Resolved: It just stopped mid-project...?

In the course of preparing a new spoilboard, I’ve had a couple of issues - of my own making - but this one has got me perplexed.

Mid-project (ish) it stopped. The router is still spinning in the hole it’s cutting, but it won’t go up, down, left or right. It just sits there.

What did I do to cause this? Nothing. I was sat on a stool reading my Kindle, but keeping an eye on things.

I used the original, exported *.nc file after the “Import from CC to CM” and “Edit the file” fiascos, and did a lot of air-cutting before it got to the uncut part of the project.

This is the screenshot from CM:

I used the feed-hold button and that worked, raising and stopping the router, and return control to CM, but the Start, Pause and Stop buttons are not enabled. And I’ve pressed the feed-hold button a few times to check. There is no ‘Busy’ indicator showing.

This is where it stopped (notice the green LED on the BitRunner):

…with a closeup…

My guess is, CM has crashed - but it’s showing up normally in the Force Quit window, so it appears to be OK, at least according to the iMac.

But I don’t have any control over the machine (Terminator mode?) unless, I suppose, I turn it off and back on gain - and then I’ll have to run this project again, which I’d be really fed up about. I confess the air was blue in the workshop (shed) when this happened, but it’s not obvious in the photo!

For the moment I’ve left it in Pause mode (but still not controillable from CM) but I would appreciate some guidance on what to do next, please?

Thank you.

Purchase a usb isolator ( https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00XXPO4UG/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_C9RAQWGKS71RV1VKC5MS?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1 )and powered usb hub.

I get disconnects on my shapeoko if I dont use those.

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Right, so this is one of the fabled ‘disconnects’?

Never having had one before, I didn’t know this was the effect.

Crap.

Now, where’s my browser…

Have you used the feed hole button before, I dont mean pause. I seem to remember seeing that hitting a hold button cm would not respond and a power cycle would get cm working again.

If you experience this note your line number of gcode on cm. You can edit gcode and put preamble then start a few lines before stop and post functions to save your project. If it is a short program just start over and let it air cut until it catches up.

OK, I’m confused. I thought the Feed Hold button did almost the same as clicking Pause in CM, other than having to press the HFH button twice to give control back to CM, to continue the project?

The image shows the line number (145213), but when I tried to edit the *.nc file to resume the project after an overnight shutdown, I cocked it up and caused the scar you see in the middle picture, so I’m a bit reluctant to do that again!

In fact, this last run (that stopped) is the fourth attempt:

1st - Exported directly into CM from CC, caused a scar and stopped.
2nd - Stopped by me as it had too long left to run for my bedtime.
3rd - Edited *nc file and caused the scar.
4th - Reverted to original *.nc file and it stopped.

I feel destined to never complete this damn wasteboard!

Maybe use something larger than a 1/4 endmill if time is an issue.

I was thinking I might adjust the speeds and feeds, as I’ve been running a lot of it at 200%, anyway.

I don’t have an endmill larger than 1/4", sadly :thinking:

Order one. You can either waste material and time or use the correct bit. Its also something you will get plenty of use out of during the time you own the machine. The bed will need surfacing again later and sometimes you might need to flatten the surface of a project

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Okay, now I understand - but I didn’t explain myself properly.

I’m cutting holes for threaded inserts and grooves for t-tracks, not resurfacing the wasteboard. I do have a bit for that, and will do it once the board is in place.

Thank you :+1:

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Would this do the job @keebie81?

Thank you

As the fox said, some days chickens some days feathers. Sounds like today was all feathers.

Sometimes projects go that way. All you want to do is get something done so you can move on. There are times where the digital gods are just against you. When you find these times it is best to start over step by step and get to the end.

Stoppages are common in the winter depending on how cold it is where you live. Even on warmer days with low humidity like in Arizona it can be challenging to get through without a stoppage caused by EMI. Static discharge is several thousand volts and usb signals seem very susceptible to discharges causing your Shapeoko to disconnect from your computer.

Go back to basics for avoidance of static. There are many threads on the forum about fixing static/EMI.

Thanks, Guy. That’s good philosophy :+1:

It’s quite possible I was being optimistic in my ambitions to complete the wasteboard in one hit (except the flattening), so I’ll split this in to two parts, and hopefully that will do.

I’ve ordered the thing anyway (I was limited in time for it to be delivered today, and Amazon UK offers an easy returns option), so I’ll use that, but will also look more closely at avoiance of static.

Thanks again :slight_smile:

I was under the impression that when there’s a USB disconnection, Carbide Motion just resets and doesn’t show the current job (as you are seeing).

Maybe this is a “partial disconnection” where the Controller board has hung to do a static charge, but not disconnected?

I have no idea. Has anyone else experienced a disconnect such as this, please?

If you use the Feed-Hold button you can’t interact with Grbl until I believe its Cycle-Start has been sent — should be a ~ sent via the MDI.

You can verify if the problem is intrinsic to the code by opening it in a previewer such as CAMotics and by running it through Grbl’s Check mode — power up and connect to the machine, put it in check mode by sending $C, then send the file — CM and the machine will process the file w/o moving.

Naturally, if the problem is repeatable please send it in to support@carbide3d.com and we’ll do our best to look into it.

Hi Will,

I need to talk through my understanding of the Feed-Hold and Pause processes in case I have them wrong.

On my machine (with a BitRunner) running a project:

  1. Pressing the Feed-Hold button stops the router and lifts it away from the workpiece. There is no control of the project in CM.
  2. Pressing the Feed-Hold button a second time return control of the project to CM, and the Start and Stop buttons on the CM interface become usable.

Or…

  1. Pressing Pause in CM stops the router and lifts it away from the workpiece. I think the Start and Stop buttons on the CM interface then become usable (you may need to press Pause again, but I’m not sure without looking).

When the machine stopped (with the router still spinning and the bit in the workpiece), pressing the Feed-Hold button once did retract the router and stop it spinning, but pressing it a second time did not return control to CM.

I have absolutely no idea how to use the MDI interface and, as has been pointed out in another thread, is probably not something a newbie should be playing with!

What I do know is I was able to move away from the main screen in CM to look at the MDI, jog and settings sheets, but couldn’t do anything with them - as in nothing (except changing settings) was ‘clickable’.

As I wasn’t prepared to leave the system in that state overnight, I closed it all down, to fight another day!

(And I do seem to be doing a lot of fighting!)

Can’t speak to Feed-hold since I’ve never set it up.

For Pause in CM, yes, pressing Pause should then enable Start and Stop if memory serves.

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That feed hold behavior sounds correct based on what I have observed.

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I guess I am the only one that thinks that is a massive amount of lines in the gcode… 272000+ lines of code…

Didn’t there used to be a limit to the line amount? Or maybe it was file size (in MB)? Is that not an issue now?

CM5 is not supposed to be limited file-size-wise.

Test this by putting Grbl into check mode by sending $C and then sending the file?