I have just re did my system and i am having trouble with the spindle ,if spindle button pressed or MO3 command it loses communication with smooth stepper. I am using a C23 board from cnc4pc and a smooth stepper on xp . The spindle starts runs a few seconds and then stops and then i have to close mach unplug usb and restart to get it back to normal. I ran a separate  shielded two wire cable for the 0-5 volt and ground line to the spindle card i know it has to be noise from some were any idea on how to isolate it.

A line filter may be needed if your spindle motor is really noisy but you could try increasing the filtering in the SS Config.
Hood

I tried increasing it to 100 made no difference i put in a commercial surge and noise suppressor on the line and all the outher power lines.  I am at a loss as to what to do now .I had to walk away for a little bit, i am still trying a few different options but have had no luck yet. I may need a better filter but i am not sure what to use and what i would need i could install it if i knew what to use? I like the smooth stepper i have all the outher bugs worked out except this one,it's stopping me from operating.

Woffler

Hi Woffler,

Try grounding the SS board to the PC ground with a good heavy gauge wire. It solved the problem for me and many others.

Daniel

The problem is noise created by the spindle motor when it turns on and probably some relay arcing as well. You should install a line filter as close to the spindle motor as possible: http://soigeneris.com/cncparts2.aspx (bottom right). (Send me a PM about the relay arcing.)

Please note: This is not a 'SmoothStepper' problem per se, it is an electrical noise problem. With the SmoothStepper you will know right away when you have a problem like this, when running from the parallel port electrical noise will present itself a bit differently (like, "Mach did this weird thing today and I had to reboot to get it to run again" .)