This is an odd issue and I'm hoping that someone has some ideas for me.  Here is the background.

I have a lathe running off of a G540 that has been running for 10 months just fine.  I have been using 3.042.029 during that time.  I use a multi-notch index disc along with the timing function in Mach to handle my threading.  It has been working beautifully.

Two weeks ago the mother board on my PC died so I picked up a new machine to run the lathe.  I reinstalled Mach, restored all of the config files from my old machine and started working with it.  Everything is working except the spindle speed.  I get a speed output, but it is exactly double what the real rpm is (so at the low end the lathe does 161 rpm but it shows 332 and it follows straight through the range to the top speed.)

First thing I'll say is that none of hardware other than the PC has changed (I haven't changed the index wheel for instance.)  I thought that none of the software had changed either after the restore.  I have tried to upgrade to a newer version of Mach, but the timing function wasn't working at all, and I seem to remember reading somewhere that the feature had been removed in favour of indexing instead.

Does anyone have any thoughts on why this might be happening?  Any thoughts on how I can test what might be the issue?

Thanks
Chris

Timing is no longer used, this was changed recently in the threading updates in the driver, you need to use a single index.
Hood

I don't really have any interest in using a single index since the older version of mach was working fine with timing.  I'm fine using an older version of mach.  More so than rebuilding my index plate.

Anyone have any thoughts on why mach would report double the actual rpm?

Thanks
Chris

Sorry about that, hadnt read your opening post properly in my haste to go home.
So you have gone back to the same version as before? I seem to remember fairly recent versions having spindle speed issues, this was around the time of Art altering the driver for threading.

Hood

No worries.  Yeah that's the odd thing about it.  I installed the same version, and then copied everything over from the old mach3 directory.  All of my tool setups are there, all my machine settings are there.  The only issue is the rpm that gets reported.

If I uninstall Mach, will it uninstall the driver as well?  I'm thinking I should go back and reinstall everything just to make sure that it is all on the up and up.

Thanks
Chris

Go to Device manager and delete the driver then go to Mach3 folder and run the driver test, that will reinstall the driver.
Hood

Thanks.  I'll give that a try tonight and see if it helps.

Chris

Chris,
Do as you wish, but there were enchanements made in turn. For threading you should be at .033
The single slot is just as good as multislot disc. I just put tape over the slots on mine, but later on and even better, used a Halls sensor.

FWIW
RICH

Rich,

The only reason I want to avoid changing the index disk is that it is a nightmare to get at on my lathe.  I'm trying to get some jobs finished and I really don't have the time to get into that right now.  If I'm going to tear it apart I would probably prefer to upgrade it to a Halls sensor, but I'll need to do some research on that first.

Will .033 still support the multi-notch disk, or will it require going to a single notch disk?

Thanks
Chris

Not sure, but a multi slotted disk went away with .030.
The Halls sensor is nice since you use a rare earth magnet instead of a slot. The magnet is only 1/8" dia and just crazy glue it on.

RICH