis stutters when moving X &Y with Cursor-keys

« on: April 16, 2006, 04:23:03 PM »

Thanks, I'll check it out.

BTW, when you speak of noise, are you referring to possible inductive noise on the encoder cables??? They are shielded and grounded on the controller end.

Thanks again Brian!!

29

General Mach Discussion / X-Axis stutters when moving X &Y with Cursor-keys

« on: April 16, 2006, 03:24:24 PM »

Hi All,

I have a behavior (on my machine, not me... at least none I WANT help with) that I need a bit of help with.  Running an Industiral Hobbies Servo conversion kit with Gecko 320s, PMDX breakout boards (2) on a 3GHz ASUS P4 with addon Parallel port cards (2).

Individually, the X & Y-axix moves just fine from the cursor-keys. And when I press two of the keys for (X,Y) +,+; +,-; -,+ all moves are smooth and clean. But when I try to move X-,Y-,  the Y moves fine, but the X-axis stutters. The screw will turn 10-15 degrees, stop, try to move again, stop, etc. Move the X-axis alone or with the Y in any of the other three combinations and it moves fine.

I am just getting the system to the point of testing, and have not tried running any G-code.

Anyone have any thoughts or recommendations?

Thanks,,

David

30

General Mach Discussion / Recycled 866 Dual-Proc P3 server not up to running Mach???

« on: November 29, 2005, 08:52:55 PM »

Hello All,

I am gearing up a dedicated machine for Mach3. It is an HP Netserver 800 I retired a few weeks ago. It has a pair of 866MHz P3s and 392 MB of RAM. I have done a fresh load on a clean drive of Windows Server 2003 standard. It has the APCI multiproc driver loaded, network adapter hard coded to 100FullDuplex, and no antivirus or other non-MS services running. It lopes along at 1-2% CPU utilization, 78 MB committed & 17 processes.

The driver appears to be loaded correctly in Hardware. When I run DriverTest.exe I get a 16,268-16,278 Pulse/sec rate in 25KHz mode, or right at 2/3 the expected 24,400-24,600 pulse rate--rather interesting... The CPU speed shows correctly at 866. APIC timing constant is 50.

Further, if I run the driver test a second time the machine hangs at "Taking Control in 1 sec". This is repeatable. Is that normal??

The question of importance here is:

Am I being foolish for screwing around with this old dual-proc machine for Mach service?
If I'm not being foolish, does anyone have any recommendations on how to solve the problem. Say the word and I'll build a new machine for Mach.

Thanks for your time and attention!!

David