I need help troubleshooting an intermittent glitch in a PartWorks 3D file?

[tim_mcknight]

I see my 100th post went from MEMBER to SENIOR MEMBER. Perhaps this is just another one of my reoccurring "Senior Moments"?

[jerry_stanek]

I just went out and ran your file doing an air cut and it ran all the way through.

[tim_mcknight]

I just went out and ran your file doing an air cut and it ran all the way through.

How many times did you run it Jerry? It usually runs fine the first time and then on 2nd or 3rd run it glitches.

[jerry_stanek]

How many times did you run it Jerry? It usually runs fine the first time and then on 2nd or 3rd run it glitches.

I just ran it once tomorrow I will try it a again 3 or 4 times.

[Brady Watson]

OK - Sounds to me like there might be a few things going on.

First, the control software is old - but that is not to say it isn't any good or that it is a problem. It sounds to me like you could be missing a few critical OS updates for the installation to puke out like that. Let's assume the control software isn't the issue. If & when you DO update the control software, be sure to install the firmware for the controller card. It has to match the same version as the front end/interface of SB3. If not it will either not connect or run unreliably.

The installation problem could be an issue with your User Account Control on the PC itself. If this thing isn't even connected to the web, goto the control panel and drag the UAC slider all the way to the bottom, OFF. This will prevent those annoying nanny popups ala Vista.

Take a VERY close look at your power settings. Make sure you set the power scheme up for high performance so that it turns the monitor off NEVER and hard drives off NEVER. Otherwise the machine WILL stop when the tool goes into power save mode. This is what occurred to me when you said it stopped at the same place in the file multiple times. Also turn off your screensaver etc.

The other thing, which is a sneaky little bugger of a setting in XP+, is USB Selective Suspend. Under Advanced Power Options in the control panel...Disable it. This will stop the computer from shutting down power to your USB ports, essentially disabling them for power savings & disconnecting the Bot.

Also just to eliminate any snafus...Make sure the login your have for the PC has Administrator credentials. Sometimes things don't work as expected because of some security level setting.

I doubt the issue is with the file itself.

-B

[tim_mcknight]

Brady,
I'm on the way to the shop now to check all of the settings that you mentioned. You might be on to something because my monitor does go black after a while so the power savings mode could be the issue? I'll also call ShopBot to see why I can't download the newer operating system. Perhaps its the age of my controller card?

I can plug into the internet, on my ShopBot PC for updates but I NEVER leave it connected to the internet for any length of time.

[Brady Watson]

Tim - Yes ~ if the monitor goes dark after some time, you definitely want to take a fine toothed comb to your power settings. The problem you're having isn't all that exotic - many have gone through this after years of trouble free operation for no other fact than, they haven't run a 3D file that takes long enough to trigger power saving mode.

I wouldn't worry too much about the control software. I specifically run v3.5.18 on one machine because it has been both rock solid stable (on both v201 and v213 IIRC cards) - and keyboard mode is way more responsive than post-Desktop versions. If it ain't broke don't fix it.

Try the power saving settings and USB Suspend off - and rerun your file in like MDF or something. If all goes well & the tool has been reliable otherwise in the past, just leave the control software alone. You'd have nothing to gain. There isn't anything new or groundbreaking to switch to the new version...although SB Support will want you to be running the latest version if you expect support.

-B

[tim_mcknight]

I called the mother ship and they sent me a PDF file describing changing all of the power saving modes as you discussed earlier. I did that and was then able to download the latest Sb3 version. I also updated the firmware after that. Odd thing happened is after powering up my machine it thought the e stop button was pushed but it wasn't. The new software changed my e stop to normally open condition so I had to change it back to NC and all works fine now.

I air cut the same 3D file 10 times in a row with no glitches or freezing. I now think the power saving settings was likely the root cause of the problem.

I noticed the the jog features are not as fine as they were on my earlier version of the operating system. I wish I had that feature back. The Z zero works faster on the newer version which is a plus.

[Brady Watson]

Glad you got it sorted.

Yes - the e-stop thing happens on some configurations when upgrading.

If you don't like the way 3.6.46 moves your tool around, revert to 3.5.20 download here

Be sure to run the UI command after you install it so the firmware matches. You can always go back to 3.6.46 + firmware if your file doesn't run right again.

-B