My Xcarve finished and wired today. This is first post. Did first test carve ok no problem. It used a 1/8 rough pass, then a 1/16 detail pass.
On second carve its set up same way but different pattern. After the rough carve it went to the x/y home and waited for me to change bits… but the usb connection gotten broken somehow because it said their was an carve issue and it would not see easel… i unplugged and replugged usb cable connection and got the connection back, went thru the second setup and I told it to do detail pass, then i told it to use the previous x/y home… when it started, it went wacko and not at all synced to first pass… so my question is… once my first pass is done and it looses connection and cannot see easel for the second pass… am i screwed and loose the whole work? There any other work around… obviously i cannot sync it back to the exact home axis again… work is too detailed and it won’t match the first pass. Is this a common issue? I hope not, I just lost a nice piece of wood…
you can always make a bump stop, set a G28 position, so if you lose connection you have a common starting point.
Also, do you have USB power saving turned off?
@DavidPalmer Did you home the machine after you restarted? The XY zero position will remain the same until you explicitly change it.
Bump stops are helpful. There’s no need for G28 to be the same position as 0,0. G28 is no more accurate or repeatable than just sending the machine to X0Y0.
Also, do you have USB power saving turned off?
in Easel? in my Mac? never heard that…
you can always make a bump stop, set a G28 position, so if you lose connection you have a common starting point.
not sure how…Im new to cnc, although i do know what G28 and gCode is, I am unfamiliar how to get it into the XCarve… is it similar to a 3d printer setup and if it is, do I use easel to do it?
Completely off topic, but wasn’t @DavidPalmer the name of the president in 24? Boy that takes me back… 
You got it, Toyota!
In Easel, i believe you would go in to the Machine Inspector to set your G28.1
With a bumpstop and G28 position it is stored on the controller, you will need to Home when you first turn on the machine since its relative to the home position.
A stored G28.1 will allow you to lose power, disconnect, or what have you and have a persistant starting point.
If you have homing switches installed, then you can restart a program and stay in sync positionally. If you dont have switches installed/enabled you need a different reference point, otherwise the machine will now know its position relative to the work piece.
Work flow : (Note that Homing and Home Position (work zero). is not the same)
- Homing cycle is performed
- Jog to your start point or work zero (Home Position)
- Click Carve and choose "Confirm Home Position)
If for some reason the carve abort or you need to restart:
- Perform a new Homing cycle
- Click Carve and select Use previous Home position as last Home position is stored.
If a tool change is done after a Homing cycle you need to re-zero Z position.
G28 and G30 offer two permanently stored “parking spots” but Homing is required as a reference point is needed.
I don’t have homing switches.
I did click “use previous Zero position”. but then the second pass did not match first pass…
It must of been lost when I unplugged usb?
I guess I will need to copy then down from inspector, but unless i have homing switches to go to first, there would be no way to jog the machine back to same zero point I wrote down.
Time to locate me some homing switches I guess and install… This is what happens when you try to save a few bucks on the initial cost of machine…lol…
Will not work. You must home your machine if you are expecting reasonable results.
With switches you can within the presicion of your switches have a fixed, know point within the work space of you machine,
Without such a point the travel (shown as 1,2 and 3) from Homing to the Work zero can be anywhere.
With Homing possible path will always be 1, untill you assign the machine with a new WorkZero/HomePosition
With switches installed and enables you have access to:
- A stored work zero position (Easel Home Position)
- G28 and G30 parking spots
- Enabling and utilizing soft limits