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Missing Steps
« on: May 02, 2006, 07:29:02 PM »
Help,
Is it common for a stepper motor(new) to miss steps only in one direction during the jog mode? (6 IPM, Continous or Incremental, but only in one direction. I have been all over the tuning , ports and pins,  and nothing seems to make any difference. I plugged it into another axis controller that runs an identical stepper motor without missing steps and it still does it. I took it off of the machine and ran it on the bench and it still does it. Will it miss steps when i run a program? anybody ever have this problem?
 ???
Thanks
Re: Missing Steps
« Reply #1 on: May 02, 2006, 08:07:54 PM »
Put in a pulse width of 5us that could help it...
Fixing problems one post at a time ;)

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www.machsupport.com
Re: Missing Steps
« Reply #2 on: May 03, 2006, 02:21:53 PM »
Pulse width makes no difference. Still missing steps. I tried to cut a 3 inch circle and it progressively gets cumulative errror in x and y.
Any other ideas?

Thanks
Re: Missing Steps
« Reply #3 on: May 03, 2006, 02:43:33 PM »
What are the drives?
Fixing problems one post at a time ;)

www.newfangledsolutions.com
www.machsupport.com
Re: Missing Steps
« Reply #4 on: May 03, 2006, 04:31:29 PM »
Hi thanks for helping,

The driver systems are a Dan Mauch built and tested box with geckos and power supply built in. It was pretty much plug and play.
The stepper motors are 460 in/oz from Camtronics also (Dan Mauch). It seems that x and y are both missing steps only in one direction? Should I try Mach 2?

Danny Nelson
Re: Missing Steps
« Reply #5 on: May 03, 2006, 09:08:17 PM »
Try putting in a prechange of 5 us as well... What are you running for a breakout board?
Fixing problems one post at a time ;)

www.newfangledsolutions.com
www.machsupport.com
Re: Missing Steps
« Reply #6 on: May 04, 2006, 05:14:55 PM »
Changing Prechange number(Mach 3 calls it Dir Pulse) does not make a difference. I emailed Camtronics to find out about the breakout board and have not heard from them yet?
Here is something I have noted. It does not matter if you reverse the motor in the Home/Limits box, the motors always miss steps when they go the same rotational direction (i.e. Clockwise)?

Respond if you want to and I will let you know what Camtronics says. If I don't hear from them I'll open the box and see if I can Identify the breakout board if that will help.

Thanks 
 Danny
Re: Missing Steps
« Reply #7 on: May 04, 2006, 06:59:52 PM »
What is the voltage coming out of the P port? I BET you have a 3.5V system...
Fixing problems one post at a time ;)

www.newfangledsolutions.com
www.machsupport.com
Re: Missing Steps
« Reply #8 on: May 04, 2006, 08:24:36 PM »
The Camtronics box has a +5volts plug in in the back and they supplied a USB cable that adapted from USB to the plug.
I measured from USB cable to PC Case(ground) and got 5 volts. I will take the Camtronics case apart and try to identify its
components.   Danny ???
Re: Missing Steps
« Reply #9 on: May 07, 2006, 09:19:54 AM »
Hi Brian,
I think you are onto the problem...

I was able to troubleshoot over the phone with Dan Mauch (nice guy!) and we think we may have it solved. After going thru some tuning stuff in Mach2, he had me check voltages coming out of the PC (Brand new 2.2 ghz Emachine from Best Buy) thru the DB 25 cable. Hooking up meter to pin 3 (controls x axis) and pin 18(common). Going in the direction that it did not miss steps the meter read 3.2 volts.(Still too low) In the direction when it missed steps the meter read .1 volts! Dan is sending me device to amplify the DB 25 output next week. I will let you know if this solves my problem.

Thanks for listening...Danny