Newbie alert: EMC with 3 axis gantry router

[millburr]

Dear forum,

My brother dropped a 3 axis router off at my house a year or so ago, and this past weekend, I thought I'd give it a whirl. I downloaded the 2.2.2 .iso, and configured the LPT port OK (it came with some docs which included the pinouts) so that was ok.

I actually got motion using the setup wizard on *EACH* axis (whoopie), but when I went to test each axis using the popup window, the motors would whine, and the carriage seemed to bind, and instead of the +- 8" of travel, I'd only get a couple of inches.

I should point out that the jitter was like 150000 or better (yes the number of ZEROS is correct -- I got jitter -- all kinds of jitter), so I put in a PCI based VGA card (as hinted in the manual), but that didn't seem to help much.

Note that when I held the JOG button down for any axis I got nice smooth motion for the full length of travel and in both directions. Are acceleration and speed values the only thing to tweak?

X-axis is 12TPI
Y-axis is 10TPI
Z-axis is 17TPI with a 24:16 (3:2?) gear ratio on the belt ...

Oh, and the fun stopped when I blew a fuse ... I *THINK* I started the motor amp before I rebooted, and when the computer fired up, the amp just died.
Hmmm ... anyway, I have new fuses ... oh, and I read in the other newbie thread to upgrade using a thumbdrive to 2.2.4 ... so I'll do that tonight first thing before I start ...

Any tips, suggestions would be *DEEPLY* appreciated. I'm not only new to EMC, but also CNC, cutting materials, etc. etc. You name it, and I'm a babe (so to speak) in the woods, but I do have a pretty good grasp on software )

HELP!??

[samco]

jitter of 150000 isn't going to work - at all. Is this a laptop? What kind of computer is this? It may not be usable for real time control.

You need a computer that has jitter less than 30000.

[randyf1965]

disable the nic.... I had issues with my EMC box with the nic enabled. ended up swapping it for a wireless card

[millburr]

Originally Posted by randyf1965 disable the nic.... I had issues with my EMC box with the nic enabled. ended up swapping it for a wireless card

Jitter issues make sense, I'll start disabling on-board peripherals until I get a better jitter rate.

On another note, I'm using an older controller board (hobbyCNC 4ADBWOHC), and after my first test session, I blew a fuse. Apparently there are both 10AMP and 3AMP fuses, and I'm not entirely sure which one blew as there are no markings on the case, or the fuses themselves (I didn't build it).

Is it possible that simply starting the driver board with the computer powered off could cause some confusion, and have the fuse blow? I replaced it, and immediately vapourized a 3AMP (I didn't have the nerve to assume 10AMP) fuse, and so now I'm in a bit of a quandry.

What is the correct start up process vis a vis computer, EMC software and
motor amplifier??