Grbl goes splat

Having some odd issues on my small S3. The attached gcode causes my machine to stop. just… stop… at random points, and if I run the same code twice, it will stop at different points, never the same one twice. Sending with grbl panel, which gives unhelpful errors like “machine stopped responding”.

Any chance one of you can run this real quick as an air job and let me know if it runs? Smalll 4x6 dust boot, .75" of depth cut.
.25_Dust_Boot_v5.nc (21.1 KB)

Loaded that on my machine and it ran fine all the way through to the end.

Please check for wiring and EMI issues.

Thanks man, onto chasing gremlins then.

Palm router has been in use for ages, should be sound. Router cord routed farm up and away from cm board’s power. CM board’s power router away from USB, USB seated well… hm… will do a dummy check on stepper connections, maybe something’s funny there.

If the router has been in use for a long while, the first place I’d start is with it and by checking its brushes. Increased EMI output from them wearing down is the leading cause of suddenly appearing disconnects.

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Ugh, follow up;

I can trigger the stops by shutting the router off mid job :frowning: EMI it is… I’ll be off in the corner crying.

Interesting I never had the issue with the same palm router on another machine… though xxl vs standard. Same circuit split, same power conditioner, etc. Maybe something to do with the location of the board on the standard size? I’ll check the brushes, though I’m dubious of that as this same router got virtually no use between working fine on my xxl and being an issue on this machine.

I had a few issues with disconnects over time. Best fix I found was to ground the spindle/router. I haven’t had any since doing this - a good way to check if your router is adequately grounded it to tap it on the probe - if it is your light will trigger.

Interesting you mention placement of the control board. Mine is mounted on the rear of the X axis isn’t it mounted on the Y on an XXL?

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@Luke, Grounding is an excellent idea. I can guarantee the router isn’t grounded stock as 1: it’s plug isn’t grounded and 2: the Z carriage is isolated nicely by the rubber/plastic belts and vwheels. I’ll run a lead to common earth ground and see if it helps.

At the moment, my findings this morning are as follows:

  • An air job, router off runs to completion every time (tested 3x)

  • A no-contact-router-running air job can be stopped mid-job by turning the router on and off. Not every time, but eventually I can make it stop in concert with a power-off of the router.

  • I can run a job with the router running in my hand, out of the mount, held about 4ft away from the machine, cycle the router on and off as many times as I like an NO failures.

I’m using the same circuits, power conditioner, palm router, etc as my XXL and it never had these issues. That, coupled with the LACK of failures with the router a fair distance off make me think this is all down to the location of the grbl controller on the standard machine (back of the X, vs over on the side of the Y)

I grabbed a new set of brushes off ebay as a backup, but I’m going to try grounding first and see what I get.

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I’d be really keen to see your results - it drove me bonkers - my first board I couldn’t run a job without disconnections. Carbide sent me a new one and it was way better (I had the original board), but I’d still get a disconnect occasionally, I then grounded the router and all disconnections went completely.

It’s worth mentioning UK routers are earthed but until the outer case was earthed I still got disconnects. I only ran a small 11a cable to an earth but it worked.

I had both on separate power circuits, and now they are all on a single power outlet with no issues.

It would be interesting if moving the board makes a difference but not something I can test as I don’t have the problem :smile:

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I’ll second you on grounding! I’ve had zero failures since I grounded my 611 case. AND, I have since pulled the ground wire from the inside of my 22’ vacuum hose and re-run my 611 power cord in parallel with the myriad other wires in my drag chain. Still a-ok.
There really should be a sticky somewhere to inform of the grounding issue. As well as to NOT set soft limits in CM. And…

@Griff & @Luke alright boys, grounding the router casing wins the prize. I ran a length of 18ga speaker wire from a screw on the router casing to a common ground on the electrical box and… so far… not a single drop. And I’ve TRIED. on/off/on/off of router during a job, quick, slow, speed changes, off/on, unplugging the router, etc… all solid. Now that’s only on router-running-airjobs, haven’t put bit to wood, but I’m extremely hopeful…

Once I run a cutting job or two, I’ll put another post up with easy-to-search terms and some pics of how I fixed it.

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If this works for you I think we’ve solved the biggest Shapeoko mystery…

I’ve grounded mine. This shouldn’t be as effective as it seems to be.

I replaced the cord with a high quality 3 wire cord, and ran it out the case to one of the screws that hold the top cover to the body. The top cover is pretty tightly packed. Another way to do it is with a separate wire all the way from the case. I thought this was cleaner, and an excuse to open another tool and poke at it’s innards…

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All I did…

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Following up, just ran a big job and had several failures :frowning: Though not until a good 10 minutes into the job. I was also running my shopvac on it, which I wasn’t during my testing this morning. I re-ran the job without the vac on and it completed… so… hm. I don’t believe my hose has a steel wire in it, otherwise I’d ground it… and again, same vac and hose I’ve used on the other machine w/o issue… thoughts welcome.

Static build up? Not sure how you’d alleviate that.

Must be, yea. There’s lots of various “fixes” folks use for abating static in PVC dust collection pipes. I think some folks run a length of grounded bare copper wire through the hose. I’ll have to do some research.

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I don’t have dust collection other than a old dyson I hover up with. Let us know how you get on.

Got a bunch of cad work to do on the next batch of parts, so nothing left to cut today.

In the interim I’ve sucked about 10 feet of stranded copper wire down my dust hose and then grounded that to the spindle mount (grounded to earth from the original wire I ran this morning). In theory that’ll help? Who knows.

I’ll update when I’ve had a chance to run the next batch of parts.

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Possibly a dumb question but is the junction box you’ve connected to grounded? I connected directly to a ground pin on one of my plugs.

Not a dumb question! And yes, box is grounded to earth.