What's working with the Ecab link?

[chunkstyle]

Gary's computer hasn't resolved the issues I've been having. I've installed a 12g. ground wire thru the inside of the dust hose as Brady mentioned in another post. Wire pokes thru the hose at the metal ducting connection. Protruding wire is spliced to stranded 12 guage and home run to the dust collectors grounding terminal screw in D.C. motors' electrical connection box. Grounding from box to wall power cable on D.C. has been checked for continuity.
Pox switch errors and failed c-2/ c-3, SB3 routines and SB3 hang-ups were present yesterday afternoon and I was only able to get 1 sheet out. Still have two more sheets to complete the job.
Hopefully, running a bare copper cable thru the duct hose, instead of the hose's wound reinforcement wire, will work and all these constant errors will go away.

[bill.young]

Have you tried running a file with the dust collector off? That should help narrow down if it's static from the dust collector.

[chunkstyle]

Thanks Bill,

I've air cut a few SB3 files with the new computer before I tried running money thru the machine. Air cut the files fine.
I've also had the dropped com and SB3 lock ups on start up without the D.C. on. I don't know what to make of it.

Got one sheet with manual tool changing done today just fine. Second sheet dropped com 3 (shopbot) about 5 minutes into it. Locked up SB#, spindle sitting and spinning in material heating bit up, E-stop no help. Had to shut it off at control box.

Latest idea from SB is to tap into the control box's power and run the control computer off of that. The idea was there might be a difference in grounding between box and computer. Tying the computer into the box would eliminate that possibility. That will be happening this weekend.

At least it can't be blamed on the control computer any longer. I'm thinking of renaming it the StopBot.

[bobmoore]

Is this resolved yet? I had some similar intermittent problems with z zero, xy zero, and programs freezing. I found a loose wire connection at a crimp connector, ( Actually it was a lucky accident that I found it ) , which when replaced resolved all issues.

[chunkstyle]

Hi Bob,

Swapped out the control card in the control box and it now SEEMS to be a new machine.
I Have to qualify the "seems" a bit since the stability of the machine has gone from O.K. to poor, back to O.K,. back to poor in it's history.
Finished running a small kitchen a week or so ago and am gearing up for a whole house worth of case work now. Will be cutting in another week or so as client and I get the last details tied down. Small kitchen was about 9 sheets of prefinished ply. No hiccup except for a 401 run time error between offloading the third sheet's parts and loading the 4 sheet. Hit the 'Locate sheet 4' prompt to start cutting again and got the message. Otherwise the difference between this small kitchen and a previous larger one was like night and day. The upcoming will be about a 1/2 unit of PB melamine sheet stock and longer cutting sessions. Temperatures have fallen below 32F and the air is a lot drier. Should be a good test.
I'm very much hoping that the control card was the hat trick that solved the problems.
By the way, out of curiosity, what was the crimp connector that you found faulty? I'll have a look at mine again just in case.

[garyc]

Tim...
Those "Error 401 Modal/non modal" dialogs are being worked on. Have you tried using the mouse to select OK to the sheet dialog box? Non scientific, but has helped some users.

[bobmoore]

Glad you have it fixed Tim. The loose crimp on my machine was from the previous owner. When he crimped an extension to the wire for the Y axis prox switch it didn't connect very good. Must have come loose during the move and became intermittent connection (the worst kind as we all know).