Mach3 G76 head scratcher

Gentlemen

I purchased a licenced copy of Mach3 lathe to drive an Emco c5 which is being upgraded.
Mach3 was downloaded and successfully installed on my office laptop running windows 7 and works correctly including G76 threading canned cycle.
Next I installed Mach3 from the same source onto a Dell OptiPlex 745 PC which is mounted on the Emco C5 and copied the licence file into the mach3 folder. Once installed all appeared correct including the licence's name at the top of the program window, I say all appears correct except that it will not emulate a G76 threading cycle no matter what I do. I have tried reinstalling, copying the XML file from the laptop, hitting it! yet it refuses to read a G76 despite the first part of a test program running normally as far as the G76 line.
Has any one else found this problem or more to the point, a cure?

GeoffV

What's the Operating System on the OptiPlex ?

XP profssional

When you had it on Win7 did you have parallel port driver installed.? . . . Mach3 Parallel port driver won't work with Win7 64bit so if you didn't install it but you have with XP then this may be the problem because it's looking for spinlde feed back.? Also XP 64bit won't work with PP driver.

Try the Mach3 forum asking the Lathe Lads, Hood will probably know.

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Originally Posted by GeoffV

XP profssional

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clutching at straws here but I've solved some problems with other software after installing service packs 2 and 3, also the parallel port needs to be in EPP mode in the BIOS I believe ?

Given the other recent thread, I'm going to guess the OP is still emulating things.
If so, ports & pins -> inputs -> tick the box for emulating the index, and see if that fixs the problem.

Gentlemen

Thank you for your thought and suggestions.

Jazzcnc
I'm not convinced it's a PP driver problem as the machine PC has the PP driver installed, not sure if the laptop tried to install a driver, besides neither computer is connected in any way.

m_c
I checked to see if the index emulating box was ticked on both computers, neither were and ticking the box has no effect.

My gut feeling after a good nights sleep is:- G76 is inhibited in the demo mode so I'm wondering if the machine PC has inhibited G76, even though it appears to have read and accepted the licence file.

Guess I'll have to load the program and licence file on another PC to test my theory.

GeoffV

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Originally Posted by GeoffV

.Jazzcnc
I'm not convinced it's a PP driver problem as the machine PC has the PP driver installed, not sure if the laptop tried to install a driver, besides neither computer is connected in any way.

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NOT saying a Problem with PP but it may be Exactly what the problem could be.? Because the PP driver is installed but your not connected to machine Mach needs to see an Index pulse and it's Not.
Go check if the Index Input is enabled and if it isn't then enable it and toggle the Active state to trick Mach into thinking it's connected.

I'm not into CNC Lathes so don't know exactly how G76 works or Mach treats it but I'm sure because it's threading it will be connected to the Index pulse input.

When a G76 is commanded, the lathe moves to the initial start position, then waits for the spindle speed to stabilise before syncing to the index pulse and starting the threading move.
If the speed doesn't stabilise, or the index pulse isn't seen, then Mach will hang at that point.

In the case of using an external motion controller, Mach sends the thread details to the relavant plugin, and then sits waiting for the plugin to tell Mach that the thread is finished, before continuing with the next bit of G-code.

Jazzcnc et al

Thanks once again for helping man the pumps, problem resolved but not completely understood.

After much installing uninstalling etc. etc. I took another look at the spindle setup and unchecked the "use spindle feedback in sync mode" this cured the problem running under XP pro and G76 emulation now works correctly. What I don't understand is, with this box checked the simulation works just fine on my laptop running windows7.

It's all PFM!

GeoffV

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Originally Posted by GeoffV

Jazzcnc et al

Thanks once again for helping man the pumps, problem resolved but not completely understood.

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Makes complete sense really after reading M_C post. Mach didn't see a signal so didn't sync so didn't continue.

Why Win7 worked could be down to not having the PP driver installed.? But i'm guessing. Or it could have had the Index input active other way around.?

Anyway I've got to ask this because my limited brain power can't figure it out.? . . Whats "PFM".?

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Anyway I've got to ask this because my limited brain power can't figure it out.? . . Whats "PFM".?

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Urban Dictionary: PFM Technology ..Clive

Nice one Clive, got it in one.

GeoffV

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Why Win7 worked could be down to not having the PP driver installed.? But i'm guessing.

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There are quite a few functions in Mach3 that rely on the parallel port driver to work correctly. Without the parallel port driver or a motion controller, you may not get a proper simulation when in "simulation mode".

Gerry

Thank you for your knowledge on the subject, am still puzzled how the simulation functions OK in Windows7, may be one day I'll understand enough.

GeoffV