emergency stop
- deadgoodcharlie
- Vectric Apprentice
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- Joined: Thu Jan 01, 2009 9:47 pm
- Location: Whitby Canad
emergency stop
For any of you who are running Mach3. While running a program the emerg was triggered about 3/4,s of the way through. Was not the limmits,was no where near them and message did not read reached limit.While changing nothing I disabled emerg and continued to run,then it happened agian.There are no saving features turned on my PC, no updates and is not even hooked up to the internet, All is disabled that needs to be.This is the first time I have incountered this problem. I will regenerate the code the same way and run it later,but my feeling it is not the code,but either a setting problem or hardware, although settings have never been tampered with since enitial set-up and that was a year or so ago, any thoughts what has caused this.Thanks in advance.
- metalworkz
- Vectric Wizard
- Posts: 2463
- Joined: Mon Mar 31, 2008 3:26 am
- Model of CNC Machine: SX3 CNC, DIY 24x20 & 48x60 routers
- Location: Modesto, California 95358 USA
Re: emergency stop
Hello,
Are you getting any error message in Mach3? What kind of toolpath are you experiencing this with, 3D toolpaths? How long does the machine run before it stops time-wise? Do you think the problem could be related to overheating of the driver etc?
Are you getting any error message in Mach3? What kind of toolpath are you experiencing this with, 3D toolpaths? How long does the machine run before it stops time-wise? Do you think the problem could be related to overheating of the driver etc?
- Adrian
- Vectric Archimage
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- Model of CNC Machine: ShopBot PRS Alpha 96x48
- Location: Surrey, UK
Re: emergency stop
It could be electrical noise on your limit switch circuit, try increasing the debounce interval to about 2500 or so in options that will smooth out any spikes.
It can happen over a period of time as the brushes in the router wear down and creates electrical interference.
It can happen over a period of time as the brushes in the router wear down and creates electrical interference.
- deadgoodcharlie
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Re: emergency stop
Hello and thanks for the response, first there is no error message it just goes into e-stop,regarding brushes I,ll have to check condition. About debounce, I dont get that , machineing parameters are no way near limit switches. This happened after about twenty minutes of running.Yes it is a 3d toolpath. have never experienced this before and have run 3d toolpaths well into an hour with no problems.
- deadgoodcharlie
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Re: emergency stop
By the way my router is on a seperate circuit the pc and controler on another.
- Adrian
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Re: emergency stop
It doesn't have to be near the limit switches to trigger an estop. Most machines are wired so any interruption to the closed limit switch circuit will trigger an estop.
The debounce interval basically tells the controller to ignore a transient spike of less than the debounce interval and only trigger the estop if the circuit is broken for longer than that interval.
There can be all sorts of different things that create electrical noise on a circuit. I had exactly this problem on my old machine and I rewired it three times, tried different outlet and all sorts. In the end I used fully shielded cables on the limit switch circuit and re-routed all the motor cables away from that circuit but I still had to run with a debounce of 1000 to stop momentary spikes.
The debounce interval basically tells the controller to ignore a transient spike of less than the debounce interval and only trigger the estop if the circuit is broken for longer than that interval.
There can be all sorts of different things that create electrical noise on a circuit. I had exactly this problem on my old machine and I rewired it three times, tried different outlet and all sorts. In the end I used fully shielded cables on the limit switch circuit and re-routed all the motor cables away from that circuit but I still had to run with a debounce of 1000 to stop momentary spikes.
- deadgoodcharlie
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Re: emergency stop
Thanks Adrian, after work i ran the same code, without the router turned on and had no problems. Checked the brushes on the router and they still seem to have life about half way right now,dont have new ones to compare to. Checked the debounce in mach and it was sitting at 1000. i believe someone mentioned about bringing that value up to 2500?I will leave it at 1000 and run it in the air with the router on to see what happens. My limmit switch wires are shielded by the way. Thanks
- deadgoodcharlie
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Re: emergency stop
Test#2 I ran the cnc with the router turned on this time just cutting air, 7 minutes into the run it went into e-stop. Now about two feet away from my control box is where I have a small fan heater running most of the time, not directly pointed at the control box, just off to the side. I reran the file this time without the heater on and router spinning and it ran from start to finish without a hitch. i can,t say for sure the heater is to blame because i have run longer jobs with the heat running and no problems, so I suspect the router itself. The debounce was left at 1000. I,ll clean the router out and add new brushes and see what comes of that. Thanks to all for your input and will let you all know what becomes,cheers.
- deadgoodcharlie
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Re: emergency stop
Well I installed new brushes in my router and all is back to normal, debounce is still left at 1000, last two jobs went without a hitch, thanks agian to all who chimed in with responces.deadgoodcharlie wrote:Test#2 I ran the cnc with the router turned on this time just cutting air, 7 minutes into the run it went into e-stop. Now about two feet away from my control box is where I have a small fan heater running most of the time, not directly pointed at the control box, just off to the side. I reran the file this time without the heater on and router spinning and it ran from start to finish without a hitch. i can,t say for sure the heater is to blame because i have run longer jobs with the heat running and no problems, so I suspect the router itself. The debounce was left at 1000. I,ll clean the router out and add new brushes and see what comes of that. Thanks to all for your input and will let you all know what becomes,cheers.
- lockeyone
- Vectric Craftsman
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- Model of CNC Machine: other software 50-50 router, Mach3, Epilog 60W
- Location: Schofield, Wisconsin, USA
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Re: emergency stop
Just some info from my issues. My issues sounded similar to yours. I tried many of the things you did to try and isolate my problems. Had a motor control guy tell me a few things one of which was to put a UPS on the computer and controller. I installed a APC500 unit and all my preliminary tests are working great. I have some shielded wire to wire up after my current project but have high hopes. Never would have thought I had dirty power in my garage, lots of circuits and power to use just wasn't clean enough.
If you want to kill time, why not work it to death!
- deadgoodcharlie
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Re: emergency stop
Thanks for the info Lockey. In my shop I have a seperate electrical panel, does this mean it may not be to clean?
- lockeyone
- Vectric Craftsman
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Re: emergency stop
My garage has a separate 100amp circuit from my house. Lots of outlets and breakers. I would have thought mine would be clean. I had one instance where I had turned off one light and turned on another in my garage at the same time which caused my machine to stop. Seems I have some minor leak probably ground or something. I was told by the motor control guy that since my limits etc were such low voltage that simple things could effect it. I am hoping this cleans up many little issues I had.
If you want to kill time, why not work it to death!
- deadgoodcharlie
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Re: emergency stop
I think I,ll pick up a backup supply as well,thanks.