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Author Topic: strange case of mach3 lockup...w/ win7  (Read 11101 times)

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strange case of mach3 lockup...w/ win7
« on: September 14, 2011, 03:48:22 PM »
hi guys,
i have a basic 3 axis mill setup ..
xyz and a hyunang vfd into a 2 hp 3 phase motor.. e-stop and mpg.. a couple of oem triggers for selecting axis  and a reset  outputs for mist and flood ... 2 parallel ports.. and a few extra o/i still to be worked with.
nothing fancy..

the vfd is in the same  enclosure as the motor drivers..  the ipx atom pc is in the pendant enclosure.. and there are rf chokes on the lines that enter the pendant...( i'm a good ham) .. power supply is separated and clean to each section.. and added many extra fans  ( it is like a refrigerator in the case.. ( 18 degrees c) and no recirculating bubbles..
 i started with a virgin oem copy and trimmed out a lot of fat...
( i have several microsoft engineer friends scratching their heads on this one too.. ( i prefer Linux though... still wondering when a copy of mach3 will be available for the rest of us... ( one can dream)))

i have been running this setup since june reliably...( still adding features slowly....) 

last week while running a section of code that takes 2:39 hours to run   i had a lockup .. motion stopped  spindle continued and no updates .. mach3 froze...

i reboot.. re-zeroed and began to cut air again... and an hour or so into it  same thing... but new twist.. the whole machine reset itself. ( went through the shutdown process) .. and came back with the no boot device found... error...  i cycled power and booted normally ...   no problem..  ran some system testing soaking  software for 2 days  no problem...   removed machine from mill and disabled e-stop and  vfd plugin  and ran the same code again.. 3 times good... 4th time  lockup...

system is not on the net while running mill... well protected behind many layers of firewalls...  remains on at all times... and has never seen this kind of problem before...

files are uploaded via thumbdrive and this is hand written code ( a very large file)

i am at a loss... driver test has no problems and the hardware is fine..  as each piece has been tested separately ..and completely.
is there a memory leak  still?

allan
Re: strange case of mach3 lockup...w/ win7
« Reply #1 on: September 14, 2011, 06:38:53 PM »
Make sure that you are not running the file from the usb drive itself. Upload the file to the hard drive and then run it.

Mike
We never have the time or money to do it right the first time, but we somehow manage to do it twice and then spend the money to get it right.
Re: strange case of mach3 lockup...w/ win7
« Reply #2 on: September 14, 2011, 07:49:26 PM »
mike-
that was never a problem before .but, like you...  i did think of that first ...and transferred the file onto the hard drive and re-ran.. same problem...

 i was wondering if vibrations would have played with the usb hub...  but in reality the vibrations at 4000 rpm and .025 cut into 6061 Al at 30 ipm with a 25% step-over  and a .250 3 tooth endmill  are not to great ... barely noticeable. ( yes--- flood  AND mist coolant)  the chips fly like tiny snowflakes in the mist... sort of like a wet snow at Whistler....

 the pc is hanging out about 4 feet off of the main casting in a vibration dampened steel cabinet. there is no appreciable translation of the vibration.
 so that was ruled out.
 it was doubly ruled out when the program locked up while cutting air. ( cutting air is nice.. it doesn't seem to wear my tools much at all) ;D


the pc is currently setting on my desk ... nothing connected to it.. running the code  and after 3 or 4 cycles.. it looses itself.. and hangs the program .. the rest of windows still works...though..
 it seems to be confined to mach3.

 i have been working to find the solution for some time.. and have tried several different solutions absent of totally reloading the software... (that should be the last resort)..  and still it would only serve to place the system in a near identical state...as now... this is for the most part a virgin system... used ONLY for the mill..
it is not allowed to surf the net or check email... and the only time it pops onto the net is to do o/s updates.. and that is done manually...i hope... ( i think... that's what i thought i told it to do.)

any other ideas would be encouraged.. although i have tried a bunch.. i may have missed some.. and quite possibly the one that works might be one i haven't tried yet.. .. i'm open to suggestions.

allan

Offline BR549

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Re: strange case of mach3 lockup...w/ win7
« Reply #3 on: September 14, 2011, 11:31:01 PM »
Try turning off the network, not just unpluging it.

