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Author Topic: DRO's change but motors do not move, until Mach3 is restarted  (Read 14756 times)

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Offline DMBGO

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DRO's change but motors do not move, until Mach3 is restarted
« on: October 03, 2012, 08:49:33 PM »
I have a problem on the lathe and I was wondering if anyone has seen the same thing?

Everything is normal until after I have run one job, then the DRO's change normally but the X and Z stepper motors do not move, until Mach3 is restarted, at which time all is normal again until I run a job and the issue reoccurs.

This is a new problem, which has persisted for a few days so I suspect it is something I have done, but for the life of me, I do not know what.
 
I don't have to restart the PC, just Mach3.

My hardware is as follows:
PC P4
ESS
BOBs etc.

Thanks in anticipation

Dave
Cheers

David

Offline DMBGO

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Re: DRO's change but motors do not move, until Mach3 is restarted
« Reply #1 on: October 03, 2012, 09:40:18 PM »
More details about this problem:

Homing either axis prior to running a job causes the steppers not to move, therefore the job fails. This is a bit different to what I first said.
Cheers

David

Offline Hood

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Re: DRO's change but motors do not move, until Mach3 is restarted
« Reply #2 on: October 04, 2012, 02:52:09 AM »
Attach your xml please

Hood

Offline DMBGO

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Re: DRO's change but motors do not move, until Mach3 is restarted
« Reply #3 on: October 04, 2012, 04:35:57 PM »
Thanks Hood XML attached
Cheers

David

Offline Hood

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Re: DRO's change but motors do not move, until Mach3 is restarted
« Reply #4 on: October 04, 2012, 04:59:30 PM »
Dont see anything standing out that could be a problem.
Couple of things to try
1. Load the standard lathe screenset and see if it makes a difference.
2. Delete the ESS plugin and reinstall it.
3. Delete any other plugins in the plugins folder that you are not using.
Hood

Offline DMBGO

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Re: DRO's change but motors do not move, until Mach3 is restarted
« Reply #5 on: October 05, 2012, 09:14:17 PM »
Hi Hood,
I've tried the things on your list in the following order with no change in the symptoms described earlier.
I restarted Mach and the PC before each of these steps to ensure that I had a "clean slate"

Moved all of the plugins to a temp folder except for the current ESS plugin
Changed to an earlier ESS plugin
Loaded the standard screenset

In addition to what you suggested, I also switched to a USB SS, using the current USB driver, with no change in the symptoms, so I think we can rule out the ESS and its driver as the cause.

I am beginning to think that the problem is being caused by some other piece of software on the PC, so I will try another computer entirely.

Any other suggestions would be most welcome

Cheers

Dave

 
Cheers

David

Offline DMBGO

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Re: DRO's change but motors do not move, until Mach3 is restarted
« Reply #6 on: October 06, 2012, 12:09:00 AM »
A bit further on the road to resolution of the issue.
Tried a vanilla install of mach3 on my laptop, then copied my current mach3 folder from the PC to the laptop that normally controls the lathe.The problem was identical, and so must be a setting somewhere, probably in the xml file.
I have now taken screen shots of every config screen that is not default, and put them in a word document, which I have attached.

I am even surer now that it is something that I have done, perhaps something will stick out for another user in the attached document?

 I appreciate your time having a look.
Cheers

David

Offline DMBGO

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Re: DRO's change but motors do not move, until Mach3 is restarted
« Reply #7 on: October 06, 2012, 12:16:11 AM »
Whoops things must be getting to me. The document name should be 2012 not 2011 and I've got things around the wrong way in my previous post as well. It should read " the PC that normally controls the lathe" The laptop was only to test things on a different PC.
Cheers

David

Offline Hood

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Re: DRO's change but motors do not move, until Mach3 is restarted
« Reply #8 on: October 06, 2012, 01:35:19 PM »
Is this with any code at all or have you just tried one specific code?
Hood

Offline rcaffin

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Re: DRO's change but motors do not move, until Mach3 is restarted
« Reply #9 on: October 07, 2012, 03:34:16 AM »
Quote
Everything is normal
So Mach3 and the CNC are all working OK after the usual Reset/Init is done.

Quote
until after I have run one job, then the DRO's change normally but the X and Z stepper motors do not move
Mach3 updates the DROs as it goes, so that means Mach3 thinks it is running OK. It does NOT know the motors are not moving.
If the motors do not move then either the Mach3 output pulses are inhibited or the BoB is inhibited or the drivers are inhibited. What codes are at the end of the program?

Quote
until Mach3 is restarted, at which time all is normal again
Confirming my first statement.

Can you monitor the outputs on the second job? Both onscreen with the inbuilt SW diags and with something like an LED hung across the output lines. ie, check both SW and HW.

Cheers
PS: I have no idea what the problem is right now; I am just following my nose.