Help please. Dip switches and mach 3 settings

[cropwell]

My thought is that it is thermal shutdown of the CPU. If it isn't dust in the CPU cooler, check that the fan and heatsink are properly attached, I have known certain designs of heatsink mount to fatigue and break with time.

Cheers,

Rob-T

[Radu_Andrei]

Ok. Thank you.

[dazp1976]

Strange that. Hope you get it sorted.
I have issues with CMOS on startup with mine if I switch the power off completely at the plug.
Mines down to the BIOS battery I reckon. Those watch style batteries they use don't fair well in the winter when in the garage. Go totally flat.
Same goes with some of my measuring stuff, I now keep those boxed in the house.

[magicniner]

The way to clean a dusty PC is with the cover off using a vacuum and paintbrush, not with an airline.

[Radu_Andrei]

Ok dasp1976. After the CPU I'll check the battery.
magicniner. Thanks for pointing out the correct way to clean a pc. I'll skip the computer next time I use the airline. I'm not sure I am strong enough to get rid of my air compressor addiction though, as it is my favorite "broom". Don't know why, but it is soooo satisfying to use.

[Radu_Andrei]

Hi.
Regarding the random shut down of the pc, it was not the cpu or the Bios battery, nor the ram memory as I suspected, but the ssd drive and the power supply. Only after replacing both, it worked again.
And yet, after 4 consecutive carvings (apx 6 hours each) done without any kind of problem, on carving number five and six, I've got 2 strange errors.

First error is something that occured once in the past, but went away by its own, and that is that at some point during the finishing cut (ballnose), the z axis goes apx 5mm up (most of the time) or down and continues to cut the rest of the code. If it is up, I can come back to that point and redo the cut and fix it, but if it is down, it just ruins the whole thing. If I remember right, Rob mentioned a lose wire to be a potential cause for these, but I checked all wiring and it is all good. Besides, running the same gcode one more time, it works without this error. Seems more like a mach 3 error, maybe some noise from a misterious source.

Second error is that sometimes, the roughing cut does not fit the finishing cut. Like the first cut, took away to much material in some places. These seemed to get fixed by doing the project again or even as simple as recalculating the toolpath in artcam. Seems an artcam error but I am not sure. Maybe someone knows better.

The only things that changed to the machine is that I finaly figured out how to control the spindle speed via mach3 (pwm). It control the speed fine but when I turn on the whole thing, a relay on the bob goes on and off, like a clock, and this translates as a small rotation of the spindle each time it clicks. Moving the cnc via the pc keyboard when this clicking is on, cause small stalls on all axis. Pressing reset a few times in mach 3 seems to stop the clicking and then everything works great.
It can work without error for many hours or days, and then at some point, while running, I can hear the cnc changing its sound, and moving the z axis 5 mm above and continues to cut. Going back a few hundred or thousand lines and runing again the gcode, it works fine. It is like a temporary source of noise, but I have no clue from what causes it. I could not relate it to weather, or mains power, or time of the day, or gcode.

The only thing that it is clear is that the relay clicking started after setting the pwm spindle speed control, but not at that exact time, a few days later.

Like many other times in the past, I do not know what to do.

[dazp1976]

Hi.


The only thing that it is clear is that the relay clicking started after setting the pwm spindle speed control, but not at that exact time, a few days later.

Like many other times in the past, I do not know what to do.

One thing can say on this is: Don't turn on any of your control systems until you have Mach started up and in control. This prevents any of the ancillary components like spindle and cooling firing up on booting of the PC.

[cropwell]

Co-incidentally, while I was thinking about a reply during a cut, my Z axis limit switch wire caught, pulled and broke and tripped the limits. Fortunately it was a short job and after disabling the limits, I reran the job successfully. I now have that problem to attend to.

Your problem still sounds like an intermittent disconnect to your Z motor. I don't know what wires you used, but you need high flexibility wires which have many (32 for instance) strands in each conductor and flexible rubber insulation. Another consideration is the bend radius, which must be as large as practicable. The wires to the Z motor move around a lot more than any other stepper.

Also look at your solder joints. Wire at these points become embrittled and any vibration or movement can fracture them. I have all the wires to my motors fixed down with P clips to eliminate movement. Bad solder joints can be notoriously difficult to spot.

Relay clicking ? Can you give us a wiring diagram for your PWM connection? The relay can be disabled by an on board jumper, if you are not using the contacts. My PWM controller uses the BoB PWM output and Port 1 Pin 17 (Normally B axis Direction signal).