Also one of the failure notices you post indicates you may have a HD going south

"and came back with the no boot device found... error...  "       that means it found NO HD to boot from on the restart.

Just a thought, (;-) TP
Re: strange case of mach3 lockup...w/ win7
« Reply #4 on: September 14, 2011, 11:42:34 PM »
i see your point.. i'll try that.. perhaps the network software is trying to sense if a network  connection is present and tieing up an INT  or 500 ....  that is a possibility ..

as for hard drive .. i just duped it onto another one .. and am running a test as i type..   the first one is brand new as of a month ago.. has less than 2 gb of data on the 320 gb drive ..  and passes every test i have thrown at it so far.. ( i am a former Intel  chip set validation tech... i have the nice tool suite...to play with..)...

 i am talking with some friends at Intel  to get the internal post log checker... ( there are more codes i can poll from the jtag bus..)

still watching...
allan

Re: strange case of mach3 lockup...w/ win7
« Reply #5 on: September 15, 2011, 03:10:58 PM »
 removed network completely..  no dice.... 3rd run  hung like always...  but it was a great idea...  significantly lightened the o/s footprint...  it is getting into the realm of switching to a semiconductor storage medium.. and dropping the hard drive altogether... no more vibration issues...


 i am thinking about retuning the kernel speed..

Offline BR549

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Re: strange case of mach3 lockup...w/ win7
« Reply #6 on: September 15, 2011, 04:02:44 PM »
IF it was test run ON THE BENCH and still failed??

What do you consider LARGE file?  

Do you have the Mach watchdog turned on?? IF so turn it OFF.

Do you ever get any MACH error messages???

Have you looked into the machdebug log to see IF anything shwed up there that may be a hint?

Do you have another complete Computer to try?

IF it was running ok THEN started to act up I would suspect the puter first.

Just a thought, (;-) TP

(;-) TP

« Last Edit: September 15, 2011, 04:04:20 PM by BR549 »
Re: strange case of mach3 lockup...w/ win7
« Reply #7 on: September 15, 2011, 04:38:09 PM »
on the bench .. failed.. nothing attached... ( bisect the problem)

file size 44k... 2029 lines   runtime 2:29:24... no real complex calculations..
 watchdog??
no error messages.. just stops motion and is unresponsive.. spindle keeps spinning ..  have to e-stop the vfd and restart mach..( not the machine) .. sometimes the system goes into shutdown.. and reboots itself... ( happened twice) ..

machdebug???
another computer runs the part .. but has only 1 parallel port and is  different o/s..

it runs part fine 2-3 times  then goes off... but .. passes all diagnostic bashing i can throw at it.. ( i'm an expert at validating hardware....)  hardware IS OK.. ( i ran the MIL -SPEC  testing suite to the rail.. it passed)

  EMC2 runs part perfectly every time... but the point is to have mach3 and winblows 7 working  for the old guys in the shop that need to have the cute winblows theme... and the ability to let something else think for them...

i am starting to get frustrated with the integration ....  i'd love to have a port of this working on linux...  the stability of the os and the nice friendly appearance of the mach3...  half of the complex swizzling to make the parallel port do what it was intended to do in the first place.. ... what a combination...  

enough rambling...
back on task..  mach debug you say... i'll go and check that out.. thanks for the idea... might be very useful....

Offline BR549

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Re: strange case of mach3 lockup...w/ win7
« Reply #8 on: September 15, 2011, 04:55:47 PM »
OK now you are gettin confusing,

""another computer runs the part .. but has only 1 parallel port and is  different o/s.."" What does that mean???

SO it fails ON the bench?  I would try another completly differrent computer. What Processor/speed/mem are you running? Win7 32bit? 

Running off the LPT or a PLUGIN to another device??

Offline BR549

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Re: strange case of mach3 lockup...w/ win7
« Reply #9 on: September 15, 2011, 05:04:15 PM »
Goto Config and on the RH side turn ON debug this run. The error file is in the mach3 dir "LastErrors.txt"

Then run it until it stops then check down throught the file. IT WILL be a large one as it collects a TON of data.

(;-) TP