8020 belt driven 3 axis

[Ross77]

Glads it working, Now you have a benchmark can you get it working on the Laptop???

I bypassed all the cable issuses buy cutting the plug off one end, quick pin check and wired it direct to the driver (built in optos). not pretty or a long term solution but good for initial testing :naughty:

[mel_earp]

can you get it working on the Laptop???

It has been well documented in lots of places that using a Laptop for CNC control is not a great idea. There is no reason why it shouldn't work superficially, but it is risky if you want consistent decent results [bet someone is successful though]. The main reason is that both the operating system (specifically Windows) and the BIOS of laptops have deeply rooted features for extending the battery life. You can, and should, turm off all the features that suspend or even slow the processor down after periods of inactivity or elapsed time, but there is still the nagging doubt that somewhere deep down in the software, interrupts and latency are being disturbed. The symptoms would be disruption of the real time nature of Mach with missed steps or false readings or worse still, crashes and lock ups.

The situation with EMC and Ubuntu is a little different as this installation has a real time add on to the operating system. This makes it better than the Windows situation but still does not eliminate whatever the manufacturer of the laptop chose for the BIOS.

[compfranon]

Glads it working, Now you have a benchmark can you get it working on the Laptop???

I bypassed all the cable issuses buy cutting the plug off one end, quick pin check and wired it direct to the driver (built in optos). not pretty or a long term solution but good for initial testing :naughty:

I had no intention of using the laptop for "production", it was merely for testing and satisfying my impatience while I was waiting for the desktop. Understand 100% mel, as you say laptops are designed to work but save power when idle, and in order to do so tend to cause issues.

Ok, I would need a sowester and hat to reach my shed tonight due to the adverse (perhaps not unusual) weather conditions, so it's a night of for the build. Perhaps i'll read the mach manual instead