Power pulse issue

The problem is power related. How is “no power” going to make it better?

Or putting it another way, hold out both hands palm up. Put the wishes in one and the poop in the other. See which one fills up faster? :smiley:

Without access to the machine or local power to put meters on or diagnose I’d suggest one of four things is the likely culprit here.

  1. Something is causing a fault on the mains AC supply to the Shapeoko power brick and dropping out the AC power. This seems unlikely as enough fault current to drop the voltage far enough for the power brick to brown out should be tripping a breaker.

  2. An unreliable connection to the power brick (lead, connector, socket etc.) but you’d likely hear some crack and sizzle as you wobbled the lead and connectors and the green LED flickered if that’s the case. Plugs out and back in, give it all a wiggle and see if anything fizzes.

  3. The power brick is dying and can’t maintain output voltage. If this is the case the only real test is to swap out the power brick, you’ve already seen the funny connector, one from C3D support is the sensible bet here.

  4. There is a fault on the Shapeoko controller board / motors / wiring which is causing a high fault current on the 24V which overloads the power brick and causes it to self-protect and flicker. Given the observed behaviour my gut says this is less likely than bad AC connection to the PSU or bad PSU.

HTH

1 Like

Well, I don’t think that there are dust bunnies running on 3 separate squirrel cages moving those 3 axis around, but rather a computer about the size of your brain! I had a problem recently and posted to this forum and one of the suggestions (though completely unrelated) was to power down completely. That wasn’t the problem; operator error was my problem. But when all you have tried fails… Try a hard reset. What the hell, you’ve got a 50/50 chance.

Dang, and I even put a smiley face in my post.

I had a problem that sounds similar to yours. If you happen to have a BitRunner, wiggle the wire connections on either end of the cable that connects the BitRunner to the control box. For me the connection on the control box (aka mainboard) was the issue. I could wiggle that connection and cause the problem.

I appreciate all the tips.

I finally had my video call two days ago. I was luckily able to duplicate the problem for them to see, but they still arent 100% sure what it is. I was told they are sending me a new power box, power switch and power cable.

Yesterday I received an email saying they reviewed it further and decided they are sending me a control board. Problem is, they dont have any and they have to test one when they finally get one before they ship it.

I immediately emailed back and asked for clarification if they are only sending the new board, or are sending everything. Also asked for an eta. Still haven’t received a response.

So as of now I have some part(s) coming, but dont know what and dont know when. :man_facepalming:

I’ll be sure to post what happens and what the fix eventually was, so the next person with all these problems can see the reuslts.

Thanks again for all the tips.

I had something similar when I first hooked up my SO4 in my garage that only has one outlet. The culprit was the wall outlet itself that was installed I’m guessing early 90’s that had some connection issues to the power plug. $5 dollars later with a new 20amp outlet that takes some resistance to push the plug in was my fix. After inspecting the old outlet I’m guessing the previous owner had a habit of unplugging extension cords from 5’ away around a corner. Worth a check if it’s an older unit.

1 Like

OP says everything is on separate circuits but also states he has only a single breaker powering everything in the shop. So everything is actually on the same circuit.
In my shop I keep the router, the shop vac and the S3 all on separate breakers (but of course the power all comes from the same panel). It seems that this arrangement helped with some of my disconnect problems a few years ago.

1 Like

Just to knock some other possible gremlins out, OP says he is a “small duplex setup”. OP, do you have 1 or 2 power lines feeding both homes in the duplex? In my area, most duplexes have 1 main power feed from the utilities company (sometimes) get split to 2 meter & sub panels. Most of the time, there not.

Is your neighbor having any voltage fluctuations? Are they runny anything large? Have Older appliances? Properly sized wiring? All connections tight in the sub panel (happens sometimes)? Can you go buy a Kill-a-Watt meter (@ $20 in my area)? Plug it in & watch the voltages coming in for a bit. Some fluctuations are normal, but are you seeing big drops?

Hopefully this will help prove/kill off other issues that could be a problem.

While there can always be Mfg issues, Carbide has has been around long enough to have enough data that their machines work or they will find out why not and fix it if it’s their issue.

Good luck

Figured I’d give everyone an update here.

It took about a week, but I finally received a new control board. I was able to run two small jobs with no issues. I thought it was finally fixed.

Machine sat for a week or so before I had time get back in the shop. First job and it’s all screwed up again. Machine jumped on the x and y axis while cutting an inlay.

Ran a surfacing file to clean it up. On the second pass, the machine paused in the middle of the x axis run, dove down maybe .01or .02 and then completely change directions on the x axis. I caught it just in time before it slammed up against the left y rail.

I don’t expect a phone call response on a Sunday, so I immediately went to the website to schedule a video chat. Only 4 days available in the next 5 weeks, and of course they are weekdays during normal business hours when those of us with jobs actually have to be at work.

Oh yeah, and the new router that they promised to send overnight 3 different times, to replace the other one that fried after 5 months still hasnt shown up yet.

Y’all can argue with me all you want about quality products and even better customer service. Neither has been the case for me.

I’ve looked up your ticket on this for the router — was it #197448?

Please confirm or let us know the specifics at support@carbide3d.com and we’ll get this sorted out.

I have no clue, Will. I was told the control board would ship from the west coast, but the router was separate because it comes from the east coast. I was never given any ticket numbers, confirmation numbers, tracking numbers, etc…

I’m less concerned about an $80 router as I am the brand new $2,600 machine that has never worked properly in the 4 months I’ve owned it.

Please send a new e-mail in to support@carbide3d.com enumerating all your issues and we’ll do our best to get this sorted out.

At what point does a customer get better help than “send an email”?

I sent an email with all the issues on Sunday night, the 5th. No email response at all yesterday. Called 6 times yesterday during business hours and no one would answer the phone.

Had to send a other email this morning.

I believe your ticket is assigned to a technician and that we are waiting on the results of your running an “air job” — if that doesn’t match the correspondence you have, write in to us and we’ll try to get everyone on the same page.

This topic was automatically closed after 30 days. New replies are no longer allowed.