X-Carve Pro will not recognize computer

X-Carve Pro
1

I’m stuck on the sideline. My X-Carve PRO is playing the “2-year old Child” game… I cannot get the “Carve” button to turn green. Meaning that it will not connect with my computer. And the led does not light up on the controller box.

It had done that for months when I first set it up a year and a half ago. I had to do hard-boots to both the computer AND the X-Carve multiple times EVERY time that I tried to use it. Then mysteriously, it stopped doing that several months later, and I hadn’t had a problem in about a year. Then today, in the midst of making last minute Christmas presents, it flat out refuses to connect. I did a half dozen 'Hard-Boots" to the machine, as well as shut down the computer and brought it back up… NOTHING.

So, a call to Tec Support and the solution was similar to what modern day auto mechanics do “Throw money at it.”

The suggestion is to change out the controller box (the box with the emergency stop button), at $300 bucks. I was told that if that doesn’t work, I should spend a thousand bucks on a new tower. If that doesn’t work, we can take another look at other possibilities.

It seems that “all the possibilities” should be looked at FIRST, but apparently, there is no way to trouble-shoot in Inventables book.

This makes ZERO sense to me. Anyone who has read my posts can see that I am an analog guy trapped in a digital world. But testing electronics IS ANALOG. I own multiple multi-meters and testing equipment. I am capable of testing the controller box (whatever it’s called), but I need to know what I’m looking for. This is apparently outside the wheelhouse of Tec Support.

Thus, my question for the group is; 1) has anyone experienced this? 2) does anyone know what I need to test for? 3) is there a schematic somewhere?

As an FYI, I did the most basic of ‘tests’ which is to say that I opened the controller and bypassed the emergency stop button. This did not resolve the issue, so presumably the problem is not with the kill switch.

Sorry, I’m an old-timer. I don’t belong in this ‘throw-away’ world. I FIX stuff when it breaks, and I don’t just throw money at things and throw away perfectly good parts rather than figuring out what is wrong, I test them to make sure that they are broken first, and THEN buy the parts necessary (including rebuilding that control box rather than replacing the whole thing if it’s just a switch or a plug).

That is what I need to do, but it appears that this is a foreign concept in 2024

Anyone gone through this?

Any suggestions?

2

I’m battling a somewhat similar problem. See my post from the other day.

Are you using Easel or some other control program? I plan to replace the USB cables with ferrite chokes on each end, but I haven’t gotten there yet.

3

I’m using Easel.

As mentioned, I’d like to test this and find the problem. If I absolutely MUST discover the problem by replacing parts, it seems like replacing cables would be logical (although they are the easiest to test).
Question; when does the green led come
“On” on the controller box (I can’t remember)? Is that lit even when the computer is disconnected, or only when connected?

As a side note: Happy Holidays to everyone

All my best,

Joe

4

The green LED is only lighted when the power switch is turned on. No power, no light.
Merry Christmas

5

Thank you,

Just to confirm, ‘no power, no light’, I get that. But it will still be lit if there is power but no computer, correct?

Thanks again,

And Merry Christmas and/or Happy first day of Hanukkah (if you celibate either), to all of you,

All my best,

Joe

6

That I’m not sure of, but I would guess you are correct.

7

Zero rush, as it’ll be a couple of days before I’m back home and in the shop, but if anyone reading this, who has a properly functioning X-Csrve Pro could confirm the following, it would be greatly appreciated on my journey of discovery to find out what’s wrong; besides the led being ‘off’ when the tower is powered down, when is the light ‘on’ vs. ‘off’?

In other words, on your properly functioning machine, does the light go ‘off’ when you unplug your computer?

I should know this, but to be honest, I simply can’t remember.

I’m trying to ‘rule things out.’

If I can determine that the light ‘normally’ stays ‘on’ when the computer is disconnected, then I’ve likely ruled out any possibility of the problem being on the computer’s side.

However, if the light goes ‘out’ when the computer is disconnected, then it is still possible that the problem is computer related.

Question #2: does anyone know if the cable that has a standard USB plug (tower end) and a USB-C plug - at least I believe that is a USB-C - (control box end), is a proprietary cable, or just an ‘off the shelf’ cable?

I need to test that there is a signal making it to the control box before I go spending the $$ on a new control box. I’ll buy one if I need it, but want to determine that I need one first.

