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Author Topic: Mach 4 DRO Reading Incorrectly  (Read 978 times)

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Mach 4 DRO Reading Incorrectly
« on: May 01, 2022, 12:43:12 AM »
Hello, I am running Windows 10 Pro 64, Hicon Ethercat Motion Controller board with 750watt servos on a refurbished old Bridgeport Series 1 CNC.  The kind with the fixed ram.  I have setup Mach 4 to communicate with the servo drives which are Leadshines, which it does well.  I have set all my units to inches and calibrated the 1 unit movement to equal exactly 1" of measured movement using a dial indicator.  However, for whatever reason, the DRO in Mach 4 shows approx 50 inches of movement for every actual inch of physical movement.  When jogging, I set the movement to 1.000 jog increment and hit Y+, the Y axis moves in the correct direction exactly 1", and the DRO shows that it has moved approx 50".  Also, I am in G20 mode which can be seen at the bottom of the screen.  Any help here would be much appreciated.

Offline RSL3577

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Re: Mach 4 DRO Reading Incorrectly
« Reply #1 on: May 02, 2022, 08:17:55 AM »
Are you in Continuous or Incremental jog mode? I think the jog rate% will have an effect on this if it is too high.
Re: Mach 4 DRO Reading Incorrectly
« Reply #2 on: May 02, 2022, 12:33:21 PM »
I am in incremental Jog mode.  I have experimented with the jog rate% to no avail.  I also contacted mach support and received a message basically stating "you cant just set the motor to move 1 unit and expect it to move 1 unit.  That's not how its supposed to work."  They also suggested "looking into tuning your motors" This is neither an answer, or even a relevant response, to my inquiry.  Even if the motors were grossly out of tune (which they are not) I don't understand how that is relevant to Mach4 not moving 1 unit, which I have defined via the steps per unit calibration, on the DRO once commanded to do so.  Instead it shows a movement of 50 units...

Offline jbuehn

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Re: Mach 4 DRO Reading Incorrectly
« Reply #3 on: May 02, 2022, 05:55:25 PM »
Does it move 1" when you command the axis to move 1" in GCode?

Offline Bill_O

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Re: Mach 4 DRO Reading Incorrectly
« Reply #4 on: May 03, 2022, 08:09:55 AM »
Just so I understand correctly.
You have it set up so 1 step is equal to 1"?
Re: Mach 4 DRO Reading Incorrectly
« Reply #5 on: May 05, 2022, 02:39:18 AM »
Hi,
jogging of whatever mode is NOT the right way to test your machine or use for setting up your machine.

What are your native units? I'll assume inches, as that seems the basis of your post (Configure/Control/Defaults tab)

What have you set your steps per unit in the motor tuning pages? (Configure/Control/Motors/Motor0......Motor1.....Motor2)

This is critical, this will set the basic accuracy of the machine. Do you have some numbers like the ballscrew pitch, the stepper belt reduction and
your selected microstepping regime that would allow us to calculate the value? You could use a trail and error approach but calculation is the swiftest and
most accurate.

Once this value is set you check it not by jogging but by using Gcode  from either a Gcode file or MDI.

When you have your machine dialed in for the correct steps per unit then set up jogging, an easy task, if and only if you have correctly set the steps
per unit values.

Craig
'I enjoy sex at 73.....I live at 71 so its not too far to walk.'