Hi Guys, I had a bad day today so take any comments light-heartedly.

I've been running my usual program on the lathe as I have done for about a year now and in the past sometimes I get a stepper glitch in X and lose steps.
To-day it has done it every time I run the program. If I go into manual mode and run the axis forwards and backwards I cannot make it lose any steps or get a break away.

So load the program again and guess what same break-away same bit of code. Going from G0x50 to G0x16 so there's strange code problems just going from one place to another in rapid.

G1 X17 Z-6.2003
G0 X50           
M09
M06 T0303
M08
G0 X16            (Get break-away here)
G0 Z-11.50     

Yes I guess I could slow the axis down until It stops doing it, but why if I go into manual and do the same thing at the same speed it's ok?


So thinking that perhaps an update of the software may do the trick I have loaded the most recent version.

Immediatly I noticed a few CHANGES!!  The tool-path window is in black as always but now my part is displayed in black also. I thought perhaps it is just the screen-settings on this computer but no, I've loaded it on my other computer and it is the same there. Who thought of that I asked myself, why isn't there a warning screen on load-up saying some mad screen designer has been at work! A black part on a black screen, well I never!

How can I change it back. Iv'e scanned the help files but to no avail. Hasn't anyone noticed this or has it only happened to me?

After closing the program down I noticed the new icons. Well they look like grey house-bricks so I'll have to change them back as well.

Right I've had my rant and I feel better but can anyone help with above problems.

Kind Regards

I don't know about the screen.
About loosing steps.
Is your jog speed set at 100% ? If not then your max speed might indeed be to high, But since it has been running for a year maybe something else is the problem.
Maybe some greasing problem on the slides? Do you detect any wear?
If it only occurs once and a while, it also might have to do with grounding problems. (Noise from load x, triggering false step or direction pulses on your drives for example). If you happen to have an oscilloscope you can visually check your pulses. You could also check your wiring for loose or badly connected wires. Another thing you might check is that if there are cables that run along with one of the axes, then also check those.

Good luck!
Kris

Hi Guys, I've had a better day today. Taking time from work to sort the problems out.

Thanks Kris for your help, it helped my train of thought a lot. 

The stepper breaking from steps in rapid move in only one part of the program turned out to be a problem with the Mach pulse engine driver.

As the fog of a bad day clears I remember that the computer crashed during a Mach session so it is possible it corrupted the driver.

After reloading the driver a couple of times it now works perfect.

Ugrading to the lastest software update caught me by suprise with the new enhancements. The problem with the toolpath displaying black material on a black screen turned out to be a setting in Config/Toolpath. The material color was set to red=0 green=0.1 blue=0.1. Setting them all to 1 sorted that problem.

I fiddled with the softlimits and got them to work as I never had them configured before. The limits work with Machine Coordinates as they should but had me confused when setting them looking at the screen which was displaying Program Coords. Duh... 

As I've been jogging up and down, the whole system seems to be a lot smoother so I tweaked the rapid speed up a bit and no stepper break away.

I can now put my feet up for the rest of the day, work tomorrow 


Thanks guys


Cheers