Help please. Dip switches and mach 3 settings

[Radu_Andrei]

Problem 1

So I installed a new earth connection and it was all great, until something weird happened. Up till midday, jogging the cnc went just fine, then after that for a couple of hours it worked like shit, meaning that the steppers were running in such a manner that the ballscrews was shaking, and even stalling a couple of times, all 3 of them on all 3 axis, and testing it in the evening again, it works fine again. I.ve reduced once again the driver setup to 800 steps, assuming that maybe the 1600 was the problem, but no. It does not matter.
It. been a bit stormy in the evenings, and sometimes the lights were flashing in the workshop, but not in relation with the performance of the machine. Strangely enough, it was working just fine when the light were flashing. (it may not be the correct word, but I mean, the lights were changing their intensity at short intervals of time), and around 1pm, when it was sunny and nice, the cnc was taking the piss.
This was yesterday. Today, I.ve tested again, and jogging it, it worked fine for a few minutes, and after that, the motors changed their noise and the shaking occured again. Like it shakes the ballscrews and so the whole gantry. Sometimes, pressing reset in mach 3 it makes the problem go away for a minute or so, and then it happens again. Then exiting mach 3 and coming back later, it seems ok again, for some time. The steppers sound fine and smooth, and just like that they change their noise and have a jerky movement. On and off, without any patern I can notice so far.

So at least we.ve excluded the ground problem. What else can cause this? Fluctuations in the electrical voltage? amperage to low set for drivers (4.9A Peak, 3.5A RMS set now, next setting is 5.7A peak, and on the steppers it says 5.6A, but the driver can go up to 7.8A peak, 5.6A rms)?

Problem 2

I wired up the vfd, I change Parameter 1 and 2 to value of ..2..(for communication port control), then wired the 4 control wires like posted before ..the gnd pin goes to ACM, the 0-10v to V1, 1st relay pin (5th in order) to DCM, and 2nd relay pin to FOR., and then in mach 3, in motor outputs, I enabled the spindle, step pin 1, dir pin 0, dir lowactive and step I tried in all ways, step port and dir port both to 1, then in output signals I enabled output 1, port 1, pin 17, active low not checked, then spindle setup, relay control with disable spindle relay not checked, motor control with ..use spindle motor output.. and ..pwm control.. both checked and pwm base freq to 100, then in spindle pulleys, nr1 max speed 24000.
And it does not work. It does nothing when i press spindle cw f5, although the relay clicks on, and the voltage at terminal 0-10v is 9.54v The vfd just shows 0000000 on the screen.
What have I done wrong?

[Clive S]

Re Prob 1. I would suggest that it could be the power supplies I think yours are regulated type and if the mains is fluctuating that might be why your motors are giving you grief. If you can get hold of a toroidal power supply you might find the problems go away as the caps would help to smooth it out.

[Radu_Andrei]

Hi Clive. I.ve just encountered today a very suspicious thing, which makes me think the issue is in the pc, or pc setup thing. Running drivertest.exe in mach3 folder, I get mostly a flat line, system excellent message and some pulsing to fast and pulsing to slow sometimes. But running the same exe, and having the mach3 open, and simply moving the mach3 window on the desktop, without pressing anything, the drivertest.exe goes wild, huge spikes all over, and always displays pulsing to slow. As soon as you stop moving the window, it.s returning to normal.
You can see in this video what I.m talking about. Sorry I did not hold the camera still.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFY8...ature=youtu.be

Also here it is the exact behaviour of the cnc. Please skip at minute 1.05 to see the issue.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWlV...ature=youtu.be

In device manager, under My Computer it says ACPI x32. There are some articles that say I should change that to Standard Pc. I don.t have this option, so I guess I should reinstall windows. Others say that changing that creates problems and windows might not load anymore.
I.m a bit confused about all this but I.m strongly inclining to believe that here lies the source of all my problems.

[Radu_Andrei]

Hi. Could you please tell me what do I need or I should look for in a pc, in order to make it work with the cnc? Are there any specifics, motherboard, video card, x64 with additions or x32.
This pc I have, receives the windows installation only via cdrom, and this does not work ok all the time, as the installation did fail a couple of times before making it work.
I have another pc, a bit better, but still old, dual 3ghz, 512 vram, 8gb ram, but the paralel port thing did not exist on it, so I had to buy a separate one.
Should I troubleshhot the existent pc or buy a new one? And if yes, which one?

[dazp1976]

You don't need anything special as far as I'm concerned.
I put mine together from spares I had lying around ages ago when I intended to use it. Which I then dug out of the loft after it was left unused for about 8 years.

For running 3 axis Mach3 from the parallel port my spec is:
Old Gigabyte socket 775 Matx board.
Intel Celeron 2.2ghz.
2GB DDR2 ram.
320GB Maxtor SATA HDD.
Windows XP 32bit.
Using the on board graphics.

Works like an absolute champ.
You only need a decent machine for CAD drawing and CAM post processing.

