Greetings From Across The Pond, Graham!
The machine moved correctly before the hiatus. I cut mostly sheet stock (3/4" or 1/2" plywood) to make molds and forms for musical instruments, and that's where I'd like to start again. I'm using a 3-axis CNC router fitted with ball/leadscrews, two motors on the Y axis. No problems there. The computer running Mach3 is never connected to the Internet, and during the hiatus it was disconnected from mains power, so I think line surges can be ruled out. The motors are driven through an ESS Smoothstepper, and all seems to be working as it should because I can jog the machine manually. I can send you some screen shots. Let me know what views would be most helpful to you.
My feeling is that I should first ensure my machine coordinates are set correctly. I click on "machine coordinates," jog the machine to the lower left corner of the work area and zero the X and Y axes. Then I raise the Z axis near the top of its travel, zero it, then click on "ref all home." Turn off the machine coordinates so the red light goes out, and in theory I should never have to touch that again. Is this essentially correct, or has memory failed me?
I'm sure there's something simple I did wrong when I restarted my machine, or just a setting somewhere that I overlooked. But it's really frustrating to be blundering around the innards of Mach3 and not be able to find it!