Any input/information/assistance will be GREATLY appreciated.

Thank you all, I appreciate you,

All my best,

Joe

8

Hummmm…. And it just occurred to me that inside the control box, that UsB cable simply passes through the box and into the computer. It DOES NOT go through the kill switch or the circuit board).

This means that the problem ‘COILD’ be in the computer side (which speaks directly to the tower without actually routing through the control box - except for the connections located there).

So this means that I also need to test the CAT cable (I believe that this is what these are called) which runs from the tower to the control box.

Just working through this in my head and hoping that any of you have some insight to share that might help in the journey.

Once again, thank you in advance.

All my best,

Joe

9

A follow-up for anyone interested:

The issue has been resolved.

Cost: $8.99 through Amazon.

I have a friend that tests ‘imbedded systems’ (I don’t know what that is, but I don’t need to). He came to the shop yesterday and began performing tests, and when we got to the short (1’ long) CAT-5 cable that bolts to the back of the housing and connects to the circuit board, we FOUND THE PROBLEM! pin number #2 did not have connectivity.

That cable has a part number (presumably an INVENTABLES number as it was clearly added AFTER manufacture), of # 840-00084

We removed that cable and bypassed it by plugging the CAT-5 cable directly into the circuit board. WHAM!!! it worked!! LED came on, and 30 seconds later the blue button switched to green.

We went to the local computer superstore, sadly they did not have the exact part. HOWEVER, the customer service rep was VERY helpful and helped us find one on AMAZON (!!)… that is what I call customer service!!! They didn’t have the part and instead of saying "sorry, we don’t have it. Too bad. He went the extra mile to help me buy one from a competitor! He just bought a customer for life!

As an aside, I’d been having bizarre problems with my X-Carve PRO since I hooked it up a year and a half ago. This same friend had been telling me for some time not that the problems, that I had been writing off as “Ghosts in the Machine”, was likely a hardware problem NOT a software problem (with the help of tec support, I’ve reloaded the firmwear two or three times in the past year and a half and that never helped).

He is convinced that that connection had always been bad, but had not completely come unconnected, and so as it made and broke connections over the past year it would mess with the computer’s ability to determine where the gantry/spindle was in space (my issues were always that the spindle would not go where it should).

It is our hope that not only did this discovery fix this latest connectivity issue, but with luck, fix all of the STRANGE issues that I had been having.

I wonder what quality control steps are taken when building these control boxes, and of equal import, Inventables should pay attention to this and start any troubleshooting here.

Additionally, it is disturbing to me that the folks at Tec Support (whom I really like and are all very nice and ‘TRY’ to be helpful), do not know how to troubleshoot this machine. The suggestion as you know if you read the entire string, was to just to start throwing expensive parts at the problem. The rep with whom I had been working stated that the control box “is not user serviceable”, to which I can only say WTF?? Why the hell not?? it has a small circuit board, three analog switches, an LED, and an analog shutoff switch. How much simpler can you possibly get? How stupid would one have to be to be at the point where opening the box would cause MORE problems than that which caused opening it in the first place???

The truly disturbing thing was the comment that he made which was “That part is not serviceable, I’ve never even seen the inside of that box.” In the event that anyone from INVENTABLES stumbles upon this message string, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE provide troubleshooting training to your tec support staff!!! Your staff SHOULD know what is inside of the box, and they SHOULD know how to do basic troubleshooting of it!

I spent a 25-year career as an Account Executive with my former company. In that role I worked closely with customer accounts assuring customer satisfaction. A VERY LARGE part of that role was troubleshooting issues. I knew our company’s devices INSIDE and OUT! I became very close friends with the engineering staff, and the lead engineer. I knew everything about not only our company’s equipment and hardware, but that of our competitors as well (Afterall how does one assist a customer with a problem if one does not fully understand the equipment and how it is SUPPOSED to work??? - AND - what makes our equipment superior to that of our competitors???).

Again, I do not want to belittle the folks in the TEC Support Department. They are all VERY nice and try very hard to be helpful. I see this as a systemic problem. These folks need more training on this equipment, not just on the canned company responses to problems.

Additionally, it appears by the fact that others are having similar problems, which tells me that the problem is deeper than this one cable - PLEASE look into the quality control of these control box builds.

Lastly, I would HIGHLY recommend hiring someone like my friend who knows how to test “Embedded Systems”

All my best,

Joe