Stops in middle of job

[arc]

Have an alpha that I posted about ealier. The machine will stop in the middle of a job.There is no error message,the spindle does not shut down, the hour glass shows it is trying to work.
Thought the power cord for the laptop was it because it was routed over the USB cable. But it continues to stop and I can't always start it back over to finish the job with out using new material.

[phil_o]

Have you disabled any screensavers?

[harryball]

Sounds trival but make sure your bios nor OS have power saver settings enabled. Beyond that, try a different USB cable perhaps.

/RB

[arc]

All screensavers and powersavers are disabled.The machine will stop or I quess you might say freezes up and at different times. I can sometimes run the job without any stops and then next time it may stop right after starting or anytime. I will get a new usb cord this weekend and try that. I've haved this machine about a year and has performed fine until recently recently

[odulfst]

I am having a similar problem and just installed a new clean PC, thinking it was the problem... After talking w/ tech support I'm fairly sure that the problem is that the updated firmware is too much for USB 1.1, and I can't get the stupid serial/USB adapter to bind to my USB 2.0 port, so it only runs as 1.1 w/ 73.9% efficiency (according to the speedtest diagnostic tool). Tech support suggested I use a USB 2.0 hub to "force" the dongle to 2.0. I don't have one, so that was rather irritating, but possibly a solution none the less. I'm suspicions that there is some problem w/ Dell parts and SP2. Somewhere I read that Dell's USB drivers choke on SP2...and I don't have an older version of XP. I've got SP3 on my thumb drive now and I'm about go install it cause the machine just lost it's freakin "comm return" again.

On another note which is possibly related, my machine will quite often go for a swim in my big MDF molds on a restart. It seems that any time the Z-axis speed is changed during a run (maybe including jogs? I made z-jog speed same z-move to be safe and it seems to be fixed) when the run is resumed, the Z think it's way to high and plunges into my work, usually at a very alarming rate.

We need a smiley face that's pounding on an E-stop.

[cnc_works]

Tony, if it is any consolation to you, I have loaded SP2 on hundreds of Dells of all flavors with nary a problem that I could pin on the brand, so I doubt that there is a direct relationship with your USB issues. I must admit that I still don't completely trust SP3, especially with AMD chips.

Donn

[beacon14]

I have also started seeing similar problems on my 4 1/2 year old PRT Alpha. Machine stops in the middle of a file, no error messages, file is frozen on the screen and SB software is completely unresponsive. I have to use crtl-alt-del to end the SB software, then restart the computer, re-zero, and restart the file. I have not changed anything on the control computer or updated the software since well before the problem began.

Very puzzling. Tony are you saying you had the same probem, changed computers, and the problem persists?

[coach]

My PRS Alpha is also having the same issue. It started about a month or 2 ago. I also have to shut off my spindle at the on switch. Then I also need to use alt ctrl delete then re-start my computer.

David

[scottcox]

Just to be sure, it's not busy loading new lines during that stop, is it?

My Alpha stops, where-ever it may be, spindle still running, every at 100,000 lines for about 20-30 seconds while it loads the next batch of lines. A "Loading..." progress bar will appear in the lower left. I believe this number is related to the amount of memory that I have in my (Dell) PC, but it hasn't been a serious problem, so I live with it.

The only other times that my Alpha has stopped mid-file was when it received electro-magnetic interference from other equipment.

So far, I can attribute these stops to... my 5HP tablesaw starting up, my old magnetic fluorescent lamp ballasts frizting out, and the 5HP Columbo spindle itself in close proximity to the laptop running it.

[odulfst]

David B.,
Yes, new PC (super clean) and same problem.

Scott,
I've run files over 1-mil lines, and yes, it stops to think every 100K. The problem I have is a hard freeze with error message "lost comm return". I was trying to avoid thoughts of electrical interference. What can be done about power fluctuations? Is there some sort of filter I can install in my control box? In the breaker box?

I am currently downloading every USB 2.0 driver I can find in hopes something will fix the serial adapter.....if it's the problem.

[rb99]

I have experienced this kind of thing with usb music recording devices. What they say over there is usb is not good for music because it will interupt the current operations to allow other operations. So the fix the music guys try is to get a dedicated usb card in your pc, and disable as much of the other usb stuff you can, and elimiated anything using usb. Some have cured their freezing with this fix, others not so much.

Firewire is the communication method of choice in music devices...

Richard

[odulfst]

Interesting. Maybe I can get a serial to firewire adapter and a firewire PCI card.

For what it's worth, using the driver for win95 (usb2ser.inf) that comes with the iogear driver package from their website (guc232a) boosts my transmission efficiency from 73.9% to 77.0%.

maybe it will help.