I just thought I would give an update as to my progress. I have replaced two of the fanuc encoders and their wiring. the encoders were both problematic and their wiring harnesses were suspect as well. when it came to moving the motors , even unattached I was still having difficulties. Any rapids were filled with extremely harsh interrupts. I decided the problem was probably with either the parallel port or more likely with windows. one of the guys on the artsoft page suggested I try electronic gearing, I cut the resolution by a factor of 5, lowered the kernel speed in mach3 and now, no more kachunks. I have a smooth stepper coming, in two weeks, then I will be able to regain my lost resolution. I did optimize windows prior to my expiroments, but I have had more than my share of windows generated faults over the years, so I think it is wiser to remove the counting from the province of windows and play to it's strengths, timing with out interrupts not being one of them.
I still have a long way to go on this protect, I have to figure out how to get the complete interface hooked up between mach 3 and the vesdepi card, first, so I can reset the drives from mach 3 and then all the limit switches and home switches etc then I have to get my spindle mounted and fly cut the table. then I can finally start to learn how to get the optimum performance from it.
Im having fun... is that allowed?  |