USB Cable Question

[ATX Poly Products]

Thanks for all the info everybody...

The cable in my control box is a type USB B end by the way. I replaced the oem cable with a RadioShack gigaware gold plated cable. The cable seems like a good quailty. I also am giving a differant hub a try from there.

Speed test now says 82%. I don't think it can get much better than that.

The Ram of my laptop is well above the req. shopbot needs also.

I have narrowed the comm lost down to maybe grounding. I have a solid electrical ground going back to my breaker box. Maybe I should also have a separate ground to a rod just for the bot?

[ken_rychlik]

Adam, two things are bad about grounding.

Dust colection, and spindle wiring.

Make sure you have those covered well.

I didn't do a ground rod, but I did run quite a few grounds. Even grounding the pc case to the controller ground at the board.

In the 80's for the comm test is very good.

[ATX Poly Products]

Thanks Kenneth,

I have solid soldered grounds on my dust collection and I am running a PC router head that is grounded through the power cord and the frame of the bot off the case screw.

I did a separate ground rod to the frame also... I still have the same problem going on...

Another thing that is strange. These are the steps I take to powering up all of my system in this order...

Turn on Computer and let it boot up
Turn on the bot control box
open Shopbot 3
Out come is no comm found

then I close Shopbot 3
unplug USB cable and plug in
Open SB3 and it locates the tool just fine...

[ken_rychlik]

I think you should put away the laptop and go in the closet to find a used desktop. If you don't have one, a friend probably does.

I was talking about grounding the pc case to the controller, but that only applies to desktops.

I just re-read all the post and realized what you were doing.

[donchandler]

Thanks Kenneth,

I have solid soldered grounds on my dust collection and I am running a PC router head that is grounded through the power cord and the frame of the bot off the case screw.

I did a separate ground rod to the frame also... I still have the same problem going on...

Another thing that is strange. These are the steps I take to powering up all of my system in this order...

Turn on Computer and let it boot up
Turn on the bot control box
open Shopbot 3
Out come is no comm found

then I close Shopbot 3
unplug USB cable and plug in
Open SB3 and it locates the tool just fine...

I had the same problem with having to unplug and replug the USB cable on my PRT Alpha. Drove me nuts.
I went into windows and turned off all the stuff that was running in the background. Seemed to fix it. Haven't had the problem in quite a while now.

[ken_rychlik]

Don

Good point about the background stuff.

Anti virus, auto updates, screen savers, laptop plugged in to power, ect..

That would cause kicking out mid file, but I don't think it would affect boot up connections though.

There was a mach page that had suggestions about how to turn off all the fluff that would hurt operation of a machine, but I can't find it right now.

Anyone got the link?