CandCNC Mach3, Hair Pulling Craziness... Fed UP

Ok here's the deal i'm trying to help a guy that owns a CandCNC Bladerunner, DTHCII, thats all i know it as because it doesn't say much on the darn things box.

They computer full out died a death of age, so a new computer has been put in its place, fresh install of Windows 7 Pro 32bit, nothing else other then SheetCam which they are used to using.

I went to the CandCNC website and got their update to Mach3 from their downloads section and they all in one installer for the older machines that gives you everything for Mach3. I can jog the machine, i can zero it, that all works fine. However i can't seem to get it to load any gcode correctly. When i load a .tap file from Sheetcam i see a flicker of the toolpath in the toolpath area in Mach3 and then its BLANK. If i mouse over the toolpath window and zoom in and out or rotate the toolpath flickers into view briefly with each mouse click or movement but then quickly goes blank again. It will run and try to cut, i disabled the torch and had it just run the toolpath, the axis's move like they should and i bet if i put a marker in place of the torch it would be tracing out the toolpath on cardboard just fine, an old trick i learned when setting up my CNC router to test everything, but no matter what i do i can't get the toolpath display to work for them. Even when its running the gcode the toolpath display is blank and just white.

Any ideas before i start taking a 10lb sledge to things??

It sounds like a corrupt installation of Mach3. It should give you an image when you load g-code for a flat part. You might check the Diagnostics panel to make sure the toolpath display is on, but I doubt that's really the issue. If you can't get the stuff from C&CNC to work, give them a call - they've got a good reputation for supporting their products.

It's a fresh install of Mach3 and Windows, tried it on two different computers. There seems to be a problem with the CandCNC master installer. If i reinstall Mach3 and test it without their addons everything works fine, but after installing their master installer it no longer functions like it should. I have been dealing with them on their forums now, still working towards a solution.

How much ram do you have in the pc?

How much ram does the graphics card have?

Is it onboard graphics or is it an add-on card?

Rob

I dumped the CandCNC Controller after 14 months of inconsistent performance, I could not take it any more.
I am using a smooth stepper with a Proma THC

Not a single issue

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MyGarageShop

I dumped the CandCNC Controller after 14 months of inconsistent performance, I could not take it any more.
I am using a smooth stepper with a Proma THC

Not a single issue

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I will have to mention that to him, i gave up on the thing, havent been near it in almost a year now, and i don't think he ever really got it working. The computer is plenty of power for it, i7, 16gb ram, 3gb gtx 970, pretty overkill honestly but its what he wanted. If i ever get dragged back into working on that thing i will probably just suggest replacing the controller.

Well, it could have been a corrupt installation, but my guess is that there was a problem in the g-code program. I can create that problem dead easy that way, especially if my program tries to load an external extra program file which is not there.

Can you write a dead simple test program? Like do 4 sides of a small square.

Cheers
Roger

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RCaffin

Well, it could have been a corrupt installation, but my guess is that there was a problem in the g-code program. I can create that problem dead easy that way, especially if my program tries to load an external extra program file which is not there.

Can you write a dead simple test program? Like do 4 sides of a small square.

Cheers
Roger

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The Gcode generated by SheetCam worked fine, until i installed the stuff from CandCNC, then nothing worked. Uninstalled Mach3 and cleaned it all off the computer, reinstalled Mach3 opened the same Gcode file and again no issue, then installed all the stuff needed for the torch control from CandCNC and it was messed up again. Thats when i walked away.

Ah so.
Find C:\Mach3\xmlbackups\Mach3Mil.xbnnn where nnn is some number.
These are the backups for the magic configuration file. The version in the C:\mach3 folder controls everything.

First, stop Mach3.
Pick up one of these from before installing the CandCNC stuff (ie when the machine was working) and copy it to the C:\Mach3 folder.
Delete the latest Mach3Mill.xml (from CandCNC) from the C:\Mach3 folder.
Rename Mach3Mil.xbnnn to Mach3Mill.xml
Fire up Mach3 and try running the machine with a basic test program withOUT any torch actions.
If the machine now runs, then the xml config file supplied by CandCNC is either corrupt or not for your machine.

Now you just have to figure out the torch controls. If things gets stuffed while doing that, restore an older working XML file as above.

Cheers
Roger