[kuyote]

I've just got my machine going, and I'm getting quite a bit of interference to the steppers. I'm using shielded wires to the steppers as well as to the c10 board, but the power wires aren't shielded. Is the foil or bare wire supposed to be attached to anything? Do I need to swap the power wires with shielded wires? I've noticed it more in the z axis when running x or y it tends to step down a little. If I move the z towards the top it stops. Each driver is wired to its own +- posts on the power.

[Fastest1]

Yes the shields need to be connected to a "star ground" at the controller end only. Also try to separate the power and stepper wires as much as possible. Try to keep the wires from running parallel.

[kuyote]

Thanks fastest1, is this only for the shielded wires from driver to stepper? Or does it include the wires from driver to the c10 board?

[Fastest1]

If you have a shielded wire it won't hurt to connect it to the star ground as a precaution. Also make sure you have a little bit of debounce on your General config page. Maybe a value like 100. Very few machines run with no debounce.
The debounce is the length of time the signal has to be present before Mach considers it a signal. This keeps errant noise from triggering anything.
Were you or are you running any debounce?


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[kuyote]

Here is a short video as an example. Not sure what happened at the beginning, but the last few seconds show what is happening. This was only using the x and y jogging on an xbox 360 controller. I don't have a star ground on the case, however I've attached the shield wire from all 3 stepper motors to a bare nut and machine screw going through the case wall. I wasn't running debounce, But I've went up to 2000 and increments, and it didn't help the issue. It is happening randomly, I can run for awhile and not have the interference, then all of a sudden it starts up

https://youtu.be/K3Zo5CLEPy0

[Fastest1]

Are you running any anti viral software? Have you gone thru the mach3 optimization steps? Are you using a parallel port.

[kuyote]

Just went out to run some more tests. I swapped the driver from the x and z, and changed the pins in mach3, now the x is showing these signs. It looks like it must be driver related.

[kuyote]

It is a fresh install of Windows 7, I'm using a uc100 parallel to usb converter. No Antivirus installed.

Are you running any anti viral software? Have you gone thru the mach3 optimization steps? Are you using a parallel port.

[Connor]

It is a fresh install of Windows 7, I'm using a uc100 parallel to usb converter. No Antivirus installed.

And this would be your problem. You need a real parport. USB isn't realtime.

[kuyote]

I'm not saying you're wrong Connor, but having so many other people successfully using a uc100, would lead me to believe that this setup is possibly.

[Fastest1]

I think Connor misunderstood the product you are using. Some people have attempted to use adapters. They dont work. However in a USB device designed specifically for CNC they do have workarounds. From what I have seen UCNC is a viable software/hardware combo.
It sounds like you have used the correct diagnostics to pinpoint the issue. Just verify you were correct and get a new driver if necessary.

[kuyote]

I went out this morning, to check a few things over, and decided to reflow the solder on the db9 connectors. When I plugged the power supply into the extension cord, I noticed it didn't make great contact in the plug and sparked a little, so moved it to another plug, and viola, no more interference. I've been using one of those white extension cords with 3 of the 2 plug sockets on the end. Swapping that out would have saved quite a bit of time wasted. I'm still not sure why it only affected that one driver though, but it's all running smooth now.

[Fastest1]

There are mysterious gremlins in this game. You find the oddest things can cause issues, or you think so and the voila it happens again. Glad it is working. Keep refining your understanding and techniques. Something else will happen unexpected at exactly the wrong time. Dont ask me how I know.