[richag77]

Hi Guys, I have been using this machine from new and it worked well for about 6 weeks but now I am having trouble with my 3040 cnc router (Mach3 software communicating via a USB cable). To illustrate the fault, lets say there is a command to move the X axis 100mm. It moves along and somewhere in this movement it pauses for a brief while (maybe .3 seconds) and then skips to the next line in the program which causes the cutter to move through the middle, say, of my work piece. It does this randomly without any way of predicting if and when it will do it. All I can think of is that if I shielded the communication cable from the PC to the CNC controller unit it may help. I have tried putting an extra choke on the communication cable. What do you think?
Cheers Gary

[ubergeekseven]

What changed between it working well and now? Any physical changes that you made? What version of Windows are you using and do you allow it to update?
I had similar things occur but, I am using an Ethernet ess control and if you are doing anything with using USB with Mach 3 while running, weird things happen. I had a wireless USB remote I was using until I realized that this was randomly sending a signal to windows. I guess it was trying to stay alive, and it would cause my machine to either throw the ran out of memory error or it would send an axis to a position out of the program or crash.
I stopped using that controller and I try to not touch anything on the PC while the job is running. I keep going back and forth on if I should upgrade to Mach 4 or not.
Otherwise, I suppose the cable could be shielded better.

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[ger21]

Try lubricating all the screws and bearings.

[richag77]

Thanks ubergeekseven, I am using Win XP as that is the only OS that the version of Mach3 will work on. It is not connected to the internet so there have been no updates. The only thing that has happened since it was working OK is a pin on the y axis plug to the stepper motor popped out and had so be pushed back home so that the axis could be jogged and move the way it is supposed to. It now appears to jog OK but has the problem described when running on program. Will try shielding and lubricating. Cheers

[awerby]

If the pin popped out when the stepper was powered up, it may have generated a spark that damaged the driver for that axis. Try replacing it and see if the problem goes away. If not, you've got a spare driver, which will be handy down the line, if something else goes wrong.