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Author Topic: Replaced my motherboard. Now I am having problems getting back up and running.  (Read 9717 times)

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I purchased a machine a while back and it has been working great until it developed a limit switch triggered problem.  That came and went for a while and the motherboard went.  I replaced the motherboard and now I am not sure where to start.

My machine is a knee mill that the previous owner setup to be controlled with Mach 3. 

I replaced the motherboard and the video card and was thinking I would be back up and running using my existing settings.  Now when I fire my machine up, my drives are all engaged but my home and limit switches are all lit up for all three axis. 

Can someone please tell me where to start?  I am in the middle of a production run and need to gett back up and running.  I would love to be able to talk to someone about the setup I have so I understand it better. 


Please help???

Thanks,

Matt
612-490-5696
Well, I was able to find part of the problem.  The port was turned off.  I turned that on but am not sure if the settings are correct.  Machines starts up and homes great.  When I run the program I have been running before the new motherboard, it can't seem to stay on path and crashes.  When I cut the feed rate in half it runs the program without problems.  I am running Windows XP.  I am not sure if I have the parallel port set up correctly?

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Matt

Offline Hood

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It is likely just your new computer does not have as clean a pulse as the old one, you could try increasing the pulse width and see if that helps.
Hood
Hood,

Thanks for the reply.  I was able to complete a run today but had to cut the feed rate to 50%.  The funny part is it seems to be taking the same run time as it did on 100% with the last setup.  Again all that has changed is a new identical motherboard and a new video card.  Not sure if this info helps at all.

A new problem that came up this morning:

My motors would not sync up.  I had to turn the power on and off several times until all three connected.  I have a had this happen in the past but not for a long time.  Any ideas?

I really appreciate all of your help.  I picked this machine up to get back to machining here in my shop.  I am drilling simple bolt patterns right now and am afraid to tackle anything more complex until I can work some of these bugs out. 


Thanks,

Matt

Offline Hood

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First thing to do is run the driver test and see what it looks like.
If you want to attach your xml I will have a look through it to see if there are any problems to be found with your config.
Hood
Thanks Hood!

I have attached my XML file.

My drivers test says excellent.  Is there anything else I need to look for when watching the test?

Also what is the correct start up order?

Currently I fire up my computer, run the drivers test, start Mach3, and turn on my machine and control.  Is this correct?

Thanks again for all your help!

Matt

Offline Hood

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What you should be looking for in the driver test is a nice clean line with very little disturbance and no large spikes.

I looked at your xml and your pulse width is set to zero, try setting that to 10 and see if that helps, also the Dir one as well.

Check at your parallel port and see what voltage it is, most modern ones are just 3.3v and it will depend on your breakout board/drives whether they will be happy at that reduced voltage, if not that could be an issue.


Hood

Offline rs232

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Hi all
I have similar problem
I converted an old Farley Wizard to mach3 and got it running perfectly but...
I forgot that hard drives don't like vibrations and after a test run with a small file at full speed (6000mm/m) the gantry started to jump on the rails and the hard drive got damaged.
Anyway I replaced the board because the old one did not had Sata connections and a SSD hard drive and put the old xml file in it and is up and running.
Now to my problem, if I load a file the machine runs just fine but if I try to jog any of the axis they only move the amount of distance that is set on the jog dial (100.000mm) or what I put there.
Before the hard drive failure I could jog in continuous mode and now it doesn't do it.
The other thing I noticed during a test cut this morning is that the machine stops for no reason and displays a limit switch activation but the axis are nowhere close to the limit switches
Any pointers ?
We really need the machine up and running.
Running mach3 .066 with license.

Ric
« Last Edit: December 09, 2013, 07:06:05 PM by rs232 »

Offline Hood

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Press the Tab key on your keyboard and make sure you are not in Step Jog mode.


Limit switch issue is you are picking up noise and Mach is seeing it as a limit activation. Limits and E-stops as well as all other low voltage signal wires should be properly shielded and properly grounded. You could try increasing the Debounce Interval on General Config page, try 2000 and lower as much as you can if it helps.
Hood

Offline rs232

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Hi Hood
That is one of the problems
When I press Tab I can't change between step and continuous (the LEDs don't light up).
With the previous mainboard there was no noise issues the computer is in a steel cabinet and everything is well grounded.
The only thing I could find is that the old mainboard was running at around 4 on the driver test and this one is doing around 5.5 to 6.
Going to try the debounce setting and let you know later on.

Ric