I’m not going to profess understanding EMI, grounding pretty much, one thing I have learned doing improvements on our house and replacing the electrical panel is just because you have 3 prong receptacles doesn’t mean they are grounded.
While replacing the old receptacles I found that none of them were actually wired to the ground coming from the cable. The electrician that did the panel installed an 8’ grounding rod and connected it to the panel. All this is food for thought since a non-grounded receptacle means your devices aren’t grounded from square one.
I found this vid while researching EMI interference, maybe it will help or maybe not that’s for you to determine.
When troubleshooting EMI issues also look at your USB socket on your computer.
About a year after I got my S3 I started having disconnects that became very frequent. I did all the suggested checks and grounding with no luck. For the heck of it I wiggled the USB cable at my old laptop while doing an air cut and boom, lost connection. I verified with dust collection and router unplugged from power with another air cut and I was again disconnected when just lightly moving the cable at the socket.
I have two humidifiers running around my machine at all times, summer and winter. How sensitive is this machine that it won’t operate in the winter without a lake near by?
Do you have a Hygrometer hung in the room to measure levels? Humidifiers come in many sizes, different situations call for different size humidifiers.
I am basing my suggestion based primarily on the fact that you said
Ive ran my machine for 9 months with no prevail while in Arizona last year. Fell in love with the endless trails.
No issues in Southern California, and no issues here currently in Missouri.
I have gone from 30-40% humidity to nearly 100% at times and have not had this be a factor even in a camper. I run a ac which sucks out moisture and a DE-Humidifier when I’m too cold that’s it.
I think that was a suggestion for you specifically. You said that your EMI issues were worse in the winter. I live in a place where I get told the winters are not that bad because it’s a dry cold. At minus 30 degrees I don’t care how dry that cold is, it is still cold, but I digress. So far my machine has run without issue in that environment. You may be having issues with power, combined with humidity issues combined with something else even. I don’t think the machine overall is that sensitive but when a few things add up you may start seeing issues like the ones you are seeing.
No, I was operating on the logic that more is better so I have two large humidifiers pumping while I’m working. I should get a hydrometer though, good call. More info never hurts.
Just throwing this out there re: EMI…I may have missed it in the thread above but what dust collection system are you using? I had sporadic disconnects even after most of the suggested fixes (USB isolator, ferrite rings literally on every cable, separate electrical circuits for all major components, etc.) but have had zero disconnects since I grounded the anti-static hose and the dust deputy I have at the end of my system. May have been coincidence but that’s what I did just FYI.
I haven’t been an owner for as many years, as prolific, or as knowledgeable as some in this community but I share the sentiment that I really hate to see someone not enjoying their machine.
Where are you located? If there are any people near Rochester, NY that need assistance or want to simply meet up, let me know.
Back to the topic at hand… from what I’ve seen on this forum, the people that have had Z issues with the BitSetter who eventually ironed out a procedural checklist to stay consistent that also started filming their process haven’t caught an incident since (or perhaps haven’t reported back with footage). I know it’s tedious and extra. The power of checklists as well as the video review are real though.
I think that’s a good call. I am running a Festool dust extractor. The hose is anti-static so it shouldn’t be an issue. I picked that up specifically to help fix the EMI issues. I think it helped as the issues seemed to go away but like I said, they’re showing up again anyways.
Usually if EMI issues arise after a period of successful use it’s either low humidity due to a change of seasons, or the trim router carbon brushes wearing — try replacing them if you haven’t.
I’m up in Canada, Alberta so I’m not close for a meet up but I appreciate the thought.
I have a mental checklist and follow the same workflow every time. I have so little trust in the machine that if anything goes wrong I stop everything and reinitialize it, I’m taking no chances. I find that I can follow my workflow the same way and run the same file but still get the Z axis error anyways. If I follow the workflow exactly as support has told me they want me to, I do it the same for every job, I run the same file on similar material but get depth control errors on occasional cuts then doesn’t it stand to reason that the machine is at fault?
Brushes have been replaced recently and I have extras on hand, checking them is a part of my routine as I believe they may have been a contributor in the past.
I get that lower humidity in the winter affects EMI but I intend to use my machine year round. I didn’t think I was buying a fair weather only CNC.
It’s not a fair weather only CNC, but USB is a low-voltage signal, so is necessarily vulnerable to an environment which becomes hostile — a USB isolator, which I’ve requested be sent to you, should address that aspect.
Not looking to prove who is right or wrong or start an argument (and I am FAR from an expert or an electrician) but I run a Fein in back of a Dust Deputy with an anti-static hose. I thought the same but I’m speculating “anti-static” is not the same as “non-static”. It cost me $10 to ground both (and eliminate that possibility for the disconnects) and the EMI went away…again may have been a coincidence. YMMV. Good luck.
This may or may not help, but here’s my Z experience with my Shapeoko XL. I upgraded my Z to the HDZ, and added a BitZero and BitSetter. I also went throught the machine after I bought it used, and re-squared and tightened everything (especially the X and Y belts). My circle-square-diamond test is good. I use a Fein dust collector with the standard hose that isn’t static free. I’ve never had EMI (that I know of), or static issues. I doubt I’ll ever have static issues due to low humidity as my CNC shop is in my basement and I’m in southeastern PA – I have the opposite problem and run a dehumidifier. I use VCarve Desktop and Carbide Motion (it’s usually the latest version from C3D). The only issue I ever had with Z is with the BitSetter. For some reason, twice an endmill plunged into the BitSetter housing missing the activation button, leaving two nice gouges. I never did explain it, so I stopped using the VCarve post-processor with M6 gcode support and re-zero each time I change a tool omitting the BitSetter from my work-flow. I’m not doing anything production so I don’t really mind the extra step of re-zeroing after changing tools. Someday I may go back and try to determine why I had that issue with the BitSetter. And don’t give up on C3D support; I’ve had nothing but positive experiences with their support. And my Shapeoko has been quite reliable.
I have ongoing freezes that we can not pin point,I have a SO3.
Support have been outstanding but we still have freeze after freeze.
Every known EMI possible solution has been thrown at it including the local power board hooking meters up to the power box looking for dirty power,nothing.
Now the point of this is you made mention of the freezes happening when you turn your router up over 3,are you using a Makita.In the back of my mind this may be my issue,I am on a Makita.
Oh, yes noisy power cable mixed in with the wiring is a good way to connect the interference, routing the power cable out with the dust hose or some other route is a good thing to check.
Michael,done all that,I just started up the Makita and when the dial is turned up over the 3 I can detect a different sound,my gut feeling this might be it so I will do a test on something tomorrow and play with the speeds.
