[RickPflimlin]

I got up this morning with lots of work to get done.

I start the 770 like every morning and it stalls and loses steps on the first job?

Maybe it's cold I think, so I cut air for a while but now it's stalling and losing steps on all axis.

Cold and gibs I think? it's been awhile since I've adjusted the gibs.

I adjust all the gibs, no help? It runs at 70-80 ipm just fine but whenever it's does a quick move to the next cut STALL!

Now the day is mostly gone and I think "turn everything off and reboot"?

It worked! Everything is now just fine? WTH?

I'm glad things are working well but I would like to know what went wrong in the first place? AND will it happen again?

Has anyone else had an experience like this?

[MichaelHenry]

Is your 770 run from Mach3 or PathPilot? Mach3 seems prone to odd ball behavior like that.

[RickPflimlin]

Mach 3

Several years with no problems?

[Steve Seebold]

I don't think Mach 3 has anything to do with it. I have read horror stories of problems some people have had running Mach 3, but I have been running Mach 3 on my PCNC 1100 Series II for about 4 1/2 years now and it has never missed a step. sometimes I run it 10 or 12 hours a day. Other times, it might sit for 2 weeks at a time.

[tmallard450]

Make sure everything is ok mechanically too. Check that your oiler is keeping the weighs lubed. You can also do a lost motion test with a dial indicator by stepping the table at various increments. Its well documented in the user manual under gib adjustments. It could just need some gib adjustments if its not a controller issue. Hope that helps.


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[shred]

I had mystery-weirdness with Mach on my 1100. Every so often, occasionally on the 10th or 14th or whateverth run of some program it would suddenly switch to metric and try to drill for oil in the table or some such. Rebooting fixed it. I assume there's some memory leaks in the build Tormach used.

[RickPflimlin]

Dang, after running good for hours it wouldn't "Ref All" at shut down???

Z axis stopped 3/4 of the way up as the motor wined and the numbers rolled on.

I clearly have a problem?

[Moggot]

Dang, after running good for hours it wouldn't "Ref All" at shut down???

Z axis stopped 3/4 of the way up as the motor wined and the numbers rolled on.

I clearly have a problem?

There could be a lot of things going on.

The fact that you're having issues on all three axis suggests it's not an issue with the gibs/nuts/motor drivers, but something either with the power supply or computer/control board.

Have you added any electrical loads to the panel that feeds your mill recently? Can you check no load voltage at the mill with a voltmeter (if you feel comfortable doing so)? I'm not sure what the specific symptoms of low voltage are, but Tormach has mentioned it as a source of odd behavior.

Check the cable between the control computer and the mill and that the control computer is happy, particularly that its cooling fan is running and it's not caked in dust and overheating. A loose parallel cable can cause intermittent faults as vibrations cause connections to come into and out of connection.

If you have the original installation media you could try re-imaging the controller back to factory settings. Obviously, this erases any changes you've made to the controller, so only do this if you can back up important code etc. Mach3 is, despite the luck of some, a known source of buggy behavior and any windows install that's been running for years has had the chance to develop problems.

[mountaindew]

This sounds like what my mill use to do now and then using mach and "I think" having the controller power not plugged into mill but into ups or wall outlet.

As I have noted a number of times in other threads and even suggested it be added to user manual "and they did". There is some sort of transient state left somewhere and causes problems next time mill is used. I found I could eliminate the problem 100% of the time if I shut the power off to mill using the red master power switch on side of mill cabinet.
First time this happened a couple years ago Tormach give me a very wide range of things to fix from re- installing mach to adjusting gibs when in fact that was not the problem and it could be fixed as I noted above. I would first shut mill off completely "using the red master switch on side" and power down controller completely. Then reboot controller and turn power on to mill , home all axis and test at full rapid speeds jogging around. This should indicate axis performance. On a side note I would look at Path pilot to control your mill. It made a huge difference in the performance of my machine

[RickPflimlin]

There could be a lot of things going on.

The fact that you're having issues on all three axis suggests it's not an issue with the gibs/nuts/motor drivers, but something either with the power supply or computer/control board.

Have you added any electrical loads to the panel that feeds your mill recently? Can you check no load voltage at the mill with a voltmeter (if you feel comfortable doing so)? I'm not sure what the specific symptoms of low voltage are, but Tormach has mentioned it as a source of odd behavior.

Check the cable between the control computer and the mill and that the control computer is happy, particularly that its cooling fan is running and it's not caked in dust and overheating. A loose parallel cable can cause intermittent faults as vibrations cause connections to come into and out of connection.

If you have the original installation media you could try re-imaging the controller back to factory settings. Obviously, this erases any changes you've made to the controller, so only do this if you can back up important code etc. Mach3 is, despite the luck of some, a known source of buggy behavior and any windows install that's been running for years has had the chance to develop problems.

