Jog buttons occasionally stick, runaway gantry

[Brian Queen]

I’m having problems with a runaway gantry while jogging. To jog I press the left mouse button on one of the three arrow buttons on the mach 3 screen. When I release the left mouse button the axis stops moving, as it should. However on an intermittent basis the axis continues to move even after I’ve released the mouse button. Looking at the screen I see that the button remains depressed even though I’ve released it. I have to depress the key in the opposite direction to stop the movement and even then the button looks like it’s still depressed. When I depress the depressed button once again it and let go it works properly.
I don’t know if this is a mach 3 problem or a mouse problem. I have a Dyna CNC router setup and they don’t seem to have any answers. I’ve also tried playing with the computer mouse settings to no avail. Any suggestions?

Brian

[ger21]

Try a different mouse.

[ImanCarrot]

What Ger says.

Also, I've had similar problems with an optical mouse- you know the ones without wires and with a laser diode- I ditched it and went back to good old wires.

Had problems with a wire mouse left button too- the wires from the left button were grounding, but only when the cable was twisted in a certain direction. Solution- dump the mouse and get a new one.

If it aint the mouse, check the connector on the PC- look for any small bits of aluminium swarf that's got caught in there.

Try a different port (if it's USB).

Can you use keystrokes instead of mouse action to "click" on the screen jog (usualy it's the TAB key and/ or arrow keys with RETURN)- this would definately tell you if it's a mous problem.

[mxtras]

I have seen the same issue before also and I use the keyboard, not the mouse for jogging.

I think there is some type of conflict with the control of the port - I don't know. It is a very intermittent occurance, but it has cost me in the past.

I have noticed that it happens more often the longer the PC has been on.....if that helps at all.

I think it's a real problem - I just have always figured I was the only one that had the issue! I mean - I know I have issues....

Scott

[bclark6716]

I have had the same problem with using keyboard arrow keys. Like you said, this problem is very intermittant.

Brian

[ImanCarrot]

If you're having problems with a mouse AND keyboard strokes then it suggests a PC resource problem or (unlikely) a Hard Drive problem.

Eg IRQ or DMA conflict or something trying to run at the same time under limited resources. Check hardware resources and look for a yellow exclamation mark.

Is anything trying to gobble resources? Like AntiVirus/Windows etc Update going into auto mode and hogging resources, or some file being updated/ changed and Anti Virus automaticaly scanning it every time it's written/ altered. Disbale Automatic Updates. Disable all automatic scanning stuff and do it manualy at regular intervals.

Check and monitor CPU usage when the glitch occurs... see if your CPU usage spikes close to 100%- if so there's something hogging resource.

I assume you regularly do Adaware, Spybot, Antivirus and Trojan scans?...

In extreme cases, I've seen PC's hanging trying to write to bad sectors- do a full disk scan and mark the bad sectors, run SMART to see if your HD is on the way out, if so, GHOST it and chuck the old one.

[mxtras]

Very good advice, Iman but in my case, I am on a spotless PC that is not, nor has ever been connected to the Viral-Net. My mill PC is spotless with a clean OS install and all the automatic update crap is off, no firewall, no virus scanner - I did everything I could to eliminate any possibility of conflict.

The only stupid thing that I see is the Windows message console that pops up that I have unused icons and another that comes up reminding me that I have no firewall and that I have automatic updates turned off. Is there a way to disable these extremely annoying messages???

Additionally, I typically have nothing open except Mach.

In my case, this PC was built specifically to run the mill using Mach and nothing else, so it is stripped of all applications except for the OS, Mach, explorer and Acad.

The OS is WinXP Pro.

Scott

[ImanCarrot]

Dang, it's not that then

I'm at a loss then.. but I can get rid of those annoying message thingies.

To get rid of the Security Alerts-
START/PROGRAMS/SYSTEM TOOLS/SECURITY CENTRE (double click)
On the blue writing (Left hand side down the bottom) click "Change The
Way Sec Centre Alerts Me" then uncheck all boxes that you want

To get rid of the inactive icons thingy:
Right Click on the long bar at the bottom of the screen (Task Bar).
Left Click Properties.
Check the "Hide Inactive Icons" box.

There might be a better way to do this last one and keep the inactive icons visible without warnings, but I can't find it at the mo... I did it ages ago and forgot how to! lol

In fact, there are more options here- check Hide Inactive Icons and then "Customise". That should help!

Also: this is where you can find your CPU usage- right click the Task Bar, Task Manager then the Performace TAB- shows you when your CPU is getting used a lot, which would be interesting to know if the CPU was getting overused when your jog button sticks.

*scratches head* sorry not been able to solve all the problems, but hope I got rid of the little ones

[mxtras]

It's the little stuff that counts! Thanks for the pointers!

Scott

[mxtras]

I sometimes also have a very weird issue with my controller.

After exiting Mach (to shut down the PC for example), the PC will act as if the up arrow key is stuck. Of course the key is not stuck, but the cursor continually scrolls up through whatever menu is selected or the desktop icons. It makes it very difficult to shut down predictably!

At first I thought it might be caused by the game controller I use as a pendant, so I uninstalled the software and cleaned house. The problem came back a few weeks later. It is an intermittent problem.

All of this started after I played with KeyGrabber but I am not sure if that has anything to do with it.

Any ideas?

Scott

(This could be construed as a thread hijack. If considered so, I do apologize!)

[ImanCarrot]

Keygarbber scream TROJAN at me.

Antivirus stuff will not eliminate trojans.

Press and hold ALT CTRL DEL (don't do it twice- PC will reboot) keys and see what proceses are running- check the root directory of each one and see if they are necessary. Most of the bad ones name themselves innocuosly.. like SYST3M or WIN0WS (that's a zero, not an "O" in windaes.)

This sounds like a KEYLOGGER and/ or TROJAN

Dun want to alarm you but gotta be careful! better to be safe than sorry.

Download PeerGuardian 2 from MethLabs you will be amazed when you look at the log of who is spying on you PC.

I gotta stick this disclamair in here, but everyone knows I got no connection with MethLabs or anythng else apart from the awesome video of the V8 engine machining here. blah blah...

[HuFlungDung]

I would be inclined that the problem is just one of those "windows issues". I see a similar sluggish response using the Camsoft gui, when using its built in graphic joystick for jogging.

Clicking an image on the screen is not really the same sort of "I/O event" as hardware buttons, because it requires interpretation from software as to the significance of where the cursor was when clicked. I think Windows just ignores some of these events if it is busy.

I've also had issues between cad software and certain keyboard hotkey combinations, which also amounts to an interpretation of what the hardware has sent. The polling rate for keyboard might be lower than mouse, I'm not sure, but I had better luck reprogramming extra buttons on the mouse (for two button action) to replace certain oft-used keyboard hotkeys.

Direct hardware buttons are better, if that can be arranged within your program gui.