This sounds very much like a realtime latency issue.  You have the same 
effect if the video card doesn't play well with the realtime kernel on a 
normal system (like video cards that share video memory with system 
memory).  You get latency spikes.  Have you tried running the latency 
test while doing opengl stuff? - GLXGEARS is one - some of the opengl 
screen savers also show issues..   I bet you see the same issue the pc 
hardware does.

At the fest when they where working on the mazak - Jeff E was 
alt-tabbing between 2 windows and the machine was going Thud - Thud - 
Thud each time.  (finally JMK yelled at him to stop :) )  They went to 
the 2nd hand computer store and bought a video card and the problem was 
solved.  (not that you have that option...)

sam


On 08/11/2013 08:19 AM, Charles Steinkuehler wrote:
> On 8/5/2013 11:29 AM, Charles Steinkuehler wrote:
>> How does LinuxCNC behave under heavy CPU load?
>>
>> I am experiencing some errors in my 3D prints that look very much like
>> part of the gcode got lost or skipped over* (I'll try to post pics or a
>> video).  This is happening a few times in multi-hour prints, so I
>> haven't yet actually _seen_ this happen, I just see the results in the
>> final print.
>>
>> I have not gotten any real-time errors or warnings, so I don't think
>> it's anything at the HAL level or below, but on the BeagleBone, the CPU
>> usage easily hits 100%, and the SD-card "hard disk" is also pretty slow
>> (note that I am printing gcode files in the 2 MB to 10 MB size range,
>> with lots of small line segments).
> I am revisiting this issue after experimenting with some alternate user
> interfaces and a discussion with David Bagby.
>
> David indicated he would repeatedly run a familiar gcode program on his
> shapoko and it would sometimes just "sound wrong".  I have also tested a
> variety of interfaces and noticed that if I am running a program in the
> mini interface and I enable the "backplot" display, it causes the
> steppers to dramatically slow down and/or stutter, and change from their
> 'singing' tones to more of a 'grinding' type noise while the backplot is
> initially loading.
>
> I'm pretty sure the problem isn't in the hard real time xenomai HAL
> thread.  If the PRU code is running and the xenomai task is blocked or
> halted the steppers would just keep going at their current speed, likely
> resulting in a following error once the ARM core 'catches up'.  The fact
> that the motors are 'stuttering' as they slave to the commanded position
> indicates to me that the HAL servo thread is running properly but the
> planned motion points are not being properly updated.
>
> I am also fairly certain the motion queue is being kept full by the
> user-mode code.  In particular, the issue can happen in the middle of a
> long G1 move, so the queue shouldn't be a factor.
>
> Questions:
> ==========
> * What exists between the motion queue and the HAL servo thread that
> could potentially be blocked under high load conditions?  AFAIK,
> everything from the motion queue down to HAL is supposed to be hard real
> time, right?
>
> * Can anyone else running a BeagleBone system try using the mini GUI and
> enabling the backplot while a program is running?  I'd like to know I'm
> not the only one seeing this issue.
>
> * Also, could someone on a traditional x86 system try this test?  I
> suspect it will work OK, but it would still be interesting to know if
> the problem shows up or not.
>
>
>
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