Conductive Dust Collection hose revisited

[jTr]

Follow up to thread a few weeks back initiated by Peter G Smith.

Brady recommended installing light guage copper wire inside clear flex hose in order to encourage discharge of static along full length of hose from dust shoe to metal ductwork.

Was easy to do for less than $10 and 10 minutes time - Used method of tying rag to copper line at pickup end and feeding up to desired point in line with throttling dust collector motor to thread the line - quite fun, actually!

So far, no more missing comm errors, and I've been going through quite a stack of plys over several days now....

Thanks for bringing up topic, and thanks Brady for the advice!

So Peter - time to report on the new line you must have installed by now...

Jeff

[Brady Watson]

No problem Jeff - I'm glad you got it sorted out. Yes, it is a bit of fun watching it snake thru the hose!

Thanks for the feedback.

-B

[Greybarn]

I have installed the new hose. It is clear, which is good, but we are still getting comm errors, which is bad. We have a piece of bare copper wire inside of it. The wire is attached to the dust shoe and then to our common gtround point. I have also tried it attached to the dust collector but we get comm errors either way. I am fairly susicpious of our "ground" point and am about to use our electricians ohm meter to see what I can find.
I am wondering if I also should be grounding the wire that is wrapped inside the hose. It is supposed to be conductive hose....
it is VERY dry where we are now. Dew points is 1 degree F and relative humidity is only 28%. My guess is that both of the figures are quite a bit higher than last week.
I will let you know if we get anywhere.
The good news, I think, is that the temperature is going up and the relative humidity should go up with it.
Regards
Peter

[jTr]

Peter,
As one who has fought comm errors repeatedly, I can empathize - I live in an arid part of the country as well, but not convinced it is that big a culprit when proper grounding is applied.

Simplest way to state proper grounding:

Wire you installed in flex line should be in contact with particles being drawn in but NOT to the shopbot itself. (sounds like you've got that)
That ground connection should extend through duct work, dust collector all the way back to your main breaker box or another suitable ground.

Ground bot to same point.

Once verified, check all your cables.
Check them again.
I've spent days in analysis of every other sort, troubling over ground and static and USB connectors only to realize to my embarrassment, I had wires in poor locations, or found they had crept a bit. This has happened inside e-chain as well as near X motor where the bundle was looped along side the X rail. Even though I was convinced I had tethered well, things can move.

jeff