Exactly. That would be a ideal feature!
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I have had this problem occasionally. It seems particularly noticeable if it is especially dry–If the connection drops, I find if I run without my dust collection running, the problem goes away… but then, there’s dust.
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I have a Shapeoko 3 xxl with hdz. We had a dry day in a usually humid climate. I ran an air job with router off and no dust collection on. I got a disconnect. I think it is just a part of cncing. It is annoying but inevitable. The best you can do is all the mitigation like grounding etc. Unfortunately it is not a perfect world we live and work in.
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@Caseyman A USB isolator only helps if the EMI is picked up on the correct side of the isolator. If it’s picked up on the other, you’ll still see the spurious voltage.
The better solution is to study the collective wisdom on grounding your machine, as @Julien suggested. I had regular disconnects initially as well, but since grounding it properly, I’ve not yet had one — and I live in a year-round dry climate. I’m not using my xxl-3 full time, but I’m fairly confident that EMI-related disconnects can be entirely eliminated if you’re patient to work through all the potential sources of discharge and coupling.
@gbilger I’m not against an easier way to pick back up where you left off, but isn’t it better to solve the underlying problem? It sounds like you’re seasoned with the machine, so solving the EMI issue shouldn’t be too daunting.
Plenty of us here have been through the same thing. We’re all here to help.
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Thanks to everyone for all the quick responses and solid information. Gives me a lot to think about.
Makes sense, I’m gonna spend next week and do that I think. Thank you!
There’s a thread on grounding with some hints here
Is the new 3.0 Carbide Motion board better at handling EMI issues?
As noted at:
https://blog.carbide3d.com/2020/nomad-3-plus-something-else/
The 3.0 board is easier to install and has better EMI performance- it’s the best board we’ve made yet.
I figured as much. How difficult would it be to retrofit the Shapeoko 3 to use it.
Might be feasible to do this by:
- making an adapter plate to mount it
- replacing all of the wiring extensions with custom ones which had the Molex KK and the new (microfit?) connectors
However, anyone who has EMI issues should contact support@carbide3d.com and we’ll do our best to get things sorted out.
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If it’s possible to change the design of the board to reduce the effect of EMI, does it mean that the reasons for the previous board’s susceptibility to EMI is now known? That is, were changes made to improve the USB circuitry, or was it the chip layout that made the difference, or the types of chips, or extra shielding etc?
Gregg,
When creating 3d tool paths in VCarve, you can restrict the cut to a specific area defined by a vector. That is selected in the “Machine Limit Boundary” box of the toolpath dialog.
If you want to restart a job without cutting a lot of air, draw a vector around the uncut area and recalculate the toolpath using “Selected Vector” as a boundary. This trick has saved me many hours after experiencing the same disconnect issue you described.
Huey
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That is a great idea. All of my 3D projects are cut to selected vector in my roughing and finish toolpaths. I’d have to think it through a little more in my project I have going now. This project is fairly large. The part that has been cut is only partially rough in.
As long as you haven’t moved the workpiece or changed XZY zero, you should be able to continue the job with no problem.
I was cutting a 20" Marine Corps emblem a while a go and part of one of the two big stars broke off. I was able to clean the area with a sharp chisel and then glued a block of wood in its place. In VCarve, I drew a vector around the star and was able to cut just that area. When done, it was not noticeable at all. That saved the job…a lot of time and an expensive piece of mahogany. I also use that trick to reduce cut times. For example, I can run the finish cut on the USMC emblem using a 1/8" ball nose and then use a tapered end mill to recut just the letters and get in the spaces where the 1/8" BN can’t. It would take a very long time to run the whole job with the tapered end mill.
Good luck!
Huey
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On larger or longer cut jobs, I usually have a notepad (pen and paper) open and jot notes as needed. One of those notes I record is What Line of code the machine is on “at that moment”… if there is a crash or disconnect later. I can look in my notes for the last line number that I wrote down and return to that point…
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How do you return to a particular line of G code that you have written down? Perfect solution. I have never known my way around manually adjusting code. I’ve always just restarted toolpath. Would love a detailed narrative. Thanks.
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