Shopbot rip van winkle

[Chuck Keysor]

Hello: I have a PRT alpha, from 2004, I bought used and slowly reassembled. Last August, I purchased Aspire, and laid out my first simple plaque. I had troubles, and Scott Worden came to my rescue and corrected the error in my file. After cutting that one plaque, and flattening a couple of big planks in late August, I got tied up on other things until last week.

So, last week I started all over on the Aspire videos, and laid out some simple plaques as Christmas presents. I went down to my shop two hours ago to start to use my Shopbot for cutting these plaques. I carefully squared up the gantry by pulling it up against the stops. I turned on the Shopbot power and the computer, and hit C3. I got a message saying to use the Jog command to move off of zero. I did that, and the gantry moved fine. Then I hit C3 again. The gantry moved as expected, but when it got to the X proximity switch, it started to buzz, like a vibrating spring, and it stopped moving. The buzz lasted maybe 5 or 10 seconds max, before it quit and I got an error message which said: "Tool stop button on! Current line: 112" Looking at line 112, it said JX,&big-move.

I turned off the Shopbot and the computer, and restarted them a couple of times. I did an MX3/simple move command, and the gantry moved in the x direction, maybe two feet (so the zero seems to be way out of whack). Then I tried C3 again, and got the same buzzing and everything stopped when it got to the X axis proximity switch.

The only thing changed since late August was that this morning I moved the VFD so that it would be 5 feet closer to my PC, allowing me to shorten the cable between the VFD and the PC.

Right after I had my problems, the phone rang, and couldn't write down my notes right away, in case something seems odd. I appologize, as I know you need accurate descriptions.

What do I do? Thanks, Chuck

[myxpykalix]

The first thing i would do is not only do a full shut down of everything, the control box, computer, ect but i would also go over to your circuit breaker and turn off the circuit that controls the bot. Information that sometimes is "stuck" in the memory of the control box and you have to shut the circuit down to release the memory in the chip saved in the box.

Although it sounds like it is a bit more then this, this will at least take this possibility out of the equation...:eek:

[steve4460]

It could be that your shopot.ini is corrupted .Find them and delete them .Then restart the control software it will make a new one and you should be alright .

[Chuck Keysor]

Thanks Jack and Stephen for the suggestions.

I went down to the basement this morning, first to try out Jack's suggestion. After powering up the machine, with the gantry in the home position, I suddenly noticed that the X axis proximity switch was hanging at a funny angle, and was actually loose. Its red LED was on, but it was loose and floppy. I pushed it back into its normal position, and pushed it on hard, so it wasn't dangling any more.

I continued with the start-up, and did the C3 command, and everything went fine!

When assembling the unit, I attached the proximity switch with double sticky tape. I never went back to attach it with a screw. I am guessing that the proximity switch was actually dangling, and that as the gantry moved into position, with the machine's normal vibrations, the detector/sensing system went nuts trying to home the gantry, while the proximity switch was moving randomly. The crazy buzzing/vibrating I heard, was probably from the gantry actually trying to home in on its moving target/proximity switch. Well, that is my guess anyway.

And, it was interesting to note that since the machine had been sitting idle for so long, it allowed the double sticky tape holding the prox switch to sag and come partially loose, allowing this possibly unique problem to occur.

Thanks again for taking the time to consider my situation and offer your suggestions. Chuck!

[steve_g]

It sure is nice when the answer becomes crystal clear! No more hoping that was the solution, always wondering if the problem is really solved!

Steve

[myxpykalix]

Glad it was something simple!

Did you get that massive shop building finished, or did you add on a new wing?

[Chuck Keysor]

Hello Jack. Yes, I wound up finishing the work in my basement. I spent over two years working to reconfigure things so I could get a full sized Shopbot in, and have room to work. The only thing I was stuck with, was the low ceiling, of only 7 feet. While I have done some crazy things, I was not about to jack up my entire house to get more basement head room. But if my house were not made of bricks, I would have done it!

Thanks for asking. Chuck