I tried four different drives, tried reformatting my drive and clearing the others. It read my file one (on the third try) and then would not read a usb after that.
There was a pretty extensive conversation about problems including this one (#2 in the original post linked).
The consensus if I remember right was that it’s more reliable to copy jobs to the controller’s internal memory and run them from there, instead of directly off the USB drive. My issue is that I frequently have problems getting it to recognize the presence of the USB drive in the first place.
I’m not too sure where that discussion landed.
The conversation stalled I believe as it seemed the issue wasn’t as present anymore.
I haven’t personally had any problems on the Swift as of recently, and haven’t heard as many on the IQ.
Couple of things to keep in mind, if you use your own drive make sure it is 8gb or less. The drives at the shop get used between a lot of different computers, and I suspect their cheap nature has caused them to not hold up well. I’ll order replacements, but it is a good idea to have a personal drive.
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I tried using the two drives that were on the desk and both of mine. I remember amazed mentioned that higher capacity (>8Gb) can cause problems so I knew mine might not work. It was recognizing the USB, it just wasn’t finding any files.
I reset the power in the IQ a couple of time but nothing seemed to work.
There is a good chance that the USB drives that have problems might be using a newer version of USB. If someone can give me the actual controller (that we use to control the small CnC) I can take a look at the data sheet and see what it is actually made for.
For example - I found this one (not sure if this is the one we have for the IQ) but in this case if you wanted to avoid any USB issues you would want to be using somewhat older USB 2 Flask Drives under 4Gig… USB is “supposed” to be backwards compatible, but I can tell you from experience that it really depends on the software that the Controller is using.
Lol… here is them telling us exactly what I just mentioned.
For what it’s worth, my random free Lexar 8gb USB stick has never failed despite heavy usage on both machines. I dedicate it solely to use on the CNCs and delete all files when I’m done with a project to reduce file clutter. It has a little red light that flashes during read/write, which I find helpful as sometimes there is a slight delay while the controller reads the drive. I don’t bother transferring files to the controller, but that is certainly an option. I’ve seen some of the Asmbly USB sticks sitting in the controller literally bent at an angle, so be very careful to not hit the USB during usage. I recommend keeping the controller in the cradle at all times unless using it to set XY coordinates or Z height.
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If this is indeed the controller we have, I have no problem buying like a 10 pack of the 4Gig 2.0 Flash drives and donating them, so that we have plenty of the right ones. Just let me know.
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To echo this… I only use my own cheap 8GB usb sticks that were just the “Amazon Recommends”, top of the list choices… and I haven’t had a usb reading problem since.
The only other problem I used to encounter is that the machine would sometimes stop mid job when running long jobs… I took James’ advice and started copying my files to internal controller memory before running and that problem has 100% gone away, as well.
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+1 on Doug’s response. I’ve (1) switched to a my own dedicated small USB and (2) always copy from the USB to internal memory, remove the USB stick (just for good measure), and run from the internal. Both of those have been huge gains in my productivity.
Physical damage/wear aside, the capacity itself actually should not matter, only the way it is formatted. It needs to be FAT32. You can format a 2tb drive in FAT32 and it will max out as 8gb or a ton of 8gb partitions.
I didn’t realize that it automatically partitioned into 8gb but I did reformat one of the drives and tried a couple of times without luck.
Yes. Both machines use a RichAuto A11 (not sure of the exact submodel) The image from the pdf you included is named A11E…
Yeah that was just a quick search, I went to RichAuto’s site and found the manual for all the A11’s, and the only real warning it had was that that have to be formatted FAT16 or FAT32, which points to why anything over 8Gig has issues. Since I’m personally a packrat, I have plenty of small flash drives for personal use. I have that PDF manual, if anyone ever wants it.