I used Mach2 before and getting my feet wet with Mach3.  I have a new setup and have a couple very weird problems that I cannot understand.  Maybe someone can point me in the right direction?

1. The X axis on my system is not smooth when I use the up / down keys for moving in the Motor Tuning setup menu.  It's always the X axis and if I have confirmed it's nothing to do with the stepper motor as I have moved them around to different X, Y, Z outputs and even (believe it or not) changed out the main Xylotex board because I thought it was bad.  Nope, it wasn't bad.  I reinstalled the latest version of Mach 3 and still the same thing.  Also, I changed out the printer / LPT1 cord.

What happens in motor tuning is the X axis runs erratically and sounds like something is terribly wrong.  However when I run a G-Code program it then sounds normal.  This is driving me bonkers and curious if anyone has seen this before?  Or has any good suggestions?

2. This is probably a dumb question but I cannot get the Hot Keys to work.  I went into the Config and set them up, i.e. you push X and it gives it a number such as 88 or whatever.  When I go into the regular screen and then push X nothing happens.  What am I missing here?  I'm guessing there is some magical button or check mark here?  Could someone please point me to the right direction.  I could set this up (almost) in my sleep in Mach 2 but not getting Mach 3 just yet..

Thanks for your help and suggestions which hopefully don't include that I'm a stupid user!!

First the Hotkeys, you can set up any you wish for X Y Z etc but just be aware that they may already be asigned to something else so proceed with caution. It is probably best just to use the default keys which are left and right arrows for X, Up and Down arrows for Y and Page Up Page Down for Z. If they have been changed then go to Config menu the System Hotkeys, clcik on the X++ and a box will pop up and then you press the right arrow, do the same for X-- and press the left arrow, etc etc.

 For your motor problem, try setting the pulse width in motor tuning to 5.

Hood

I made this change and it did not do any major improvements to the axis.  Maybe its slightly better but still running very jumpy and erractic.  It's always the same axis as I can change around the wiring and it changes the motor which is running erractic. 

I've changed out everything except the computer.  I have a backup computer and will drag that out as it's the only thing that it could be.  When I said I changed out the Xylotex box I actually got a completely different setup so a different power supply, etc. 

Also, I'm using what you suggest but still not able to get the motors to turn in idle mode.  I think my old computer had Mach2 so maybe that will work.

Any other suggestions?

Please attach your xml

Hood

I dug out my old computer and now everything is working fine on an older Mach3 release.  Weird!!

Anyway it works.  Thanks for the help.

Hood