Hi,
My newly built machine is happily running now. However, I live on a big boat (60' steel trawler) and I'm currently a victim of iffy shore power. The marina has an older distribution system, and breakers randomly pop at times. So, I need some sort of strategy to deal with this.
Here's what I was thinking (but don't necessarily entirely know how to do):
Some sort of UPS (uninterruptible power supply) for the computer. That takes care of Mach3, but of course Mach3 will keep right on running the job unless it's told to stop. So, I need some way to both sense the power loss, tell Mach3 to pause the job as a result and -- preferably -- tell Mach3 to save the job, including current position, etc. I would -- ideally -- also add a relay for the driver electronics, router, vacuum, etc. so that they will stay off upon power resuming until everything is reset.
Or -- depending on how pricey it gets -- I could build a UPS that would handle the power demands of the whole system, keeping it running until I could manually intervene and pause it all (assuming the mains loss is something more than a tripped breaker that can safely be reset). I do have a generator, so another alternative would be to have a UPS to keep everything running until I can start the generator and do a smooth changeover.
Any ideas are appreciated!