Hi,
that video of the driver test is bad, its no wonder that your machine is playing up.
What sort of PC is it? There used to be a list that did the rounds of adjustments and tweaks that you could do to your PC to make
it run Machs parallel port better. I haven't seen that list for ages. It was very extensive with 50 odd things to do and it took hours to
work your way through them.
It may also be that the PC you have selected is just not good for Machs parallel port. Some old XP clunkers work perfectly well and yet some
high spec unit with muscles on its muscles does not. There is just no telling until you try.
Another alternative is an external motion controller like a SmoothStepper. They offer a number of advantages, the most important one is that
your choice of PC becomes very much wider. You can use laptops and just about any Windows OS, 32 OR 64 bit. Mach is very much less likely
to stutter and stall with other software on and running on the same PC. My experience is that an Ethernet SmoothStepper resulted in considerably
smoother motion on my machine.
I had been using two parallel ports for three years without too many problems. I had resisted the idea of spending money on a controller like a SmoothStepper.
I was starting to write my own macros and VB just pissed me off. I thought I would be better to learn Lua and Mach4 instead....if I was going to make the
effort to learn something new it might as well be up to date. Mach4 is really only at its best with an external controller, so I bought a SmoothStepper.
I had to re-do a lot of settings and things, and learn new ways of thinking to get Mach4 and the SmoothStepper to work, it wasn't easy but its not impossible.
My machine with the new SmoothStepper was that much smoother that I increased the maximum axis speed by 30% without losing steps and the steppers seem
to run a little cooler. Quite frankly I should have gotten a SmoothStepper earlier.
If you do consider buying an external controller don't buy Chinese rubbish......you'll have seen dozens of posts by people who bought cheap and then can't get
them to work. Most of the Chinese manufacturers don't care, they've got your money so you can go to hell as far as they are concerned. Those people turn up
on the forum looking for help, in most cases they get enough to get them going but most of the Chinese controllers don't do all the things Machs capable of.
The other thing to watch out for is that there are dozens of Chinese rip-offs out there. Theres a guy on the forum who believes the controller box he bought
from China has a Canadian made Ethernet SmoothStepper inside it. First the Ethernet SmoothStepper is made by Warp9 Technical Design in the US and has never
been made in Canada. Second the Ethernet SmootStepper is connected to your PC with an Ethernet cable, this guys controller is has a USB cable!!!!!
I wonder if he thinks Canada is a province of China?
The crazy thing is this guy bought three 750W Delta (Taiwanese) servos and drives which are seriously
very very good indeed and paid good money for them and yet he bought a cheap s*********ty controller and will never be able to get the best out of his servos.
IF......IF you spend some money on a controller don't waste it on rubbish.....buy good OR don't buy.
Craig
Guest
