New Control: USB Thumb Drive 'ejecting'?

[Donkey Hotey]

The new Haas LCD15 controls now come standard with a USB port. They warn in the operator's manual that before you remove the device (thumbdrive) you need to 'eject it' electronically to safely shut it down.

They say to press LIST/PROG key, then ORIGIN and wait until it says it's safe to remove the device. Well, it doesn't work. I tried changing the screen selection from the internal memory to the USB device. I tried swapping the active window from left to right. I tried other key sequences.

Nothing associated with LIST PROG then ORIGIN gives a message. I can't even make the USB LED blink. It's steady green.

Faced with this, I just unplugged it. The Haas said 'no USB device'. I plugged it back in, it waited a second, then it told me how much memory the device has. Plugging and unplugging didn't seem to cause any harm and the software took it in stride.

Has the procedure changed on later firmware revisions or am I still doing something wrong?

[Geof]

How old is your machine? I have three machines with the USB port, 2005, 2006 and 2007 and I think it is only the 2007 machine that gives you the "safely remove..." message after you do the Origin thing.

[HuFlungDung]

Well, I would guess that you should not be looking at a directory on the USB device when you unplug it, direct the List prog to the onboard memory if possible, and then do your worst That's just from my own experience with Windows taking a dump when you've actually got a window open, using the device, and unplug it. But, they say Haas ain't windows either

[slatern44]

When they did my install a couple of weeks ago the service rep said you can just hit the origin button when its on any screen and then pull it out. He did say to keep the origin button held down until you completely remove the USB device. Mine also does not say anything when you do hold down the origin button.

[Donkey Hotey]

Originally Posted by Geof How old is your machine?

July/August 2007 build date (it's my TL-1).

Originally Posted by slatern44 He did say to keep the origin button held down until you completely remove the USB device.

So they told you to hold the button down as you're removing it? I just tried it and that doesn't do anything either. The light on the thumbdrive stays lit (solid--never blinks). No combination of LIST PROG/ORIGIN causes anything to happen on the control or the thumbdrive.

Originally Posted by HuFlungDung Well, I would guess that you should not be looking at a directory on the USB device when you unplug it, direct the List prog to the onboard memory if possible

Yup, tried that too: memory or USB being active makes no difference.

The machine doesn't seem to care. I unplug and it immediately says "No USB device present" and as soon as I plug it back in, it lists the device and the memory available and used.

I guess if it's not writing to the device, it should be okay. I'll call Haas Applications on Wednesday and see if I can get an answer.

FWIW: I backed up all of the VQC programs so I'd have them on my computer. They copied without a hitch and it happened instantly Man, I wish I had this control on my VF-2.

[maxine]

Same deal on my new machine with the LCD15 and USB. I did what the manual says and no safe to remove message comes up.

[Cory]

Originally Posted by HuFlungDung Well, I would guess that you should not be looking at a directory on the USB device when you unplug it, direct the List prog to the onboard memory if possible, and then do your worst That's just from my own experience with Windows taking a dump when you've actually got a window open, using the device, and unplug it. But, they say Haas ain't windows either

I don't think you can look at directories. Everything I've seen while using our 2007 VF-1 is that it will only show you files in the root directory of the thumb drive--anything inside other folders is unavailable.

At any rate, I never "safely disconnect" my USB drives when using them on my computer...I just make sure they aren't writing, and pull them out.

[Matt@RFR]

Greg, just another data point. For about 6 months now, I've just been yanking the thumbdrive out no matter what screen I'm on because my control does the exact same thing yours does when ejecting...nothing. Several hundred 'yanks', and no problems to date.

[Donkey Hotey]

I called Haas Applications department this morning. Here's the answer:

If it has USB in an older control (10" LCD) meaning--Hard drive / Ethernet option--then you have to press LIST PROG and ORIGIN before removing the thumb drive.

If it's an LCD15 control (the new generation that come standard with USB). just pull the thumbdrive out. Nothing else.

[Partsmaker]

Ha! until reading this thread didnt even know about safely ejecting usb! I used to eject on the PC. now takes to much time. Ive pulled it in and out of both machine and PC thousands of times on a new VF3 no worries! Parts Maker

[panaceabea]

I have also pulled out usb pen drives witout ejecting for years and on 3 occasions I have toasted drives, well 4 as of yesterday. Some drives are more sensitive to the surge created by the field collapsing when you yank the drive out . I would always reccomend using an unmount procedure of some sort (preferably one that cuts the 3.5-5v dc going to the drive)

I would like to know the proper procedure for doing it on the HAAS controller, I dont see any mention of it in the manual, but on a couple occasions , I have gotten an error message when I plug the drive back in stating the USB drive was improperly dismounted or something similar.

I now have a 1gig pen drive that the HAAS controller refuses to read from after the most recent error message . Now when I plug it in and try to navigate to it , I get a message that says no USB device present. If I am on the select program screen and plug the USB device in I can then access it by unplugging it and then plugging it back in , but when I try to load any of the programs from it the controller gives an alarm message and the red light flashes and states there is an unknown error .

If I try to run a program from the USB pen drive (the one fried from snathing out of the HAAS controller) The machine goes into estop and i get an error message that says low voltage condition at the rs232 port or other communication device.

In summary unplugging a USB pen drive from the HAAS controller can damage the pen drive , maybe not all but I did fry a brand new one yesterday .
Please advise on how to properly eject pen drive

[Donkey Hotey]

Are we talking about the new, 15" LCD control? With or without the Ethernet hard drive option?

The control that caused me to start this thread was my 2007 TL-1 with the 15" LCD control. It does not have a dismount procedure. It isn't optional. There just isn't a way to do it. If that damaged your thumbdrive, I don't think there's a way around it.

If it's an older control, with the Ethernet, hard drive option and the optional USB, then it's per the procedure in the first post (List prog, Origin, then remove the drive).