Emergency Active Mode

[rneves]

Hello again

I have rearranged my shop and moved the cnc to a place where I can place longer pieces of wood onto the bed. Once I moved everything, made a dust filter for my computer (hot glued 6 cheap furnace filters together to make a filtered box around the whole tower) and restarted everything, all seemed to be good.

I left the machine for the afternoon and when I came back the Monitor read. " press reset, emergency mode active..." I pressed and released the emergency stop button and both red buttons on the front and nothing seemed to happen. The yellow light was on and I could see it turn on when I power up the machine. I restarted the computer and re opened Mach 3, did everything I tried before, but the Reset button on the monitor will not let me reset it when I click on it.

The status says "External Estop Requested" and when I looked at the Last Errors it read
7:07:26 program start up
7:07:31 Drive successfully initiated
7:07:32 Nothing to free hold
7:07:34 External E-stop requested
7:07:37 External E-stop requested
7:07:58 External E-stop requested

The only difference I noticed from when I left it, to when I returned is that the keyboard had slipped off the bench and was dangling by the cord.

Anyone have any idea what I should do next?

[jimwill52]

It sounds like someone was in your shop... is that possible? Check the connections on the computer and CNC to make sure everything is still hooked up. Is the router position the same as you left it? I'm assuming when you said you "left it" you didn't have it running when you left.

[rneves]

Thanks for your reply Jim. My shop is in my basement and I don't know who would have been in it without my knowing. The Gantry has been moved by me, after I couldn't get it to move via computer control, I manually rolled it to a spot where I could finish measuring for a project that I had started (modifying the vaccum shoe) and wanted to finish.

When I left it, it was stopped and Mach 3 was open but no code was loaded. Just to check... I have the HS1, the cable that runs from the computer to the CNC is hooked into the computer printer port and the port that is on the front of the machine farthest away from the MPG knob? That is how I had it before when it was running... I think. I will recheck the connections to make sure I haven't made a mistake.

[romaxxcnc]

Check all the connections, this sounds as though there is no input on Port 1 Pin 10 (Estop) for Mach3. Check the parallel port cable on each end and make sure it is in tight. Also there is a ribbon cable on the interface inside the machine that plugs in to the board, make sure it didn't come loose in the move.

-Ron

[jimwill52]

I would remove the cables and reattach them, just to make sure each is seated properly.

[rneves]

I did as both of you suggested with retrying the cables, but it wasn't until I opened the box and pushed the ribbon cable in at both ends that, everything started working. The problem was that 30 seconds into the carve, the cnc stopped moving and I received exactly the same messages. My machine is not closed loop, so I have an extra ribbon cable inside the box. Do you think I should switch the ribbon cable that is unconnected at one end, to the port that is currently giving me the problem to see if it is a problem with the cable. Any other ideas?

[romaxxcnc]

Yes, the other cable can be used, it's the same type.

-Ron