Messages

11

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

« on: October 19, 2010, 04:59:50 PM »

I really didn't want to use an older version and nothing changed in the hardware, only the software change.  i am tempted to reload windows XP with the standard installation and then go through and disable features.  maybe there is something missing with this stripped version that mach needs to run well with my hardware configuration.

12

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

« on: October 19, 2010, 04:26:13 PM »

ok, i reinstalled mach 3 complete after manually removing the driver through device manager.  i did get the driver test to work once and now it tells me that it can't find the vectors.

13

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

« on: October 19, 2010, 03:33:04 PM »

it says that the driver test that system is under mach 3 control but nothing happens on the screen.

14

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

« on: October 19, 2010, 03:05:31 PM »

I just finished reinstalling win XP on my computer.  this is a dedicated setup for mach to run my cnc.  i had it running before but windows would lock up. so this time i reloaded windows with using the optimization suggestion of loading with F5.  now when i run mach 3 i can't get anything to do anything.  i even went out and bought a seperate PCI serial adapter card thinking there maybe a missing driver in windows with the new install and still nothing.  i can't even get my limit switches to trigger on the auto detect function. 

i know this seems really stupid as i had it running before, but i'm at a loss as to whats going on now.  btw the computer is a 3ghz pentium with 2 gigs of ram.  this is the same computer i ran before with mach 3 just a new install of windows xp.

15

General Mach Discussion / getting ready to build new computer will be mach 3 only

« on: October 15, 2010, 12:13:43 AM »

I am getting ready to a build a mach 3 only computer.  i will be running windows xp pro as i have that available.  my machine is built and running but my current computer keeps hanging up, so i want something new that i can start fresh with.   pretty much all the mother boards now have on board video, is it necessary to still run a seperate video card?  right now i'm thinking that i want an intel chip.  is there any benefit to running a dual core?  also with ram being so cheap now and most boards capable of running 8 gigs of ram is there a reason to run so much?  running the parallel port is a really basic function that can be handled in dos, so it really looks like there doesn't need to be a bunch of ram needed.  i was planning on running two gigs as i think thats the smallest i can get right now.  again looking for ideas here and am looking forward to seeing the responses.

16

Promote and discuss your product / Re: Windows XP shell for Mach3

« on: October 14, 2010, 04:00:24 PM »

I need some more info on how to get this setup to work.  my computer is only setup to run Mach 3 so i'm not worried about screwing it up and i really want the most transparent, most dos like windows operation as i can get.  i agree there is way to much garbage running in the back ground of windows. 

17

General Mach Discussion / Re: Constant Surface Speed.

« on: January 31, 2009, 08:13:10 AM »

in this example the s75 is the surface feet per minute you want to turn correct? 

18

General Mach Discussion / Re: z axis losing position and plows into fixture...help

« on: January 27, 2009, 01:53:38 PM »

parallel port.  it ran the first part of the program for 7.5 hrs straight with no problems and the z repeated to within +/-.001 on all the holes in the fixture.

19

General Mach Discussion / Re: z axis losing position and plows into fixture...help

« on: January 27, 2009, 01:45:15 PM »

250 ppr encoders
nema 34 servo motor
gearing is 4:1
ball screw pitch is .200
gecko servo drives
72 volt power supply

like i said this is really baffling me.  i ran another program and it does just what i tell it.  i'm about to run the program that crashed here again and see if it does it again. 

20

General Mach Discussion / Re: z axis losing position and plows into fixture...help

« on: January 27, 2009, 11:00:35 AM »

sorry i should have mentioned its  servo driven mill.