Thanks again for the replies. 

Yes, I've tried many combinations to get the value to save but no luck  It's odd, it saves on my Dell XP but not on my Dell Latitude 8100.  Unfortunately, I can't get the steppers to work on the XP at all so I tried my older Latitude which I was at least able do get things running on.

OK, the Sherlin 1/2 mode seems to work.  The tests I did with running the xy together and then going back to zero truly zero'd.  I'll do some more comprehensive testing this week but this is very promising.

Thanks very much.  This forum is invaluable for rookies like me.

Best Regards.

Carl

What is telling you your off? The MACH readout, measurement, or an independent display?

RICH

MODIFIED POSTING:
Was the program you ran generated from a CAD file? If it was can you post a DXF, dwg, of dgn of it?

If the Sherline Mode does in fact cure it, getting the 5 to "stick" would probably have worked as well...and may be a better option.
Sherline Mode overrides the Pulse entry and sets the pulse to 40us.

RICH, good question and a great observation. Not sure why, but I assumed that it was measured by some means other than the Mach DRO's.

Note: I recently set-up a Z axis on a small lathe and for a test, I put a dial indicator on the slide.
Then ran:  G1 F30
                Z-1
                Z0
                G4 P.5 (seconds)
                M47
Upon returning to 0, it gained about .00035" per cycle.
After several minutes, it gained over .010"
Changed the Pulse from 1 to 2 and it ran 30 minutes and the 0 never deviated.
So I set it at 3 and left it. Cant explain it.....but it is good now.

I have a 6" dial indicator that I setup to test the x and then the y travel and it was very accurate except for the backlash of the respective axis.  I then setup an edge finder for centering over a hole and tried the combined xy movements.  When returning to the hole and moving the z axis down, the edge finder was revealing approximately 42 thousands of error cummulate for each move.

I'm concerned about the Sherline mode so will try to get the settings in the xml.  It looks like each unit from the screen is saved as a multiple of 1995. 

I appreciate everyones recommendations.  Once again, it's been invaluable.

Best Regards.

Carl

By the way, I attached the g-code which is a plain text file.

Hi all,
Just like Cmnewcomer I have never been able to get the pulse setting to stay changed. This is true for three different computers which Mach is loaded on and also with or without using the SS plugin. My three machines run fine and there is no problem in DRO reading. So gave up on trying things to change the pulse setting.

I find this thread particularily interesting, because after doing some testing, I could not fault the Mach DRO value.
Would believe it over my digital display on the mill. One particaular test was a friends Sherline and did what Overloaded
ran, the only difference was we put a pause in at the beginning and end for one second so I could read a scale. Ran it
about 100 times and ended up with a value under .001 when comparing MACH dro to optical scale.

At work ..... got to go,
RICH


 

OK, this may or may not be of interest to the developers so please take it with a grain of salt.  The value appears to be persisting to the xml file.  Howeve, if you enter the motor tuning and exit, it decrements it.  To ensure this was happening, I did the following:

1. Enter Motor Tuning, set the  step pulse to 4 and the dir pulse to 4, save and exit Mach3.  Checked the xml file and settings were 4980 and 4980 respectively.
2. Enter Motor Tuning, change nothing but press Save and then exit Mach 3.  Checked the xml file and the settings were 3984 and 3984 respectively.
3. Enter Motor Tuning, change nothing but press Save and then exit Mach 3.  Checked the xml file and the settings were 2988 and 2988 respectively.
4. Enter Motor Tuning, change nothing but press Save and then exit Mach 3.  Checked the xml file and the settings were 1992 and 1992 respectively.
5. Enter Motor Tuning, change nothing but press Save and then exit Mach 3.  Checked the xml file and the settings were 996 and 996 respectively. 

This appears to be a programmatic bug when saving the settings.  For some reason it's decrementing each time.  Hope this helps.  Good news is were not crazy.

Best Regards.

Carl

Hi, Carl

What version of Mach are you using ? (Look under Help, About).

Mach's XMl is only saved with a shut-down and, re-start of the program, There is a Save Settings in Config menu. (Last item, Not sure what it saves though).

Close down re-start Mach and see if you get them to stick.

Thanks, Chip

Chip,

I have R2.63.  Yes, you are correct in that if you don't exit Mach 3 it won't persist the settings to the xml file.  Basically, if you set the values and don't go back into Motor Tuning (I did not test other scenarios), the values will be correct.

Best Regards.

Carl

Hi, Carl

Is every thing sorted out (OK). ? (Well for now).

Thanks, Chip

Chip,

Yes.  I think for now I'm going to keep it in Sherline 1/2 Mode and do another run on a gear blank.  If everthing turns out OK, I may just leave it for now so I can get back to clock making.

I'll keep an eye on the forum and for new versions to see if someone finds a solution for saving the dir and step pulse.

The feedback and help from you and the others is greatly appreciated.  Thanks again.

Best Regards.

Carl