[philbur]

I think you must have several problems. This one would appear to be an issue between Mach and that particular part program. I have no idea why. Two machines faulting at exactly the same point would appear to eliminate a machine problem.

Phil

I’m starting to think I have multiple problems.

[philbur]

VaderSpade:

With regard to the problem in post 53. In the quote below you make reference to "Y shifting" but in post 53 it seems to be X shifting by 1.7 inches.

Questions:

1) Is this problem always the same axis.
2) Does it ever fault on more than one axis at the same time.
3) Do you always get a fault on repeat runs
4) Is the fault always the same.

Do you want to post or send me the code?

On the previous fault I wasn't suggesting overheating was the problem. It would be a huge coincident for such a heat generated fault to occur at the same point, especially on two separate machines.

Phil

My other problem is the Y shifting as in post 53. That is a short 17 minute program so overheating is not a problem. It happened another time when engraving a very simple symbol that takes 30 seconds.

One big problem or several little problems????

[philbur]

I did notice in the code you sent me that there are two G0s' back to back in the last few lines of the code, at the point where the fault occurs?

Phil

[TXFred]

VaderSpade:

I've just finished running the code you sent me. 4hrs 17mins and 320,000 lines of code. My machine also faulted right at the end of the run just the same as yours. Random movement followed by a full stop, it didn't return to x0, y0, z0.2

I wonder if this is a Series 3 quirk. I've got a Series 2. If you send me the code, I'll test run it here and let you know how it behaves.

PM me and I'll get you my email address.

Frederic

[Bob La Londe]

I did notice in the code you sent me that there are two G0s' back to back in the last few lines of the code, at the point where the fault occurs?

Phil

Did you look at exactly what those moves are? Its not all that uncommon to have back to back G0 moves. A safe Z rapid, and then a position rapid for example.

[VaderSpade]

Thanks Fred, I sent Tormach the code yesterday and they are going to run it today, let’s see what their conclusion is?

I’m also waiting for some clear answers in s2jesse’s M998 problem, as my problem started out the same way.

At this point I think I have more than one problem and I want to eliminate them one at a time.

If I have the time later today I plan to run the program that faulted in post 53 as I think this is my main problem and the one I need fixed.

I wonder if this is a Series 3 quirk. I've got a Series 2. If you send me the code, I'll test run it here and let you know how it behaves.

PM me and I'll get you my email address.

Frederic

[philbur]

Yes but I don't think it is necessary to repeat the G0.

Phil

Did you look at exactly what those moves are? Its not all that uncommon to have back to back G0 moves. A safe Z rapid, and then a position rapid for example.

[300sniper]

Yes but I don't think it is necessary to repeat the G0.

Phil

i don't think it is going to hurt anything to repeat modal commands. many times i use go and g1 on every line when hand writing a code to make it easier for me to proof read and edit it. i'm self taught/ self learning g-code and am not getting paid by the hour to write code so the redundancy doesn't hurt me. my machine has never faulted because of redundant modal commands.

[mactec54]

300sniper

The control is soon going to get tired of trying to rapid move a G0X&Y .0001 & .006 moves, even a high end servo system would not want to do this, they should be all feed moves

The program will run much smoother & faster

He just has to change his post processor in his cam program

[VaderSpade]

He just has to change his post processor in his cam program

To what? I'll give it a try.

[philbur]

I understand that under normal circumstances it shouldn't be an issue but then its not clear why his and my machine would fault when executing simple gcode. The machines both fault at exacly the same point, when executing the double G0 command, but only at the end of a long run.

Phil

i don't think it is going to hurt anything to repeat modal commands. many times i use go and g1 on every line when hand writing a code to make it easier for me to proof read and edit it. i'm self taught/ self learning g-code and am not getting paid by the hour to write code so the redundancy doesn't hurt me. my machine has never faulted because of redundant modal commands.

[mactec54]

VaderSpade

You get you Cam provider to make the changes to the post processor that you have

You do a short program, as it is now, Make a copy Edit one copy so that it works 100%

then send your Cam provider both, so he can see what it is doing & what it needs to do

This may take more than one time to get everything working 100%

Some Cam systems allow you to ajust it yourself

[VaderSpade]

The CAM I'm working with (Vectric) has a long list of post processors to choose from before it writes the code. I took a class at the Tech Shop and I'm using the post processor they use for their 1100, but there well could be a better choice available.

I’m using G code inch (*tap),
There is a Mach 2/3 (inch) (*txt) along with 30 – 40 others available.
If you have a favorite for your 1100 I'll see if it's on the list.

