Found another Cause of the SS drop out!!!  (and thats a good thing!!).  I noticed that when I plugged in another USB to Serial adapter cable that the SS would drop out...   I had this other cable plugged in to do VFD drive parameters...

At any rate, I moved the SS to it own port  (BTW it was on a 2.0 port, but I put it on its own port that it didn't share).  At any rate, I plugged in the USB to serial cable to program the VFD and the SS dropped out immediatly (yes, I checked to make sure they where not using the same com port, etc.).

When I removed the USB, then the SS would be stable!!!  So far it has run for about 2 hours without dropping out.........   So now my suspecion is that the FTDI drive code is jacked up in the way the USB is done.......  But perhaps Greg can chime in here.....

So now, I turn off Mach3, plugin my other programming cable, do what I got to do, and then uplug and restart mach3, and the sun shines again.....

put a vid link up under my 5 axis cab build to see the minimal basic operating control.

scott

That's a known issue with the FTDI driver and not specific to the SS. If you have two different devices with an FTDI chip and they have different driver versions trying to use them both at the same time will cause problems. Most of the USB-Serial adapters will automatically install and not give you the chance select the driver. I think you can find the adapter in device manager and point it to the driver version the SS uses. It is something you have to watch out for...

Any one run across a USB to Serial converter cable that is NOT FTDI driven?  Perhaps I can avoid the issue all to gether.
Currently I run the Radio shack and the Gold X, both cause the drop and I think both are running FTDI driver software.

scott

I just searched for USB serial adapter and found this one which says it uses a different chip: http://www.usbgear.com/CHEAP-SERIAL.html

I am actually looking for someone who has tested one, and knows it doesnt cause the drop.......

Scott

I have one that I think I used with the SS for a while, dont use it now as its not needed (different trackball) so I will see if I can find it and test it out to make sure. Problem is I dont have a clue where it is, probably at the workshop so might take me a year or two to find it
Hood

Scott
 after 2 days of searching I have finally found the USB-serial adapter but its 1:45am and I am at home so will be tomorrow before I can hook it up to the mill or lathe and make sure it works. Not even sure what chip is on it as the drivers are at the workshop and the info on the site I bought it from is non existant.
 Will let you know how it goes.
Hood

Found the drivers on my other hard drive, it is a Prolific Technology adapter.
Hood

Been running the lathe with USB to Serial connected and not had a problem with the SS losing connection.
Hood

Hey Hood,

   Can you see what "Brand/model" of Prolific?  I am using a Prolific "GoldX 1200" and it crashes it.....  the driver is the FTDI driver though.

scott