Mach 3 behaving badly?

[Davek0974]

Just got a reply from cs-labs, it seems its probably an internal issue between mach and the plugin, i need to downgrade to v022 as that is the recommended one.

Something is telling mach to move beyond a soft-limit - clearly this should never happen but is.

The ePid fault is caused by mach telling the motors to move faster than it should - the motor cannot keep up and a the following error hits the ePid limit and trips.

Will try v022

[Ger21]

3.043.022 does not work with the 2010 tool change macros. There's a bug in Mach3 versions 3.043.000 up to .022 that will cause mach3 to lock up when it gets to an M6.

Not all M6's, and when I found the bug, there was no rhyme or reason on what actually caused the issue. The default macros worked fine, but I could get it to lock up with a single line of code in the M6 macro.
It was fixed in 3.043.028 I believe.

[Davek0974]

Thanks Gerry, it seems Mach3 is a minefield of issues from version to version.

I do use the M6 so I will not downgrade to the very early version.

Not really sure what to do now TBH.

I will be back up and running this weekend, I will re-run the same code that failed and see what happens, only the motor has been changed so nothing that will alter the code execution. This might work or fail, if it fails I will try V028 instead.

I did ask CS-Labs about Mach4 but they advised holding fast until their new re-written plugin is published in the not too distant future.

[John S]

Don't hold your breath with Mach4. It's been out four plus years and still not a release candidate. Without an external controller like CS Labs, Pokeys, Hicon etc it can't stand on its own and so far all the effort is going Pokeys way and even this way behind. Unless you have a system where software and hardware is under the same roof you will have support problems.
Mach3 could do it with the parallel port as it was all in Art's domain but then the rot set I'm with the G-Rex and original smooth stepper. The current smooth stepper is weeks away from threading but it's the same weeks away that they quoted 4 years ago.

[Davek0974]

Don't hold your breath with Mach4.

Yeah, it was just a passing thought really. I'm still using Mach3 on two other machines so adding a new flavour to the mix would not aid my learning curve i think.

;)

[Ger21]

That's why I'm moving to UCCNC....
I bought a Mach4 license two years ago, but haven't even looked at it in over a year. Probably another 4-5 years until it's completely finished. Maybe...

[Davek0974]

Yeah, linuxcnc not an option here I'm afraid - too much £££ in the CSMIO controller and they don't support Linux

[njhussey]

3.043.022 does not work with the 2010 tool change macros. There's a bug in Mach3 versions 3.043.000 up to .022 that will cause mach3 to lock up when it gets to an M6.

Not all M6's, and when I found the bug, there was no rhyme or reason on what actually caused the issue. The default macros worked fine, but I could get it to lock up with a single line of code in the M6 macro.
It was fixed in 3.043.028 I believe.

I've just set up all the auto tool change stuff in your screenset and it wasn't working, just sat there waiting for me to press start again without doing the move to tool change position and then the probing....just been looking into why and just come across this so will see what version of Mach I'm using.