Try turning on verbose and see what it says... might give you a clue.

 

Treated my Ooznest Ox to a full strip and rebuild over the last couple of days.

All belts replaced.
Spoilboard supports rotated to give more 'z'
Started on fitting quick release connectors on all stepper cables which will make the upcoming jobs i have planned a lot easier.

Just need to find some suitable replacment stepper cables now.

Found a couple of seized bearings so will be ordering some more this week if they dont free up.

And found out that my workshop has sprung a leak onto my laptop so now the enter key is permanently 'pressed'. Will give it a clean / format and leave it somewhere warn and dry for 24 hours to see how it is.

 

Still haven’t got around to finishing my Ox full enclosure mods as this cold weather is messing with my joints.

Glad to see I’m not the only one who has rotated their spoilboard supports to gain the extra Z.

 

Yeah. Bit cold in the workshop yesterday!

Need the extra Z as I’ve been running with approx 3mm spare after 5mm safe z height.

Rotating the supports has given me an additional 30mm

This is an example of what i’ve Been doing with mine over the last year....

 

That’s awesome. I remember spending loads of time in arcades during my youth. My first project (after finishing my custom Ox) is one of these... or a working facsimile at least) for the Apollo simulator running with Kerbal Space Program.

 

Turning on verbose didn't have any effect. There was no additional info appearing on the readout and the repeating lines of question marks continued.

 

Looks like it will be an interesting project, keep us all updated

Chris

 

My only solution would be to check all your wiring and failing that, re flash your board (remembering to take note of your settings).

 

Have you tried with a different computer? Maybe a different USB cable?

 

Well, the gantry controls seem to be working properly, so I was thinking that it wasn't a cable or a computer problem. I may have to rethink that because I'm running out of options. I have had to yank the cable out of the controller board quickly to force quit the running program because the router went off course and was getting hung up in a deep cut. I wonder if I damaged the controller end connection of the USB cable, or the connector on the board itself.

The questions marks lead me to believe that USG in some way, is not fully recognizing the Xpro board despite being able to send proper gantry commands. I have not yet tried air cutting a job.

 

Neo: I've checked the wiring with a tweezer by gently pulling on each wire. They all seem to be secure, but if I don't find a solution soon, I just may have to yank all the wires anyway and reconnect them just to be sure. However, all the motors seem to be moving the gantry properly so I'm thinking it's more of a computer to control board connection problem. It may be either the cable (as Scotty suggested) or the connection on the Xpro board that receives the cable as I've had to suddenly yank it out to prevent a router crash on the most recent job.

I did try re flashing the board again and re-entering all the settings without any results. I also tried the verbose setting but that didn't yield any additional info.

 

If your USB/Controller connection is exposed, you might blast the port with some air. Someone elsewhere had a problem with dust building up in the port. (Just a thought.)

 

Scotty:
Great idea! I hadn't thought of that! I do have an exposed controller board. I gave it a try by gently blowing some air in the controller port, the end of the cable, and also the whole controller board just to cover my bases. Unfortunately, no change. Thanks for the tip though, I'll keep that in mind for future trouble shooting.

I'm going to buy another cable today and try that. If that doesn't solve the problem, I may have to bite the bullet and spend $130 on a replacement board.
Steve

 

I am not a fan of UGS. It’s ok but not as feature full as BCNC, isn’t as stable and isnt as configurable.

 

You could try downloading ESTLCAM. It uses its own firmware. The software is free to use for a trial and as a CAM program. It’s also endorsed by spark and compatible with the v3. It should be ok with the v2 too, I asked them.

If that works you know it’s not your board or any connections and just a GRBL problem.

Take a screenshot of your settings before you flash it.

You might also want to make sure the program that creates the G code is set to make it compatible with UGC. Different programs apparently interpret g code differently!

 

I've been using Vectric Cut2D Pro since I started and have cut many jobs without a problem. If it turns out to be a GRBL problem, what do you suggest?

 

I was really not a fan of having an exposed board so plopped mine into an aluminium project box. Was just enough room to include my optical isolator setup too for the limit sensors.

It’s possible you may have given your board a static zap at some point which has caused a problem. I hate static and have killed loads with it over the years (in fact I put my Ox electronics together with a leg ground strap that I use to stop static). One thing that I would suggest to anyone is Earth the entire chassis including the gantry separately as it runs on plastic wheels.

I once managed to kill a £30,000 mini computer by crossing my legs under a metal desk back in the early 80’s. Desk was leaning up against the main box (size of a washing machine) and it stopped it dead... but I finished it off when I stood up, walked over and tried to change the floppy disk (was an 8” one back then... 5.25” disks weren’t that big back then) and the ark from my finger was visible.

So yeah... any powder material + metal housings = possible static nightmare. I even ground the copper coil inside my vacuum hose to my cyclone extractor.

 

Try generating the G code from exactly the same vectors with another program like EstlCAM and see if it makes a difference and run it through UGS. If they have changed something in Vectric recently that will highlight it. Then it’s time to raise the issue with them.

 

Neo: I do have a wire running from my metal spindle mount up through my dust extraction hose and terminating on a screw on my electrical outlet. This cured the static problem in the hose I was having a few months ago. I hadn't thought about doing the same to the chassis and CNC frame. I'll make that a new year's weekend project.

 

Ryan:
I don't think it's a Vectric problem because the repeating lines of question marks start as soon as I open the command tab on USG. This is before I load the Vectric gcode via thumb drive from my other computer to my laptop connected to the controller board. I think the question marks are indicating that USG (on the laptop connected to the CNC) is having some kind of problem fully recognizing the Xpro control board on the CNC, despite being able to send proper x,y,z test commands for gantry movement.

