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Author Topic: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions  (Read 1243654 times)

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Offline Tweakie.CNC

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Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions
« Reply #200 on: August 08, 2014, 05:10:32 AM »
Hi Guys,

I agree with your findings. Although I get smooth machine motion with Mach4 v.1914 and Darwin v1.10 (using my Samsung laptop + parallel port) I would not trust it 100% as I would v.1900. There seems to be a lot more going on in the background with v.1914 and this gives me some cause for concern.
Something I did notice and mentioned in another thread, is that the A axis works OK from MDI but not from GCode.

Tweakie.
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Offline ART

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Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions
« Reply #201 on: August 08, 2014, 07:07:19 AM »
HI Guys:

  I believe version 1917 fixes this for everyone, but I cant verify that as yet. Im using 1917 here with very smooth motion and CPU at nearly
zero%.

   I think youll find the next posted version of Mach4 fixes all this, my understanding was its a program thread acting up. ( I think its a display thread
but I cant verify that.). Be patient till next version of M4 put out, since mine is 1917 I suspect the next one will be at least that for you. Thanks to
Freeman for that video, it made it quite clear to me whats happening. M4 is so bogging the CPU that the trajectory filling is working in spurts and
not outputting enough data to keep ahead of the step usage by the motors. When the CPU% drops, the output should be great.

   The one thing I can tell you, is that if the motion is mooth in Darwin itself, then its very likely you will not have to upgrade hardware to make things
work. Could happen, but Im doubtfull youll have to. I suspect almost all of this is due to some code acting badly.

Thx for the testing.
Art
 
Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions
« Reply #202 on: August 08, 2014, 03:54:31 PM »
Brian posted on the Yahoo Mach 3 group site that Mach 4 1936 has been released on the machsupport web site. I installed over 1900 and it did fix the high CPU usage problem that was present with 1914. I ran a circle pocket gcode program with no spindle and CPU didn't go over 14%.


Eric

Offline ART

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Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions
« Reply #203 on: August 08, 2014, 05:53:01 PM »
Eric:

  Yes, latest version should fix up pretty much everyone I think. Also MPG capability was added, so Ill attach to those shortly.

Art
Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions
« Reply #204 on: August 08, 2014, 09:11:08 PM »
Art,

I wish I could say that Mach 4 build 1936 and Darwin 1.11 solved everything, but I'm still getting the same behavior as I videoed last night.  While everything runs fine in Darwin, I'm seeing 100% CPU usage and stuttering when jogging or do a G00 in Mach 4.  ???


-Freeman
I'm not a complete idiot...
    there are some parts missing.

Offline ART

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Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions
« Reply #205 on: August 08, 2014, 10:03:57 PM »
Freeman:

 Just in case something didnt update, what are the two version numbers reporte din Darwins startup screen in config..

Art
Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions
« Reply #206 on: August 08, 2014, 10:44:21 PM »
Freeman:

 Just in case something didnt update, what are the two version numbers reporte din Darwins startup screen in config..

Art


The versions listed on the Darwin startup screen are 1.09 and 1.08.  Just to be through  I deleted and recopied the DLL and plugin before checking.  I still go the same behavior when jogging.


-Freeman
I'm not a complete idiot...
    there are some parts missing.

Offline ART

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Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions
« Reply #207 on: August 08, 2014, 10:50:36 PM »
Hmm..Those are the most recent versions.... I guess we'll have to see what further reports show..
You might want to totally delete the folder to make sure no old file is corrupting things...an reinstall. Might be worth the effort..

I did misreport that you cant do step/dir spindles.. you can , Ill show in a new video how to set that up.  Im adding MPGs next..

Art

Offline ger21

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Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions
« Reply #208 on: August 08, 2014, 11:04:57 PM »
I'm guessing that this is something that Mach4 should deal with, but if you set your velocity too fast for the kernel speed, you get a "Darwin Buffer Error - Too Fast?"
You might want to change the error to "Velocity too high?", as it took me a while to figure out the problem.
While trying to figure out the problem, I tried to switch back to the Sim driver. While setting up motors and axis mapping, Mach4 crashed hard again. I think this is what was happening the other day.
When I tried to run Darwin test, it said another instance of Darwin was already running, and then it opened and appeared to hang. System required a hard reboot.
I doubt I'll see this again, now that I know what I'm doing (a little bit). Just giving you a little info for reference.
Gerry

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Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions
« Reply #209 on: August 08, 2014, 11:49:05 PM »
...
You might want to totally delete the folder to make sure no old file is corrupting things...an reinstall. Might be worth the effort..

...

Art


I deleted my \Mach4Hobby and re-installed everything from scratch - no reuse of anything.  No change in behavior. :(


-Freeman
I'm not a complete idiot...
    there are some parts missing.