File Limit Exceeded

[bjr1]

I bought a used PRT Standard with 4G upgrade a few weeks ago and I'm running 3.5.3 of the control software. We set the unit up two weeks ago and immediately tested to make sure that everything was OK with the unit (wary about used equipment). Everything went well, we surfaced the table and cut a sample cabinet.

Then we finished up the balance of the shop setup and today was the first day where we had everything powered up (DC, shopbot, etc.). So we thought we had an easy day ahead of us. We zeroed the router and ran a couple of jogs (J2 12,12, JH, and J2 48,24). The first two went OK and then we ran into a "File exceeded limit" pop-up message. Of course, the router stops very abruptly, which messes up the zero. I've narrowed it down to the Y axis and the error message pops up at various (not consistent) locations on the Y axis.

Has anyone seen this before? I did a search, but nothing came up that was related to this.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Joel

[myxpykalix]

I can't guarantee this is the problem, but I think it might be due to static electricity. Take a bare copper wire ground it to the carriage, run it thru your dust collection hose and ground the other end to the frame on your dust collector.
If this is the problem, that will eliminate it.

[paco]

Joel,

was that the exact message you got?

Can you duplicate the problem again and again?

Lets start from there.

[bjr1]

Thanks for the replies.

Jack,
The DC wasn't on yet. We were checking the carriage movement before starting. But we have already run a 14 gauge bare stranded wire in the vacuum hose.

Paco,
The message is roughly File Limit Exceeded. I'll get a screen shot of the message and post it later today. It is random as far as the location where it happens, but consistent in that it only happens on the Y axis and I wasn't able to move across the Y axis and back to zero without it happening at least once in each direction. I saw it happen between 1 and 3 times across 48 inches of movement.

I can add more grounding if necessary. Come to think of it, the previous owner had a mess of grounding attached all over the machine tied back to his electrical panel.

So, back to the shop this morning and I'll post some more detail later today.

Joel

[srwtlc]

Joel,

Have a look at the settings for the table limits (VL) and see what they're set at. While your there, turn off "File Limit Checking" and see if that stops the warning.

Maybe I'm misinterpreting what you're problem is "File Limit Exceeded" or "Table Limit Exceeded" (meaning that the file exceeds the table limits).

[scottcox]

Joel,

You may want to see this thread about file size limitations.

file size limitation thread (http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/messages/20164/18908.html)

[bjr1]

Hi everyone,

We got into the shop yesterday afternoon and ran some tests.

My memory was faulty. Here's what was found:

1) The error message was "Limit Switch Hit" and occurred randomly on the Y axis. Whenever this occurred, neither the X or Y proximity switch was turned on.
2) Also got a "Comm Message Returned error" message a few times. In a couple of cases, this caused the program to shut down.
3) A few times we got a "Stop Hit" message when stop was not hit.

It should be noted that clicking resume and ignoring the first message resulted in the command being completed.

We got this a few times when starting a cut file, but once ignored, the file completed without problems. At this point, it's an annoyance, but we need to resolve this, since it requires undivided attention of everyone in the shop.

Conditions around the table:
1) The PC and controller are side by side and located 6-8" from the power outlet.
2) The router extension cord is located in the path of the controller cables back to the motors.
3)The wiring loops around the room on three sides.
4)The dust collector is fully grounded and the vacuum hose is grounded to the table and to the dust collector via a 14 gauge bare stranded wire inside the hose to the DC frame and a 16 gauge stranded wire wrapped around the outside of the hose connected to the gantry. Both these wires are connected to the dust skirt.
5)Both the X and Y proximity switches were checked and are in good working order.

Frank from ShopBot suggested that this may be an electrical noise issue, so we're going to try to reroute some things around and see if the issue goes away.

Thanks for all your advice so far.

Joel

[bpfohler]

After running my bot for several months with no problem I started having the same issue but in the x axis after downloading the latest upgrade. The bot would stop about every 6" and give the same error message.
After a whole day of frustration I came across something in the manual about setting the limit switches on the older PRT to normally open and on the new PRS to all normally closed. Seemed to do the trick.

[bjr1]

Hi Robert,

I checked that the proximity switches are working correctly and they are. One thing I noticed though was that, while running a file for a sign, the proximity switches on the X and Y were flashing. Is this normal? My electronics background is pushing me in the direction of electrical noise, but I'm not sure where to go with this.

Any ideas?

Thanks for the advice as usual.

Joel