Messages

1

General Mach Discussion / work offsets

« on: November 15, 2010, 11:18:37 AM »

I am trying to machine two parts using g55 and g56.  g55 is one vise and g56 is another.  when i run through the program it seems to machine everything correctly except the very last finish pass in g56.  i turn on cutter comp then everything goes hay wire i get drives faulting and i think its trying to move back to the g55 position to do the finish pass there.   i attached the nc file that i'm working with and i'm at a loss as to why it completes part one just fine, but won't finish part 2.  its like when cutter comp pics up it reverts back to its original position when it was first being used.  i am running the latest mach 3 software.

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General Mach Discussion / Re: mach 3.042 install on fresh win XP install and driver test won't work

« on: November 03, 2010, 09:56:45 AM »

Well the new computer seemed to solve the problem.  i don't know if the other one was just old or what, it did run at one point in time.  anyway the new machine is a intel core duo E7550 with a gigabyte mother board, 4 gb of ram and the intel video chipset.  i added a 320 gb hard drive and am running win xp.  so far zero problems and its been on for two days straight.  i periodically go and fiddle with the control to make sure that its still on and do some jogging, run a short program and then let it sit.  before it would lock up while changing screeens, activating a program, or just sitting there. 

my computer guru surmises that the ram is bad in the old setup.  but its not worth trying to locate old ram to keep it going. 

3

General Mach Discussion / Re: Motherboard Recommendations

« on: November 02, 2010, 01:12:50 PM »

I had problems with an Asus board that had an Nvidia video chipset and driver.  i switched to gigabyte with the intel video chipset and driver all seems to be good.

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General Mach Discussion / Re: mach 3.042 install on fresh win XP install and driver test won't work

« on: November 01, 2010, 01:29:10 PM »

well today i've invested the last $250 that this machine will ever get unless it runs.  i just bought a new computer for it and if it works i will post up the details and a comparison between what i had and what the new one is. 

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General Mach Discussion / Re: mach 3.042 install on fresh win XP install and driver test won't work

« on: October 29, 2010, 10:13:23 AM »

Alright, well i did a full reinstall of windows xp with using the F5 classic compute install and now it won't even boot up.  i did try and install a seperate video card on this install so i'm willing to try it one more time without it.  this is getting ridiculous.  why do i need to buy a new $500 computer to run a basic software program without crashing?

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General Mach Discussion / Re: mach 3.042 install on fresh win XP install and driver test won't work

« on: October 29, 2010, 08:29:13 AM »

The frequency on the diagnostics page starys fixed at 43860 and doesn't move.  i am half tempted to try out the smooth stepper, but i know thats got its own share of issues.  i am today going to reload windows one more time with the F5 setup.  once that is done i will compare it to what i'm currently running.  if its no better i'm throwing out the darn computer and starting over with a brand new one. 

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General Mach Discussion / Re: mach 3.042 install on fresh win XP install and driver test won't work

« on: October 28, 2010, 02:25:58 PM »

yes the frequency is one really smooth line.  there is a small spike every now and then but its smooth and the spike is intermittent.

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General Mach Discussion / Re: mach 3.042 install on fresh win XP install and driver test won't work

« on: October 28, 2010, 08:48:25 AM »

yes it is on board graphics.  when i had a seperate graphics card, it would freeze sooner.  the blip is 10.2 microseconds

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General Mach Discussion / Re: mach 3.042 install on fresh win XP install and driver test won't work

« on: October 27, 2010, 09:43:10 PM »

the computer only locks up with mach 3 open.  otherwise it can sit there all day just on.  this computer is a 3gHz celeron processor with 2 gb of ram.  i thought i built it well enough to avoid these issues.  driver test looks good at 45 kHz as thats where i'm running, its a nice steady stream with a blip every now and again.  the cpu percentage i can check in the morning but i don't think its much at all.

10

General Mach Discussion / Re: mach 3.042 install on fresh win XP install and driver test won't work

« on: October 27, 2010, 06:46:08 PM »

ok heres where i am at...  i did load the old software and it didn't work either.  so i reinstalled windows xp with the standard configuration.  it didn't work with either as well.  i finally read a post on here and went into the bios and change the PP to EPP and now its working with the new 3.042 software.  however, as before, mach 3 will lock up the computer after a certain amount of time of just being on.  even without a running a program if i leave it just on with or without the servos engaged it locks up.  then i have to reboot the computer.  i did try the optimization stuff and it doesn't seem to help this problem.   any ideas?  i am tempted to reinstall with the F5 load of xp and see if it works now that pp is set to EPP.  i am trying to get to the point of having a reliable system but i can't keep rebooting up every time it locks up.