Default Ramp settings in 3.8.26?

[Mayo]

Upgraded to the v4G board, installed 3.6.46 and the motion was great but I kept having connection issues with the Shopbot software not finding the USB port on the first try. It would find it on the same port it was connected to only if I had it look for available ports. Once connected, if I switched to preview and wanted to switch back to Move/Cut, it again couldn't find the port.

I installed 3.8.26 and it finds the port first time every time. I have not changed the USB or the location, and it's still showing as the same port (com 3).

In making some test moves and jogs with the keyboard and arrow keys, it starts the move or jog the way I expect, but when I let off the keyboard the gantry just immediately clunks to a stop with no ramping. Are my default ramping settings what they should be, and if not, could someone post what is not set correctly please?
(Or if it's something other than ramp settings that I need to change)
http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=24416&stc=1

[barrowj]

Mayo,

I had issues with arcs and Brady gave me these specs to change my settings to. I have 3.8.26 with a 2005 PRT Alpha. I just ran some boards and it seemed to cut alot better.

Joe

http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=24418&stc=1

[Brady Watson]

Run UT, then UD.

What is your ET? (COM Speed)

You have a USB self-powered hub plugged into the back of your computer, and the Bot USB plugged into that? If no...do it. Then check COM speed again after you run it without it. The new controller is designed to run without it, but I have found certain machines to run better with it & the new cards.

-B

[Mayo]

Shut everything off and went to dinner, came back and turned on everything and now I get movement with no abrupt stop when I release the keyboard arrow. This tells me in order to fix anything, just go out to dinner!

I suppose I should have rebooted somewhere and I didn't. Turning on and shutting off the control box when installing the software and then the firmware was not enough - in my case evidently the reboot was necessary, and is normally something I would do as a matter of course but I must have forgotten and the software instructions are not quite explicit.

I did check the UD readout and it showed a speed of 5: 0
It also showed the static ET at 1.6ms and the packet ET ranging from 14.9, to 15.3 after a couple of moves.
All these numbers stayed basically the same with or without the USB hub which came with the v4G board.

I had no success trying to run the speedtest.exe either with or without the USB hub, with the control box on and software off, with software on and in Preview, had it search for ports, manually entered the port, changed the port designation through properties, advanced but it wouldn't find the port.

The other thing I'm wondering about is what baud rate should the port be at? I think originally it was at 9600 but I tried changing it upwards all the way to the maximum with no noticeable effect on short test moves. Would this only come into play on longer files where thousands of lines are being processed?

Thanks for the help Brady and Joe!

[Brady Watson]

Mayo - I'd be willing to be your computer isn't up to running v3.8.26 cleanly. My advice would be to go back to 3.6.46, INCLUDING installing the firmware for 3.6.46 AND install a USB self powered hub between PC and Control box. THEN run SpeedTest.exe and report your COM speed %.

Theoretically the newer cards don't need a USB hub, but on some machines with lame USB hardware, I have found that it helps. The COM numbers don't lie.

-B

[Mayo]

I have run a couple short jobs with no issues so far on 3.8.26.
I don't know what the reported com speed of 5 means in comparison to the Speedtest result I got when I previously was running 3.6.46 - which I think was around mid to upper 70s.

[JMCS]

Does 3.8.26 work with a 2005 PRT alpha? I would like to try those ramp values from Brady. Right now I'm running 3.6.46

[Brady Watson]

You're stuck at v3.6.46 (final update for PRTs) unless you upgrade your controller card to the new one.

However, those ramp setting work just fine on v3.5.x and above, so you're fine. You aren't really missing much between the versions. I run my PRT on an older version for my own reasons.

-B