I ran twice through a pattern that takes about 20 minutes to cut.  No problems this time.  It used to start loosing steps about 10 minutes in and get progressively worse.  But after the changes, its all good.  Cool!  Now I can use Mach3  Thanks!!!

Very Good! No you can't do anything to hurt a stepper  Other than taking a hammer to it I think you are safe

Happy cutting

Art, Brian, Someone!!!

I have read every post about missing steps in the "Y" axis and applied all of the fixes i could understand.  When configuring motors the "Y" AXIS runs fine (no skips).  I have changed motors from one drive to other to see if it was the motor - no difference.  Changed out cables - no help. 

I have shut velocity and acceleration down to minimums or set to maximums and still get skips.  Changing to Sherline mode did not help.

I even pulled the lead screw our of the "Y" axis to determine if it was screwed up or blocked.  Looks okay.  Like I said - "Y" works fine when in the motor tuning mode.

I have determined in MIDI when I type in same distances for "X" and "Y" ex: G0x4 y4 - Y4 "Y" does not skip steps.  If I type in different  distances - ex: G0x4 y2 - "y" skips steps.  It isn't compensating for the differences.  The machine coordinates are wrong for "y" after the exercise.

Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Thanks

Bob

Could you pleae run a driver test and tell me what you see?

Brian, ran a driver test and here is what I recorded (Mach3 not running)

Interrupt Used 00
Pulse per sec. 23517

APIC Present - Green Box

CPU Speed - 3067

APIC Timing - 5642

Shortest time 36,157 (I think)

Longest time 48, 700

Line variations basically flat with occ. 1/8" spike

With Mach3 Running:

Interrupt Used 00

Pulse per sec. 25812

APIC Present - Green Box

CPU Speed - 3067

APIC Timing - 5642

Shortest time 32,950

Longest time 32,950

No activity Line

No other programs are running when I am running Mach3.

Thanks for looking

Bob

I was wondering if buying the:

"Campbell Designs" "Breakout Board Plus
for Mach2 and Mach3"
would solve the voltage problem caused by new computers and what other advantages there are to having it or if it helps with allot of problems people are having?

Bob's board will fix the problem of a low voltage printerport


I think you should look into the optimization and see if there is something in there that is making the spikes..

Thank you
Brian