Hi all, just a quick question:

I may be able to acquire (free) a PC with a 1GHz P3 and just under 400MB RAM. Will this be sufficient to run Mach 3 (controlling three servos via Geckos)?

I have done a bit of searching for Mach requirements, but I've been unable to find any definitive specs.

you should be able to do that, I had a 950mhz celeron controlling mine with mach2 and mach3. I wasnt able to get mach3 to go over 25KHZ though.
Right now I run mach2 off of a 650mhz p3 laptop with 512mb of ram and it works good, Im affraid to upgrade to mach3 because it might not run so well on such a slow machine.


Jon

I am running mach 3 on an old HP Vectra P3 1ghz 312mb machine with no problems. I have run mach 2 on HP Vectra P3 450 256mb also with no problems.
Just get all the background programs off and you should be ok.

If your servos have high encoder counts, you might not be able to get their top speed from them. You'll most likely only be able to run in 25Khz mode, which may limit your top speed.

I haven't hooked it up to a machine uet, but I recently bought an old Dell PIII 1.1Ghz with 256 MB RAM. Put a clean install of Win2K on it, and it seems to run Mach3 pretty well. I did notice while doing some testing today that the parallel port only output 3.3V on the direction pin while jogging, which probably isn't enough to drive Geckos, but should work OK with my Xylotex.

Many thanks all for the replies.

It sounds reasonably promising - but that's a good point about the parallel port voltage from Gerry.

The CNC machine I'm planning to buy will use Geckos, but I don't know anything about the encoder counts. I'll ask them about what sort of PCs they've used.

Cheers!

From my understanding, am I correct in assuming that if Mach is running without a machine attached, it will run OK once hooked to the controller? I just bought a PIII 1GHZ w 512M and it seems to run Mach ok, although I dont know what to look for, other than loading up some G code and running an iteration, which it does fine.

Run the driver test and make sure you get a steady pulse rate. If so, it should work fine, although recently I've been seeing posts from people experiencing trouble, and a faster PC fixed it. These are usually in the 800-900Mhz range,

I tried that, but havent got it to work yet. Everytime I try to run it, it says "no driver sensed, run drivertest.ocx, which is what I just tried to run! I'll figure it out eventually.

I tried that, but havent got it to work yet. Everytime I try to run it, it says "no driver sensed, run drivertest.ocx, which is what I just tried to run! I'll figure it out eventually.

Did you read the bit about not ignoring the reboot popup.
You may need to manually remove the driver and re run the install.
Paul

Sweet......

You were right, Paul, somehow the driver never got loaded (but I sure did). I tried to reload according to the instructions several times, and finally I got it. The test runs succesfully, although the scan line has a lot of spikes in it. Nevertheless, it chugs along and then says "test succesfull", so I imagine I'm in the ballpark. I should have time this weekend to attach to some hardware, I'm looking forward to it, providing it works, of course

Are the glitches in the scan line a bad indication of some type? Is it supposed to be real smooth? (my other computer shows a line thats smoother, like the one in the manual)

I would think a 1GHz machine would be fine.
Think the spikes indicate that a schedualed interupt didn't come back in the time expected. Proberbly due to some other task running on your computer.
You could try setting your network card to something other than auto detect and scanning for spyware as per Arts instructions.

I have a question, for anyone that may ba able to help, I have installed Mach3 and deleted Mach2 from my computer. Now if I try to run the Mach3 driver test, nothing happens. Is this a path problem, in other words,do I need to run a different driver than Mach2's? Do I need to manually install the Mach3 driver, like I had to do with the Mach2 driver? I think I probably do, just wondering if anyone else has had a similar experiance.

Update, I installed the Mach3 driver manually, but still nothing happens when I try to run the driver test from the Mach3 directory. I geusse I should try at Artsoft's support group.

Did you uninstall Mach2. or delete it? You may have to manually remove the drivers and reinstall. Instructions for manual removal are in the Mach2 manual. You also MUST reboot during the install when asked.

Yes I uninstalled it, and then manually loaded up the Mach3 driver, but driver test still does nothing, it just doesent load at all. I'll try removing the Mach2 driver........

It shouldn't matter, because they're different, and can coexist. I'd email Art or ask on the Yahoo group.

Well I gave up on the laptop and got a HP Vectra 1GHZ with only 128M of ram. Its got a fresh install of Win 2K pro on it and nothing else. It really runs well. At first I didnt think too much of the performance, but after tuning everything correctly, I am very happy with how it runs. It still kinda scares me controlling anything with Windows, but I geusse thats what the charge pump's for. Really nice, powerfull program.

It still kinda scares me controlling anything with Windows, but I geusse thats what the charge pump's for.


Isn't the charge pump for BEFORE Windows and Mach have control?

I'm not sure, but I thought that the charge pump was driven by Mach while running to a certain level that then enabled your drives. If Mach fails then the charge quickly drains and the enable pin goes high, shutting down the drives. I'll look and find out for sure.

I'm not sure, but I thought that the charge pump was driven by Mach while running to a certain level that then enabled your drives. If Mach fails then the charge quickly drains and the enable pin goes high, shutting down the drives. I'll look and find out for sure.

That's kinda what I was saying. It's for when Mach (and windows) don't have control. Both before Mach3 starts and if it should stop for some reason. Although I'm not sure if I've seen any reports of mach actually crashing during a run. Once setup, I believe it's more stable than jst about any windows programs. It has to be. :)

With that feature, the charge pump, its a really secure system. I dont have mine set up yet, but it's something I want to get implemented soon, even though your right Gerry, Ive never heard any reports of Mach crashing. Mach isnt what I worry about, its the Windows. It sounds like Art has designed it with such a low level of control that Mach is actually at a higher level of priority than Windows. Quite an accomplishment!