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Author Topic: Having a few issues with Mach  (Read 9828 times)

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Offline SWATH

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Re: Having a few issues with Mach
« Reply #10 on: March 27, 2011, 07:07:47 PM »
Yeah I really only need two ranges, fast and continuous, and small steps so I just keep in in step and use shift to override it into continuous which works well for me.  I wish there was a way to get rid of the 1.000 step, I never use that one and am always paranoid that I'll accidentally have it set there and break my probe with a large move. The arrow keys I'm using are not in the num pad, in fact my keyboard doesn't even have a num pad.  I'm not convinced it is a hardware problem yet because it worked perfectly a week ago.  I'm going to change the batteries on my keyboard and see if that helps (although it seems to work fine in all other applications).

Offline SWATH

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Re: Having a few issues with Mach
« Reply #11 on: March 27, 2011, 10:54:03 PM »
Ok that fixed one problem, the X axis homing.  Somehow the x axis homing got disabled, easy fix. 


The stuttering is still there but it is very weird.

I can jog the axes at 100IPM without any stutter, it is very smooth (albeit unpredictable when it will stop).  However if I enter a location in the MDI it stutters like crazy on anything above 20IPM (25 gets a little stutter every couple of seconds, 30 it constantly stutters).  I also notice that sometimes in the commotion of the stutter you can see the axis very briefly reverse direction while it is trying to move to the location like the motor is fighting against itself between trying to go forward and backwards.

The issue with the lagging jog is still there and disconcerting, I almost broke my probe and crashed it a couple of time because it just kept going, I had to hit the E-stop a few times.  The DRO still only update during a jog every few seconds.

Offline Hood

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Re: Having a few issues with Mach
« Reply #12 on: March 28, 2011, 03:53:33 AM »
Press Ctrl Alt Del and look at the performance tab when you are running Mach, is your CPU load high?
If that is not the case then it sounds like you may have issues with noise (electrical interference) or your wiring is loose.
You can change the jog step, on the flyout screen you can select 1, 0.1, 0.01, 0.001 etc just by toggleing the button.
Hood

Offline SWATH

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Re: Having a few issues with Mach
« Reply #13 on: March 28, 2011, 08:51:10 AM »
I looked at the CPU load before and I was surprised at how high it was when running Mach.  Without Mach running it was low, around 1-5%, with mach running it bumped up and stayed around 40-50%.  This is on a 1.8Ghz machine with pretty much nothing else on it.  That seems kind of high because when I run Mach on my laptop it hovers around only 3-9% on a 2.6Ghz CPU, that can't be normal can it?

Offline Hood

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Re: Having a few issues with Mach
« Reply #14 on: March 28, 2011, 10:02:48 AM »
Yes, that does seem high and definitely if it is with Mach just sitting idle.
Hood

Offline SWATH

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Re: Having a few issues with Mach
« Reply #15 on: March 29, 2011, 01:12:56 AM »
I've confirmed the issues are either with Mach or with my xmls.  Something with my xmls are hogging the CPU.  Here is a synopsis:

Here is an update, I've done some diagnostics and discovered some interesting behavior.  I uninstalled Mach completely, deleted the C/mach folder, uninstalled the parallel driver and even deleted all instances of mach in the registry.  I then reinstalled Mach, the problems were still there and I was monitoring the CPU usage.  When either the default xml or the unaltered backup xml was used the CPU usage hovered around 60% when sitting idle.  If I tried to jog it at 100IPM it would spike and flatline at 100%, jogging at 20IPM was smooth and the CPU usage hit a high of about 80-90%, jogging at 30IPM was stuttery and the CPUs went up to around 100%.  When I started mach with just the mach mill default profile the CPU usage dropped significantly and hovered around 10%.  Indicating something about my xmls are hogging all the CPU.  I then uninstalled it completely again and reinstalled earlier versions of Mach beginning with the current lock down 3.043.022 and working backwards repeating the process because I had updated to the current version as the demo version installed on the computer was an earlier version (I can't remember the version number).  I went through about 5 versions going back to 3.043.012 with no luck.  Then by accident I installed 3.042.20 which was a circa 2009 version and all of a sudden it worked.  The CPUs were much lower around 20% with mach running my xmls and the jogging was smooth and responsive, the DROs updated in real time again, and command G0 moves were smooth at 100IPM.

I'm not sure what version came on the computer but I would like to know because although not current it at least worked.  However even the current version only hogs all the CPU and bogs down the system when using my xmls so I'm wondering if they are corrupted somehow (even though I've never directly loaded the backup xml that was on the desktop into mach, I always make a copy and put it in the Mack folder to use it) or perhaps the newer versions of mach just don't like them. 

Offline Hood

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Re: Having a few issues with Mach
« Reply #16 on: March 29, 2011, 03:19:06 AM »
There were changes to the driver for threading in Turn and that may well have been about the time you start having issues, but I think you said it was fine with a standard xml but with yours its not so I cant see that really being the case. Can you attach your xml and I will see what it does on my computer compared to other xmls.
Hood

Offline SWATH

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Re: Having a few issues with Mach
« Reply #17 on: March 29, 2011, 08:37:49 AM »
Sure here is the active one I am using

Offline Hood

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Re: Having a few issues with Mach
« Reply #18 on: March 29, 2011, 09:27:32 AM »
Seems to be fine here, sitting idle and its using no more than 1% CPU and even running the roadrunner it was 6-7% Ths is with a 3Gig CPU but even so it shouldnt make that much difference.
I dont have the screen set you are using so could you try using the standard, also try disabling any plugins or Brains you may be using to see if you can find the issue.
One thing I noticed is I get a huge spindle override happening when I start code, this may have something to do with PWM but afraid I dont know anything about that as I have only ever used Servos for  Step/Dir spindles.

Hood

Offline SWATH

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Re: Having a few issues with Mach
« Reply #19 on: March 29, 2011, 10:53:00 AM »
Thanks for checking, the xml runs fine on my laptop too.  On the machine I don't have anything extraneous going on, I am using bone stock Mach install, standard default screen, no brains or scripts or anything like that.  It is quite curious.