Hi,

I'm working on a cheap CNC router that is skipping steps like crazy. If you jog it for 20 seconds it will be off by about .005 in. I'm running Mach3 on a 32 bit Windows 7 tower. Here are some screen shots from Mach3's Driver Test program. It seems to be where the problem is coming from. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Brendan

No screenshots.

Try reducing the Velocity and Acceleration in Motor Tuning by maybe 50% and see how things go.
Hood

Sorry about the screen shots.

I have tried everything from fast to slow, and every combination in between of velocity and acceleration without a change in the accumulative error. It looks to be a parallel port issue.



Thanks,

Brendan

You've got an issue with your PC. Your two images show pulse rates of 13000 and 19000. It should be fairly steady at around 25000, and not vary much at all. The graph should be a thin horizontal line with no spikes. Disregard the system excellent message, as it's often meaningless.
Go into the bios and turn off C1E or EIST if you have them.
Also disable any hardware devices that you don't need for Mach3, and see if it helps.

Ok, I can't find setting in the bios for APIC, CIE, or EIST. What exactly does the DriveTest.exe check? Does it check the parallel port, or the Mach3 driver?

Thanks for the help tracking down the problems.

Sorry about the images. This should work better. (photos attached) 

That is a terrible driver test result, it should be a flat line in the centre with very little disruption.
You could try doing some of the steps outlined in the Optimisation document to see if they help or you could try one of the many external controllers available or try a different computer.
Hood

Ok, I looked and can't find the Mach3optimization.txt file. I found a link to it, but it was broken. Can someone post it please?

Thanks

ftp://machsupport.com/Extra%20Information/XP_Optimization_Guide.txt

Hood

Thanks Hood!