I have been cutting for a while now on my x carve pro 4x4 and it has been doing great. Now it has started to just randomly stop. Typically it stops 1/4 way through a cut design. Then it just shows a completed screen. Any ideas or suggestions?
Can you provide any more details? Anything you might be doing at the time that could affect the carve? Changing apps, for example?
I found out the hard way that my xTool laser software and Easel use the same “port” for running over USB, so if I opened that app while carving, it just shut down the XCarve.
Someone else can probably help better with looking for an error code. I haven’t experienced this, thankfully.
I am running it through easal software. I making shaker cabinet doors on mdf. It started doing this on the 1 1/8” planing bit. I tried it with a 1/4 end mill bit too and it did it. I thought it might be router overload but it’s not I’ve tried all type of settings. I am not using the computer at the time and no other programs or apps are open. Computer is not failing asleep. Cnc is on its own power circuit.
Have you opened machine inspector page in easel and checked whether any alarms show when the carve ends??
I had the same problem, I think. The green color for the jog and carve controls changed to blue. That was indicating I had lost my USB connection. My fiddling about seemed to indicate that a USB-C connection into, or out of, the HMI box was the culprit.
I have the same problem going on right now (the computer’s ‘carve’ button remains blue (details in another post). In my case, it just shut down and will do nothing (not an intermittent problem).
As an FYI, the USP cable does NOTHING inside the HMI box. The cable literally simply comes in from the computer through one connector and then goes to the other connector that then connects to the cable that goes to the tower. Why anyone would think that adding two connector ports inline on a cable with no purpose would be a good idea, is beyond my ability to comprehend.
Once I find the source of my problem and get fixed, I will likely run a USB cable from the computer to the tower and bypass the HMI altogether to reduce the potential future problems by a quantity of two.
But first, I need to find the source of the problem and get it fixed, so my journey continues.
I traced my USB connection failure to the connections of the HMI. The extra connections do increment the number possible points-of-failure, but it also provides extra USB cable length. I found there was plastic “flashing” on one USB connector that prevented the cable from fully seating. After carefully removing the extraneous plastic with a hobby knife, the connector has performed reliably.
Sam,
So glad that you found your issue. I just discovered the root of my problem as well, and it was in the same location.
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.
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.
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 that the problems, that I had been writing off as “Ghosts in the Machine” was 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).
He is convinced that that connection had always been bad, but 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.
Interesting that my problem was at the same location as your problem. 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.
Anyway, it sounds like both of us are back up, running, and off to the races.
Best of luck!
Joe
Just to be clear to anyone reading this thread, my problem was with a USB-C cable connector and not the HMI box. I don’t think it was the kind of issue I could claim is an Inventables issue.
I think it was simply “one of those things.”
Thanks Sam,
I cannot say for sure, but I ‘believe’ that the HMI control box is purchased ‘off the shelf’ by Inventables. I was discussing the issue with Tec Support and let them know what happened. The rep didn’t confirm or refute whether Inventables manufactures the boxes. I let them know that if others have similar issues that I have had all year, that perhaps they start by looking there. It could be a one-off, or as you put it, just “one of those things”. But it COULD be a quality control issue, either from whomever manufactures the HMI boxes, or the cable supplier. Either way, Tec Support is aware, and with luck that information made it up the ladder.
Either way, I have my fingers crossed that my ‘strange’ problems that I had all year are a result of this bad cable, and that my “strange trip” is over. I haven’t had any issues since changing that cable. Wish me luck 