 

Try BCNC then and see if it does the same.

 

God knows why they specced the box where it is and open too. It’s just asking to be fried.

It’s a shame you can’t try another controller card... how long have you had it?

Oh one final thing... you probably know this already but you don’t tend to move the gantry quickly when it is turned off do you? If you do you are supposed to move it slowly or the motors generate current that goes back into the controller and can upset it. You can move it slowly... but quickly and it can fry the board.

 

Neo: I didn't know that! Very interesting. I usually don't move it manually, but it's not out of the realm of possibility that I may have done that recently after a crash just to get it out of the way. The card is original to the machine I bought about 10 months ago. It's worked flawlessly and still sends proper commands to all axis when I do some manual test movements.

I just tried a new cable from the computer to the controller card and that didn't solve the problem. I'm thinking that the connection on the board was damaged by me yanking it out after the recent crash or, as you mentioned, the board was somehow partially fried. The test movements seem to be fine in all axis. But these never ending lines of question marks have me worried that there's a hidden gremlin that's about to jump out and bite me when I'm in the middle of a job.

I'll try air cutting a real job in the next day or two. If that doesn't do it, I'll look into Ryan's suggestion.

I also bought some wire to ground the frame and gantry.

 

You can see the current being generated if you just look at the board when you move the gantry by hand. It actually lights the LEDs even with everything turned off. It’s actually a good way to check which axes are attached to what channel on the board.

 

@MplsArtist, I just noticed that you are using 1.0.9 version of UGS. You might try one of the nightly builds: Download - UGS to see if the behavior is the same.

I am using UGS Platform, but they have nightly builds of the classic GUI as well. Note: you'll need to install Java 8 to use the nightly build. (And btw, I am using a MacBook - I think you are on mac too, yes? I have had zero problems with the nightly builds.)

 

Neo: Yes I have noticed the lights on the board when moving the gantry manually. I have done that when working in my PJ's and wearing wool socks while standing on the basement tile floor. Perhaps I should be wearing shoes all the time? Did you wear the leg grounding strap only while building the board or do you continue to wear it while operating the machine as well?

Scotty: I'll certainly keep that in mind. For now, I don't want to introduce any new variables. The current UGS version 1.0.9 was working just fine on my Mac laptop connected to the CNC for the past 6 months. It is not connected to the outside world, so there should have been no changes to the software that would have caused the problem. I'm thinking that something happened recently to the hardware that is now causing the software to start sending out the lines of question marks. Most likely it was when I yanked the USB cord out of the controller board to do an emergency stop that damaged the connector on the board or a static charge that occurred around the same time that partially fried the board.

 

Understood. I just thought it might show what those "black diamond - question mark" symbols were representing. That symbol is what is output when the comm program doesn't recognize the character that is being received. This sometimes happens when a receiving program is set to Unicode when the sending program is set to ISO (for example). You are definitely receiving "extra" information from your comm port which shouldn't be there (some un-ending stream of characters which I suspect are all the same). Hope you can get it figured out without buying a new board...

 

I don’t need to as the entire chassis dissipates static now. I can’t touch the board either as it is fully surrounded by an earthed aluminium enclosure.

Had one last thought about you yanking the cable. You could have fractured the board, the solder joint or damaged the socket itself. That’s why wiring in an auto stop is sooooo important. Good news is the USB B type connectors are the easiest by far to resolder.

Remove the board and examine the back of it where the solder is. With the plug in the socket gently move the plug and see if there is any movement of the solder... there shouldn’t be any. For fractures in the board it will show up as a line across one of the tracks... it’s hard to see when you get one but moving the plug sometimes shows it up.

It’s surprising how easy it is to delaminates the board and crack a trace, only for the trace to reconnect when it moves back... but now it’s an intermittent one and higher resistance too. Of course it would then (appear to) work fine until the vibration from a job causes it to throw a wobbly. One of the more common break points is where the loop of the USB port wire is connected to the pcb. The loop breaks from the fine pcb track.

I’m not saying it’s the case but it’s a possibility considering it happened after the cable yank.

 

Bit of a strange issue on my ooznest at the moment

Its not been used for approx 4 weeks and this weekend is the first week back cutting.

Over Christmas the only work i've done on it is purely mechanical (Lowering the sacrificial bed to give a little more 'Z', and replacing the dual belts all round)

Anyway, its quite happily cutting away this morning and i was thinking to myself "Its seems to be slightly 'slower' than before", but put it down to me not having used the machine for a good month or so.

Then around 10 mins into the cut the X axis stalls and misses steps. The machine is not being pushed hard with only a 3mm DOC on a 3mm bit in MDF with feeds around 3000mm / min - Its been fine for over 12 months at this.

So i thought i'd replace the end mill and repeat the job. Around a similar amount of time in the same things happens, then it does it on the Y as well.

I'm running a CNC XproV2 with a large 80mm fan blowing on the heat sinks, plus its cold in the workshop as well so heat is not an issue.

To try and figure out what the issue could be i tried to adjust the curent to the steppers and it seems like the power supply is not providing enough current to the steppers as all the way through the adjustment range the carriage can be stalled with a light touch on the X and with slightly more force on the Y (Two steppers so makes sense)

Could i be right in assuming the PSU is on its way out and needs replacing?

Any help / suggestions are appreciated.

Chris