[Foximus]

Alright... So let me give you a quick run down...
Stable settings.

XHC 4 Axis motion card
Wantai DQ86MA drivers
Y Axis. 1250in/oz motor @ 350in/m 20in/s accell @ 4.0a RMS 5 microsteps(1000pulse/rev)
X Axis 1100in/oz motor @ 500in/m 50in/s accell @ 3.5a RMS 5 microsteps(1000pulse/rev)

• I've done roughly a 4:1 gear reduction through pulleys.
• Both X and Y have their own independent 60v 6.5amp power supplies, so power should not be an issue...
• Sherline 1/2 pulse mode is engaged, as far as I understand this is for signal smoothing, but I don't really know its function?
• I've played with Kernal speed, but don't see a direct change in anything.
• I use Half Current setting (on the holding current), when I set to Full Current, it stalls almost immediately... In fact, Generally when I drop the amperage, it performs smoother...

I would like to increase the speeds for fast travel as much as possible... even thinking close 1000in/min should be attainable, but when I set above these speeds, individual axis will travel, but combined motions will cause the movement to stall...


Someone suggested that the drivers may not be quality enough to output a clean signal at this rate... but I don't have a Oscilloscope to check this....

Attached is my stable XML. What are your opinions? Am I being unrealistic, and have too high expectations of these motors? Or should I invest in some heavy shielded USB cable?

Thanks!

https://youtu.be/APN7blFyMok

[Foximus]

Alternate thought....

Could it possibly be a lack of proper shielding and cross contamination of the motor leads in my Cable snake? Increase of amperage causes higher radio interference?

[ger21]

Set the microsteps to 8 or 10. (1600 or 2000). You might even want to try 16 microsteps.

Both X and Y have their own independent 60v 6.5amp power supplies, so power should not be an issue...

What are the specs on the motors? To be honest, you'd probably get more speed with smaller motors.

I've done roughly a 4:1 gear reduction through pulleys.

What size are the pinions?

Sherline 1/2 pulse mode is engaged, as far as I understand this is for signal smoothing, but I don't really know its function?

Disable it, as it has no affect when using a motion controller. And no, it has nothing to do with "smoothing"

I've played with Kernal speed, but don't see a direct change in anything.

Again, has no effect with a motion controller.
The plugin settings for your motion controller should have a kernel frequency? Or it may be fixed? Which XHC card do you have?

[Foximus]

Hey Gerry!

The motors are WT86STH118-6004A and 85BYGH450D-008. I'm clearly missing something, because both suggestions you made go against my assumptions.... I was contemplating stepping up in motorsize... lol. How would smaller motors result in faster speeds?


Secondly, how would increasing the microsteps help? This would seem to clog the dataline with even more information and make the motors more susceptible to historhetic losses and muddied signal? I used to run as high as 10,000 pulse/rev, but later stepped it down to 2,000 and later 1,000. (though I admit if I remember, 2000 sounded the smoothest)




I definitely seem to get faster speeds when I reduce driver amperage, but then lose cutting torque.



EDIT:

****. Starting yesterday I'm getting non-stop 8877 and 9991 errors with the program crashing, and the machine carrying out whatever last directions it was sent before mach crashes. I thought I had it fixed by reinstalling a newer version of mach3.... but now its back, after switching a USB cable around. Clearly something is important with the manner of which the USB's are plugged in....?

[ger21]

I was contemplating stepping up in motorsize... lol. How would smaller motors result in faster speeds?

Larger stepper motors have several disadvantages.
They have higher inductance, which causes them to lose torque faster, as rpm's increase. Remember, a steppers rated torque is measured when they are not spinning. The faster they spin, the less torque they have. When the rpm's get higher, a smaller motor can often have more torque at the higher rpm than a larger motor, because smaller motors don't lose torque as fast.
Larger steppers also do not run as smoothly, due to their much higher detent torque, and they are more susceptible of resonance.

Secondly, how would increasing the microsteps help? This would seem to clog the dataline with even more information and make the motors more susceptible to historhetic losses and muddied signal?

Miscrostepping makes motors run smoother, and decrease resonance.
Stepper drives can read the steps as fast as you send them (up to the drive's limit). You can't "clog" the step lines, or "muddy" the signal with too many steps.

I definitely seem to get faster speeds when I reduce driver amperage, but then lose cutting torque.

I would think that this might point to a resonance issue.

Most Mach3 error codes are not documented, so I can't tell you what they mean. Probably some interaction with the plugin for your motion card. I don't recommend any chinese motion controllers, although many people seem to have good luck with them.

I don't really have a concrete answer for you. this could be caused by a lot of different things.

[Foximus]

Well thanks for the help Gerry!


It does NOT crash when I load with the Parallel port drivers as primary...

What sort of contamination could the NcUsbPod.dll have had recently that would start it crashing? Does it nest somewhere in the windows registry that would be prominent after a clean install?


If I get it working I'll increase back to 2000p/r

[Foximus]

Definitely in some interaction between windows and this driver... I'm not sure what has made it corrupted in the last 2 days, but any time I try to enable the NcUsbPod.dll (version 2.38.9) it leads to an almost immediate crash.... Sometimes I will get up to 10 seconds of motion....