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Help needed.....Stops in the middle of the program?

Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2011 1:00 am
by JerryBurks
I don't have the Pro Plus for very long but so far the machine kind of did what was expected.
Tonight I ran a longer Vcarve program, first a drill pattern (no problem) then a pocket path (just fine) and then a long profile path, over 50,000 G-code lines.

It worked for over an hour, maybe 2/3 of the code, but at this point the program just stopped and the control box turned the router off. No error message and no crash, just as if the program was finished but it did not even bother to move the bit out of the path groove. The xyz coordinates were still good and I could jog the machine and send back to zero.

I then created another path with only the remainder of the original one that had not been finished and the machine started working as expected at proper coordinates only to stall another time after just 3 minutes. I sent it back to zero, turned everything off, rebooted the computer and gave it another try with the same result.

I am stumped. Any idea what is going on and how to fix it?

Thanks, JB

Re: Help needed.....Stops in the middle of the program?

Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2011 6:25 am
by Bob
Jerry,
I had exactly the same thing happen. For me it was electrical interference with the data cables. My cure: Be sure that all power cables are nowhere near any data cables. Also, keep power cables away from stepper motors and motor cables. I also needed to change brushes in the motor one of the times it happened because even though they were not very worn, they were still arcing enough to interfere.
Bob

Re: Help needed.....Stops in the middle of the program?

Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2011 6:49 am
by jeb2cav
Hi Jerry - I agree with Bob for what it's worth - but it's also anecdotal in that I did similar things, and it "hasn't happened" after doing that. You certainly had already recycled the power to the control box, so removed that as a possible solution.

Some other potential solution contributors - although ensuring that the data cables aren't laying on/with the power cables, and the same is true for the usb cable, is the probable largest contributor to this:

1. Some have stated that replacing the usb cable that came with the Shark with a better shielded one removed some mysteryious behaviors.

2. I had this happen to me twice early in my use, and before my power conditioner arrived. I had always planned on using a power conditioner as the electricity supply where I live is fine for light bulbs, but not so good for computers and other electronic equipment (voltage and Hz variance is a little excessive here in the country). Since I've had the power conditioner in play, I haven't seen this condition. I purchased this from NewEgg, but you can get them at any big box electronics or office store.

3. Similar to Bob's point about the brushes on the router - I've seen a post or two where a shop vac was plugged into the same circuit - and often into the same power bar that the control box is plugged into. Removing this from the circuit stopped all the mystery behavior.

4. A really nice solution for cabling from the control box to the gantry is in this post: http://www.cncsharktalk.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=633.

5. You can find some forum posts that might make you think about a bad SD card for this type of error. I'm not so sure and given the lack of documentation on SD card replacement and specifications from the manufacturer and level of frustration seen from the forum posts when fooling with the SD card, I'm not so sure. In this case, if the SD card was a contributor, I think you'd be seeing this outcome with any tap file you tried. And it appears you might be, but may have some overlapping cables or other contributors to electrical interference. I would recommend that if some of the above steps don't cure your problem, that you contact Rockler and get the phone number for the NextWave Automation shark tech support person - before fooling with the SD card.

Re: Help needed.....Stops in the middle of the program?

Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2011 2:40 pm
by JerryBurks
I continued experimenting. It is surely not electrical noise related and absolutely reproducible.
It happens with or without the router running at the same point in the program and swapping the USB cable did not make any difference.

I tried swapping the 1GB SD card for a 2GB card but that made the control box do really stupid things so I went back to the supplied card (a SanDisk branded card which is I believe a quality product). Then same behavior as before. The code runs normal until approximately line 2,400 out of 28,000, then the scrolling code in the Control panel window appears to zip through rapidly to the end within a second but without executing. I am not familiar with G-code details, but I examined this area of the code with an editor and it did not show unusual patterns.

So, after all I believe it is some software problem, either in the G-code generation or probably in the control box firmware (I did apply the latest firmware upgrade).

If nobody here has an idea how to fix that it is probably tech support time...

JB

Re: Help needed.....Stops in the middle of the program?

Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2011 4:08 pm
by jeb2cav
Tech Support time - the good news is that Next Wave Automation does now have a full time tech - Rockler has the phone number. Let us know what you find out and hope it is resolved soon.

Re: Help needed.....Stops in the middle of the program?

Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2011 4:24 pm
by JerryBurks
Found something really strange. The problem occurs only with one of the vectors of the whole path. There are 3 instances of this vector (a gear outline) besides some 20 other different gears. All other vectors cut just fine but when the questionable one comes up, the machine makes two passes all around, ramps into the third and stops near line 400 of the G-Code. Changing feed rate or path depth does not help. Only when I cut this gear in full 1/2" depth at very low speed in a single pass it will finish. Still not sure if that is a Vectric/Vcarve problem or if the control box gets stuck on a certain code sequence. The other gears that cut without problems look just the same, only with slightly different numbers of teeth and diameter.

Ever heard of that? JB


P.S.: if somebody wants to try if their machine does the same, I have made a new Vcarve file with only the bad vector:
StrangeGear.crv
(421 KiB) Downloaded 340 times
StrangeGear.tap.crv
(38.03 KiB) Downloaded 298 times
(this is the tap file please delete the .crv extension, only added to allow upload)

Re: Help needed.....Stops in the middle of the program?

Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2011 6:22 am
by jeb2cav
Hi Jerry - nothing leaps out to me at least. Have you tried changing the Machine Vector Direction to "Climb" (vice Conventional) for this particular cog? The other thing you might try is to check the Use Vector start points (don't optimize). Both of these would be attempts to get around whatever either VCarve or the Shark is choking on. I can't seem to find a couple posts where changing the Direction seemed to clear up the issue - and I don't think it was further investigated with either Next Wave or Vectric to determine if there's a bug on either side, or if this is just the way to do it.

Are you sure you are using the latest post processor file from the Next Wave download site? I assume that you are, as you have arc g-code moves in the tap file. However, the 9/8/2010 version supposedly addresses arc issues and is not part of the initial VCarve install (the older post processor is). I'll try this here, but won't get to it until late Sunday at the earliest - between running jobs, soccer, and Easter - so thought I'd send this now if you want to try.

Re: Help needed.....Stops in the middle of the program?

Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2011 8:19 am
by Buc
Jerry,
If this makes you feel better, your .crv doesn't run on my machine either. I did recalculate my own tool path and it ran complete. Not sure as to what we did different.

I did notice you had 1827 lines of code with something like 32 seconds machine time. I have 663 lines of code with about 1:09 machine time. The only thing I can think of that would be different is our tool data settings. When you caclulated the tool path was there another tool path checked on the list?

I'm not an engineer, just a retired machinists.

Buc?

Re: Help needed.....Stops in the middle of the program?

Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2011 8:44 am
by jeb2cav
Hi Buc - are you still using the "original" post processor files from the VCarve installation? From a separate thread, I think you had said you had never applied the latest postp files.

I reran the toolpath, but got the same tap file outcome as Jerry. So, this may be a clue - and if so, a bug on Next Wave Automation side I guess.

Re: Help needed.....Stops in the middle of the program?

Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2011 9:07 am
by Buc
Goodmorning Joe,

I'm using Aspire v3. Using the PP that came already loaded with Aspire.

My machine stopped at X 1.493, Y0.791, and Z-0.177.

Using control panel version 1.4.0.17

Buc?