Fatal Error ( 3)!

[want2b]

MPC to large to upload, pic of project below, Xmas gift for a daughter. When I uploaded it the upload gave 9 1/2 hours on Best. Got a late start and when it showed 90% after the 9 1/2 hours late last night I decided to finish this AM. Hit the Stop button and closed up shop. Went in this AM, machine looked same, had the same 'Hit Enter to Proceed or Stop to Abort' message as when I stopped it.
Hit the Enter button and to my surprise got Fatal Error ( 3)! on the display. Keypad has gone dead, tried the Enter button first hoping it magically would work, then fiquiring I was up the creek tried the Stop button. Haven't turned it off yet or removed the board, waiting until I get over the frustration. Anybody have any experience with this error?

[Woodhacker]

There have been posts on restarting a carve after an error. You can open the MPC file and make a 0" carve region over the area that has already carved. Tht way, when you restart the project, it will not recarve the whole thing..just the parts that are remaining. This has worked for me on several occasions...sometimes with amazing results, and not quite so good at other times. Hope this helps.

[Digitalwoodshop]

Did you Vacuum the unit out?

AL

[want2b]

No, did not do anything or even touch any part of the machine except hit the stop button. Checked all my other electronices in the house & shop to see if anything else indicated a power hit but nothing showed. The carver display was the same as when I left it.
Have hit the stop before and left it, can't swear it was that long but I know it was several hours while I went somewhere. Obviously the Fatal Error ( 3)! is a new one here on the forum. My only option is to shut down and begin again which I am going to proceed with, just hoped somebody had seen it and had a clue as to the cause just on case there was something I needed to do to stop a 2nd failure.
I figure if Al doesn't recognise it then I'm in the Twilight zone.
Thanks, Rick H.
ps. my shop is warm, only falls below 60 in the dead of winter during the night, was around 70 when I started and was about 62 in the AM.

[JDPratt]

I had the same error during a 5 1/2 hour carve when I stopped the machine to raise the lid and blow some of the dust out (no Vac, just air). I left the board in the machine, restarted the machine, and started the carve over. It carved air for about an hour until it hit the area not yet carved. I guess I could have used the carve region fix but I was worried about it not reading the card after reinsertion or taking the board out and not getting the same measurements from the machine as it read the board. Worked Ok, but I probably should have tried the carve region fix. I don't know what caused the error. I am still using Ver. 1.52 if that makes a difference.

[Ike]

No, did not do anything or even touch any part of the machine except hit the stop button. Checked all my other electronices in the house & shop to see if anything else indicated a power hit but nothing showed. The carver display was the same as when I left it.
Have hit the stop before and left it, can't swear it was that long but I know it was several hours while I went somewhere. Obviously the Fatal Error ( 3)! is a new one here on the forum. My only option is to shut down and begin again which I am going to proceed with, just hoped somebody had seen it and had a clue as to the cause just on case there was something I needed to do to stop a 2nd failure.
I figure if Al doesn't recognise it then I'm in the Twilight zone.
Thanks, Rick H.
ps. my shop is warm, only falls below 60 in the dead of winter during the night, was around 70 when I started and was about 62 in the AM.

You I can't swear to it, but I think I got the same fatal error the other day. Plus strangely the other night I was running both machines and didn't out get back out to the shop about an hour after both had stop. Both needed to have the bits changed and both screens were blank.

My question is you haven't recently tried the one minute dust collector? I did and both machines were hooked up to a DC with the one minute DC method. It was really cold outside about 23 degrees and not much warmer in the shop. Both machines had cooled down.

I knew I had to change the bit and on the CC hit enter after changing the bit and it went to the finder and back to the keyboard side and looked like it was going to start and then nothing. Same with my CW, so I am wondering by the vac and DC still going it caused some static electricity or is happening while the machine is running causing a fatal error?

Ike

[want2b]

Ike;

Have to say no 1 minute dust collector, to be honest, not sure what that is actually. Regardless, all I did was walk over to the carver and hit the Stop, never even touched the rest of the machine. Went in, fell in the bed. got up, walked out and turned the lights back on, looked at the display, all was well and hit the enter key.
Got 'Fatal Error ( 3)! , tried the Enter and the Stop keys with no response, then tried every other key out of frustration, again no reponse.
Tonight shut it down and measured the length of completed carve. Then as Woodhacker posted I did what others have done. built a new carve with 31.5 inches of original carve having a 0 depth. Uploafed it up, program was smart enough that it asked me if I was aware there was an area that would not actually do any carving, said yes and let it go, what did I have to lose?
Results were the carve started very close to where I stopped it. Carver measured everything again and went to the location where the new carve area begins. What I think is the X direction, length of board, was very close, Y direction as width of board was very close, and Z direction as depth was close enough that some sanding will make it OK.
Kind of a Catch-22, tickled I could save the carve, then wondered why there was any difference since it was the same board. Length, width and thickness had not changed.
Then I thought about how little difference there really was, and the fact there was 24 hours between measuring, probably a few degrees of temp. Reality was if I had to submit the measurements based on current readings from a micrometer it would have looked a whole lot worse.
Will try and take pics tomorrow and post so you can see the diff, may not be visible, we'll see.
Back to the original ?, why or how did I get the fatal error? Probably beating a dead horse but since it carved fine both the first and second time the physical part of the carver must be sound. since the Stop feature is a part of the software and length of stop should not be an issue(unless we don't know it), what causes the Fatal error? Maybe LhR can dig into it and figure ot if a 'patch' is needed>

Thx for all the responses;
Rick H

[Digitalwoodshop]

Well I will throw out a Twilight Zone Thought.....

I have watched with interest over time when I see posted a unknown problem with a fatal error showing up when a LARGE or LONG project is stopped in the 75% point for anything from cleaning to overnight pause.

I am looking at this from the Computer Side of this..... What IF.... When you place the machine in standby by opening the cover OR pressing stop, the machine must STORE the "This is the place where I finished carving and need to start here when I start back up again" data.

What IF..... That data in a BIG project ends up filling the memory allocation of space on the card to the point of OVERFLOW.... It is not unheard of in the electronic side of things.... The Overflow = Fatal error....

It would be hard to prove this theory... It would require setting up hours worth of carving and intensionally stopping the machine to "See what it would do".... Sounds like a job the the Techs at LHR...

My first thoughts are Operator Influenced error... Vacuuming static, dust collector static, house power fluctuation and never think of the computer side of the situation.

AL

[want2b]

Al, I think you could have a good point. Regardless of the space left unused on the card the software obviously has to determine the criteria of what it needs to be able to restart exactly in the same spot. That procedure and the allocation of an area to store it along with probably things we're not aware of are all are imbeded in the software which only LHR can access.
Thx, Rick H.

[Digitalwoodshop]

THey might very well be aware of it and we would never hear of it until the next card update and you see things fixed.... "Allocated more memory space on the card to the store ending spot data" or something cryptic like that...

Plus as the Updates ADD more Functions it is possible that we would NEED TO BUY a new Memory Card with MORE MEMORY in the Future.... Say if we wanted to update to Designer Version 2.999 Build 56223.234 the machine would not let you load the project on the old card unless you had the new CARD.... 2 years from now still ask me what I am "Smoking?"

Hardware Limitations......

AL Who is.... Vice President of Marketing of "NO Name Brand" Bargain Basement Masking Tape.