We have developed an application that helps us generate sets of Galil commands and send those commands to a controller for execution. We have several machines that are controlled by this application with no problem.

Recently, we resurrected an old machine, driven by a DMC-1780, that experiences some unique behavior. Namely, when our application is sending vector sequences to the 1780, we experience unexpected pauses at arbitrary points of the sequence. The pauses occur consistently in the same places in a given command set, but they do not occur consistently across similar command sets (i.e., some programs have the pauses in different places, and others have no pauses at all, with no obvious pattern on where the pauses will occur).

We've examined what Galil code our application is generating and sending to the controller, and the output is exactly what we expect. The controller does not seem to have any issues communicating with our application outside of executing the command sets.

We know that GalilTools is recommended these days, but our application is a little older and interfaces with the drivers that came with SmartTerm. SmartTerm reports the controller as a DMC-1780 rev 1.2f, SN 2768, and it is able to run our Galil output without any unexpected pauses.

Given the unexpected behavior and lack of obvious cause, I have a few questions:

1) What are the odds that this is a host programming issue, since our other controllers behave as we expect? If it is not a host programming issue, which forum would be more appropriate?
2) Given that our program seems to work fine on other machines, is this potentially a hardware/firmware issue?
3) Are there any other tips for going about diagnosing why these pauses are occurring?

Thanks!