Messages

1

SmartBOB controllers and dedicated accessories / Re: Updated PMDX-411 firmware, now constant Motion Underrun errors in Mach4

« on: July 30, 2021, 09:36:11 PM »

Well this is fucking crazy. I just found a fix that worked for me:

Go to device manager settings for your Pmdx COM port and click "advanced" . Then uncheck the box for "use FIFO buffers". The 2 sliders should all turn grey.

This just eliminated all underrun errors and I just ran a complex part and it worked fine.

Why did this fix my problem? How did it work for me for a year prior without ever changing anything other than updating the Pmdx firmware (to the same version)? I have no idea and I would LOVE to know why.

2

SmartBOB controllers and dedicated accessories / Re: Updated PMDX-411 firmware, now constant Motion Underrun errors in Mach4

« on: July 30, 2021, 12:25:45 PM »

That is concerning. They are taking orders still and the website is up, but yeah I see zero support here. Email is no go either.

Anyone try to call their office phone yet?

3

SmartBOB controllers and dedicated accessories / Updated PMDX-411 firmware, now constant Motion Underrun errors in Mach4

« on: July 29, 2021, 08:19:34 PM »

During my trying to troubleshoot my spindle sped PWM not working (which turned out to be user error in Mach4), I clicked the box in the PMDX plugin config to allow the PMDX-411 to update firmware. It reported that the new version was the exact same one as before, but I let it update anyway. The update went off without issue.

Now, whevenever I jog (key or arrow mode), it instantly hits a Motion Underrun error. I tried maxing the buffers out and it made no difference. I have been running this machine for over a year now and never saw this issue before so I don't think there's anything wrong with the PC. Literally the only thing I did was let this firmware update run. Any ideas?

4

SmartBOB controllers and dedicated accessories / Re: Is PDMX still in Business

« on: July 28, 2021, 12:25:44 PM »

They never email me back either and this forum is dead AF. Good luck man.

5

SmartBOB controllers and dedicated accessories / PMDX-411 Stopped outputting spindle PWM

« on: July 22, 2021, 07:21:21 PM »

Well, I emailed tech support here a couple days ago and no replies so trying the forum. I have a legit (not knockoff chinese etc) PMDX-411 purchased off this site that was happily working for over a year with my CNC router through Mach4. I hadn't used the machine for a couple of months and turned everything on and all was well but I could not get the spindle to turn on. I made the mistake of assuming it was my Gecko G540 and sent it back to them on RMA and they gave it the full look over and everything was fine.

So, after getting my Gecko back I probed pin 14 with my oscilloscope (as assigned by the PMDX config in Mach4) and I've got 0 volts. No matter if spindle is on or off or what speed I command the spindle, I get 0 volts on that pin. I can see the 12.5khz watchdog/charge pump signal and all the other functions work fine. Just no 50kHz spindle PWM.

Any idea what could cause this? Like I said, I made 0 changes...just booted up one day and it didn't work. Thanks for any help or advice!!