I turned up the power to the Z stepper and that appears to have resolved the problem of loosing steps. I used the same work piece that I had already started that was ruined and began carving from the top right corner working down and the parts that weren’t already cut seemed to cut just right. Now it’s time to break out a new piece and see how it goes. On a side note, I read in one of your posts on PicSender, how to resolve the issue of jogging. I can only seem to jog one time in any direction. If I jog right in X then I can only jog left in x next. Then I can go right again, then only left again. Same for y and z. I can’t seem to find where you already answered that question. Aside from that PicSender works flawlessly. Ran a 900,000 line file without issue where UGS and ChiliP both froze up about 1 hour in. Three ruined corian pieces was almost the cost of PicSender. Have I hijacked this thread, my apologies if so
Hi Charley,
Is the jog mode set to Inc. (G91)? If it’s set to Abs. (G90). it will only jog once in any direction from your zero place. The Mode button will change it to Inc (G91) and then it will move the distance in the drop down menu you select every time you jog and is not relative to where your zero places are.
Don’t mean to be a pest. I set it to G90 with the mode button and now I get no jogging at all, even when going back to G91. I can load a file and the machine starts working but no jogging. Any suggestions?
In future builds, it would be awesome if you could add 4 or 5 slots for Macro codes to be loaded and saved. Those could be used to store Zeroing codes. I use them in UGS to zero my x,y,z and then shut it down and load PicSender to cut my project. A little extra effort on my part but worth it to get repeatable zeroing without the error of an ageing eyeball!
There may not be a default jog feedrate set in the grbl startup block. Click the $N View Startup Blocks button and it should display the startup blocks $N0=G20 for inch units or $N0=G21 for Metric units in the message window. Right below it is for setting the default jog feedrate and it should show $N1=FXX. XX will be the default jog feedrate. These settings load each time PicSender connects to the com port & grbl and you can add them by executing those commands in the Do Cmd window and button… You can also set the jog feedrate after connecting with the Fx dropdown menu and button.
We are already working on a way to add & run Macros in PicSender. Meanwhile, you could create separate text/gcode files, load and send the commands you need.
Great minds think alike. (You and your partners that is). I restarted my pc and everything started working properly. Hadn’t thought of the separate files to use in place of Macros’ but I can’t see why that wouldn’t work. Thanks for the advice. Great Program. Can’t wait to see what you guys do next with it.
I appreciate all you help. Going to give a litho a shot now. Ill let you know how it turns out.
I just purchased PhotoCarve from Vetric which is supposed to do this kind of work ($149.00, I believe…). Haven’t had a chance to try it as I just got the electronics done on my X-Carve…
Good luck with it, let us know how well it works for you.
PicEngrave Pro 5 generates g-code files for making Lithophanes, spindle photo engravings in wood, laser engraving photos and even has an image editor built in. It’s about half the price of PVC. Look at the examples posted by Jeremy Hill in this thread above using our PicEngrave image to gcode program with his X-Carve.
http://www.picengrave.com/PicEngraver%20Pro%205%20+%20Laser.htm.
Yesterday was interesting to say the least. After testing and adjusting stepper motor power to fix the lost steps in my Z axis seems to be resolved, I decided to just go for it. I engraved a 8 inch X 12 inch Lithophane. It is the same file that I have attempted 3 times before that ended in disappointment ruined Corian because of either the controllers (UGS and both Chilipeper) freezing an hour in or loosing steps in my Z axis after purchasing PicSender which did not freeze up and works great.
I started with a piece of Corian that was too thick so I thinned it down from the back side with a 1/4 inch end mill. Then did a roughing pass with a 1/8 inch ball end mill and finally did the final pass with a 1/16" ball end mill. The final pass took just under 4 hours to engrave which was ok because I was multitasking in the shop. However, multitasking multiple projects when one is on the CNC and others are Shop upgrades, and Lathe work is not always a good idea.
In my case, at about the 3 hour mark of the engraving, I suddenly realized that I never turned the Corian back over to engrave the Litho from the front and had been engraving it from the back the entire time. I figured that I just trashed yet another piece of Corian! Curious to see how it would turn out as far as cutting accuracy since I have had problems with loosing steps in the Z axis, I decided to let in continue cutting to the bitter end.
Much to my surprise, It turned out just fine. Since this is the first time I have actually managed to complete a Lithophane, so I’m not sure if it makes that much difference cutting the litho from the front or the back. The picture is of my Mother and Father. My Father passed away about a year ago and I wanted to do something special for my Mom. All in all, I’m happy with the result but there are some stray lines that show up in the carving that follow the cutting path. Not sure what they are unless I am still losing steps in my Z axis.
The two pictures below are the same carving. One has brighter light behind it but the darker one shows the irregularities better.
That came out excellent Charley,
It does not really matter if you cut from the pocketed side, except lighting from pocketed side seems to work the best, especially when I’m making night lights I bet your hooked on Lithophanes now and you will soon learn, they will only get better with more experience.
Charlie, that looks great. What software did you to create the toolpath. Also did you need to alter your photo (convert it to B&W or enhance it) ?
Well done, the detail is amazing.
I was hooked before I ever started just by watching youtube videos of people making them. Were you able to see the lines that changed the shading? They are most obvious across Dad’s shirt and Mom’s forhead. Any idea what they are. I’m thinking I still have a z axis loosing steps but not sure. May try to up the power to the Z stepper just a bit more.
I used Aspire to create the tool paths. It automatically converts to B/W when they are imported. I also used PicSender to send the Gcode to the cnc. For about $14.00, I consider it a very good deal. USG and Chilipepper keep freezing up on my system if I cut large files. This one had about 900,000 lines in the Gcode for the finish pass! You can download a trial version of PicSender to test out but it will only cut 1/2 of the Gcode file. Enough to see if it works for you or not. I still use UGS to zero all three axis because it has the Macro slots. Once I zero them all out I set my bit at 0,0,0 and then close it out. Then I load PicSender and it starts up with the 0,0,0 set at the current location and I’m good to load the file and watch the magic.
Lithophanes are amazing. Thank you for the compliment but I do still have some fine tuning to do before it is really to that level.
Thanks for the information. I am not quite ready yet to purchase Aspire, I wonder if Aspire and PhotoVcarve use the same Lithophane routines.
I’m not sure what would cause that line. It seems if the Z lost steps there, it would have effected the litho from that point on. Something got on a V roller and caused a slight shift with the bit?
Any body ever try Candlestone for Litho’s? How about a good source for Corian?
Found this on ebay
I have been lucky getting corian “scraps” from a countertop installer near my house. They have hundreds of sink cutouts and end pieces. They started out just giving me the smaller 6 inch by 25 inch end pieces. But now that they see a demand they have started charging.
Yes, Aspire it very expensive. I got lucky and was given a copy by a friend that doesn’t use it anymore. You sould check out Pic Engrave Pro. They have some software that has a lithophane setting that my work for you. I haven’t tried it but the pics on his website look very promising.
I believe you can download a trial version that is fully functional.