Prt alpha looses control box connection when I turn on the spindle sometimes

[knight_toolworks]

Scallop

It seems pretty regular now. Every couple three times I turn the spindle on when it reaches full speed I get the nice yellow box. Plus the gray box saying cancel (brain is tired and I can’t remember what it says. You have to hit cancel then esc and the program crashes or just closes down with no errors. Start it up again and no problems for a time or two.
But it gets worse around 5pm 2 or 3 times in a row then work. I usually turn the control box on about 11am then when I go home even if I am not suing it for a hour or so.

[geneb]

Steve, I've had this problem myself. I tried putting a ferrite core on the over-long USB cable to try to damp out the electrical noise created by the spindle, but the improvement was marginal at best. I next tried a USB 2.0 compliant, externally powered hub. The problem hasn't returned. The increased signal strength from the hub seems to keep the spindle from "drowning out" the data signal.

[knight_toolworks]

thats an idea. though my usb cable seems to only be about 6 or so 8 at the most. it makes it a foot past the edge of the table. but I have antother 2 or so extension on it.
ok time for another hub.

[knight_toolworks]

I called shopbot about something else and asked them about it. he said the most commin solution is to run a ground wire from the controller box to the computer. that was a 3.00 fix and it works great now.