I would love some help here as I have been pretty stalled on a project all day.
I am using a Carbide Shapeoko XXL 4 on Carbide Motion 635 and Carbide Create 764. All on a MacBook Pro 2015.
Yesterday the machine worked for 10 hours straight on a plate of aluminum. Crush.
Today it crashes about every 10 minutes on plywood. Not good.
Please note it does not crash in the same place each time. Though it usually does about halfway through. Never at the very start.
I have tried grounding, cleaning, restarting, updating, and checking all the basic electrical and communications connections and I cannot quite understand why this is happening…?
I am going to chalk this one up to I am an idiot and am probably missing something basic.
Can anyone here throw me some ideas to try so we can get this job done and increase our uptime?
I am attaching images of the machine as well as the Carbide Create file.
First, it’s worth grabbing the latest CM 636 from Carbide Motion Downloads . It was released to fix a quirk/bug in Windows or a Windows driver, so it shouldn’t matter on a Mac, but it’s worth getting on the latest.
Second, exactly what do you mean by “crash”? What exactly happens to the machine and the software?
When I say crash I mean ceases to work. Not as in hits something hard or breaks. I mean like crash as when software crashes.
Sometimes the screen says something along the lines of “Lost communication with Shapeoko” and other times Motion is still looking as normal but everything has paused and the buttons do nothing.
Given it has been working correctly since I unplugged the dust collection I am really thinking this might have been the issue.
Of course having no dust collection is not a long term fix though perhaps it will lead us to a solution more efficiently by noting that.
With that in mind do you have any tips on how to get the dust collection to not cause the machine to stall out/pause/crash?
I see that you have grounded the machine to the same outlet. That’s good. Now you need to run some cheap uncoated copper wire inside your dust hose. I ran mine about 10 feet. Go ahead and poke it out (cover with tape) and run it back to a ground bar. Connect any other grounds to the ground bar and only one wire to the outlet ground. (no ground loops) That’s what fixed mine. I have the exact same machine and I had the exact same problem.
To be pedantic (for people reading this in the future), that’s not a crash. Depending on the exact error message, that’s either:
The CNC disconnecting from the computer
The embedded controlled not replying anymore.
@cheu is correct, the next step is to ensure that your vacuum hose in grounded. The correct path is to use a grounded hose, and ground it to the machine. Wrapping bare copper wire around the hose seems to work as a backup. We haven’t tried putting the wire in the hose as Charles mentioned.
To be sure I am going to run copper wire inside AND outside of the hose to be sure.
I will then attach all grounds to a grounding bar and then run a single ground wire to the outlet.
Does the grounding bar or any ground wire need to be of a certain gauge?
Also, does the SO4 have a ground to the power supply and outlet already? Such that to ensure I do not cause a ground “loop” should plug in the SO4 to the outlet with a 3 prong to 2 prong converter which removes the ground? That way the only ground I have is the one I made myself with the bar?
Are there any other areas I should ground while I am at it?
If you are running a Makita/C3D router the brushes get short and start arching and causes EMI. EMI and static can cause loss of connection. The Makita/C3D brushes are long but the wire that attaches the brush to the connector is short. So when it gets to the end of the wire the brushes start arching and cause EMI (ElectroMotive Interference/noise). Just replace the brushes on your router. The brushes are at the top of the router under the black plastic screws. There on one on each side of the motor. The C3D router is a clone of the Makita and uses the same brushes. If you have the C3D router it likely came with a spare set of brushes.
The fact that it ran so long yesterday could just be the brushes worn.
I have a DeWalt and no. I have replaced my brushes once in 5 years of hard running.
From reports here on the forum the Makita/C3D brushes wear out faster than DeWalt.
I have had C3D router and Makita on machines I have bought used.
The DeWalt was the default router in the beginning of SO3’s and later the C3D became the default. Since C3D sold the routers they tend to get more play here on the forum. The bearings seem to go out on Makita/C3D routers and the brushes seem to wear quicker than a DeWalt.
That looks like a conductive hose you’ve got there, if not, I would replace the flex hose with a conductive one as just putting a wire inside a non conductive hose doesn’t stop the hose building up substantial local charge.
If it is a conductive hose, then you can connect onto the steel wire in the hose (I found a bullet connector crimped on well) and ground the hose that way.
Sensible plan and no, where you’re just grounding out static charge you just need some wire, where its a safety earth, it should be at least as large as the conductors supplying power.
I am not sure what you mean. If your C3D router failed in 30 days C3D would replace it. If a Makita failed in 30 days you could claim the warranty.
I think the reason Makita/C3D routers get more comments here on the forum is they are the default router from C3D. The C3D router is a clone of the Makita and the parts are almost all interchangeable. The armature/bearings are the same. I think the very top with the speed control is slightly different but all the other parts are interchangeable. So if your C3D router goes out after the warranty then you can buy Makita parts to fix it like the bearings and the brushes. I think the material the brushes are made of are faster to wear than the Dewalt material based on my personal experience. Plus the wire in the center of the spring is short and you never get the full brush to wear. It is just the design of the brushes from Makita and C3D. I dont make them I have just used them.
You can see in the pictures that the Dewalt wire is longer than the Makita. In a way it is apples and oranges but the Makita/C3D have shorter wire than the Dewalt making the life of the Makita/C3D brushes less than a Dewalt Brush.
The Makita/C3D routers are overall pretty good but they do seem to have a built in engineering issue with the bearings (or quality of them) and the brush design/material.
The Makita/C3D router will run at a lower RPM than a Dewalt but for me that is not really an issue because I never run at the lowest Makita/C3D router speed.
If you were using the Makita/C3D router as a trim router it was designed for you would never likely have to change the brushes. In the Shapeoko it is run for hours as opposed to minutes as a trim router.
Sorry, the only one I see that have a bearing/brush problem on this forum is the C3D router. They are not the same. I have 3 years on my Makita, vs 30 days on the C3D, and while Carbide’s Excellent Customer Service would have sent me another one, I was not going to play “spin the wheel” and hope for the best.
and it’s not possible to have a stock setup for an SO5 Pro w/ a 69mm mount.
Back when we sold DeWalts and Makita’s in equal proportion, the failure percentages skewed to the former failing earlier/more frequently — likely because of the higher min. speed (~16,000 RPM vice ~10,000 RPM) and attendant increased wear.
Just another option which I had to do to eliminate the same type of issue was run a 10 gauge ground from the grounding plate to the cnc and control box, used aluminum shielding on any 110 volt power cables near or attached to the CNC and use a un interrupted power supply with voltage regulator (eliminate brownouts) with battery backup (for power outages) and to separate the unit and PC from all other sources that would be on the same circuit.
It might simple as your computer screen times out and disconnects the program. Make sure your screen does not turn off/ time out when connected to power.
