Lookin for Gremlins - Isarn, TH
 

I have been using the machine for about a week on and off.
It has been working very well.
The day before yesterday it lost position while cutting, about 20mm.
I should have caught it sooner but I was busy dismanteling my old machine.
Not sure if the new one got jealous, not paying it enough attention.

Yesterday I had to stop cutting as the rain turned horizontal. Put the cover on.
This morning cover off power up, reference return.
Z & Y ok, X overran the switch.
Took the bracket off and straightened it, put it back on.
Checked diagnostics to see if the switch was working. It was.

Jogged the machine away from the home but it went in the opposite direction.:eek:

Checked the wiring. The printer cable was sitting at a slight angle.
Straightened that.

Cut a job ok.

Possible reasons for the errors.

Damp from the rain.
Might have bent the switch bracket taking the cover off.
Printer cable disturbed moving the computer.

Working again.
Note to self; Make sure to check switches and cables before power up.

I know where you are coming from. Had issues forever on my current machine, couldn't pin point it. Finally figured out the computers USB couldn't supply a constant voltage to the breakout board. Replaced the BB with a PMDX 122 powered by a 9V wall wart and the machine started doing what it was supposed to do.... to a point :)

I would look at all the places water could condense on the machine, Humidity could be shorting out your connections.

No more loss of position I am happy to say.

I had a series of phantom "External e stop requests".

My first thought was dust.
Not much dust in the computer or the control box, vacuumed both but the problem persisted.
Then I thought it was an earthing (grounding) issue .
Put in a new earthing arrangement for the computer and machine.
All ok for a while then the problem reappeared.
Found the parallel port in the control box was at a slight angle, dont know how that happened.
Re seated the cable.

It has run fine all week, including a 10 hour shift today.:)

Best to screw the printer cable to the port. It is your connection to the machine.

I have had a series of unexplained E stop errors lately.
My first thought was to throw a bucket of water on to the earthing spike as the weather has been dry lately.
Error still there.

It was not until I touched the E stop button when I found the reason.
I only had to touch it and it would throw up an alarm.
Took the switch out and blew off the dust.
It has worked fine since.

Really?:confused: That's it?

Yes, that was it.
Just something simple (like me).
The dust must have been shorting the switch when circumstances were right.
It worked fine all day yesterday.
117 door panels and 2 pelmets over the last 3 weeks.
Back to work tomorrow.

I had a similar fault on #28
- had to step up the debounce number in Mach 3 for "static noise" on the input lines.