UC300ETH/ Windows 10/ Mach3 and sluggish keyboard

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UC300ETH/ Windows 10/ Mach3 and sluggish keyboard

Postby tpgolf » Fri Sep 01, 2017 2:43 pm

I recently purchased the UC300ETH-5LPT along with a new computer running Windows 10 and Mach3.
I was previously running an old XP machine with Mach3 and parallel port. I used the arrow keys to jog the CNC around and the CNC was extremely responsive in that a very light quick tap of the arrow key would result in a .001" - .002" move.
Now with the new setup the absolute best I can get is a .020" - .024" movement, no matter how lightly and quick I hit the arrow. I'm cutting only wood and use jog the machine around to set 0,0,0. Really tough to set Z with a .001" shim.
I'm not sure if this is a windows issue or a UC300 issue. There are many forum posts about slow windows 10 keyboard response and I've tried all the fixes I can find with no luck.
I know I could tab over to the MPG and select the step mode but I never had to as I could move it manually very accurately.
Unfortunately I trashed the old XP machine so I can't hook up the UC300 to see how it works on that machine.

I purchased UCCNC yesterday and I'm still waiting for the license file to see how that reacts.

Appreciate any comments

Thanks,
Joe
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Re: UC300ETH/ Windows 10/ Mach3 and sluggish keyboard

Postby cncdrive » Sat Sep 02, 2017 1:22 pm

The keyboard is read by the UCCNC with a fast 10msec latency, so it should be very responsive.

Do you have the same acceleration setup as you had earlier?
I mean if you have a different acceleration parameter for the jogged axis will cause a different amount of movement in the same amount of time.
The higher the acceleration the faster the axis will rise the feed in the same amount of time, so with the same amount of time of jogging the axis will move more far.
So, it may be one possibility why your axis moves more with the same amount of jog button keypress.

You may also check if the jog panel keys keypresses react faster than the keyboard key presses or not? Because if they react the same way then it is not a keyboard issue.
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Re: UC300ETH/ Windows 10/ Mach3 and sluggish keyboard

Postby andrewbishop66 » Sat Sep 02, 2017 8:36 pm

I think what you are seeing is a fast acting computer ie new one to a slow one its not that the new one is less responsive but the other way round
in essence, you can't press the key for a small enough amount of time to get the result you want
set one of your keys to toggle between step and jog or slow jog rate down when you get close to where you want to be

if that's not what your problem is disregard my ramblings

Thanks Andrew
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Re: UC300ETH/ Windows 10/ Mach3 and sluggish keyboard

Postby tpgolf » Fri Sep 08, 2017 2:13 pm

Good Morning,

The issue went away once I installed UCCNC. Problem is definitely a Mach3 and windows10 issue.
I can now do a light tap and get .002" movement.
I realize this is not the smartest way to do this so I took Andrews and Gerry's advice (from a different reply) and assigned a couple of hot keys to toggle between step and jog.
Much smarter way to operate the machine as there is less chance of driving the bit into something.

Thanks again for the replies, really liking the new setup and have to give a plug to Gerry for his fantastic screenset.

Have a great day,
Joe
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Re: UC300ETH/ Windows 10/ Mach3 and sluggish keyboard

Postby cncdrive » Fri Sep 08, 2017 2:35 pm

Good morning Joe,

It is good to hear you solved it.
Yes, that is a good idea to switch to step-jog mode at least when you are close to the workpiece.
Another solution is to use an external potentiometer on the UC300ETH analog input to control the jog override % and then you could turn down the jog feedrate in continous jog mode when you are getting close to the workpiece.
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