So was surfacing spoil board today - 33" x 51" .... no problemo..... Tonight go to surface board for 3d carve and just before the program ended BAM it just stopped... no visible errors on the screen. Ok... what ever...... have dinner.... Go back at it after dinner as it didn't finish to the surface height I needed...... so I got it set up again.... cruising along and BAM stopped again right before the program ended... actually in this case I got the program finish pop up and then shortly after as it was making its last go around BAM it stopped. So I am like... what the heck is wrong....... Here is the console screen perhaps someone can take a look and if you have any suggestions to the cause I'd greatly appreciate the feedback... Now my thinking cap is on...... Hummm been a longtime since I seen OBC update.... what version do I have.... well I have v.1.0284 and if I am not mistaken the current version is v.1.0292.... Why no automatic prompting for updates? I have it running on two different PCs ....have the same versions but no prompts to update. Not sure if my hard stop while running a file is related to the outdated version or something entirely different.......
EMI most likely. Search is broken at the moment, but we get several of these posts a week around here. I believe all of them have been tracked down to EMI causing hard limit errors. Start your troubleshooting here: docs:blackbox:faq-emi [OpenBuilds Documentation] As far as Control not updating. Peter, I meant to mention this to you today. I too have two Windows 10 machines that didnt get the last two updates. Serial log showed "Checking for updates. Already running 1.28x." I had to manually download on both machines.
EMI is like a brown paper bag lit on fire on your door step.... you know someone put it there but cannot seem to catch them in act.... I have grounded my dust collection (copper wire inside tube and grounded to the dust collector) - I have ferrite chokes on about every wire on my machine, pc cords, router cord, etc.....
Just disconnect the hard limits, unnecessary complexity. Otherwise.. Shielding and grounding and 10uf caps are in your future Cheers Gary
Does updates from a recent version, say 1.0.291 to latest 1.0.292 work? Old versions might get stuck if they havent updated in a while
Hmmm. I suppose my machine hadnt been on in a few days. But my desktop where I test stuff is always on and Control is always running.
Ok will check We had to switch Ci environments (Travis CI massively changed their pricing structure through a bait and hook) so might have something to do with the new CI
Found the updates issue: New CI doesn't name the release as v1.0.0 instead just 1.0.0 - CONTROL/Electron-updater need it in v1.0.0 format Now fixed (naming releases with the "v" again) and a lot of people will be getting happy updates today automatically
I did the capacitors' upgrade. It's really not a big deal and it resolved all my EMI issues. I can't search for my post about it since, as sharmstr said, the search is not working but generally a small ceramic capacitor goes between the limit switch input into your Arduino Nano, or what ever you are using, and the ground input of the Nano.
Ok - thanks - I will google it to see what I can find. Its just a real sh@tball when you are working along and the darn thing just stops for no apparent reason.
So back to my BAM ... BAM ...BAM hard stop issue I am pretty sure I have those Xtension switches but never put them on because they don't just bolt onto my machine and second I have not had much if any trouble for a longtime. Nothing has really changed in my set up. Say what you will but when I put my machine together I ordered all of my wire from you know where.... and I am pretty sure its not shielded. So I can add the Extensions Limits, rip out all my wiring and go to shielded wire... should have done that from the get go but I didn't know any better at the time. Lastly someone mentioned Earthing... so I looked that up...... Is this literally the act of sticking a grounding rod in the ground and grounding to that rod? 2.6 Earthing Many of the components on your CNC machine will need to be Earthed for your safety: DC power supply has an Earth VFD / Router likely has an Earth (some routers do not, instead relying on double insulated bodies) If you have issues with Static, especially when cutting plastics, consider earthing your machine frame. Note that some linear components, like V-Wheels, are insulating, so you may need to attach Earths to the gantry, z axis, spindle mount, and bed. Note that DC GND is not the same as Earth/Ground we are referring to here. This refers to Earth Grounding. Never connect DC GND (Negative) to Earth. NB Never daisy-chain earth wiring: Wire all the Earths back to a central connection (Star-grounding), which is connected to Mains Earth - this also serves to protect you in case of an electrical leakage / short
At the breaker panel/meter box, yes, but you'd just use the regular mains ground where they already did this when they put electrical in the house. Earth/ground are interchangeable here, as it says in the quote. This is not GND, or logic/DC "ground" (common).
