I have two generic 3018 cnc machines running g code generated by Easel then downloaded to an offline controller. I get random movements of the spindle that cut from one area to another without raising the z axis. I have bought “Faraday Tape” that was advertised to help stop EM interference which may have helped a bit but I still get these annoying unwanted random cuts. Is the problem interference or something else? Should I wrap the wires again, spindle and the stepper motors, or is there another method to eliminate this problem?
Thank you to all that answer.
John Baker
Could it be that your z axis is locking up or that the safety height is so high that the z axis is topping out and loosing steps, thus it then doesn’t lift to the correct height before moving in x,y?
Or possibly the coupler to the stepper/ lead screw it loose? Or the brass antibacklash nut is partially stripped?
Or that the grbl settings aren’t set correctly and excessive acceleration or Max plunge rate is set too high causing the stepper to lock up?
Or a loose wire for that z axis, or an overheating driver even?
Unfortunately there’s lots of possible root causes for the provided scenario on a 3018 
Thank you for your reply. Ill check all these possibilities.
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I checked all the items you mentioned plus others but it had no effect on the random movements. However when I ran the carving projects directly from Easel on my laptop ( without downloading to and running the projects from the offline controller ) it went perfectly. So nothing wrong with machines but the export of the code was a problem. I’ll work on that. Thanks.
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Hmm, by chance the usb cable and the offline controller weren’t plugged into the cnc congroller board at the same time, were they?
Ive seen others mention that leaving the usb cable plugged into the controller even with the pc end unplugged allowed the wires to work like an antenna and pickup noise, caising issues running remotely, and similar issues from leaving the offline controller plugged in while running off a computer.
No, the usb and offline controller cables were not plugged in at the same time. But in my effort to shield the wires to the spindle and stepper motors with metallic tape I never did the same to the offline controller cable so let me try that.
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I think I’ve solved it. I kept searching the internet for instances of erratic results using the offline controller and found a post by a LightBurn user whose projects ran perfectly connected to their computer but not when the remote controller was used. Their solution was to load the G Code into Notepad++ and replace all the line feeds with carriage return\line feed. I’ve done that and for the last few hours my machine has performed flawlessly running off the offline controller. Thank you for staying with me on this.
John Baker
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Ohhh, i totally forgot abour the carriage return issue. Only certain offline controllers have that requirement.
If youre maually adding them to each line try this: open the gcode in Candle and then re-save it again from within Candle , the carriage returns will be automatically added. You can test this and reopen with notepad to verify they were added 
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