Understanding the cause of the disconnect

There has been a lot of discussion on this forum in regards to the disconnect issue. Apart from standing on one leg wearing a hat made of tin foil :laughing: I remain unable to prevent disconnects. I have read and followed the suggestions on the wiki and still the issue. That being said I have a new board on the way from Carbide. Fingers crossed. But I remain stumped as to the root cause. I understand it is electrical interference, but how is it making its way to the controller board? Through the USB, through the power cable, or through the motor and switch connections? Does anyone know for sure? And is it just a Dewalt issue? Does anyone using the Makita router or other spindle have the issue?

Yes, I used to get a disconnect when using my Makita router (when I’d power it off after a cut — made tool changes a pain)― pop off the plastic cap and note that there’s no shielding under it (nor the Dewalt — a couple of people tried w/ varying degrees of success to shield the router.

On 3d printers (similar electronics) the issue is typically cross talk from something like the stepper motor wires (very electrically noisy) to the serial circuitry (very susceptible to noise) sometimes via the USB cable. In cases relating to the Shapeoko, it looks like there’s also a good possibility of noise back through the power lines.

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So applying what I’ve learned over there to here, you want as short and thick of USB cable you can tolerate, run it as unparallel (perpendicular) to any body cables and power cords as possible. Perhaps put your router on a different circuit. You may also want to try a good quality powered USB hub in case your PC’s USB port may have small power fluctuations or noise.

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I’m running both v2.2 and v2.3 Carbide Motion boards… when it comes to disconnects I concur with Will, and router shut-down will consistently cause this to occur when the router AC cable is in proximity to virtually any of the wiring harnesses (limit switch or steppers).

I have since run my router power cable away from all parts of the machine framing and cables excepting where it drapes over the right edge of the machine. I also run AC power from a spearate branch circuit, and I have added ferrite cores to the router and all the stepper and limit switch wiring (see attached pics).

I also run a USB isolator and run my CM controllers from a laptop, mostly on battery power. One final step I’m going to take will be to ground my Shapeoko frame. Since taking all of the measures listed I have mitigated all disconnects with multi-tool jobs using a multi-controller Shapeoko

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Thanks Jim. I think I will be installing some ferrite cores.

I cant help but wonder why it is we allow ourselves to put up with what is obviously a design issue?

If you bought a bike for this amount of money and the chain fell off every time you rode it, I bet you would return that bike. or if your new TV changed channels every time the garage door opened, I don’t think you would just be adding some ferrite cores and calling it a day. We spent a lot of money on these machines and we should not have to be running them from four independent circuits.

I guess the answer is… we are stuck with this defect simply because we love our Shapeoko… But I think it is time that we call the disconnect issue a design defect, because that is what it is.

Robert -

I ran the ferrite cores specifically for the older v2.2 board I’m running for non-GRBL CNC operations (Estlcam). The v2.2 CM controller has known issues. I read today that as of the v2.4 Carbide Motion controller release, Carbide3d considers the noise and disconnect issue solved. I’m certain your new inbound v2.4 controller will be an improvement for you.

I had constant issues with DC on my original board, it would happen at random and almost killed my interest in my shapeoko. Since I have a new 2.4 board I have not had a single issue and am loving it. I have milled 3/4hour projects wth no issues.

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