Software appears buggy!!

[zeke]

My frustration is growing with the Control software. Each time I use it I get some use out of it and then at some point it becomes inoperable and I have to shut it down and restart it. I have a computer that is twice the minimum requirements. Tonight really tweaked me. I figured I would use the bot to drill all the holes for my wood table and vac table. I spent several hours getting perfect alignment with the crossbeam holes and documenting the coordinates so I could use these to drill all my holes. About 70% into it, I heard a noise I hadn't heard before, almost like I past the prox switches, but I checked and I was a good 6 inches away from them. My X, Y and Z numbers automatically changed by adding about 70 points and screwed up all the work I had done with documenting the drilling coordinates. Guess I'll have to work this all out in Excel with some formulas so I don't have to go through the physical alignment again.

I’m still new to this machine and software. Are problems such as this common and something I have to learn to live with? I assumed when I took the plunge that everything I paid for would work as expected.

I should also note that last week when I was using the keypad to move around and took my finger off the arrow key, the Y kept moving until it hit the stop block. That’s when I decided it is best to keep the emergency shut down button just inches from me at all times. Anyone else having these type of issues?

[rcnewcomb]

Contact Shopbot Tech support. They will help you through this. It sounds like a communication or grounding issue.

We had some issues when we first started that were related to grounding. The primary symptom was loss of communication, but sometimes it woud begin making bad sounds and move in unexpected directions. I called Shopbot Tech support and they were excellent in walking me through debugging the setup. There were very patient.

We've been running for 4 years now and will get a communication error about once every 3 or 4 months - usually when I am using the keyboard to move the bot. That is a sign for us to go back and check the grounding again.

[knight_toolworks]

I thought I was the only one that got the com problem using a keyboard. I get it several times a week. but as far as I can tell I am pretty well grounded.

[zeke]

I followed the directions on the grounding, guess I need to call Tech Support. My issues have been always been when using the keypad. I guess one way to remove the problem is not to use it. Thanks for the feedback.