Yes, they are configured correctly. It seemed to work fine when I tried the Mach3 sample Roadrunner file. I will go back to the Material Setup and try your suggestion. I'll let you know what happens. Thanks.

Not sure with Vcarve, but in CAMBAM if you do not set material thickness you have to cut to a negative thickness.

Sorry, let me get this straight.
-You do all your design and export
-plug it into mach 3
-push start
-Z axis keeps going up without stopping?

-Is your mach3 set up in inches or mm?

-Check your toolpath setting, the z-clearance may be set to high
this can be the case, you can be working in mm and export to inches, and it doesnt convert correctly. (you think its going 15mm but its actually seeing 15 inches)
The zero position of the workpiece may be off (I have made that mistake), what may be top-right in vcarve, can be bottom left on the machine.

-Another thing can be, is that did you import a model and work of that, or bring in a dwg file?
When you bring in a model, the orientation may have been wrong, or the zero may have been at the bottom of the model instead of the top

eg.


|--- |
|__|
||
________________
_____
| |
|_____|

is this how your zero is, above the workpeice?
OR

|---|
|__|
||
______
| |
|______|
______________________


(Poor quality router and workpeice)

or does it thing the zero is at the bottom of the object.

if its second, then the machine wants to starts not only going higher in clearance, but heigher than the model height to start carving.


I mean there are alot of possibilities as to what it is. If its not super secret private work, you can post it and we can take a look.
or go through the motion again of setting up tool paths and look at every box and check to make sure its all correct.

open so when you create a toolpath, you select either pocket or profile or drill or V-bit, they all usually have the same setting to play around with.
-from there you select depth you want it to cut
-then you select your tool and can edit it, (Diameter, Size Speed and such)
-then you can create tabs for the file (3d tabs or regular tabs), corners and so on

Next comes the Zheight or clearance. This is safety, you can tell it how high you want it to go for safety (above the material zero), and how low you want it to plunge
so you can tell it to go up 5 inches above zero and then plunge down 4.5 inches and just jog the rest of the way down. before it goes past to zero.

maybe its here that you have set it up a really high number.

for me, the default is 15, but i work in mm so its fine for me,
maybe for you its default 15 also, but since its inches its going up 15 inches which you dont have (I would guess you dont).

Take a look at that.

I dont have the program here in front of me to check the right word, but take a look at the clearance area of the toolpath.

Wouldn't that cause it to plunge too deep into the work piece?

Hey guys,

I pulled the trigger, bought some parts and started my 1000X1500 build. Hurray! I'm excited to see it come together!

Now I'm starting to think about electronics and I have a question. I didn't find much while googling this, so I thought I'd post here.

Question: I see some controllers like the CNC USB Controller Mk2 & Mk2/4 in the parts store and I've seen some others on ebay that say "Mach3 is NOT required". Obviously, not having to spend the money on Mach3 is a good thing, but I think some of that expense is offset by the more expensive controller. So my question is: is it a good thing or bad thing to NOT use Mach3? I'm assuming the USB controllers come with their own "Mach3" like software? ...or is it all hardware controlled ...but there has to be software control somewhere, right? I would assume that Mach3 is very flexible and proven and therefore possibly a better option? Anyway, your thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Hi Matt, I'm also keen to my hands on parts for the same build and checked today for the solid rollers for which there isn't enough stock. I can't find a response to your question re availability... Any idea guys?

Z axis problem continues. I started all over. Re calibrated the Z axis just to be sure. Made sure both programs are in inches. Deleted the VCarve sign and re designed it watching all my tool path settings. Saved. Now here's a question. In post processors, whats the difference between Mach2/3 ATC Arcs, Mach2/3 Arcs and Mach2/3 wrapx2a? I chose the first one (in inches). Reloaded the sign program into Mach3 and the same thing happens. Something is telling the Z axis to travel up (pos.) farther than it's travel limit. I'm about at my wits end. GRRR! I sure wish one of you brainiacks lived near Toledo.

@GrandpawB, if I understand you correctly when you ran the roadrunner file everything was fine. That means, to me, that the machine is fine and that the problem is in the file you made. It must be something in the program that you use to generate the file.

Here's the first several lines:

Yes it does. When I run the file it it stops on line 140.

I deleted the G43 from line 140 and that seems to have done the trick. For the most part. 1) I don't yet understand the offsets so I didn't do anything with them. (so how did they get setup wrong? and how do I fix it?) 2) I have gaps and letter overlays in my sign. How is that corrected? Are you sure I have picked the right post processor? Thanks for all your help. I'm learning.

