Ray,
I have to ask Why you quit using Mach?

Mostly two reasons - First, I was "lucky" enough to get bit by a bug, at a high rate, that almost nobody else was seeing.  Despite months of effort by Brians part, and Gregs, we were unable to isolate it.  It finally came down to I needed to be able to get my work done, and the bug was nmaking that extremely difficult.  Second, I'd wanted for some time to write my own CNC Controller app, to customize it to my work-flow.  I switched to a KFlop, which eliminated the bug, since I no longer used Mach3 and it allowed me to write my own controller app.  The big may, or may not, have been fixed by now, but it seemed to affect very few people anyway.  I was just "lucky".  So, I now have a very reliable machine, and software that works the way I want it to.  It was a lot of work, but well worth it to me, especially since, as of a few days ago, I have two machines.

Regards,
Ray L.

Good for you.  I like hearing about self reliance and the success people do with it.

Try recreating your Gcode file. SOMETIMES there is a Gcode file created that has SOMETHING in it that will drive Mach3 crazy. I have run into it in the past. File seems perfectly normal BUT will go nuts on the same line every time for no apparent reason.

I then delete the file and recreate the file and everything runs fine from then on.

Never could fine the reason or the FIX, just knew it would do it from time to time and break bits and ruin Parts.

(;-) TP

IIRC, v3.043.022 is the version I had that problem with.  However, it was only an issue when the Z axis was set for lower velocity/acceleration than the other axes, and only when transitioning from a 2-axis arc move to a three-axis move.  Mach3 would ignore the Z axis acceleration, and command it to accelerate at the rate of the other two axes, which, of course Z could not do.  I've been told it was fixed quite some time ago.

Have you tried running with a more recent version of Mach3?  That one is quite old.

Regards,
Ray L.

Randomly my Z would lose steps with .022 version of Mach, that exact same scenario. I busted up some very expensive tools.

I have since switched to .057 version and a ESS. Haven't really run the machine long enough to see if the problem is still there... because it was very random.

I wonder if I should Make all my axis the same IPM and acceleration... as my Z is still a little lower than the X,Y to be on the safe side?

Ok, I updated Mach, still the problem existed.  The machine forum that the machine is based off of suggested my power supply was low and might be the problems with the rapids and not having enough voltage to help with the torque.  So I changed it from a 35VDC to a 58VDC.  Still had same problem even though the motors sound better.  I started a new thread of a different problem that just showed up. See here  So I did a clean install.  Now I cannot get the problem to reappear so far.  But the new problem is still present.

Upgraded to the lockdown version and the motor tuning problem went away.  I have now had the ugly head re appear with the motors stalling.  One thing that is consistent is it is happening with programs generated with more than 5 different toolpaths in the same program.  I will lower the velocity for the time being to see if it will solve the problem.

I should say that with the larger programs, the jog will not function properly but if I close the gcode, jog works properly again.  If you have the larger program loaded and press the z jog button it will not respond and then move almost 2" a short while afterward.  If you close the gcode, a quick tap of the jog button will immediately move the axis.  It is a repeatable action.

Any suggestions?

If you have large programmes you can try turning off the toolpath view, it is likely the processing needed to view the toolpath is impacting on your system.
Hood

Thanks Hood, I will try that

Hood,
That was spot on the money.  That eliminated the stalls and jog problems.  Is there a solution for this other than turning off the toolpath view?  Did like that feature but if I have to live without it I will.