Carve ending too soon

Hello, I am having an unusual problem with my XC Pro.
From time to time, a carve job will just stop before it is complete and the little window that asks if the job went well or not pops up, just like it does at the end of any job. I’ve noticed on at least one of these times, that the green control buttons tuned blue for just a bit indicating that the PC lost contact with the controller.
Now for the unusual part: This has only happened when I am running the dust control. I thought maybe the dust collection was robbing power from the controller as they were on the same outlet circuit, so I ran a cord and powered the dust collector from a completely different circuit, but the problem still happened.
I suppose it could be a coincidence but it has never happened once on jobs that I run without the dust collection running.
Could there be some type of static buildup causing an issue?
Thanks for any help.
jVB

Yes, this is the most common issue of failed carves for newer users actually. You’d want to ground that dust collection hose and that will remove any static issues.

During the dry months, my students and I still get static zapped occasionally on our newer machine even with the hose grounded. We lost a carve this way just last week. Usually we can restart the carve using the original starting position and save the job.

On our older machine, with the help of a local volunteer Electrical Engineer, we grounded and bonded the components (electronics, main frame, x and z axis carriages, and spindle mount) all together with the vacuum motor, canister, and hose grounds.

On the newer machine, the dust collection is handled by a separate vacuum and while it’s grounded, the X-Carve’s grounds are not bonded to the vacuum’s grounds. I need to add a detachable jumper to bond the vacuum cleaner’s grounding system to the X-carve, or else I need to buy an additional vacuum and dedicate it to the newer machine. It’s one of those tasks I keep putting off.

Ahh, good to know. The XCP dust hose is all plastic as far as I can tell. I’ve read some in the past about the debate over how to ground PVC pipe in a shop dust collection.
What method would you suggest for grounding the hose?
I like the idea of grounding the vac canister and motor to the XCP as Christopher suggests. Is there a preferred location on the machine for grounding?
Should I bond the machine, controller and vac components all together?
Thanks

Well, bonding too many points can result in whats called a “ground loop” which can cause communications problems in some equipment (I used to make military grade remote control submarines, so there’s some electronics in my background)…

My setup is a little different than most my DC hose is actually a 4" foil flexible ducting, which is attached to the frame,switching from my plastic hose over to this one resolved aby static buildup in hose… it has developed some micro holes recently and after 18 months I’m about to replace it… I think it was maybe $7 :man_shrugging:

I would start with a wire connected to the hose near the cnc and run it to the AC outlet. I would do the same with the frame itself as well.

Great info, Thanks a lot. I will take your advice.
jVB

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