UC-100 USB and UCCNC

[SFDeeJay]

My StepCraft SC2-600 (SC-100 controller, UC100 USB Motion Control, UCCNC latest versions) is still fairly new. Had a few glitches, but up and running until yesterday. I'm a bit confused about the BLUE light on the UC100 - When all was working well, the blue light ONLY came on when UCCNC software was active (same w/ Mach3). Now, when USB cable is plugged into computer, the 500w spindle gives a little "ker-chund", red light flickers on the control box, then goes out. Blue light stays lit even without software running. Can't seem to get drivers to install now (even tho the UC100 driver appeared ok in Device Manager previously).Does this sound like the problem is the SC100, the UC100, the software, or the Windows 8 notebook?
I'd appreciate any guidance, going to post this (as is) to the StepCraft members forum - they have been very helpful with my "newbie" dumb questions. Thanks.

[SFDeeJay]

Forum moderator may choose to leave this for others - I resolved the issue(s) before the first response.
Swapped out to a slightly older model notebook. With different manufacturer's handling of USB ports, one works well (HP), the other (Asus gamer) works sometimes, mostly fails.

[A_Camera]

You should also update to Windows 10.

[SFDeeJay]

This is just posting additional info which I just sent to CNCDrive support"
"After 2 months of attempts to get my StepCraft 2-600 to work with an (included) UC-100 and licensed UCCNC, I am only having about 10% success at keeping the drivers working.
Is there a good way to determine if the fault (drivers disappear from Device Manager) is with the StepCraft SC100, the CNCDrive UC-100, or the USB ports on multiple computers?
Some cnc forums even go so far as to recommend going to an older computer with USB 2.0 ports and Windows XP.
I recently purchased a small, dedicated PC for the shop, a Lenovo M700, which comes with Windows 10 downgraded to Windows 7 Pro. ALL 7 of the USB ports are 3.0. Worked fine for a few minutes, then after power-down repeated failure.
My experience with several computers and WAY too many complete de-install/re-installs has been that Mach3 (purchased/licensed) and UCCNC (included/licensed) seem to work well until everything is powered down for the evening. Next morning, NOTHING works.
One observation, which no one has addressed is the UC-100 blue light. It stays on continuously when the drivers DO NOT appear in Device Mgr, even when Mach3 or UCCNC is NOT running. When the drivers DO appear in Device Manager, the blue light does not come on until motion control software is running. This has been a constant, when working and failing.
I have requested help from StepCraft USA multiple times, and been given many suggestions on forums, but none of them seem to resolve the "disappearing drivers" issue. "
Hopefully, someone here on the forum can hit on the solution.

[cncdrive]

USB 3.0 is backwards compatible with USB 2.0, so it must work with USB 2.0 devices like the UC100.

The drivers dissapear from the Device Manager happens if you unplug the UC100.
You can verify this easily: Open the Device Manager, check the drivers there with the UC100 plugged in, now unplug the UC100 and you will see the UC100 motion controller entry will dissapear.
This is how the Windows Device Manager works, it only shows connected devices.
For example if you remove a video or sound card or any other devices from your PC then (if your PC still able to work) that device will be removed from the device manager,
the same is with USB devices, if you disconnect a device then it dissapears, because it is no longer connected.
If you then plug the device again to the USB port then it appears again.
And that the device is disconnected it is also possible that the device is still physically connected, but for some reason the USB chipset gave up the operation, in other words the device was disconnected by Windows, by the USB chipset.

If the blue LED remains on even when the UCCNC or Mach3 is not running indicates somekind of serious problem, like the microcontroller frozen and this indicates somekind of electrical, likely noise problems.

Please note that the Stepcraft machines controller is not isolated at all, the I/Os are directly connected to the UC100 without isolation, so it is possible that the problem is electrical in stepper controller board, it can directly effect the UC100 because they share a common ground.
Also it is possible that the machine (controller board) is not grounded properly. I beleive Stepcraft has some documentation with how to properly ground the machine.
Inproper grounding may introduce a ground loop and EMI interferences which could cause strange problems including USB port chipset freeze and UC100 communication errors and things like that.