Well, I just completed my build of a wide OX and I am having quite a bit of trouble with the stepper motors. I am using the Synthetos GRBL shield on an Arduino Uno and running the GRBL Controller on a laptop running Windows XP. I followed the video that Mark posted on the OpenBuilds OX page pretty closely and I bought most of the parts including the NEMA 17 and 23s directly from the parts store. When I try jogging the motors from the Axis Control screen, the motors make a horrible grinding sound. When I first start it up, the NEMA 17 Z motor also makes this noise but after moving up and down a few times it smoothes out and sounds and works fine. But the X and Y NEMA 23s continue to make the noise and do not rotate the gear no matter what I do. I've tried swapping the leads around to no avail, and what's puzzling is that the Z works with the same wiring scheme (Red, Blue, Yellow, Green except the Left Y motor which has the Yellow, Green flopped to Green, Yellow). I am using the 12V power supply sold in the parts store. I am going to try hooking the offending motors to the Z port on the shield since it seems to work, and hooking the Z Axis motor to the X and/or Y to see if it is a problem in the motor or the board. Any other ideas will be greatly appreciated.

Have you set the current on the grblShield (3x trimmers)?

No, I was not aware of that option. Any hints on the process or just trial and error?

I can't get into application data. ( see 1st thumbnail attached) I'm still not that experienced with Mach 3, but from what I can see, none of the tool numbers including G43 has any parameters.(see 2nd thumbnail)

OOPS, here's the second thumbnail.

I have a shapeoko as my base and building a ox for bigger stuff, I had a similar issue and was pulling my hair until someone came along and explained it in plain english and figured it out.

to set the current you need to play with the trim pots (thats what people called it). What it looks like is a cube on the shield with a hex on it, its small you need either eyeglass repair screwdriver or the tiny ones used for computers

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
DO NOT DO ANYTHING UNTIL YOU READ EVERYTHING
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

these pots only turn a small amount. about 80 degress each way.
dont put pressure when turning them, they should turn easily with minimal effort.
if you feel the slighest resistance, stop, you have gone to far, turning it past this point will break it.
not by turning it you tell it to either send more or less power to the motors. In turn this will cause it to heat up more or less.

Turning it clockwise give it more power, turning it counter clockwise gives it less.

now each one is different, you need to play around with each trim pot to figure out what is the best place to put it.

for my dual y. I have it turned to about 70% clockwise to give it more power. thats because the power is being split to two motors, so they can handle the extra power. things like X and Z only have 1 motor so be a bit more carefull.

How to tell if you have less power
If you can stop the machine while its running with your hands, then you have too little power, and not enough torque. If thats the case, give it more power. BUT TURN IT SLOWLY.

the best way people say to test is to have the machine run in a loop moving and play with the trim pots.
by adding more power you give more torque to the motors which help it move better, and give it some UMPH!!!.

We like UMPH. it means that it will go through whatever you throw at it.

if you start giving it to much power, it should start to making noises and actually moving weird. (thats what happened to me).
So slowly start giving it power, and once it starts going crazy, bring it back a bit until its smooth and powerful.

Now by giving it more power you actually can cause it to heat up even more, both the electronics and the motors.
By getting to hot, it can cause the electronics to stop. By the motors getting to hot you can cause it to stop.

To counteract this heat, put a computer fan over the electronics and cause it to blow air onto the circuits.

How to know the motors are hot?

If you can touch it for longer than several seconds its fine, if the second you touch it and it burns, stop the machine and let the motors cool.
If its hot but you can still touch it in your hand, not just a finger, but grab it then you are cool and the machine can keep going.


Hopefully this helps.

In vcarve, export your toolpath as G-Code inche (*.tap)

I have used that to run stuff in mach3 and never had a problem with it.

Test that post processors, and see how that reacts to the machine.

Going with Mach3 is a good option IMHO as for a stepper driving system has been good to me. It is very customizeble which is a big positive and also part of why it can be so frustrating. I have spent hours trying to find out why a script wont run or something is crashing but these issues have mostly been based around more complicated machines with automatic tool changers, most simple stepper based routers run quite well with only a few basic changes to mach3.

Going with something else - DSP hand held control - I crashed many times as you have no idea what is going to happen as there is no cut preview and also it has less info on how to fix.

USBcnc I hear good things about it but have not used it. Keen to give it a go as I hear its movement is very smooth.

I am also keen to try an arduino based system as seen in this build guide as there is some very good info on how to set it up and getting running well on an ox.

So to sum up, I think mach3 is worth the licence fee and what ever option you go with make sure you look into a few different how to setup guides before you buy. Make sure you will have enough info to get you going with that system as there is no
point in having something cheap that you can't make work!

Well, if it isn't one thing it's another. Now my Z axis stepper is shot. Ordered a replacement so I'm down until then. Is there a way of using a NEMA 23 for the Z rather than a NEMA 17 on the OX build?

I didn't add a max, I just set up a min to keep it from going through the spoiler table. There isn't really a good location for a max I have found. I was testing some printed designs for a flag to press the endstop, but I never came up with anything I liked.