Has any of you had power blips from the grid and your design goes all screwy? Any suggestions on how to pause and/or restart a job to prevent it messing up when a storm is messing with power? Was a few passes away from finishing the first section and had 2 power blips. I am guessing that is what messed up the tool path.
Be sure your dust boot did not collide with the green clamp in the corner, throwing off X and propagating the bias as the cut progressed.
Get a UPS for your system.
FWIW, the power grid at my place is fair at best on good days, let alone in bad weather.
When the power goes out it will usually flicker a few times, then turn on and off a couple of times before going out completely.
The same goes for when the power comes back on, only in reverse order.
My biggest concern is a power surge frying up the electronicsā. Iāve lost a few smaller things like light bulbs and alarm clocks from surges.
So after years of dealing with Consumers Energy (the power company), I am so beat down that I just shutdown and unplug when thereās inclement weatherā¦
As @CrookedWoodTex suggested a UPS would solve your surging and drop outs. The trick with a UPS is to size it to last long enough to get your system shut down. You can get a big one that would last for hours but that costs a lot of money. So get one big enough to keep you up for 15-20 minutes and toward the end of that time if the lights have not come back on or stabilized then shut down in an orderly manner. The UPS would keep surges from damaging your electronics. A UPS conditions the power to eliminate the surges and gives you a clean sine wave power.
So if your utility company is that unreliable you can also complain to your public utility commission but that is a long term fix and not a short term fix. So get a UPS for the short term fix which might turn into a long term fix for you. Changing your utility company will be a long and hard process but if you dont try they have demonstrated they are not changing.
My suggestsion is donāt cheap out. I have an APC 1500 UPS running my 3XXL and the router. Iāve completed jobs when the power went out and using a flashlight. More than an hour.
I have surge protectors on most things, nevertheless I agree a decent UPS would be a good thing to have as a backup for when the power goes out.
Thanks to @CrookedWoodTex for the tips on what to look for when buying one.
Now Iām off to the Amazon!!!
I recently got an EcoFlow Delta 2 Max solar battery generator from Amazon thatās good for 2400W(pure sine wave inverter) with an onboard power bank of 2kwh. It claims it can act as a UPS & Iāve tried it with my desktop computer for which it seemed to work fine when I unplugged the unit from the wall while my computer was up & running off of power from it.
I plan to test it out for use with my SPROXXL while itās running a test job - with C3D router & regulated shopvac running.
The integrated functions/capacity of the solar-battery-inverter generators offer a lot of value & you can readily buy extra battery modules for increased power storage. Most of them have switched over to LiFePO4 battery chemistry vs the more volatile Li-ion chemistries that have a much greater propensity of overheating & catching fire.
I am mainly using my EcoFlow as a portable power pack to run power tools out of my work trailer cause I really didnāt want to have to deal with a combustion engine generator. The only tool I couldnāt power right off the bat was my Skil worm-drive table saw - the EcoFlow inverter would shut down before the saw blade could get up to full speed. Fixed that by getting a plug-in soft-start controller to use with the table saw - now itās totally usable for most plywood/MDF cutting. Ripping 2x4ās I have to be careful not to overload the EcoFlow. But if it works for that, powering my Shapeoko should be a cinch!
I just watched a video about the Amazon Prime sale coming up and specifically about the EcoFlow. The presenter mentioned that you could use some of the models as a UPS.
Buying an UPS would fix some problems but the UPS is not that portable and after discharge is not rechargeable like the EcoFlow units on solar panels. I have thought about getting one of those type of units for power outages but more for going camping. But I could use one for both.
I currently have a gas fired generator and has worked so far but when it quits I may get one of the newer power bank models with solar recharging capability.
Thanks everyone for the great suggestions. Most appreciative.
I got the EcoFlow 220W bifacial solar panel with mine. It was on for a really good deal some weeks ago. Iāve been able to try it out a few times & discovered that it can put out more power than what itās rated at⦠Think I saw it providing 237W the one day to the EcoFlow. Iāve considered getting the 400W model when I see it go on a good sale sometime, but it is considerably larger/heavier than the 220W & I have found the foldable panels to be a bit of a hassle to setup/stow. So the 220W seems like a nice balance of power vs logistics until I find its not providing me with enough power output for what Iām doing.
So, this thread started out about āPower Blipsā. A āBlipā can be a very fast thing. A dedicated UPS is designed to switch to battery in a half cycle of AC. Are there even specs to that on the EcoFlow units? What happens to your work piece when a āBlipā hits your router, because your EcoFlow doesnāt switch fast enough? Will you see that in the cut? Iām thinking thatās likely.
I donāt even understand what solar recharging has to do with it. A UPS will recharge when the power comes back and has little to do with a āBlip.ā (Unless your out camping with your CNC. )
From what Iāve seen for specs, the EcoFlow Delta 2 Max Iāve got is specād to switch over in 20-30ms - definitely not as quickly as a marketed UPS. I donāt know yet if this delay would affect the C3D router during an operation - definitely will be looking at that when I get a chance to test.
The solar power input capabilities just give you the option to power it with solar panels if thatās part of your setup - which is what I have planned for my work trailer. And for the Delta2Max, you can get expansion battery modules to increase the power capacity to 6kwh - which would be a considerable amount of CNC runtime. Iāve also had to use my work trailer as a makeshift ācamperā from time to time in my travels.
Can you plug a VFD spindle into a UPS? I would expect it to have the same issues that occur when using a GFI outlet.
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