I'm in the process of getting the equipment together for a second mill I plan on converting and the PC spec this time (another loft find) will be:
Very old E-machines socket 486 board.
Celeron 1.8ghz.
2GB DDR2.
300GB IDE HDD.
On board graphics.
Windows XP 32bit.
I will use this PC on the existing 3 axis X2 and the other PC will go on the new mill as I'm putting all the electronics in place for up to 5 axis.

Apparently Mach3 doesn't play well with a 64bit OS when using the parallel port but I never tried it. That's why I have a 32bit basic one for Mach3 and better 64bit one for the CAD/CAM.

[Radu_Andrei]

Hi Dasp1976,
I.ve bought some time ago a dell precision m4800 for the future CAD/CAM works.

Running the Cnc, I don have anything special at the moment:
Intel Pentium dual cpu e2180 2.00ghz 2.00ghz
2gb RAM, 32bit operating system
video card intel 829456 express chipset family
128gb SSD, windows 7 home premium with windows 7 basic theme
paralel port built in

in device manager, in Computer, i have only 2 drivers available: ACPIx86 based pc, and Advanced Config and Power Interface (ACPI) PC. I don.t have Standard PC option. Some people say that this can be a fix for steppers missing steps, or making strange noises.
here is a link to someone who is talking about this issue. skip at min 4.30 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n18OTfjbFp4

also in device manager, in Mach3 Pulseing Engine, I have Mach3 Driver version 6.1.0.0 (4/20/2011)

I.m mentioning all this because, running DriverTest in Mach3 installation folder, I get all 3, Pulsing to slow/Pulsing to fast/System excellent messages. If I move or drag any window on the desktop, while the DriverTest is running, I get lots of spikes in that otherwise straight line. Some people say that changing the driver mentioned above to Standard PC will fix this issue, but I could not find what to do if this driver is not available in the option list.

But I guess, as this pc units are very cheap, it does not worth spending so much time troubleshooting the one I have.
I.ve read dell 760.s work fine, but this are core2duo.
You mention single core machines, intel celeron and windows xp. Seems a safer and more stable choise. I.ve found a couple online, to my surprise.
I.ll get back when I have one.

Thank you for your reply.

[dazp1976]

Hi Dasp1976,
I.ve bought some time ago a dell precision m4800 for the future CAD/CAM works.

Running the Cnc, I don have anything special at the moment:
Intel Pentium dual cpu e2180 2.00ghz 2.00ghz
2gb RAM, 32bit operating system
video card intel 829456 express chipset family
128gb SSD, windows 7 home premium with windows 7 basic theme
paralel port built in

in device manager, in Computer, i have only 2 drivers available: ACPIx86 based pc, and Advanced Config and Power Interface (ACPI) PC. I don.t have Standard PC option. Some people say that this can be a fix for steppers missing steps, or making strange noises.
here is a link to someone who is talking about this issue. skip at min 4.30 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n18OTfjbFp4

also in device manager, in Mach3 Pulseing Engine, I have Mach3 Driver version 6.1.0.0 (4/20/2011)

I.m mentioning all this because, running DriverTest in Mach3 installation folder, I get all 3, Pulsing to slow/Pulsing to fast/System excellent messages. If I move or drag any window on the desktop, while the DriverTest is running, I get lots of spikes in that otherwise straight line. Some people say that changing the driver mentioned above to Standard PC will fix this issue, but I could not find what to do if this driver is not available in the option list.

But I guess, as this pc units are very cheap, it does not worth spending so much time troubleshooting the one I have.
I.ve read dell 760.s work fine, but this are core2duo.
You mention single core machines, intel celeron and windows xp. Seems a safer and more stable choise. I.ve found a couple online, to my surprise.
I.ll get back when I have one.

Thank you for your reply.

I can't see having single/dual core making much difference (although I could be wrong)
If it was me. Before I did anything in terms of spending I'd see if I could get hold of a copy of windows XP (for nowt) first.
Then:
1: Create a new partition on the windows7 machine large enough to fit an OS.
2: Install XP on that partition. (will then give you the option of booting to either in the early stages)
3. Boot to XP instead of 7.
4: Go to the MS back catalogue and install the service pack3 update: http://www.catalog.update.microsoft....arch.aspx?q=xp
5: Install Mach3 and see how it runs on XP on the same machine.
I'm not bothered about even trying win7 because XP works with it.

If the machine still plays up then just delete the partition with XP on and the machine will still have win7 to either keep for something else or sell on.

[Radu_Andrei]

Will do precisely.
Thank you.

[dazp1976]

Well an update.
Just tested my old socket 478 pc's and both psu's are dead. Go figure.
They want £23 for another power supply (used) (SFF type).
Just bought a Dell 780 myself with 4GB ram, win 10, for less than £10 more.
I have a sata drive lying around so when it comes I'll be installing that in the 2nd bay and running XP leaving win 10 untouched just in case for re-sale purposes.
If I end up having dual core issues I'll be selling the core 2 and getting a Celeron the same as my other (both socket 775).
Ugh!.

[Radu_Andrei]

I guess I.m the only one naive enough to believe that you just turn on the cnc and it will work like a charm for years. In truth it seems all kind of issues come up.
Hope you.ll get your new dell pc work just fine, and dual core it.s not the problem. :)