New DIY CNC build, stepper motors sound awful. I can't even find a video with anyone's sounding like mine

looks like the culprit is the pulse frequency being way off. I'm confused why or how to fix it though

My CPU is twice what Mach3 requires (2Ghz) and a fresh install of windows, no junk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olYo5CotwU0

Did you select from the Config menu / Ports and Pins / Post setup Port #1 enabled and click on the Kernel Speed 25000Hz ?

What kind motors / drivers / BOB you have?

Did you select from the Config menu / Ports and Pins / Post setup Port #1 enabled and click on the Kernel Speed 25000Hz ?

What kind motors / drivers / BOB you have?

yes the port & pins are all setup, kernel is at 25Khz

382oz/in 3.5A steppers with 2.8mH inductance (originally had 7mH but that wasn't the culprit after all)
Gecko G540 w/ correct current set resistor installed for motor amperage
48V power supply

Hi,
I assume you're using a PP? Can you post a screen shot of the Driver Test screen.

Sometimes the fastest 'you beaut' PC runs a PP like a dog and an old XP clunker goes really well.
Its a good idea to try the Driver Test at increased frequencies, not that you intend on using them on your machine but higher
frequencies stress your PC and OS and will show up timing issues. Note that if you change frequency you have to restart Mach
to get to stick and you can only do higher frequencies with a licenced copy.

Craig

Hi,
sorry just had a look at your Ytube post, that looks really crappy....

Some process/thread/application on your PC is causing it. A lot of threads on a PC communicate with each other using the
interrupt system and despite anything we can do Windows tends to decide on interrupt priority often at the expense of Mach3s
Pulse engine.

There used to be a list of things that you could do to your PC to improve things, I haven't seen it for a while but it helped me when
getting started. You might look in the section 'Mach3 on Vista'. Any of the suggestions there are likely to help.

If you get really frustrated the buy yourself a UC100, PMDX411 or a SmoothStepper and never look back...

Craig

Hi,
I assume you're using a PP? Can you post a screen shot of the Driver Test screen.

Sometimes the fastest 'you beaut' PC runs a PP like a dog and an old XP clunker goes really well.
Its a good idea to try the Driver Test at increased frequencies, not that you intend on using them on your machine but higher
frequencies stress your PC and OS and will show up timing issues. Note that if you change frequency you have to restart Mach
to get to stick and you can only do higher frequencies with a licenced copy.

Craig

using the parallel port yes. here's a video of the drivertest

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olYo5CotwU0&t=6s

Hi,
yeah really crappy, its seems to look worse the more often I see it...

If you open the Task Manager and have it open along side the Driver Test window you may get lucky and spot a process/thread which
is running and clashing with Mach. This does not always work, some threads use very little in the way of resources but throw all sorts
of interrupts which bugger Mach up.

Craig

If it's any help I think you can download a trial version of CCleaner - that will show all applications that are loaded / running at PC start-up.

Tweakie.

Scott -

I had the very same issue that I chased for weeks! Your video of the Driver Test looks exactly like mine did.  I too, performed a complete format and did a fresh install of XP including all the service packs.  Even went so far as to isolate the computer on a clean power line, all to no avail.  The only program that was loaded on my PC was Mach3.   Unfortunately, I was never able to isolate what was causing the wild variations in the program.  I finally gave up and bought an ESS from Warp9.  Installed it on the same computer and I haven't looked back.  Best $180 that I've spent on this project.

Hope this helps some.

Vic

FIXED!!!! it was the stupid ACPI mode!!! switched to Standard PC and everything is wonderful