And one thing I advice you is that when you experience that the drivers dissapeared, not there in the Device manager then try to unlug the UC100 from the UCB port and replug it and check if the device got back, if it does then it was sure disconnected by the USB chipset/Windows.

And one more thing is to disable the USB Suspend function located in the Windows Power Management settings, because if that is enabled then Windows can disconnect any of your USB devices any time if it thinks you do not need them, e.g. if you not using the PC for some time, not moving the mouse and not entering on the keyboard for some time.

[SFDeeJay]

I really appreciate your extensive, quick response.
Actually, I already knew all of the things you said EXCEPT for confirming the continuous blue light.
Another thing I forgot to mention, but no one picked up in earlier posts is this: When plugging in the USB cable (either to PC or UC-100, the 500w spindle sounds a small "ker-chunk".
This may also confirm your suspicion of an electrical problem, even though EVERYTHING is grounded properly, there may be some bare wires touching that I hadn't noticed.
Gonna turn the whole beast upside-down, remove covers and check for faulty connections or wires grounding out. Thanks much.

[ger21]

You're machine should not be powered up without the UC100 connected, and UCCNC up and running.

[SFDeeJay]

Ger, I had to chuckle after reading your reply 2 or 3 times. I thought "how could UCCNC be up and running if the PC was not on". Then, of course, I realized you meant the StepCraft controller. I'm gonna stay with your suggestion and see if that makes a difference in that "ker-chunk" sound/motion at startup. Also, looking forward to installing yesterday's purchase of your 2017 Screenset. ..don

[A_Camera]

Ger, I had to chuckle after reading your reply 2 or 3 times. I thought "how could UCCNC be up and running if the PC was not on". Then, of course, I realized you meant the StepCraft controller. I'm gonna stay with your suggestion and see if that makes a difference in that "ker-chunk" sound/motion at startup.

With "your machine" means Gerry the CNC. First switch on the PC then start UCCNC while the UC100 is connected and first after that should the CNC mains power switched on. Of course, this assumes that your UC100 is powered via the USB cable connected to the PC otherwise UCCNC will only start in demo mode. This is not always the case, even if for the UC100 it is the most logical. Other controllers, like the UC300 and UC400 this can be, or must be different since they can/must use external power supply. My electronics and CNC has just one mains switch, so I can't switch on the UC300 first without switching on the CNC as well. and occasionally there is a loud "clonk" sound when the steppers get energized. The main reason is that when the UC300 is powered up it does not initialize the outputs, or the outputs are set to the wrong level and not before UCCNC is started that the UC300 gets correctly initialized. So, when UCCNC (or Mach3) is not started but the UC300 is powered up the motors get enabled and energized and this causes a large bang and a slight turn to the nearest full step position. This should be pretty easy to fix in the firmware since after the first configured start of UCCNC the software knows which state the outputs should have in a reset condition, and the UC300 firmware should start in that condition, regardless if UCCNC is running or not. Not a big deal, but annoying and not logical. Perhaps there is another explanation to the clonk also, but in firmware I am familiar with, this would be a non-issue and solved with very little effort. Perhaps the firmware memory is full and it is not possible to add more instructions to it, but I don't think this has been addressed at all.

In short: Do as Gerry means, follow the power-up/start sequence checklist:

PC: ON and Windows is running
UC100: connected to PC, LED indicates OK
UCCNC: started and ready
CNC: powered up

You should not get the clonk but in my experience this may still happen and most of all, even the spindle motor can take a few turns (unless you use Modbus) until UCCNC is up and everything is powered up and ready, so be careful during start-up, regard that as an uncertain condition until everything is up and ready.

[ger21]

So, when UCCNC (or Mach3) is not started but the UC300 is powered up the motors get enabled and energized and this causes a large bang and a slight turn to the nearest full step position.

I believe that most if not all stepper drives will move to the nearest full step when powered up, so it's not the UC300 (or UC100), but the stepper drives that cause that.