Hello all, I am a newbie to cnc. I posted some pictures of my 24X 36 machine and my mach3 setup screenshots for anyone who can help me with this. I also have a problem with circle g-code that comes with mach3 download. It turns into an oval on my machine. My machine has very strange behaviour right now. When I press ref x diagnostics page the machine moves in the y direction. I have a Dyna1000 and the led indicates that Y is moving but the dro shows X increasing in the positive direction from machine 0,0. When I reference Y in the diag page, The dro indicates that Y is moving in the positive direction but the machine itself does not move at all. And when I press soft limits (set to 23,0 for x and 35,0 for y and a and z to 0,3) the machine says that I am out of softlimits for softlimit activation. Thank you all in advance for helping a newbie. I will post the files in 2 replies.

Here is second part..

Please run the file in exact stop and see if that fixes the trouble

I think I know the problem and it has to do with the CV fix that was done... If Exact stop fixes the problem we will look at how to change your settings.
thanks
Brian

Thanks Brian, I'll let you know when I try it today.

Ok - I uninstalled mach3 and deleted the directory and started the setup from scratch. everything is much better now except for the following problems:
- Machine is inconsistent on axis travel distance - moving 1 inch does not yield one inch all the time, very inconsistent results. I tried the button under settings tab to test the movement and setting the motor steps but it keeps increasing my motor steps every time.
- Even though the machine is referenced and homed, my ref all button moves the axis beyond softlimits. when I jog the softlimits work just fine, but If I press ref all it moves beyond softlimits.
- Under screw mapping, the length for all screws is 1300. I am not sure what that number is and I could not find a reference to it on the internet. Is that the correct setting. My y and a screws are 43" from tip to tip and my x is 26". Z axis is 12".

Machine is inconsistent on axis travel distance - moving 1 inch does not yield one inch all the time, very inconsistent results. I tried the button under settings tab to test the movement and setting the motor steps but it keeps increasing my motor steps every time.

I think you are skipping steps. Try to tune your motors down and see if that helps. You are skipping steps, have a slipping mechnical connection, or fighting noise. I guess in that order of most probable.

Even though the machine is referenced and homed, my ref all button moves the axis beyond softlimits. when I jog the softlimits work just fine, but If I press ref all it moves beyond softlimits.

This is how it works. You don't want your softlimits to be too close to your home positions. The way it is normally set, Ref. all home, jog until you are in your softlimits range and then enable your soft limits.

Under screw mapping, the length for all screws is 1300. I am not sure what that number is and I could not find a reference to it on the internet. Is that the correct setting. My y and a screws are 43" from tip to tip and my x is 26". Z axis is 12".

I wouldn't mess with screw mapping just yet, I doubt you will need it at all. Screw mapping is for Mapping your screws. I'd guess this is used for less than 1% of Mach users if any. It's purpose is , if you have sections of your screw that very in pitch from one section of the screw to another.

Can you post your XML file? If you don't know how, watch the welcome tutor, it might help.
Brett

Edit
I see your xml is allready posted. Has it changed, is the one posted current? If not, upload the new one.

Yes it is different. I setup everything from scratch. I will post it tonight when I get home. Thanks

You need to take out the screw mapping and see if you can just get it to work... You may need to set your step pulse width to about 5-8 to get good results on your distance tests. Also have you tested Sherline mode?

thanks
Brian

Hi Brian, Thanks for the reply. I am running in sherline mode now. I will try the step pulse width. How do I take out the screw mapping?

Brian, How do set the  step pulse width to 5-8 ? Is that in my motor tuning settings?
I attached a screenshot of the motor tuning and my xml file