Machine reset itself

[dpcrawford50 (Dan)]

I have been fighting with one problem after another over the last few weeks. I had random disconnects happening quite frequent.

Yet another random disconnect topic

Shapeoko Pro XXL. Zero disconnects during the summer. Frequent random disconnects with all sorts of different messages each time. Sometimes no message at all. Getting pretty frustrating as I am trying to use it as constant as possible each evening. Over the weekend I ran through the grounding tutorial and had high hopes as I saw my resistance readings change significantly once grounded on all rails, hose, etc…To no avail. Happened again within the hour. Dust collection on/off, doesn’t matter…

After everything I did, it ran great for 8 days. I ran at least 60 boards through it, some running a few hours each in Cherry, to some simple 5 minute jobs in Poplar. Here we are tonight. 20th easy Poplar run. Machine quits for no reason.

I power cycle everything and go to initialize it, getting an error message “HOMING CYCLE IS NOT ENABLED VIA SETTINGS”.

I checked my GRBL settings on the machine and $21 (Hard Limits) has now been set to disabled. All other settings matched previous values. I re-enabled it and power cycled again. Hit initialize and it hit the limits and started spinning the stepper motor on the belt.

Power cycled again and all of my GRBL settings had changed to values that made no sense for the machine.

I re-entered everything and power cycled once again.

Everything appeared to be good, but it was stepping really slow around curves (which was another problem I had last week, that I thought was user error, maybe not?).

This machine has been 99% good to me over the last few years other than a few minor hiccups, but lately it is making me wanting to take up knitting instead.

Just want to toss this out there in case anyone else runs into it.

[WillAdams (William Adams (Carbide 3D))]

Usually this sort of problem is due to worn carbon brushes and the attendant increased EMI.

Make sure that all of your Grbl settings are correct by re-sending the machine configuration:

https://carbide3d.com/hub/docs/shapeoko-setup/

The slow cutting of curves is not a usual symptom though — post a file?

Post an overall photo of your setup and detail photos showing how you’ve addressed grounding and how you have the computer connected to the machine? (I like to arrange the USB cable so that there is a partial coil at each end and the cable is pushed in with tension).

[Mseguin (Martin Seguin)]

Have you tried to change the USB cable?

[dpcrawford50 (Dan)]

Brushes in the router are brand new and broken in.

Factory supplied usb cable has plenty of slack from the computer to the control board. I do have a new usb cable and some ferrite rings I plan to connect it with.

The curves may have been an anomaly with no explanation. I re-uploaded the file to my CNC computer and ran it again without issue.

Attached is my crude sketch of my setup.

I have grounded the left rail, right rail, gantry, z-plate (left/right), z-plate (up/down), router mount and dust hose (center wire), individually back to a common ground terminal. All connections are screwed tight with soldered rings connected to the wiring. The ground terminal connects to a ground only plug on the same dedicated circuit that this is all connected to.

The original ground wire from the router mount to the bit-runner has been disconnected, since running it to the common block.

The original ground wire from the right rail to the control board has been disconnected, since running it to the common block.

My main power to the equipment is as follows:

From my dedicated 20A circuit runs a plug that connects (4) toggle switches to (4) individual outlets mounted to my cabinet. Switch 1 sends power to the Shapeoko. Switch 2 sends power to the bitrunner (router). Switch 3 sends power to an LED light in my cabinet. Switch 4 sends power to a surge protector power strip. The power strip powers a MeLE Mini PC and a powered usb hub.

My usb connections are as follows:

From my MeLE PC runs a usb cable connected to the powered usb hub. From the hub a usb cable connects to a touch screen panel. The usb is carrying both power and data to the panel. From the hub a usb cable connects to the shapeoko control board.

I have a Bosch dust collector that is powered on a separate circuit. Occasionally I will power the Bit-Runner through this since it has auto on/off capabilities.

I have run with dust collection and without.

The disconnects have been very random and hard to diagnose.

It ran for a good 40+ hours in the last week, with dust collection on, with zero issues until yesterday.

If there is something you see that is way out of line, I am all for suggestions.

I can take actual pictures of things when I am home later if that’s of any help.

Thanks

[Chaotica (Joel McKenzie)]

Looks like you’ve got any static charge issues handled. So I would troubleshoot the USB connection.

Could be just the USB connector rattled loose in the control board connection. Could be the powered USB hub glitched a bit. I would start by eliminating the powered hub between the PC & CNC controller. Having the display/touch data & CNC controller communication all running through a single USB port on the PC seems a possible point of data bus contention.