Lost Comm

[adrianm]

When running the link speed test does it always complete or does it drop out occassionaly and what rate does it show?

[fsrdoug]

I get between 74.5 and 78.6 and sometimes low 80's, always less then 81%. Loop test runs 86 to 88%.

Doug Dodd

[Tim Summerer]

Well we've been running our router for a day and a half now with no comm errors! Hurray!

A million thanks to Jay Nicolaides for coming out here and pointing me in the right direction

There are 2 facts that I failed to mention in my earlier posts. One, we are cutting Trupan MDF all day - as some of you may know, this produces lots of static electricity. Two, we recently had a very dramatic weather shift here in Tulsa - it went from hot and very muggy, to comfortable and quite dry. Together these two factors really convinced Jay that I was having grounding issues.

Several weeks ago, I had an electrician come out and look at our situation, I explained to him that we were having comm problems and that they were likely caused by poor ground. He checked on things and told us that everything was grounded fine. Then he was gone. But the issues were not.

Per Jay's advice, I went all out with grounding. I previously had my dust collection tubing grounded to the metal frame of my building. Also, I was relying on the outer metal spiral of the flex tube to dissipate charge. Now, however, I have a 12 gauge bare copper wire running inside the tubing from my dust boot to the DC, to the ground of the DC (mine has a grounding screw near the on/off switch), then all the way to the outside grounding rod.

Next, I ran a wire to the router. I had previously purchased a Monster power conditioner - it didn't solve our comm problems, but it does have a grounding screw. My computer and my control box are plugged in to the conditioner. My router is grounded to the ground strip in the control box. SOOOO grounding the conditioner grounded my router, control box, and computer. The copper grounding wire joins up with the one from the DC and they go outside to the grounding rod.

Finally, and this may sound slightly absurd, but for right now while it has been so dry, I'm 'watering' my ground rod. A couple times a day, I go dump a glass of water on it. Maybe this is useful, maybe it's overkill. Maybe when I get production caught up again I'll quit doing it, but for now since we're behind I'm not taking any chances.

So what did I learn. Well, there's nothing new under the sun. Looking through various troubleshooting posts, I think the solution is rarely something novel or unique. Often times the person with the problem knew the solution, they just hadn't tried it yet. I knew about grounding, I knew that running a wire IN the ducting would probably be better, I felt like the electrician didn't do an excellent job for me, I knew it had been dry and that MDF causes static, but I guess I just needed someone to tell me with confidence that if I try A,B,and C that things will work.

I appreciate all the help and advice. Jay, thanks so much for coming to my shop and looking at our setup. Thanks again everyone. Please let me know if you have any other questions or comments.

[paul_z]

Congratulations!!

I have never liked the idea of using the spiral wire in flex hose for a ground. If I calculated it correctly, the spiral of 4 feet of 4" flex tubing is an inductor of about 300 nano Henries (which is quite a bit). It may make problems worse than no ground at all. I use bare wire in the hose. I have maybe one comms issue every two months and maybe one clog per year.

Paul Z

[jimboy]

Tim,
I just finished with the problem on a Buddy Alpha running 7. Which version are you using? If it is ultimate, change Compatibility mode to Vista Service pack 2. It worked for us.
Jim

[fsrdoug]

I think I finally got things worked out today. Yesterday I took Jim's advice and changed the compatibility mode. I set mine at XP service pack 2 and it hasn't had a comm problem since.
Thanks to everyone for the advice you offered. You were all a great help.

Doug Dodd
FSR Custom WoodWorks