VistaCNC P4-SE pendant stopped working

Glad to hear this Alan. I'll be looking forward to their response. I also did not originally have the EE box connected. I ordered it l later and had them modify my original Pendent to use it. I am also going to review the grounding on my machine. The problem for me comes in fits and spirts and seems to be more common in winter. That is the other reason I think that it is sometimes static electricity that gets it for me. I did use shielded single pair wire from the EE box back to my cabinet to fend off interference as mush as possible.

John.

I'll definitely post any further developments here on the thread. That way it can possibly help you, or anyone else who may come across this series of postings.

I may not be totally out of the woods. Murphy is rearing his head a tad... I've noticed that if I cycle the estop circuit a few times on (at least) one of my configurations I've been testing, I can still brick the pendant. Oddly, however, there is one configuration that seems to be pretty rock solid. I'll have to investigate that more.

Does your USB cable has a screening?
Dismantel some cm of the protection near to the plug and use some "lashes?" to screw it to the bare metal of your pc. That shout prevent high frequency emv. Also ask yourself if the estop circuit is switching some current that goes over a "not so good anymore" contact, which creates high energy evm...
m5c
Mike

The pendent cord is shielded but the EE_Box is not and the USB cable from the EE_Box to the PC is just a standard USB cable like that used on a printer. I used shielded wire for thr E-Stop from the EE_Box to the CNC Cabinet which also holds the PC motherboard.

See: EE_Box wiring

Maybe take a step back here:

If you press the E-stop then your pendant stops working.

If you press the E-stop because it _needs_ pressing then the pendant is the least of your worries.

In all practical senses your system is completely functional.

JohnnyCNC: actually, I don't think the cable is shielded, at all... Or, if it is, the shielding definitely isn't carried through the RJ connector, which effectively means (in my mind) that the shielding isn't particularly beneficial.

Andy: No, unfortunately I think you may be a bit too literally. The pendant doesn't display an estop message (which is what it does when working properly), it bricks. The only way to reset it is to restart LinuxCNC. It is analogous to saying that the F1 (Estop button) on the screen is "latching" and the only way you could reset it would be to restart LinuxCNC.

I have no problems with the machine shutting down power to the servo amps, etc. I don't want it to effectively cut off power to the whole machine. EStop means I want the machine to stop moving. Yes, it definitely *could* mean "NOW!" but it doesn't have to.