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View Full Version : At first I thought encoder strips but now..



Chase Mueller
03-13-2018, 3:20 PM
I can't upload a video of it happening because of company policy, but sometimes when I start a job, it will run it normally for a bit, then suddenly take these really long pauses at each end. Sometimes all I have to do is stop/reset, but other times it makes me restart the whole machine to even get the laser to recognize that I'm giving it a command, just completely becomes unresponsive. Any ideas? I make sure encoder strips are clean each morning and initial startup is fine, so I'm a little confused here.
Also sorry for poor explanation, if someone needs clarification please ask. TIA!

Mike Chance in Iowa
03-13-2018, 3:34 PM
Do these long pauses happen when you are raster engraving, or vector cutting? Is it still firing when it pauses?

Chase Mueller
03-13-2018, 3:36 PM
No, it is no longer firing when it is paused, and I have vector turned off in my driver since AI was giving me issues with it. Just Raster engraving.

Gary Hair
03-13-2018, 4:12 PM
Can you send me the file you are trying to run?

Chase Mueller
03-13-2018, 4:22 PM
It's an illustrator file, will you be able to open it?

vic casware
03-13-2018, 5:06 PM
Hi Chase,
Happens to me too, i was told that it could be an issue with buffering, and to pause the job, unplug the USB and plug it back in
again then continue the job, it hasn't happened for months now, it is very random sometimes 2 or 3 days in a row
then months before it happens again.

Gary Hair
03-13-2018, 5:52 PM
I have a Mac at work with Illy and can also try to import into Corel. If you can, save as a version 8.

Kev Williams
03-14-2018, 12:15 AM
When the machine starts stalling out, what is your machine's display doing, if anything? Such as, if it's an LCD, does it lighten up and get hard to read? Other types of displays (color) might not be easy to tell...

What I'm driving at, is if you've noticed anything that may indicate a low-voltage condition, which will affect the readouts...

Chase Mueller
03-14-2018, 10:30 AM
Hi Chase,
Happens to me too, i was told that it could be an issue with buffering, and to pause the job, unplug the USB and plug it back in
again then continue the job, it hasn't happened for months now, it is very random sometimes 2 or 3 days in a row
then months before it happens again.
Ok thank you! I'll give it a shot.

Chase Mueller
03-14-2018, 10:32 AM
When the machine starts stalling out, what is your machine's display doing, if anything? Such as, if it's an LCD, does it lighten up and get hard to read? Other types of displays (color) might not be easy to tell...

What I'm driving at, is if you've noticed anything that may indicate a low-voltage condition, which will affect the readouts...

It appears to do nothing abnormal. Now, however, I can't center engrave. Any time I try to the carriage goes all the way to the bottom right of the machine, farther than I can even put it with the joystick. What a way to start Wednesday.

Kev Williams
03-14-2018, 1:25 PM
It's sounding like you may have a bad stepper/servo driver, assuming servo's have drivers similar to steppers (I don't really know)

The reason I asked about the screen: Twice since I've owned the GCC, the last time about a month ago, the display seems to get lighter. This is followed by the machine growing a mind of its own, acts erratic, head goes where it's not supposed to go, then eventually it just does zip. First time it did this I volt tested every place I could volt test (I found a great circuit diagram for this machine online)- everything checked out perfectly...? I've mentioned in the past that 'electronics spray cleaner is your friend'... it is-- I unplugged the machine, grabbed my trusty can of CRC e-cleaner, and proceeded to unplug every plug and IC chip I COULD unplug, sprayed both connections and re-connected. Every last one... Plugged the machine in, and it worked perfectly. That cleaning lasted almost 2 years, and had to do it again last month. I have no clue which connection is the culprit, but I'm betting it's just one plug or chip that's carbon tracking for whatever reason and creating a voltage loss that shows up on my display, and obviously to the motherboard and/or the main controller.

In the 37 years I've been running machines connected to computers, at least 98% of all the machine issues I've ever had was due to a faulty plug-in connection, usually fixed with electronics cleaner :)

Chase Mueller
03-14-2018, 1:38 PM
It's sounding like you may have a bad stepper/servo driver, assuming servo's have drivers similar to steppers (I don't really know)

The reason I asked about the screen: Twice since I've owned the GCC, the last time about a month ago, the display seems to get lighter. This is followed by the machine growing a mind of its own, acts erratic, head goes where it's not supposed to go, then eventually it just does zip. First time it did this I volt tested every place I could volt test (I found a great circuit diagram for this machine online)- everything checked out perfectly...? I've mentioned in the past that 'electronics spray cleaner is your friend'... it is-- I unplugged the machine, grabbed my trusty can of CRC e-cleaner, and proceeded to unplug every plug and IC chip I COULD unplug, sprayed both connections and re-connected. Every last one... Plugged the machine in, and it worked perfectly. That cleaning lasted almost 2 years, and had to do it again last month. I have no clue which connection is the culprit, but I'm betting it's just one plug or chip that's carbon tracking for whatever reason and creating a voltage loss that shows up on my display, and obviously to the motherboard and/or the main controller.

In the 37 years I've been running machines connected to computers, at least 98% of all the machine issues I've ever had was due to a faulty plug-in connection, usually fixed with electronics cleaner :)
Thank you for your suggestions! I had purchasing get me some of that cleaner you suggested and it's working just fine now.