Machsupport Forum
Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: Garysb56 on March 20, 2019, 04:08:45 PM
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now after installing 2010 i'm losing communication with my cnc . i use to take a error every now and then and the machine would stop , but could just hit start again and the job would go on. now i have to reboot the computer to get going again any Ides?
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I don't know a lot about it yet. All i can do is share my experience with you.I use the UC100 also and had similar issues in the beginning, as you describe. I found out that all cables are not the same. I purchased a better quality cable and put my PC directly under the CNC table. This way I used the shortest cable I could. After a lot of head scratching that is what solved my problem. Heat is also a factor, i had come communication issues and installed a separate cooling fan for the electronics area of my table which are in a totally closed area. Helped alot.
Just my experiences,
Good luck
lumber60
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now after installing 2010 i'm losing communication with my cnc . i use to take a error every now and then and the machine would stop , but could just hit start again and the job would go on. now i have to reboot the computer to get going again any Ides?
add 1 to 3 ferrite sleaves to your USB cable as temporary measure - see pic.
Permanent solution: Stop using ANY USB external motion controller. They are just not robust or safe enough to control machinery.
Go back to use the parallel port or upgrade to an Ethernet Motion Controller.
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Mine works just fine, no reason to update anything!! Throwing money at it doesn resolve the issue.
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thank you for the info. I did the same and added a chock and that fix the problem for the most part before i made the change to 2010 now its back ... but haven't tried a shorter usb cable yet...!
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im thinking its an FR problem too but have not been able to nail it down... :(
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Does it happen at the same time interval every time??
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If you read why PLAMACAM use the parallel port to talk to their external motion controller box, you may understand why USB is hopeless.
Read:-
http://plasmacam.com/faqdetail.php?fid=14
The USB cable is like an antennae collecting electromagnetic radiation.
A portable wood router runs at 50/60cycles. That is very low frequency. If you use a VFD spindle you are going up to Higher Frequency. If you run at bigger machine at higher ipm speed, the pulse to drive the motors are becoming much higher frequency.
A shorter USB cable may help. A quality USB cable usually has 2 ferrite sleeves one at each end premolded in. Simple 5 volts signal devices like the USB are unstable because it only needs 1 to 2 volts spikes to affect the signals. Wraping grounded aluminum foil around the whole length of your USB cable can help too.
The Ethernet is better than USB because they use differential amplifiers on both ends of the twisted-pair cable. HF will affect both twisted cables but since the signal is always a difference between the two wires it is NOT affected by EM noise.
The most robust is still the PARALLEL PORT.
That's why PlasmaCAM running on Windows 10 x64 still use the Parallel port to talk to their external motion controller.
Unfortunately MACH3 needs 32bits win7 to use the parallel port.
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I run the USB just Fine
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now after installing 2010 i'm losing communication with my cnc .
What are the specs of the PC?
The 2010 screenset (or any other screenset) should have no effect on Mach3 operation at all. All it is is different images than the default ones, in different locations.
The one thing it can do is use more resources due to the larger graphics. But this shouldn't have anything to do with the USB connection.
Try opening task manager and check CPU usage while Mach3 is running?
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Another BAND-AID for people using USB motion controllers.
A better quality USB cable MAY help.
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I'm running window 7 64bit I5 CPU and 8gig ram and i have over 3/4 disk space . i am using a 6" usb cable that came with the uc-100 controller
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6" (6 inch) usb cables are included with most (made in China) knock-offs of UC-100.
I think the genuine UC100 came with a 6' (6 foot) USB cable.
Watch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKU9xN6D06g
He uses a better 15' (15 feet) USB cable for his genuine UC100.
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HOPE THIS IS WHAT YOUR LOOKING FOR, IF NOT LET ME KNOW
WINDOWS 7 HOME PREMIUM
SERVICE PACK 1
SYSTEM
DK SYSTEMS
MODEL DK 112134 4/23/12
RAM 4.00GB 3.71 USABLE
64 BIT OPERATING SYSTEM
LUMBER60
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HOPE THIS IS WHAT YOUR LOOKING FOR, IF NOT LET ME KNOW
WINDOWS 7 HOME PREMIUM
SERVICE PACK 1
SYSTEM
DK SYSTEMS
MODEL DK 112134 4/23/12
RAM 4.00GB 3.71 USABLE
64 BIT OPERATING SYSTEM
LUMBER60
Modify message
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waking up an old thread that is still relevant!
I had intermittent hiccups despite trying buying shielded USB, extra ferrites, and rearranging the power plugs to my equipment to change ground paths. So I starting trying to setup a parallel port. Bought the cable, found a really old laptop with a parallel port, found out Mach doesn't like those, so setup a desktop pc with a parallel port card I bought, STILL didn't work, then ultimately learned that some parallel ports use 3.3V digital signals instead of 5 and how to identify whether your parallel port card does 5 or 3.3.
In the meantime I had the idea of running the long parallel cable from the motor drivers (Microproto from Taig) to the UC100, then only a foot of USB to the laptop.
Whammo, not one fault since. I originally had the UC100 screwed to the driver box then USB all the way.
I thought this was worth sharing and I hope it works miracles for you too!
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I used a USB motion controller for a long time and after trying literally everything, from changing cable, moving computer, using shorter cable, RF filters, ferrite... I still had the problem of loosing communication randomly when spindle turned on or when I would switch on the hoover next to the machine. In the end I moved on to an ethernet controller and never had a single problem after that. bite the bullet and spend those £ 150, you will not regret it