OpenBuilds Blackbox has been working fine. Today the motors are not engaging at all. Have tested that 24v power is getting to the Blackbox. OpenBuilds Control is sending commands but the axis are still movable by hand. Checked the fuse and it tests fine. Not sure what else could be the problem. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
The Blackbox has lost its settings again. Thanks that fixed it. Having a lot of trouble with the machine just stopping without errors. Not sure what is going wrong but I have good runs and bad runs with the Blackbox. I love it either way as it is an amazing piece of tech. Not sure if I just have a dodgy one or everyone else has issues like 3 times a week where a job just stops. Thanks again for the help. Will hopefully get a stable system eventually.
I have isolated the Blackbox and a mini Pc, enclosed, grounded and installed ferrite blocks on all of the wiring. Essentially have a faraday cage around everything. I still have some issues.
Usb Selective Suspend off? docs:blackbox:install-windows-selective-suspend [OpenBuilds Documentation] Try a different PC too
Yep, followed some information you provided previously on disabling the Selective Suspend. Turned it off. Ended up getting a small PC, installed Ubuntu and ran solely off that with a short, shielded and ferrite protected USB cable. Still the same issues coming up. I get random symbols instead of text some times in the console and jobs that just stop in place with no errors. Not sure what the buffer options are in the GRBL settings but figured maybe play around with them at some stage. Today one of the lines of code in my GCode file repeated itself for no reason 3 times then just sat there not moving or even turning off the system like when a normal error occurs. The line only appeared once in my GCode. have some random photos from today’s errors
What kind of spindle are you using. Show some pics of your setup. M3, immediately thereafter a disconnect... Not a coicidence: router kicked up EMI when it turned on
I I have a VFD running off the Blackbox to a spindle that came with the original setup. Not sure what type it is but I can take a photo in about 12 hours when I am back in front of it. The VFD used to go up to 18000 rpm when we manually ran it. Now sending it M3 S18000 makes it run at about 16500 or so with a little fluctuation. Do you think this is all related? Will send thru photos as soon as I can. Thanks for your help.
Absolutely. Chinese VFD inverters are EMI factories. Also 400hz is harder to mitigate than the 50/60hz. You can throw a router on there and it will all go away, or spend time adding ferrites, shielding the VFD (refer link above has a link to an article about vfd shielding in more depth), earthing the body and frame, and adding a lot more spacing (like putting VFD 2-3m away)
I have worked to isolate the VFD a bit better and realised it might have been an influence from welding machinery in the building. The speed reading on the VFD is a lot more stable now, however a new problem has arisen. After OpenBuilds Control sends the M3 S18000 command and the spindle spins up... it doesn’t send through any more commands. The Job Queue just sits there and the Serial Console shows no more commands sent.
Things are just going weird now 1) Start up OpenBuilds web interface after powering off and restarting everything 2) Double check GRBL settings are reading fine from Blackbox 3) Controller status: idle 4) Run GCode file that has M3 S18000 then a G4 P10 then an M8 - this normally works fine 5) Spindle spins up and the last command sent to the Serial Console is the M3 S18000 command 6) Nothing else runs/happens 7) Click Stop Job, Controller status is Stopped. 8) Click run job - nothing happens 9) Click disconnect, then connect. Controller status: Alarm 9) Unlock Alarm 10) Run job - takes me back to step 4
Run a job that just consists of the following: G21 G54 G21 G90 M3 S18000 G4 P1 M8 this sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t. Performing the exact same processes, it always turns on the spindle but sometimes stops there and never turns on the Cooling
EMi from the spindle, as soon as it turns on it knocks out the USB. Try the same GCODE with the Spindle off. Then refer to docs:blackbox:faq-emi [OpenBuilds Documentation] Unless you really need the speed control of a VFD all the headaches might not be worth it. A router does all the same jobs without the fuss
I’ve worked really hard to eliminate the EMI, ferrite rings, cable shrouds, isolating the VFD as much as possible. It was working fine but yeh if EMI is the problem then I probably don’t have any other options. It was working more consistently before I tried to fix the EMI issues.
EMI is a really tough one. Especially because the cost saving vendors (china) strips out filtering first because thats the quickest way to save a buck. A lot of the radiation should already have been arrested onboard the VFD.
Did you remember to throw ferrites on all the cables, power, computer peripherals, anything with a direct connection to the setup. I have had a spare usb cable hanging out of my PC be the big EMI catchall that brought the interference into the USB hub on the motherboard. The hub then reset and kicked all the other usb devices off. Anything
I put ferrites on everything. One thing I did change is that I previously had the VFD running off of the same power board as the rest of the electronics. I put it into its own socket on the wall next to the existing power point. I am concerned that maybe something there is a big issue. Going back in soon to try and test everything. Failing that, I will have to go back to the VFD setup before I had it hooked up to the Blackbox. Don’t know exactly how to set it back to how it was but that might be better than chasing these EMI gremlins.
I have but only basic ones that I am not sure I can trust are properly designed for the purpose. I was thinking about running each plug (there are 2 for my entire setup) off their own UPS. I would really hate to lose the VFD ability to turn on and off for the added safety but maybe looking into better filtering would be suitable. Thanks for your help, I will see what I can do with proper power filtering.
Ok back in the workshop (other side of town at 8:30pm haha) and simply plugged the VFD into a power point in another area. Started working straight away. Thanks for the help. Will get a sparky in to install an in-line filter. You guys have been so helpful.
You'd be surprised how often we hear of gremlins like that only to hear later the person got an electrician out and the socket was not earthed, or the live and neutral was swopped. House wiring is often an unknown
I spoke too soon Still many gremlins. I don’t think I will try anything else till I get a sparky out to make sure everything is ok.
Oh my god... I changed over the USB cable and am back making awesome full runs. It seems so hard to be chasing stuff all the time but it looks like this may have been the problem after all. Even the part with the loss of settings stopping the motors. Both you guys helping pushed me forward to keep trying and looking for the gremlins. Thank you so much!
Good point "Try a different usb cable" is a very good test, missing from the documentation. Adding it right away, thanks for the reminder Also - Use as short a USB cable as possible - Use a USB cable with ferrite cores on both ends - Use a high quality, thick, shielded USB cable
