Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: need a transformer

Jessie wrote:

>Jon,
> The steppers are on a 2:1 ratio with the screws. That works out
>too 20,000 steps per inch with microstepping and 40,000 on the Z
>cause its geared down even more. The motors when they take off and
>run, run smooth as silk.
>

So, you get smooth motion on the motors, SOMETIMES? But, other times
they run rough and stall?

> I did all the tuning on the geckos, got
>compentation for the bigger motors set, got the trimpot set to run
>as smoothly as possable. In mach2 enhanced pulsing is on, motor
>ramping is set on the Z as low as possable. On the X&Y it dont have
>to be so picky about the ramping but on the Z I can set it to 5IPM
>with nothing but ramping and it still stalls. Zaxis also has air
>assist.
>
>

I know very little about Mach, so you might talk to other people who are
experts
with it.

> The computer, AMD athalon XP 2000+ 256megs ram. Kernel speed runs
>smoothly at 45K. Also the computer is setup just for mach2, nothing
>else installed its on a clean install of XP. I tried slowing it to
>25K and still no help.
>

That certainly sounds like enough computer power. I was thinking you might
be using a 150 MHz pentium leftover from 10 years ago, that would have
caused poor performance.

Unless you see the DC voltage on your main capacitor dipping during motion,
I would forget the transformer for now. That is not your problem. You may
have electrical interference on your step signals, insufficient drive
current
from the parallel port, or some similar problem that is corrupting the step
pulses going into the Gecko drives.

Jon