Centroid Community CNC Support Forum

O.K. I'm going to try one more time to get some help with this very annoying problem. Any and all suggestions will be accepted and appreciated. I have an ALLINONE controller running with Mach3 on my mill. It ran beautifully without problems for about a year. Then it started to lose the connection to the computer when jogging to zero my table. I can usually jog one or two axis in place and then when I try to jog the third one I lose the connection for a split second before it comes back on. When it does this, I of course lose all my zero's and I have to start over again. I have never had a problem running a program once I get everthing zeroed. To make matters worse, the problem is intermittent. I have built a new commputer and installed it thinking that may be the problem but it wasn't. Still the same. I changed the ethernet cable to no avail. All my cable are shielded and grounded on one end as well.

Scott helped me to install CNC11 on my machiine last year in an effort to see if it was a Mach3 problem, but after he hung up the phone I could never get CNC11 to open up, but that is another issue. I tried for weeks to get a hold of Scott again to no avail and finally gave up. It sure would be nice to resolve this problem or at least get some suggestions as to what it might be. Again, it only loses the ethernet connection when I'm trying to jog into position and it is intermittent. Almost instant off instant on. I do love my controller. It's a great product!

Thanks

Dan

Immediately when it loses communication, look in the control cabinet at the 7-segment LED on the All-in-one unit.

Is it showing a steady "1", as it normally should when it is powered up and ready with no errors?

Or is it rotating through its power-on tests, like it usually does for the first 10-15 seconds after you turn the power on?

I have seen a couple cases where voltage spikes (notably from switching off a Bijur-style lube pump on the same 120VAC supply) have caused the All-in-one DC to go into a reboot. While it is rebooting, of course, it does not respond to communications from the PC. In these cases, installing a Quencharc (RC suppressor) across the lube pump motor resolved the problem.

What uf value Quencharc should be used?

Thank you cnc,

I am not running a lube pump. I use an air powered lube spray which turns on and off with a solenoid. I don't have any problems running a program which is the only time the solenoid is operated. So the only time I lose communications with the computer is when I'm jogging into position to zero my axis. I'll try watching the LED's, but it happens so fast, I probably won't be able to catch it. Is there any setting in Mach3 that would effect this?

Thanks,

Dan

I just wanted to post an update on my connectivity issues. After fighting with this for over a year, I finally stumbled across the problem. I had installed a USB Hub in my cabinet to connect my input devices. I routed the USB cable from the computer to the hub in the same cable tray as my other control wires. Just on a whim, I removed the wire and rerouted it by itself. Bingo problem solved! So the moral of the story is: use the best cables you can by and do not route input cables with motor control cables or near anything else that could cause induction. I hope this helps someone else on the forum.

Thanks,

Dan

Dan,

Thanks for the update and we appreciate your help.

Quite frankly I'm shocked that a USB device could cause this. Are you using a shielded ethernet cable? (it has to have metal clips on both ends)

Any chance that the hub is not powered and that, by connecting usb devices, it was pulling the PS Down and thereby causing the problem?

Does it work normally when you don't have the usb cable for the hub routed with the ethernet cable?

Update:

I can't believe I've put up with this issue for the past 6 or so years. It has something to say about my patients! Looking back on my last post, I thought the USB cable was the problem. It wasn't. I have done everything I could think of to eliminate the issue including building a new PC, Changing the Ethernet card, Moving the PC out of the cabinet etc. The big issue here was that the problem was intermittent. Sometimes I could turn the machine on and have no issues and other times it would disconnect every time I tried to set my work origin by jogging. Saturday the machine even disconnected while in the middle of a job. I now believe this to be a Mach3 problem. My friend is having similar problems on his Mach3 machine (Nothing to do with Ajax). I have now decided to abandon Mach3 and my XP computer altogether and switch over to a new Intel NUC computer and CNC11. I will upgrade my software per Ajax and I'll finally be able to get back on my network to find the files I need to machine with. I believe that Mach3 has finally come to the end of it's life and I am hoping that CNC11 will finally solve these issues. Failing that, the Allinone control,will have to go back for service.

Thanks for your help guys,

Dan

here is an update.. Dan ditched mach3 and is running reliable up to date Centroid CNC software here is a video of his machine now.
https://youtu.be/0faWcXgIIbA

Thank you Keith. I should of done that years ago. Next one up is a nice little Dynamite 3000 lathe which I am converting to Centroid. Received the ClearPath Servos today. I'm excited to get started on the conversion and Hope to have all my machines on Centroid one day. Watch for more videos of the conversion coming up soon.

Dan