Hello Guest it is March 19, 2024, 02:09:13 AM

Author Topic: UC300 (USB) to Mach3 erratic connection losses  (Read 8577 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Re: UC300 (USB) to Mach3 erratic connection losses
« Reply #10 on: February 19, 2017, 07:03:03 PM »

BTW: PC power management is "never sleeps"


In Device Manager your USB controllers may well have settings which "Allow the computer to turn off this device" regardless of your "Power Management" settings

Offline Davek0974

*
  •  2,606 2,606
    • View Profile
Re: UC300 (USB) to Mach3 erratic connection losses
« Reply #11 on: February 20, 2017, 02:17:27 AM »
Definitely a PC issue, if it is not maintaining USB connection.

Have a look in the device manager for USB bus and see if there are any power settings.

Also google something like "windows xx USB disconnects" and so on.

Offline Filou

*
  •  59 59
    • View Profile
Re: UC300 (USB) to Mach3 erratic connection losses
« Reply #12 on: February 20, 2017, 02:45:54 PM »
Some improvement, at last.  Thank you all for you input and thoughts.

The bottom line: the so-called  Device Manager / USB root hub devices (there are 7 on this laptop  PC-type machine) must all be tweaked in their Properties / Power Management Tab in order to prevent the system to turn off this device. On a laptop this makes sense in order to conserve the battery.

Perhaps a short hint pointing to this potential issue in the User Manual of the UC300 would be of help for all those who plan to use Laptops rather than boxes in their shop. I'll inform Balasz, but he seems to be "off line" these days.

Beer time !
   
Re: UC300 (USB) to Mach3 erratic connection losses
« Reply #13 on: February 20, 2017, 03:12:43 PM »
Perhaps a short hint pointing to this potential issue in the User Manual of the UC300


It's old enough news in the IT world that their techs have probably long since lost it to their "assumed level of knowledge", I was regularly dealing with this issue over 8 years ago in an IT support role.

Offline Filou

*
  •  59 59
    • View Profile
Re: UC300 (USB) to Mach3 erratic connection losses
« Reply #14 on: February 20, 2017, 03:22:28 PM »
well, since you are/were in the IT business allow me to ask another question:

 is there a rationale for the change in erratic behavior ? why would the frequency of disconnections vary from time to time without any visible (to the User) correlation with the job given to Mach 3 ? the only coarse correlation I have is that the disconnection rate was higher with Mach 3 RUNNING than IDLE and clearly smaller (but not zero) without Mach 3.

 enjoy your evening, Philippe
Re: UC300 (USB) to Mach3 erratic connection losses
« Reply #15 on: February 20, 2017, 03:36:22 PM »
well, since you are/were in the IT business allow me to ask another question:

 is there a rationale for the change in erratic behavior ? why would the frequency of disconnections vary from time to time without any visible (to the User) correlation with the job given to Mach 3 ? the only coarse correlation I have is that the disconnection rate was higher with Mach 3 RUNNING than IDLE and clearly smaller (but not zero) without Mach 3.

 enjoy your evening, Philippe

In a Wintel support environment you have two choices, ask Microsoft for a solution and/or explanation or figure out a fix, unless you're a truly massive client who can threaten them financially guess which is usually quicker? ;-)
It's simply an old problem with a known fix, without the source code and a team of developers I doubt you'd ever get to the bottom of the problem and given the complexity of the Windows environment I suspect the cost/benefit analysis wouldn't be favourable.
I was just very grateful that there was a way to disable USB hub power saving and moved on as it was no longer a problem :D

Offline Filou

*
  •  59 59
    • View Profile
Re: UC300 (USB) to Mach3 erratic connection losses
« Reply #16 on: February 20, 2017, 03:39:36 PM »
I have no envy to solve it to the root. BTW, as we chat, the nasty disconnections are not entirely gone. Had three runs in a raw with 10'000 plus lines of code, the fourth stalled miserably ...
another beer, I guess. And, I have not moved a thing of the rig. ...
Re: UC300 (USB) to Mach3 erratic connection losses
« Reply #17 on: February 20, 2017, 03:45:04 PM »
There are those who build CNC systems professionally who will not use USB because once everything is configured correctly it will still sometimes still fail to be reliable enough to run a system acceptably.
Have you considered swapping to Ethernet?

Offline Filou

*
  •  59 59
    • View Profile
Re: UC300 (USB) to Mach3 erratic connection losses
« Reply #18 on: February 20, 2017, 04:39:12 PM »
not yet ... but you may have a point.

this (perhaps wrong) choice was motivated by a tight spec list, partially available equipment, and the fact that I have used USB as well as PCI stuff for (low level signal) data acquisition applications that I thought were more complex than feeding three drivers with pulses. But these jobs were not tailored for machining as Mach3 obviously is. If I neglect the loss of three days with this silly (not completely solved !) USB loss of communication the whole process (sketch / order three ball screws + motors + drivers / chop pieces / assemble together + wiring was reasonably flawless.   

Offline Filou

*
  •  59 59
    • View Profile
Re: UC300 (USB) to Mach3 erratic connection losses
« Reply #19 on: February 22, 2017, 01:44:49 AM »
summary:

random disconnections between Laptop / Win 7 / UC300 still not zero despite modified power management settings AND USB rot hub adjustment.
ruled out the UC 300 by himself, it must be the combination of THIS PC to this USB device.
tested UC for two hours on another PC: zero disconnections.