Hi Art,

just completed a lot more testing.

Compared to Mach3 , M4 is very rough on long moves.

If i jog off a zero position , then do a return to zero ,it moans and groans, and splutters occasionally.

Despite this it does not seem to run off position , as far as a i can tell.

Spent a lot of time changing the motor settings, ( velocity and acceleration) the settings I have are the smoothest and seem to match the Mach3 setting which is realy smooth.


Enclosed are the settings of the two systems, not sure what to make of them.

Have set mach3 up with a digital vernier and getting accurate repeatable smooth moves.

Also tried changing the signal delay. Interestingly m4 seems to need less delay, and does not run as well with 5 ms

Can anyone else on the web share their results of a m3 M4 compare?

Regards

Mark
 

Hi Mark:

 Its odd really, if one can run Mach3's printer port then Darwin should as well, their both based on
the same technology, but Darwin is somewhat cleaner . Is this both in jogging in Mach4 and in Darwins config? Any
difference between the jogs?

Art

Hi Art,

Yes the jog within Darwin is smooth.

Tried it at all speed and it works fine.

So its something to do with m4 that's causing the jumpynes.

Regards

Mark

Mark:

  Unfortunately, my machine is torn apart so I cant really test to see if something has changed..
I'm not getting reports of any number of such reports, but Ill keep my eyes open for anything
that points to a solution..

Art

Art,

Okay, I seem to have fixed it by changing the axis x and axis y selections.  I'm not really sure what those selections were changing, but it's worked, so I'm a happy man.

Thanks for the help,
N

Glad to hear your going  good.

Art

I have been using Mach3 for over 7 years now on a very old XP computer.  My Motion control system is a servo based with Gecko drivers. I really need to replace the computer and would like to move to Mach4 with its new Darwin plug in for parallel port systems.  Unfortunately all of the USB to Parallel products I find talk only about stepper motors. I am looking at the PMDX-411 from PMDX, a suggestion of ArtSoft. 
Has anyone used this product or any product with a servo system?

Thanks,

Daryl

The PMDX-411 will work fine with your Gecko servo drivers because the interface
is step and direction just like a stepper motor driver. We tend not to mention
servo drivers because many people associate them with +/- 10 volt analog
interfaces and our products do not support that.

The PMDX-411 only works with Mach4.

If you would prefer to stay with the Mach3 software that you already own,
then have a look at this product:

http://www.automationtechnologiesinc.com/products-page/breakout-boards/usb-motion-controller

Regards,
Steve Stallings
www.PMDX.com

As Steve said, the PMDX-411 would work with the Geckos.  And we'd love to sell you one.  But I would like to clarify something you said just to be sure.

... would like to move to Mach4 with its new Darwin plug in for parallel port systems.  Unfortunately all of the USB to Parallel products I find talk only about stepper motors.

If you want to use the Darwin plug-in, that talks directly to a parallel port in your PC, *IF* your PC has a parallel port on the motherboard or in an internal expansion slot (like PCI bus), and *IF* your PC is running a 32-bit version of Windows.  With Darwin and a parallel port in your PC, you don't need a "USB to parallel port" product.  If you want a "USB to parallel port" like the PMDX-411 (see note below), then you don't need the Darwin plug-in.

** note** While the PMDX-411 plugs into the USB port and emulates signals from a parallel port, it is not a generic "USB to parallel port".  It is specifically a motion control device that presents signals that are compatible with a parallel port.  It will not work with printer drivers, etc.  On the other hand, there are devices available that are indeed generic "USB to parallel port" adapters, and you can connect things like printers to them.  Those will NOT work with Darwin.  Darwin needs actual parallel port hardware in the PC.

Thank you so much for the answers. These completely answer all of questions and will allow me to move forward