Freezing mid carve

I really not sure whats going on. I updated the easel drivers on Friday and i’ve come to do my first carve since then and the machine get a few % in to the cut and freezes. It just stops moving, if i pause and restart it just stays still. If i cancel the program it will return to the home and then i can restart, it goes for a while and then freezes again in a different spot. This is what makes me think this isn’t an error in the G code.

Help? I’ve got a big craft fair in a few weeks and have a shed tone of things to get cut.

ok, this is a problem. I re did the file, started a new project, imported the svgs again, layed it all out and started a new cut.

3% in and frozen. :snowflake:

Mine did that till I took the dewalt power cord out of the drag chain.

i’ve ran it like this for well over a year, i cant see why now it would cause the machine to pause.even the easel progress bar stops moving but the easel itself is still responsive.

ran the carve a second time and got to 8%. doesn’t feel like a g-code issue.

Maybe try a different file/project that recently worked?

Just for kicks, check the motor brushes for your Dewalt.
Alos, what speed setting are you running it at?

Check this link, you may find handy info.

1 Like

Sounds like your getting noise somewhere.
The motors are noisy cause they use steped pulses to run.
Using Easel you will not know what alarm was set off.
You need to use UGS or similar that will show you what alarm was triggered.
There is a whole troubleshooting section here on the forums and Phil’s tips section is full of useful info on settings.
Anytime the system gets a trigger the GRBL firmware pushes out a code to the computer. If you are not paying attention to them then you will never know.

After leaving it for a few hours I came back and tried again on Sunday. This time it ran through the whole carve no problems. I then did another 2 hour carve on Monday night and again it was fine. I’ve bought a powered USB hub and connected that and ran about 2 hour carve last night so fingers crossed and touch wood its OK.

I tried UGS but couldn’t get it to connect to the machine. I need to revisit this at some point when i’m not under a dead line.

1 Like

Is anyone having intermittents using an Uninterruptable Power Supply to power the XCarve AND their PC? If not, you should. Some power line transients can be so small you may not notice them, but, some electronics are more sensitive than others. I use one on all of my PCs, routers, and 3D printers as well.

Recognizing that EASEL is a wonderful help for some and constantly improving, I decided early on to go ahead and bite the bullet and purchase VCarve. VCarve is a wonderful piece of software and it eliminates any concerns about intermittents from the internet.

I share concerns about a USB hub as well. I once purchased a cheapo USB hub from Amazon and it was “dropping” out intermittently. Pay more and buy a better hub and powered is better as well. I also tend to NOT use a hub for “critical” interfaces, like for my XCarve and 3D printers. Why ask for a possible timing conflict?

1 Like