[pete from TN]

I thought I would just add something here. I do not own a Tormach rather I own a custom built RF45 CNC conversion running Mach3. The machine has been running pretty heavily for over a year now. I have done a lot of large engraving files that have run with light stepover for many hours with no issues. Recently however I did another large engraving file that required me to set my stepover very small in order to fit my .020 tip cutter into some tight features and this of course caused the file to run for an extraordinarily long time in the larger spaces due in part to my laziness to compartmentalize the drawing to allow me to use varying stepovers in different places. Anyways an interesting thing happened. When I ran it with my Sheetcam program it generated the long code block and I tried to run it in the machine. For some odd reason this file would ALWAYS cause the machine to somehow Fault at the SAME exact point in the code. It did not matter if the machine was cold, warm, whatever. I tried to figure out what caused this but never could. At the same time to test I ran several of the other longish files I had made in the past in air to see if the machine was having a problem. NONE of the other programs would cause any issues but as soon as I put this file in there it would fault immediately at that same line in the code. I sent the code to my pal Art to look at and he could not find anything wrong with it either. I scratched my head for at least a couple days with that one and finally made some rather large changes to the file and ran it thru the post processor again and this time it worked fine. I suppose the moral of the story here is that for some unexplained reason there are certain files that Mach3 just does not like. I can find no other explanation for it.

Since other people ran this same code for you kindly enough and they had similar issues I would imagine it is probably not your machine were it not for the fact that you seem to be having small issues with other files and movements as well. I am not bagging on Mach3 here really as I find it a good program and it works fine for me the vast majority of the time. It does have it's funky quirks tho. Honestly if I had not gotten this thing all worked out and setup with modbus control and I had to start all over from scratch I would probably switch to EMC2 if I had to do it again. That is another ball of wax tho....

I sincerely hope you get your machine to run reliably, I can imagine your frustration in light of the cost of this machine but it is nice to be able to bounce issues off other owners here and it seems there are kind folks who are willing to lend a hand if necessary. It does show that unfortunately even with a Tormach and their good support you are still quite on your own to figure out what it wrong sometimes. Tormach has been quite helpful to me with their tooling and sales as I use their products on my cnc as well so no complaints here. They do seem to try to help as much as possible. Anyways, good luck and peace

Pete

[photomankc]

Are you using V-Carve? Just for curiosity, do you have arcs in the drawing and if so are they generating G2 commands or a gazillion little G1's? I know it's not the G1's directly causing the fault but I know my (non-Tormach) machine really sounds like crap when it's running those even though EMC2 it is trying to smooth them out some and they turn even a simple thing into an enormous program. I swear Cut2D had a "Mach2/3 Arcs Inches" post as well as just a "Mach2/3 Inches"and one would *sometimes* give me the smooth G2 moves I was after while the other always generated faceted curves.

I wonder if that's the case and you can get arcs instead if the smaller program would still cause the issue.

I don't use Cut2D much anymore but I think the post processors were similar between it and V-Carve.

[allennella]

I've used the *txt post without issues since '06 but I have a Series I running Mach II,

[HLF Ordnance]

I didnt read all 10 pages but i had the same problem with my Tormach.

Make sure there is no CD in the CD drive and no non-essential USB devices pluged in (thumb drives, software keys, etc...).

My machine was jumping and losing zero and making this small change has solved the problem.

Hope this helps,

Kyle

[mactec54]

VaderSpade

Vectric will sure fix a post processor for you, using a generic post processors that come with software, is pick one & hope it does the job, most of the time they don't work that well

I have Aspire so I will check out the post you have & see how it works

[tbaker2500]

The CAM I'm working with (Vectric) has a long list of post processors to choose from before it writes the code. I took a class at the Tech Shop and I'm using the post processor they use for their 1100, but there well could be a better choice available.

I’m using G code inch (*tap),
There is a Mach 2/3 (inch) (*txt) along with 30 – 40 others available.
If you have a favorite for your 1100 I'll see if it's on the list.

I have had great success using the Mach 2/3 (ATC) Inch driver. While I don't have an ATC, it will pause to let me change tools. It seems to generate arcs just fine, not segmented polygons. I have a Series 1 Tormach.

[VaderSpade]

It has become apparent that I have several problems. Tormach has sent me a work around for the problem in the videos, so I’ll be taking those down and testing the work around.
Tormach said “On really long programs (such as this one), you need to turn off the toolpath display.”

O.K. I can live with that.

I need to go back and see if my other problems have occurred since I replaced the computer, and control board. I plan on running the programs I had problems with ASAP but I may not get to them this weekend.

Thanks for all the help so far, I’ll post an update as soon as have something to report.