On Tuesday 18 March 2008, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >I picked up a Sherline mini mill in late '06, and their mini lathe in >early '07, and then essentially never used them. I worked too much, and >couldn't run them in my apartment building by the time I'd get home. Now >I'm in a house, and have been trying to get it all set up again, but I >have to say that unfortunately I've had nothing but troubles for about a >month now trying to get EMC2 and my mill set up properly. I need to say >that I do appreciate the efforts of the group, and am committed to getting >this to work, and I love free/open software, but alas, I'm still trying to >get even the simple things working correctly after many weeks. > >The #1 issue right now, as I'm afraid it could be responsible for the >inaccuracies I'm seeing in what I'm trying to make, is the error message I >get almost every time I fire up the program: > >RTAPI: unexpected realtime delay on task 1 > This error, if it comes up as the progam is finalizing the gui, is apparently a never mind. It seems to be video card related as I do not get that error when I am "ssh -Y -l gene shop" into that machine from this machine. That machine has a GForce2 FX 5200 card in it with the motherboard video disabled in the bios. According to dmesg, it isn't identified and until x starts is running the framebuffer in vga-16 mode. The video card in this box is also an nvidia, a 3DForce 6200.
I let stepconf set the base_period, and I have reduced it by several microseconds without encountering the error later while running. If you hit it while running, That is a different animal entirely. I have not seen it since about 2.0.3 or so, which is about the time that check was added to emc2 I believe. The actual effect in the milling would I believe, be a later than normal issuance of the next step, which could effect the maximum speeds reliability. At 10 ipm cutting speeds its not going to be a wreck the part error as it would be only a late step, not a missed one. So if you see it at startup seems to be un-important, if you see it while running (leave the motors off and run the axis logo would be one test) then it should be a concern. In that event slowing the base thread by increasing the number in the .ini file might then be indicated. Doing something about the video is the other, on-board video with its shared memory has been a problem in times past, and is why there is the cheap nvidia card in my shop machine. Interestingly I ran that card on the kernels nv drivers for quite a while, but it had trouble with slow display refreshing, and installing the drivers for it from the nvidia site made a huge difference there, but did not effect the single error it puts up at startup. >There are 5 pages available through Google on the matter, and they don't >answer the question, beyond hinting I should change my base period. I read >whatever I could find awhile back about setting up the latency, but >couldn't really make heads nor tails of it. The information in a few docs >I found online didn't match up with anything I was seeing on the screen, >and I don't have intimate knowledge of these things, so was unable to >guess at anything. > >Tonight, I ran the latency-test again, and having again been handed many >numbers that don't mean anything to me (and aren't explained anywhere I've >been able to find), I decided to just use the "Base Thread (25.0 µs)" "Max >Jitter (NS)" in my inch.ini file for BASE_PERIOD - a total guess, but it >seemed right. The error stopped occurring, for a few more launches, but >then returned. I understand absolutely nothing about any of this, so I >have no next step. > >The default BASE_PERIOD in the file was IIRC 50000. I've tried down to >10000 (makes it super slow to load up), and up to the very high number I >got from my latency tests - 187525 - and even 200000. The error always >comes back. Am I going to have to build the software from source (for some >reason, as indicated in some of my Google finds?). Those sound like the sort of numbers one might get from a shared with main memory on-board video system, see above. A different video card might be in order. >I'll save my other curiosities for future emails, as I don't want this >important bit to get lost in a flood of other questions :) > >Thanks very much! >-Gary > > > >------------------------------------------------------------------------- >This SF.net email is sponsored by: Microsoft >Defy all challenges. Microsoft(R) Visual Studio 2008. >http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/vse0120000070mrt/direct/01/ >_______________________________________________ >Emc-users mailing list >Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net >https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users -- Cheers, Gene "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed Howdershelt (Author) WHERE CAN THE MATTER BE Oh, dear, where can the matter be When it's converted to energy? There is a slight loss of parity. Johnny's so long at the fair. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: Microsoft Defy all challenges. Microsoft(R) Visual Studio 2008. http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/vse0120000070mrt/direct/01/ _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
