Messages

1

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 / UC100 Connection lost?

« on: November 24, 2014, 04:28:51 AM »

Just thought I'd chime in again with the fix (as suggested!) was the Cable.  Swapped out the USB for a double shielded USB cable with ferrite bead.  Haven't had a single disconnection since!

2

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 / UC100 Connection lost?

« on: October 30, 2014, 03:04:33 AM »

Hi John,

I did a quick experiment to test the noise hypothesis. 

Current Setup:

USB cable to UC100, parallel cable to CNC controller.  The UC 100 was about 1m away from the box, and I would get random disconnections, but sometimes would be ok for 20-30mins of mill time.

Experimental Setup:

USB cable to UC100, UC100 plugged directly into the CNC controller box.  This resulted in instant disconnection when the spindle was turned on! 

So I think it's pretty clear there's a noise problem, and now I can go about fixing it:

-moving UC100 far away from the CNC controller.
-adding a shielded USB cable.
-replacing power supply for controller.

The last item is a bit of a pain, but the machine should run better with a SMPS instead of the giant step-down coil that's in there right now.  Would also radically reduce noise.

-Sean

3

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 / UC100 Connection lost?

« on: October 28, 2014, 07:49:04 AM »

Well, that was short lived optimism.

Changed the USB power management settings, rebooted everything, and got a UC100 disconnection 2 mins into running a toolpath.  I've attached a picture of my machine, as its one of those Chinese routers a lot of people have problems with. There seems to be zero regularity to the problem so I'm not sure if it's computer related. The frustrating aspet of this is I have another CNC comp with parallel port (so I can skip UC100), but with identical Mach3 settings, the machine is jerky and missing steps.

4

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 / UC100 Connection lost?

« on: October 28, 2014, 06:39:30 AM »

Hi Derek,

Will give it a shot.  I don't think I ever had this problem with my CNC hotwire, but I rarely ran a toolpath more than 10mins or so, and I was usually standing nearby, fiddling with the comp.  I have turned off that USB power management and will let you know how it goes!

-Sean

5

General Mach Discussion / Mach3 / UC100 Connection lost?

« on: October 28, 2014, 04:30:14 AM »

Hi Everyone,

Recently got a new CNC machine (one of those Chinese Routers) Have it set up, running Gcode. I am using Mach3 and UC100 USB for the connection.  It's generally smooth and fast, but seems to have random connection problems when running code?  I am getting 'UC100 Connection lost', sometimes 2 or 3 times per code run.  CNC comp is a decent WinXP laptop which I have been previously using to run my CNC hotwire (also with Mach3 / UC100).  I have been checking the threads for similar problems, but most people seem to have other issues just getting the machines to run.  This one can run code perfectly, but will randomly lose connection.  Any ideas?