Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] PC vs PLC

Tim Goldstein wrote:

>Yes, get Mach1 as your controller.
>

poor answer, Like Mach 1 suffers from no problematic issues ! HA !

IMO, Mach 1 is not quite ready for mass market ( not saying it won't
get there by any means ), and that does not solve or answer Jens "Hiccups".

Jens... Personally, I would not use XP for anything. I know that is not
much different than someone telling you to get a different controller,
but XP is not a good choice at the non corporate license level.

Many companies, including the one I work for and maintain, will not
implement XP unless it is our only option, or If we do a mass purchase
of Computers, and can place our preconfigured "image" on each and every
box. XP is very intrusive on background services *by default*, and some
of those certainly could be affecting your machine. If you do not have a
personal firewall to indicate to you, XP often "dials out" without your
knowledge to send out "who knows what". If you have a "dial up", you
might catch it dialing or attempting to dial automatically. I've seen
this on all of the ones we brought in for examination. ( we do run a few
laptops that are generally NOT connected to the LAN). With DSL, you may
never know it is connecting. If it is a Compaq, Dell, Gateway or other
name brand, they too often have it automatically "communicating" with
the "mother ship" under their OWN intrusive programs. It is a pain.

( not to mention anytime your computers hardware "substantially" changes
and it tells you your license is questionable. I had a Ram Chip go bad
on a box already.... Replaced it and spent a half hour or more fiddling
with MS operators repeating 60 digit numbers and telling them it was
because it had a BSOD. The lady asked, "What does that mean ?" Some MS
operator ! Duh ! )

Paranoia ?, No, Factual stuff.

The point.... This certainly could cause "hiccups" you describe, but I'd
first be curious as to your processor speed. That will have an affect
with the background activity. I noticed thru-ought FC 2 testing, that
Processor speed has a lot to do with it. On a 2Gig under XP, you can do
all kinds of backgound events, even fore-ground events like checking
your E-mail. On something more like a 1gig Celeron, You might want to be
more careful. On a slower box, I can cruise the web and hear "funny
noises" coming from my motors. Still, I show no loss of position. I find
that interesting.

I always wondered how the fellows writing controls for XP have accounted
for these "communications and other activities", unless they give you a
"guide" telling you what to do to make sure they have no effect.. Even
that annoying "pop-up" in the bottom right corner takes some thing away
from processing. Now, you can find all kinds of "lists" on-line for
unecessary services and how to turn them off. Yet, not all things can be
turned off by the services. Some applications Like MS messenger is very
hard to turn of, well, unless you just rename the folder itself to
"MessengerOff". Yes, the stupid MSN chitchat network is on by default !

In this Regard, Win2k is a better choice in my opinion. The only thing
XP has going is that it is cheaper. I suppose they get a kickback from
all the "data mining" they do.

So, I guess I'd call Rick or Ron about your question... Send them an
E-mail. They would know if XP has anything that could cause you a problem.

Secondly, It could be a newer motherboard / power supply, and the load
on the Circuit it is plugged into ! Many newer powersupplys and
motherboards do not seem to have the power holding capacitance the older
ones had.In fact, there is a big "hoopalah" going on about malasian
capacitors and them "leaking", "bulging", on many new brand name boards.

I have witnessed strange behavior with such a motherboard with more
than one control used. In this case, when a load was *removed* from the
line,something in the chain of events caused my motors to make one step
in the positive direction ! No problem with a different MB, or if I did
not run the load from that source at all. ( this case was a small 1/3 HP
vacuum pump, plugged into the same outlet as the PC. Worked fine with
some MB's, not with others.

So, It certainly could be a lot of things. If you are running anything
as lower than a 2G processor, I would encourage you to Download the
Latest Flashcut version 2.0.6. Rick had been working on getting it to
work flawlessly on smaller processors. There is a setting now that you
can turn back how FC fires off the first commands ( where the problem
was ) on slower computers. Also, Make sure you are not running out of
"Steps".... by setting your max rates higher than they should be. This
could be a concern with all of the newer, much higher microstep setting
drivers most are starting to run.

I have been running Flashcut V2 flawlessly at maximum speeds now with
the new version on a 1.3 Celeron. No problem whatsoever. Looks like my
2gig can go elsewhere.

I'm not going to "throw it all away" and Run Mach1 at this point even
though I do own both....... Right now, FC looks better, runs better,
feels better, etc.

Chris L

>
>