I have an X-Carve 1000 and a X-Controller.
As a test I am cutting air in a large curve. When the motor is travelling in the XY plane the motion stutters and doesn’t cut the curve smoothly. It’s smooth in the X plane and smooth in the Y plane but not when it’s travelling in XY.
Is your work flow Easel - Circle - Carve or different?
Wheels too tight / belts too tight?
What Haldor said…check your hardware. Something’s too tight.
I’m using Candle 1.7
I’ve checked the wheels and belts and adjusted slightly but I don’t think it’s a physical thing that’s causing the stutter. It’s more like a data problem.
I’ve also tried two laptops. One Lubuntu on an i5 and another Windows 10 on an i7 - both exhibit the same problem.
I produce the gcode with Fusion360.
It’s as though gcode is not instructing the steppers to produce a smooth curve. If you amplified what it’s doing I reckon it would be like a zig-zag round the curve.
Due to workflow you may have hundreds/thousands of nodes, each require a ramp up/down in speed causing the behaviour you describe.
Gcode-file long?
If behaviour is different with plain circle in Easel you have ruled out the mechanical aspect.
I’ve slowed down the feed rate and that seems to have calmed it down a bit. I think it’s now acceptable.
Thanks all for your comments.
IMHO - if it is a node thing, it is not acceptable and a setup for increased tool wear and precision issues.
If it is a work flow issue (like above) then sorting it out will be easy.
Have you tested a plain circle designed/carved directly from Easel?
Thanks for prompting me to carry out the test. The circle movement of the X-Carve was as expected, i.e. smooth.
Having carried out the test it has dawned on me what the problem is. The curve in my drawing that makes the X-Carve stutter is not a circle or an arc but a spline so that’s why it’s got lots of gcode to do and why it struggles a bit. I’ll amend my drawing to use an arc rather than a spline.
Cheers. Good to have input into a problem.
Exactly, a circle is broken into hundreds or thousands of “points” the bit is asked to touch => the bit speed up feed rate and decelerate for each point. It also is data transfer heavy.