Hi,
I am going through a new setup. My kflop is working properly through kmotion cnc, but as I migrate to mach3, I am seeing some issues.
My problem is only one motion command works through mdi (actually moves xy or z). My second entry and any entry thereafter will be ignored.
To get out of this situation, I have to software reset, and then it will accept only 1 mdi move command again. It happens in both g0 or g1.
During this state, if I randomly hit 'zero' as in one of the axis, I get a message 'no zero while running'.

If you have any insight as to why mach3 ?, may be holding onto... Still running... An operation when it has clearly stopped, your insight would be appreciated. How to find out what it is holding onto?running?

Having to reset every mdi command is not happening in kmotion cnc, I have gone through reinstalls, created new profile, and really simplified to find a solution to this.
I am on the most current release of licensed mach3.

Thanks,
Rob

If you load up KMotion (not KMotionCNC) and open the C Program screen with Mach running, is your init thread showing (button background for the relevant thread number green) as still running after hitting reset in Mach?
And are any other threads showing as being active after issuing a MDI command?

One thing to remember here, is just because a thread is showing as active within the C Program screen, it is not necessarily the program that is loaded in the screen that is running i.e. if Mach loads an init file into thread 1 that runs with an infinite loop, the file currently shown in the window will be whatever c file you happened to open last within the C Program screen.

Also, you have checked within the Mach Plugin config option, that you are loading the correct init file?

Hi MC,
Thanks for your reply.
My init thread 1 is green the whole time. It is continually running on a foreverloop. There are no other active threads during this error or an mdi input.
The thread is also pointing in the right direction in the plugin.
The strange thing is that everything works normally in kmotion 'gcode' screen and kmotioncnc and they will accept mutiple commands as normally expected.

I can't get more than 1 mdi command input only in mach3, regardless of, g1,g0, open or closed loop axis, variety of screen-sets.

Is there any ways to monitor what may be happening or why mach3 seems that it can't complete its move.

Does machMAD (maintenance and diagnostics) have any of this ability?
Aside from dumbing down my system, removing a poleys55, these are some of the things I am going to try.

Thanks,
Rob

One thing I forgot to mention, is if you open the KMotion Console before loading Mach and running MDI commands, are there any messages displayed in the console?
I can't remember if anything gets displayed during normal Mach use, unless you have a C program with a printf command in it, but any error messages should be shown here.

Is there anything in your init file other than the usual axis config parameters?

For debugging this, I'd create a profile with only the very minimum required to get movement, before then adding in the Pokeys to see if that's the problem.

Hi,
Thanks for your recommendation.
Per your question:....are there any messages displayed in the console?
Only this is displayed:
Movrel0100
Kflop ver#
Ready

Nothing gets displayed in kmotion console during mach3 mdi' entries.

So I have stripped down my init.c program (only leaving my charge pump, and setting bit directions)
This Has had no effect.
Pokeys is not at all the issue as I have had this unplugged for 2 days of testing.
It does still happen, but there is an inconsistency/intermittent that is observed with no pattern or root cause that is entirely repeatable except for the absolute moves which include :

It will error with 100% frequency if:
G0
X1(no error on first move)

Or

G0
X0 (errors)
is entered. Each time I do this, it will be guaranteed that I either have to toggle the software reset, or hit escape key and renter the  command.

Even more weird after testing more: It happens only about ~~20% of the time if I enter numbers other than 0 or 1 such as
G0
X1.3
X1.4
X1.5...(no errors, but will error/not move after some random amount of mdi entries, however it always will error/not move if I enter a 0 or 1 as the absolute distance)

It does happen significantly less frequently in g1, than in g0.
I have to retest this probably a third time (after reboots) and other life delays other than CNC. Thanks for your help and patience to my slow replies.


I'll let you know what happens. Any other thoughts are greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Rob

You have set up your motor tuning in Mach?

Something else to check, would be monitor the Axis and Digital I/O screens in KMotion, and see what's changing.
The Axis screen should show the destination increase/decrease with moves, and also check that the axis are all staying enabled.
On the Digital I/O, watch and see if any bits change that correspond with motion stopping.

I'd also suggest posting on either the Dynomotion Yahoo Group, or the Dynomotion board on CNCZone, as you'll find far more users and TK himself active in those places.

Hi MC and All,

Can anyone tell me exactly what escape key does to mach3?


Thanks for your suggestions. I will review digital I/o in further detail tonight, I didn't see anything obvious on about 10 attempts at getting this condition and watchng the io screen in my early stages of trouble shooting.

Tk has helped me. We went through all of the possible conditions and places to look within kflop/dynomotion's scope. It doesn't happen in kmotion gcode or kmotioncnc at all. There are no key indicators as tom/forum users ran me through some possibilities.

It is specific to and happens in the standard mach3 screenset, brand new profiles, machstandard mill professional profiles
...anything mach related

oem axis inhibit is currently being reviewed, but I am not seeing the led light up. So at this point, that is not looking as a possible root cause but is tbd.

My system is being converted from a smoothstepper to kflop. It has been along time since I have used the ss, but at the time, I did periodically observe something very similiar to this (again, it was along time ago), but I observed conditions where I would have to hit escape/do a software reset. I attributed this to a mach standard mill safety feature and dismissed it as it was subtle. There were never issues running gcode though that I can recall.

I am nearig the point of, at worst,  wiping out my hd and starting over, or  doing a complete uninstall of mach3, kmotion and definitely msm, as I am encountering other very minor issues that are....tolerable.

I'll take a look again at your recommendations when I get back to it tonight.



Thanks
Rob

IIRC the escape key stops the current movement, so if you're in an MDI move, it'll terminate the command.

Have you tried using the standard mill profile?
I wonder if there's something in the MSM screen that could be upsetting the flow?

I'd try creating a new profile based of the standard mill profile and see what happens, before reinstalling things.