When the power company ran power to the house and the electrician installed the weather head/meter base/breaker panel, they also hammered a (or more than one, by some codes) grounding rod into the ground nearby. That's Earth (UK/ZA/AUS(maybe)/etc) or ground (US/CAN/etc). DC power or logic "ground", as labelled on electronics, is NOT the above true ground. Hence why we use the silkscreen stylization for it, where it's usually printed GND. This allows clear communication. If your GND connects to your ground, you may have problems. It typically does, in an Arduino, because USB GND is typically continuous with PSU ground in PCs for shielding purposes, and Arduinos don't isolate it. Often leads to "ground loops" (unintentional circular antennas through your project). These are death for 5V logical signalling. 24V signalling is usually fairly impervious, whether shielded or not. Shielding and capacitive decoupling is usually a good plan regardless though.
I am using OB BlackBox - OpenBuilds Wiring - Meanwell 24v power supply. The only ground is the ground that I am aware of that feeds the 24v power supply from main home outlet. Other than that all wiring is per the OB BlackBox instructions.
The "Brains" board of the BlackBox is electrically an Arduino Uno- identical components and firmware, just a different physical orientation. I don't know if Peter isolated the USB GND in the design or not. I'm just responding to your specific question: The BlackBox contains decoupling capacitors though, and if you flip the switch so that your limits run on 24V instead of 5V, you shouldn't have noise issues. But moving to shielded wire in future certainly wouldn't hurt.
@Peter Van Der Walt -- Is this true? @Rob Taylor - not discounting what you are saying but I have had EMI issue before and don't recall any of the posters or Peter mentioning a switch of limits to run 24v vs. 5v. He did mention to use the Extensions limits which I have but they are not bolt-n-play on my machine so I have never gotten around to switching over to them. Based upon everything I have seen and read I know I should rip all of the wiring out and go to shielded but honestly have not found a good source of wiring - I.e I want black shielded in four/three/and two core.
Yes, kinda. But finding and fixing the Source of the EMI is still a better strategy than trying to immunise components around it. 5V with Xtension switches (default setup) works for almost everyone. Exceptions are usually guys who didnt earth their VFD, or run a Makita without an Earth, etc
@Peter Van Der Walt Understood the source should be identified but I am unclear how to do that. I do not have VFD though I have a Makita router - so therein lies the issue ? I've not modified the router at all - so its two prong - thus no ground.
The makita does seem to create more EMI than the dewalt. An Earth wire clamped between router body and spindle mount have been mentioned around here, for example Wiring - how to handle router power
But, just checking, you already spaced the router power cable far away from signal cables right? For example using a Swing Arm? Spacing cables apart is a very effective tool against EMI
I don't have a swing arm but yes the power for the router is not in the cable chain rather it runs upwards along with my dust collection hose. I have three ferrite chokes on it too along with the stock one.. not that it make a difference..... I was going to ask.. if I have another hard stop... is there a way to find out what limit was triggered...as I'd think it would be my Z axis limit as its the only one near close to the Makita power cord. I am going to be digging out the Extension limits and see how I can get them mounted ... after that .. will go to all shielded wiring.
Impossible to tell. Grbl uses a Port based interrupt. (multiple pins per port) for speed, versus polling. This allows it to stop in an instant, but even grbl doesnt know which pin triggered
@Peter Van Der Walt - One other thing to run past you.. not sure this is related. The files I were running were post processed out of Fusion 360 - I have the OpenBuildsFusion360PostGrbl post configuration but I don't recall when I installed it and does it have version history - meaning has it changed since long ago and perhaps I need to keep it updated? I did some digging and looks like I have an outdated one... what is in my fusion is 10 Jun 2020 - V1.0.16 and looks like current is V1.0.25 -- not sure it caused this issue though.
Correct, update regularly: OpenBuilds/OpenBuilds-Fusion360-Postprocessor But unlikely to cause false limit hits
