I recently got an Ethernet Smooth Stepper running with Mach 3 and everything is pretty much perfect!... except this one little thing that is driving me nuts.

If I click the Stop button on the Mach 3 screen during a program, the machine stops exactly as it's supposed to - movement ceases, spindle stops and pulls up in Z.  Then a little screen pops up with this message: "Error reported by SS. Halting. Flags register: 80000049."

After that, it's over.  Everything has to be shut down and restarted and will work just fine until I hit Stop again.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Robert

Hi Robert,

Hitting Stop causes an immediate termination of program execution which looses exact machine position so it is always best to use Feed-Hold (which stops the machine in a controlled manner) then, when all movement has ceased, you can hit Stop.

Tweakie.

Hi Tweakie,

Thanks for your response.

I'm wondering if it's a random thing because I actually did click on the feed hold prior to clicking the stop button.  Yesterday I ran several programs and stopped them mid-program with no issues - but I did not click the feed hold at all.

What I'm doing is probably not "best practice".  I've got some programs that will run 4 identical parts but sometimes I only want to run 1 or 2.  So I just stop the program after the desired number are cut instead of letting the router cut air for a few extra minutes.  Is there a recommended method for doing something like this without using the stop button?

Thanks,

Robert