Longer usb cable

I was just relaying what I saw in the vid. They figured the high RPM of the router was generating a static build up which was causing their controller to reset. They grounded out the router to CNC chassis to help disperse the static build up.

Tks, Lumpy. I was talking to an electronics friend just now and he suggested wrapping the router cable in foil tape, and grounding the tape. Since I have the tape, itā€™s free ā€œfixā€. He says that it canā€™t hurt, so I have nothing to lose.

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gwilki, your friend is right, it canā€™t hurt so give it a try. I didnā€™t say it directly in my previous post but shielding must be conductive to offer EMI protection. Plastic, rubber, wood and other non-conductive materials do not provide shielding. I think when I get my machine I may make new motor cables from shielded cable to be safe. I think that is easier than trying to troubleshoot mysterious, intermittent gremlins.

Greg, please read his post carefully. He did not say that wood, etc. was not an insulator. He said that non-conductive materials like wood do not provide shielding from EMI - which is entirely true.

I am going to try the tape today if I have time.

The ideal solution for me would be for the Mill to freeze again. Andy can help, Iā€™m sure, but he needs to see a screen cap of the state of UGS when it freezes. With that info, I would be willing to bet that Andy will be able to isolate the problem and offer solutions. Until then, Iā€™m simply trying things with no idea as to whether I have found the problem and fixed it. Yesterday, I was offered some work for the Mill, but it will be with supplied material. I simply canā€™t afford to take on jobs and waste material when the Mill freezes.
Iā€™m going to start another thread on G code editing to see if others here can advise me on that. Iā€™m hoping to be able to start where the freeze happens by editing the tool path and running it from there.

Greg
You may not be talking about motor cables but I am. The stepper motors are a real source of EMI, as great or greater than the router. If you assume something that is not true you are likely to continue to have problems. It is not my intention to aggravate you, Iā€™m just trying to be helpful to the group. Thatā€™s why were here, to help each other.
I assume itā€™s not intentional but your post sometimes come off as passive aggressive. Itā€™s very difficult to infer tone into a written post, my apologizes if Iā€™m way off base.

CRD. I was in a local electronics shop the other day, looking for ferrite chokes. No luck there, but I did ask about shielded 22/4 cable. They had foil shielded in stock for 90 cents a metre. I didnā€™t get it just yet, as I wanted to look to see how to attach it to the plugs on the motor end of the cable. I know that the controller ends are simply screw clamps, but I donā€™t know about the motor end.
Iā€™m considering new cables as much for the ability to move the controller to a more convenient place as for the shielding, but the shielding would be a bonus, I think.

I donā€™t have my machine yet but making new stepper motor cable is almost a given as my situation will require relocating the controller as well. It looks like the cable conductors use crimped terminal in a housing. If we can figure out what terminals are used it would be simple for me to crimp new terminals onto a new cable. I also question if there is anything to be gained by going to a heavier gauge wire. 22AWG seems light to me and according to this quote, " The maximum amperage for a 22 - gauge wire is .92 amps for power transmission, according to the Handbook of Electronic Tables and Formulas for American Wire Gauge" that seems to be correct. Of course, the motors do not draw full power continuously but I suspect there is power loss and making the cables longer will only make matters worse.

Maybe Andy or Chris could chime in here and let us know if they bought the cables with the motor ends attached, or did they buy cable and ends. If the latter, maybe they could offer the motor cable ends for sale.

CRD, somewhere along the line Chris or Andy indicated the wire should be 18 ga. Thatā€™s what I used when I made up the Z extension cable and everything has worked fine - no missed steps, no overheating, etc. I used butt connectors, although depending on where you make you cut they can be in the way, so I would probably solder them next time. I included extra wires in both drag chains for limit switches and I will solder them.

Tks, Bill. Rather than make extensions, if I do anything, Iā€™ll replace the existing cables with longer shielded cable.

Just surfaced my Longmill wasteboard. Dry run went good. Live run attempt #1 it crapped out about 5 rows in. Just stopped. No error or anything in UGS. I have vid of this.

I disconnected and re-connected and restarted and it completed attempt #2 with no issues.

There seems to be a glitch in the matrix.

This is what happens to me. One time a job will run; another time, the same job freezes.

Would you send the video to Andy, please, Lumpy. I canā€™t say that my freezes are caused by the same issue, but this may be a good start in diagnosing all of our freezes.

Well Greg, weā€™ll have to agree to disagree. Motors are electromagnets. They are made of steel with windings of wire. The thousands of pulses going to the motors is a great source of EMI. The router uses a universal motor which can be noisy, especially if there is a lot of arcing at the brushes but the stepper motors need to be considered as well. That is just a fact! I wonā€™t tell you what is permissible to talk about and I would appreciate the same consideration.

image

How about this if you are having problems

Something is causing something to crap out. Definitely not an isolated issue.

Telling someone not to discuss something seems rather rude and non-constructive.

How do we know for sure that something from Beta to production hasnā€™t changed
and is now causing problems???

Nothing wrong with community members trying to help each other out to overcome
this issue. Be a part of the solution not part of the problem.

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@gwilki @chrismakesstuff @andy

Vid of my Longmill stopping during my first big run on my machine.

@Lumpy @gwilki I am having the same issue myself. Installed my wasteboard yesterday and attempted to surface it at my first ā€œbigā€ project with the CNC. I have my control board mounted to the underside of the table, directly under where the cables exit the drag chain.

First run went well. No issues, but there was a dip in the middle so I needed to run it again. Started #2 and it made it halfway before it stopped. All I could surmise was that my USB must have wiggled loose (the supplied cable isnā€™t a tight fit in my computer) as it said ā€œDisconnected.ā€

Long story short it took me 5 tries before I was able to surface the entire waste board without a problem.

@Br5d funny you mention dmg to the router cable. I noticed a bunch of black shaving near the exit of the drag chain on the left side of the machine. Upon closer inspection I found that the router cable has already begun to wear away from friction on what Iā€™m assuming is the drag chain.

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My controller box is mounted under my bench as well. I will check my router cable for chaffing tomorrow.

Guys, when your machine stops mid cycle what exactly do you have to do to get it to run again? That may offer a clue to whatā€™s going on.