It runs 5,6,7,8,9 cycles, then it doesn't!

[woodturner]

Can anyone help with this one? With the help of our friends at SB, I've set up a loop in a program to tandem process on the left, then right, then left, then right, etc. side of the table. Pause in between having to type something then continue. It will run an unpredictable number of cycles, then without reason or provocation, it will hit us with a "time out error." I click OK and the software shuts down. I re-start and sometimes it retains position, sometimes not. Sometimes it will show the correct position but then scoot to the far (wrong) end of the table until we hit the "E stop." Twice it burried the the bit (3'16" dia.)into the table and began to move in unrecognizable geometry. Once it went in approximately 20mm and popped off the "X" rails. I have no idea where that came from. I'll reset x & y with prox switches, then have to re-zero the "Z" and then it will run again until??? Any thoughts. Thanks in advance.

[gerald_d]

Ed, have a look at this thread (http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/messages/26/9719.html) and the other threads mentioned in there. I would start by looking at the grounding of your dust-collector, seeing that it runs okay for a while and then goes crazy.

[richards]

Ed,

You've probably got electrical interference. Are you running a spindle or a router? A spindle may take some black-magic, but a router is fairly simple. Be sure that everything is grounded. Don't rely on the metal rollers touching metal rails for grounding; run a heavy guage stranded wire to each axis and connect all of the wires together at a common point. Be sure that the wire is touching bare metal - not painted metal. Make sure that you're running a ground wire through your dust collector. One point of caution, to avoid ground loops, ground only one end of the dust collector to the common ground on the Shopbot. Leave the other end of the dust collector's ground wire unconnected.

If you're running a spindle, there are a lot of suggestions on the forum. Do a search and read them all. I messed with mine for a solid week before getting things to settle down. The good news is that once things started working, they've kept working without any problems of any kind.

(Sorry for the dust collector advice repeat, Gerald. You posted while I was still composing. Thank goodness for the twenty-minute window for editing a posted message.)

[gerald_d]

Mike, it is a 30 minutes window.

[ron brown]

Ed,

At one time ShopBot had a problem with the number of "loops" one could have in a program. I'm sure I was running DOS software at the time.

The workaround was treat the file differently.

Ron

[woodturner]

Thanks for the responses. For what it's worth, we are running a spindle, 1 yr. old Alpha, dedicated computer and (until the other day) the latest release of SB3. Due to the fact that the bit was a 3/16" dia. cutting into 3mm sintra, coupled with the fact that the dust skirt was actually catching part edges and lifting them up, we took off the dust skirt and ran without the collector running. On Thursday morning, we ran 12 cycles (24 parts), then got the error #09 msg, then ran 4 cycles and it happened again, then 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, and 5 cycles consistantly. WOW! Each time having to re-open the software, and about half the time having to re-home x and y, and re-zero. I will double check all the grounds. Any other ideas appreciated.