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losing communication with UC-100
« on: March 20, 2019, 04:08:45 PM »
now after installing 2010 i'm losing communication with my cnc . i use to take a error every now and then and the machine would stop , but could just hit start again and the job would go on. now i have to reboot the computer to get going again any Ides?
Re: losing communication with UC-100
« Reply #1 on: March 20, 2019, 05:30:43 PM »
I don't know a lot about it yet. All i can do is share my experience with you.I use the UC100 also and had similar issues  in the beginning, as you describe. I found out that all cables are not the same. I purchased a better quality cable and put my PC directly under the CNC table. This way I used the shortest cable I could. After a lot of head scratching that is what solved my problem. Heat is also a factor, i had come communication issues and installed a separate cooling fan for the electronics area of my table which are in a totally closed area. Helped alot.

Just my experiences,

Good luck

lumber60

Offline reuelt

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Re: losing communication with UC-100
« Reply #2 on: March 20, 2019, 05:52:59 PM »
now after installing 2010 i'm losing communication with my cnc . i use to take a error every now and then and the machine would stop , but could just hit start again and the job would go on. now i have to reboot the computer to get going again any Ides?
add 1 to 3 ferrite sleaves to your USB cable as temporary measure - see pic.

Permanent solution: Stop using ANY USB external motion controller. They are just not robust or safe enough to control machinery.

Go back to use the parallel port or upgrade to an Ethernet Motion Controller.
"the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord"
Re: losing communication with UC-100
« Reply #3 on: March 20, 2019, 05:57:46 PM »
Mine works just fine, no reason to update anything!! Throwing money at it doesn resolve the issue.
Re: losing communication with UC-100
« Reply #4 on: March 20, 2019, 06:16:13 PM »
thank you for the info. I did the same and added a chock and that fix the problem for the most part before i made the change to 2010 now its back ... but haven't tried a shorter usb cable yet...!
Re: losing communication with UC-100
« Reply #5 on: March 20, 2019, 06:18:55 PM »
im thinking its an FR problem too but have not been able to nail it down... :(
Re: losing communication with UC-100
« Reply #6 on: March 20, 2019, 07:04:57 PM »
Does it happen at the same time interval every time??

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Re: losing communication with UC-100
« Reply #7 on: March 20, 2019, 07:12:50 PM »
If you read why PLAMACAM use the parallel port to talk to their external motion controller box, you may understand why USB is hopeless.
Read:-
http://plasmacam.com/faqdetail.php?fid=14

The USB cable is like an antennae collecting electromagnetic radiation.
A portable wood router runs at 50/60cycles. That is very low frequency. If you use a VFD spindle you are going up to Higher Frequency. If you run at bigger machine at higher ipm speed, the pulse to drive the motors are becoming much higher frequency.

A shorter USB cable may help. A quality USB cable usually has 2 ferrite sleeves one at each end premolded in. Simple 5 volts signal devices like the USB are unstable because it only needs 1 to 2 volts spikes to affect the signals. Wraping grounded aluminum foil around the whole length of your USB cable can help too.

The Ethernet is better than USB because they use differential amplifiers on both ends of the twisted-pair cable. HF will affect both twisted cables but since the signal is always a difference between the two wires it is NOT affected by EM noise.

The most robust is still the PARALLEL PORT.
That's why PlasmaCAM running on Windows 10 x64 still use the Parallel port to talk to their external motion controller.
Unfortunately MACH3 needs 32bits win7 to use the parallel port.
"the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord"
Re: losing communication with UC-100
« Reply #8 on: March 20, 2019, 07:25:22 PM »
I run the USB just Fine

Offline ger21

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Re: losing communication with UC-100
« Reply #9 on: March 20, 2019, 07:54:21 PM »
now after installing 2010 i'm losing communication with my cnc .

What are the specs of the PC?
The 2010 screenset (or any other screenset) should have no effect on Mach3 operation at all. All it is is different images than the default ones, in different locations.
The one thing it can do is use more resources due to the larger graphics. But this shouldn't have anything to do with the USB connection.
Try opening task manager and check CPU usage while Mach3 is running?
Gerry

2010 Screenset
http://www.thecncwoodworker.com/2010.html

JointCAM Dovetail and Box Joint software
http://www.g-forcecnc.com/jointcam.html