Spindle Speed control not working...

[harryball]

After I installed 3.5.18 my spindle speed control stays on Preview. I can't get it to make a connection. I've tried changing the com port, disco and reco the USB etc... I was running 3.5.15 and it was working fine.

Ideas?

[harryball]

I reinstalled the .18 and checked the option to install the drivers for 2007 and later systems to reload the drivers and hopefully get the newer speed control drivers install...

I made it angry... now nothing will connect.

/RB

[harryball]

Talk about having to start over... I uninstalled the devices drivers and disco'd everything. Rebooted then ran the DriverLoader.exe in the shopbot 3/drivers folder. Once that was done I reconnected the USB devices and let it simmer to get everything installed. I deleted the shopbot.ini file and then started fresh. It prompted to load settings, then found the port. I started speed control and it's working as well.

Don't take a chance and install .18 if you need to get some work done. May take you longer than you think.

/RB

[srwtlc]

Yeah, I had the same problem with beta22. I couldn't get the port for the spindle to stick. There used to be an .ini file for the spindle control that held these setting, but I found out from Ryan P. that it no longer uses an ini file and now uses windows registry instead.

I ran regedit (start/run/regedit) and searched for spindle control and found the entry for port setting. After changing it to the proper port, I no longer had the problem.

Beta22 has been a tad buggy for me!

[knight_toolworks]

did the speed control window even start? mine would not even show up. lucky I back up all shopbot flies and I can just paste them back and be up and running in minutes. is the speed control actually different?

[harryball]

Steve, you should be able to start the tool in the Tools menu. Then click on the RPM in the window and set the autostart to 1.

I did finally get it going as I said. I ran for 5 hours cutting bat house files that I've been running unaltered for 8 months. I've observed a curious new behavior with speed control.

I run a file from a master file by setting the speed, then using FP to call the file. The speed was 14k. When I finish that file the master file sets the RPM to 18k and calls another file using FP. Here is the curious part... the speed doesn't kick up to 18k until the first file has already begun running. There is a lag of 3 to 4 seconds in the speed change. Yet, when I start the master file before the first file is called the speed change is immediate.

I didn't have time to investigate since I needed to cut parts. If I get time to test a little I'll post the results.

/RB

[Gary Campbell]

Robert...
Look in the postP, I fount one that had the command FP,[S] in it rather than the TR,[S] that it should have been.
Gary

[harryball]

This is the snipit from the master file...

MS,4,3 'Set move and plunge rates
TR,14000,1 'Set for slower moving cutting bats
FP,Profile_Bats.sbp

MS,6,3 'Set move and plunge rates
TR,18000,1 'Max RPM for full speed cutting
FP,Cut_panels.sbp

When cut panels is called the spindle speed remains at 14k then suddenly starts speeding up after the first 4 or 5 inches of cut. I checked the cut_panels.sbp file and there are no TR commands in it.

I don't know what is causing the delay. These files have been running for almost 8 months without a problem.

/RB

[knight_toolworks]

I could not even get the spindle speed window to start. so I went back as I needed to get work done.

[harryball]

The speed change lag was occuring with 3.5.18. I dropped back to 3.5.15 and the problem is solved. With 3.5.15 the spindle speed changes immediately as it should rather than lagging several seconds or more.

/RB

[harryball]

FYI, Still runing 3.5.15 and it's working exactly like it should, no lag on RPM speed changes.

[harryball]

FYI, I've been running v 3.5.20 since Friday and it runs as expected. For kicks... I went back to .18 and the problem recurred, the speed changes would lag the command from a few seconds to 20 seconds. Going back to .20 solved it again. Loaded the firmware each time. I don't understand what is different. I didn't think loading firmware in anyway touched the spindle speed control. I know the software changes... maybe that's it.

Clueless but happy now.

/RB

[knight_toolworks]

I found my problem. the speed control was running but you could not find the window. called shopbot and they had me delete the speedcontrol.ini file and it worked.