Good post, Thanks.

Most of this went through my head last night as I couldn't sleep but it's good to have conformation and some good ideas as to where to start.

I suspect a bad connection, or maybe a bad switch. When I did get it to properly shut down last night it was after resetting several times. When I reset I'm used to an audible click when the computer light comes on, on the control panel. That audible click had been absent on all but the last try when it finely worked. I plan to check all connections today. I will also check the voltage.

[RickPflimlin]

This sounds like what my mill use to do now and then using mach and "I think" having the controller power not plugged into mill but into ups or wall outlet.

As I have noted a number of times in other threads and even suggested it be added to user manual "and they did". There is some sort of transient state left somewhere and causes problems next time mill is used. I found I could eliminate the problem 100% of the time if I shut the power off to mill using the red master power switch on side of mill cabinet.
First time this happened a couple years ago Tormach give me a very wide range of things to fix from re- installing mach to adjusting gibs when in fact that was not the problem and it could be fixed as I noted above. I would first shut mill off completely "using the red master switch on side" and power down controller completely. Then reboot controller and turn power on to mill , home all axis and test at full rapid speeds jogging around. This should indicate axis performance. On a side note I would look at Path pilot to control your mill. It made a huge difference in the performance of my machine

Another good post, Thanks. Some good ideas here.

[popspipes]

Dang, after running good for hours it wouldn't "Ref All" at shut down???

Z axis stopped 3/4 of the way up as the motor wined and the numbers rolled on.

I clearly have a problem?

I had problems with the Z coasting down in Mach3, it did this several times over a period of two weeks, I installed PathPilot and have had Zero problems since, it hasnt made a false move since I installed it......

[RickPflimlin]

I checked everything, all the wires and connections, dust and fans. I didn't find anything definitive but I had a few jobs to get out and everything ran just fine. Shutdown went well. On startup I made sure to hear that audible click when I hit reset. I won't run it again without hearing that.

[GLCarlson]

Mach 3

Several years with no problems?

FWIW. I've been running Mach3 since 2009 (on an 1100). Same computer, same version -the Tormach build. No problems for literally years; totally dead rock solid no problem just ran performance. This spring it went nuts, missing steps, spindle speed problems, other random stuff. Spent a month doing multiple from scratch re-installs, changing cables, different computer, running and rerunning test programs, etc. Incidentally, that computer never was -literally, never- connected to any network, and really doesn't have a lot of hours on it- not used for anything but machine control. And all the reinstalls (XP, M3 etc) were from the original disks, following the original notes from 2009. Computer is a Dell, that may be a factor, but it now runs other software under XP just fine. Problem was clearly Mach3.

I gave up, moved to PP. Bought the Tormach controller, if that matters.

PP has its own quirks, and overall I stil like Mach3 better- partly because M3 has just had so much more development/debug time, and because I've used it for years. But M3 is flaky now. I don't care whether it's some weird aging-hardware/software thing or gremlins from outer space- can't trust M3 to make chips reliably anymore, so it's gone. What happened beats me.

[RickPflimlin]

I see Path Pilot in my future but I need to get through Christmas before I start learning a new system.

I lost my Z ball screw two weeks before Christmas last year. I was hoping for an un-eventful Christmas this year. Needless to say I'm on pins and needles every time I hit Cycle Start.

If I can get the funds together I would love to have a second 770 with Path Pilot. There are times I'm busy enough to use two mills and a back up would be nice.

[RickPflimlin]

Two months without a problem but my troubles are back. Lost my Z 0 yesterday, today it was my X.

When I opened the cabinet I saw what looked like "error" on the VFD but it cleared before I could confirm anything. So far I can't find anything in the manual about this? Anyone have any ideas? Thanks

[pickled]

I had similar problems on my 1100 Series II when it was around 50 degrees in my shop. I was running Mach3 with a non-networked OEM controller from Tormach and had the exact same weird issues. When I swapped out the controller to a PP controller it all mysteriously went away. I returned to the mach3 controller for some prototyping and the issue re-appeared on a cold morning start. I looked long and hard at all the connections and the only thing that I could find is that the parallel port cable seemed to have a loose feeling fit to it when I would unscrew the thumb screws. I swapped out the cable, cleaned the parallel terminals and added a light bulb to the computer cabinet (to act as a heat source) and haven't had the problem return. To this day it still seems odd, but I haven't been able to replicate the failure since. The one thing that I know can bite you and cause similar failures is if the disconnect switch for the motor and pulley door assembly gets gunked up or loses contact due to the sheet metal moving around (loose screws). Best of luck to you!