My DMC stops the test before reaching the deflection limit.

The DMC peak detector may stopping the test before the deflection limit. This may be seen in a compression or topload test. In later firmware versions the DMC peak detector may be defeated by turning on pencil switch #7. For older firmware versions try changing DMC mode from mode 4 to mode 6. Pencil switches 10 off, 11 on and 12 on.