Here's another goofy thing going on. In the first picture you see ver. x.x. Also when this "version" of Mach runs, the Auto Tool Zero functin does not work. In the second picture the opening screen is different, but the ATZ function does work. This is something that I have noticed on different PCs running Mach.


Could there be something in a Bios setting or a Windows setting that is causing this? I have disable

Automatic Updates
Screen Saver
Hibernation mode

You will get different splash screens when starting Mach, I think there are three and they are chosen randomly.
I cant see how the splash screen could stop a macro working but I am wondering if you are possibly starting a different profile by mistake? One that has the macro and one that doesnt.
Hood

Ranchak
Are you sure you are not losing steps way to find out is to set a home point zero all your DRO's reference home to zero then move the machine to way off point then tell mach to go to zero it should return the machine right back to the point you had set if that works then probably nothing wrong with your machine or computer I had a similar problem and what i found was the encoders were losing steps giving mach an incorrect location it only happened when i was working in heavy cut's with a lot of geometry arc's and curves hope this helps.

Dennis   

I'm  using the same profile, I created one when I installed Mach. I tried this numerous times and when the first screen set comes up the ATZ does not work properly.

You will get different splash screens when starting Mach, I think there are three and they are chosen randomly.
I cant see how the splash screen could stop a macro working but I am wondering if you are possibly starting a different profile by mistake? One that has the macro and one that doesnt.
Hood

Then afraid I can think of no other reason that would happen.
Hood

I've done what you are suggesting and 90% of the time it works. I'm not using encoders so at least that is one less thing to worry about. If I was loosing steps it would have to be a huge amount to be off by 4 inches.

Ranchak
Are you sure you are not losing steps way to find out is to set a home point zero all your DRO's reference home to zero then move the machine to way off point then tell mach to go to zero it should return the machine right back to the point you had set if that works then probably nothing wrong with your machine or computer I had a similar problem and what i found was the encoders were losing steps giving mach an incorrect location it only happened when i was working in heavy cut's with a lot of geometry arc's and curves hope this helps.

Dennis   

Definatley crazy. I really don't know what to do at this time. I can't continue and have intermittent issues, I'll see if taking a lighter cut will change anything. Other than this I think it might be time to move on to a different control system.

Is there anything you can think of that switches on at the time the axis go wild? Something that could cause electrical noise?
Hood

Nothing that I can think of. The only thing that is on is an overhead fan and the VFD. These have always been on, nothing new has been added, elecrically speaking. I did remove my ATZ scrip and macro. I turned off the macropump. I'm also going to reprogram my pocketing toolpath and use a smaller stepover and a lighter cut to see if that helps. Right now I'm running a part (hopefully that's what it will be).

If it goes wrong dont do a go to zero or whatever, check the DRO and toolpath and see what it shows, ie see if they show the tool has gone wayward or if they show it to be where it should be even though the axis is obviously not there.
Hood