TinyG hanging up in the middle of the job

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  • December 23, 2016 at 4:44 pm #10127
    periscope
    Member

    Hey guys. I am at the end of my rope. I read whole bunch of posts here and at the chilipeppr trying to fix this problem and I am not getting anywhere.

    What is happening is that tinyG freezes in the middle of the job. It could be 1 minute in or 5 minutes in. Always different. I am doing small engraving of brand stamp into aluminum using 1/8″ 60 degree bit at 76 mm/min. Real slow. I have tried few suggestions from Chilipeppr forum to turn off 3D viewer and to convert my gcode from inches to mm. I tried different USB cables. To no avail. TinyG will just choke and stop being responsive. Then I have to manually reset TinyG and reconnect from Chilipeppr. But I never even can reconnect in a way where I could continue the job. It loses all the information of where it was before. So it is each time wasted material and a lot of frustration.

    If any of you could point me in the direction so could I eliminate one by one whether it is a hardware problem or software problem. I have TinyG V8 with 440.2 firmware and am running 1.86 Serial Port JSON Server.

    • This topic was modified 8 years ago by periscope.
    December 23, 2016 at 5:57 pm #10129
    cmcgrath5035
    Moderator

    Do you have other jobs that run on your system OK?

    tinyG ‘chokes’ but no unusual flashing lights, etc?

    The randomness of the hang suggests to me a communications breakdown between tinyG and SPJS, rather than a Gcode parameter hang such as a arc error.

    Has this job ever run?
    To stop wasting material, I’ll suggest you run the job in air (zero above material) until the job will run fully to end.

    December 28, 2016 at 11:40 pm #10142
    periscope
    Member

    Thanks for your response.

    1) Yes I made some jobs before just fine and some choke and some didn’t.
    2) When it chokes there are two red lights on TG board. No flashing.
    3) Those blue bars in CP are completely full when it chokes so I do not know if that is an indication it cannot keep up with the job or something.
    4) I run an air job on g-code that always chokes and it finished the air job just fine.

    Where does that leave us?

    December 29, 2016 at 8:32 pm #10145
    cmcgrath5035
    Moderator

    Hmmmm, when you are running the job in air, is your spindle on?

    If off, rerun with it on, in air.

    Spindles can generate a lot of electrical noise, when heavily loaded, they generate even more noise.

    I believe the full blue bars in CP you reference are buffer fill bars .
    CP seeks to keep them full to maximize performance.
    That said, if communications gets disrupted and/or tinyG gets lost in FW space due to electrical noise, buffers may never clear.

    If job runs in air with spindle on, then perhaps try running the job slower using the control bar in the Gcode sender widget. Try maybe 0.5x or even 0.1x to see if tinyG behaves differently.

    Do you have limit switches?
    Temporarily disable them to see if they are contributing.

    December 31, 2016 at 12:33 am #10151
    periscope
    Member

    Thanks again. Yes, I was thinking the same thing, which is to do the air run with spindle on. I did, and I also turned on a big fan for cooling. It finished the job.

    I am running 4 (I use 2 motors simultaneously on Y axes) 3A 270oz 1.8deg/step stepper motors. What else can I do? (other than slowing the job). Would cranking up the pots on motor drivers help or is that a bad idea? Do I need stronger motors? Or should I try some different micro stepping setting to get more strength? I am using 1/8 steps. Would I get more strength at 1/4 steps? But that would decrease my resolution, right? Sorry for so many questions, trying to figure this out.

    Here is the link to a picture of my CNC machine.

    Link to my CNC

    January 4, 2017 at 6:25 am #10155
    cmcgrath5035
    Moderator

    Nice looking machine – home brew or kit of some sort?

    I am assuming that the ” a big fan for cooling” was directed at tinyG?
    That is always a good idea.

    If your issue is thermal shutdown, increasing drive current will likely make matters worse.

    Are you running with a 24V supply for Vmot and tinyG?
    tinyG is rated at 2.5A max per stepper, but at those currents exceptional cooling is required.

    Do the motors get real warm(hot) when running?

    Any chance the screw mechanisms are too tight/binding?
    That is a relative question and I am not sure of a good way to evaluate it with a screw machine. On a belt machine one can simply slip the belts off the pulley and move things around by hand.

    Changing microsteps might help incrementally, but yes, you would loose some ‘resolution’.

    At some point it might be helpful to look at your parameter setup, a $$ command listing. Run $$, copy the results to a text file and put it on a cloud drive(dropbox, etc.) and provide a URL.

    A possible solution will be to use external stepper drivers, providing additional current capability and improved thermal management.

    April 9, 2017 at 11:46 pm #10332
    jeromio
    Member

    Having this same problem, except for me it’s an issue of material. I made a few runs in “air” and 6 runs in plywood, no problem. I bumped the feed rate down from 250 to 165 (which is sooooo slow) and used Aluminum with lots of cutting fluid. It stops randomly, red lights flashing, sometimes after an hour, sometimes after 10min.

    Is there no way to get the actual status – some indication of specifically what caused the halt?

    FWIW, I tried turning the motor by hand after it halted on a linear section (IOWs, spindle still on, still cutting) and the effort required was indistinguishable from “air”. I’m doing double passes, 1mm cuts w/ a 1mm conical end mill. So the 1st pass is the most stressy, cutting 180 degrees of the mill. But it’s halting while only doing <90%.

    April 11, 2017 at 6:38 am #10333
    cmcgrath5035
    Moderator

    tinyG issues status reports, see

    But status reports will only be useful if the tinyG process remains sane.

    There are numerous possibilities, not much known about your specific setup.

    Spindles, when pushed too hard into material, can generate enormous additional electrical noise that could be impacting Limits stitches.
    Steppers and drivers will heat up if they are unable to make commanded ‘steps’
    Power supplies, if instantaneously overloaded, may dip output voltage in current limit mode, causing tinyG to ‘glitch’, misread code, lose sanity.

    Bottom line, there is no easy way to determine if you machine has the capacity to do what you are attempting to do, except experience.

    If you have not already, head over and look at what is posted on the Ox forum,

    I have seen several good posts by users on their successes, and failures, in aluminum machining. Perhaps there are similarities discussed applicable to your situation.

    May 11, 2017 at 11:12 pm #10371
    gazingm42
    Member

    I had the same issue. I had limit switch and the wires were action as RF antennas. Once I disconnected the home and limit switches all problems of it
    stopping disappeared.

    I would disconnect the connections from the tinyg and do some air tests.

    May 12, 2017 at 5:16 am #10375
    cmcgrath5035
    Moderator

    All machine cabling is recommended to be shielded twisted pair cabling, with shields grounded at the tinyG end (not both ends, or the shield becomes a bigger antenna).

    I would also recommend separate power supplies for the spindle and for tinyG/steppers. A heavy spindle load current can cause it’s power supply to get noisy as well.

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