I have a Pro 48x 48 and it’s been a great machine that hasn’t given me a single issue up until yesterday. I keep periodically getting a lost communication to the ESS board when I’m about half way through the project. The spindle stays running but the stepper motors stop. If I restart everything - The PC, Mach 4, and the machine it seems controllable via the keyboard just fine and it seems to home just fine but when I start the project in Mach4 it will get about half way through and then I get the error again. Has anybody seen this?
I looked in the control cabinet and didn’t see any loose wire of connections and the ESS board had a flashing green light. I’m not sure where else to look to troubleshoot the issue. I sent an email to avid support but to be fair I’ve had the machine for a long time and I know they switched over to the EX controller so if I need a part I don’t know if they sell the parts for the plug and play control boxes.
I would like to upgrade to the new ex controller but I don’t have the money to pull the trigger just yet. Even if I can can fix this error and get my machine going I kinda feel like I may be on borrowed time.
Here is my guess, it communicates, then stops when things get busy. You might want to try the cheapest solution first, replace your Ethernet cable with a new SHEILDED one. SHEILDED cables reduce interference from other electrical things interfering with the transmission (loss due to EFM).
If it works, you know it is working. It’s only when electrical interference is highest that it can’t ’see through the noise’. Just a guess.
Best thing to do is to start going through our troubleshooting:
We do still sell parts for these older control boxes. I’m not sure you actually have a part failure here… Usually when these boards die they just die. (This is true of a lot of electronics, just just these ones)
The software is the thing that changes all the time, so I’d start there. Follow those steps in the link above, run the SCU again, etc.
This is also a good suggestion. It’s cheap and the worst it will do is not change anything.
We did switch to EX for reliability, so a new EX control you’ll more than likely find is way more reliable. As far as pricing, we do take old controllers like yours in trade. We rebuild your box in to an EX box and send it back to you with the same warranty a new controller would get. This lowers the entry price, so it might be less money than you think.
It’s certainly more expensive than a few hours of troubleshooting or an ethernet cable. If you want the “true price” (with trade in and such) just ask Avid support. They’ll make you a quote.
Sounds good. I will order a shielded network cable and work through the troubleshooting guide.
The plan all along was to upgrade to the EX controller eventually so if they do trade ins I’m very interested. I may have to see if I can sell my 4th axis to help fund this. Kind of a bummer…I haven’t set it up yet and I only opened the box to look at the pieces. It’s brand new but I gotta do what I gotta do. My machine picked a heck of a time to start giving me troubles.
Quick question..If I bought the EX controller and kept my NEMA 34 steppers could I eventually just buy the clear path servos? Or does it use a different controller? Would it be as simple as pulling the NEMA 34’s off and installing the Clearpath servos?
I would really like to upgrade and get the clearpath servos at the same time but if I can get by with the NEMA 34’s for now and then upgrade to the servos at a later date that would help with the cost.
You can’t plug clearpaths into a stepper controller, the controller and power architecture is different. You’d have to trade in your box to do that. Luckily resale is pretty good on a complete EX stepper system, so you’d likely do OK there.