Urgent Help on Mach2

[kaleem1]

I am in great trouble now and need immidiate help on following 4-points for now. The Machine is in production and we need parts on fast track so I need a very immidiate reply.

1. Whenever, I load Mach2Mill, it freezes my computer (The Reset light sometime glows red and sometime green). I have tried by switching ON and OFF the computer and sometime it works fine. It happened today 6 times in a row.

2. We have a problem in z-axis as it doesn't move and only number changes on the Mach2 screen, though it is not overtravel. The relay light blinks to orange instead of green. Is there any relation to soft limit. If it is what should I set it ? or it is something else.

3. When I run some of the programs, z-axis runs up and jams.

4. Where can I find a list of common CNC Milling Programming Errors

Thanks for your immidiate response.

Thanks,

Kaleem Muhammad

[Harlow]

If you are running Mach2 then you must have XP. Do you you use the internet with this PC? Do you have a Virus Scanner installed? Reloading XP doesn't take very long and solves a lot of problems. Just make sure you have your serial number. I had a similiar problem that went away after removing McAfee and reloading XP. Didn't even have to re-install Mach2 after reloading XP. You may need to re-install some drivers but mine came right back up. If you are not very computer savy then you might have someone that is do it.

[JRoque]

Hi there Kaleem,

1. Are you running any other version than the released version 4.0b of Mach2?

2. Are you running an ATI video card?

3. Has your setup ever worked and it now stopped working?

4. Did you confirm your Z axis port/pins are properly connected?

5. Have you tried swapping the Z and Y or X axis to see it they move?

6. Have you tried loading any other profile than Mach2Mill? Perhaps creating a new one?

7. Do any of those other programs use the printer port?

8. Do you have have any pending print jobs in the printer queue?

12. Just kidding...

9. The help file Mach2.pdf is very good and has troubleshooting tips.

I run Mach2 version 4.0b on a Win2K, 450Mhz PII ThinkPad and have no issues. The latest build locks up on my WinXP/ATI video card box.

Cheers,
Julio

[Bloy2004]

On point three(3), you may just have to reset your "safe Z" to a smaller number. For some reason, especially when clean installing Mach2, the "safe Z" was set to 5". I only have 3.5" of travel so it ran up too high and faulted out after end of travel. the adjustment for "safe Z" is in the "settings" button, down in the lower right.