Just an update. Grounding did absolutely nothing to fix our problem, as a matter of fact the issue is now just more random. I’m sure some of you can relate to a job taking over two hours, completing 3/4’s of it only to have it fail. Very frustrating. This machine seems very hit or miss in terms of actual success rates. I read so many stories of people cutting precisely what they need, and so many stories that reflect my own. Of course there are several variables to go into play here, but for the support that exists for this machine(this forum) we’ve hit every variable several times in terms of trying to make this machine at least stay on path for more than two passes. There is a very good chance we are done with this machine. It simply wont do what we need. And in normal “home gamer” scenarios, giving up seems like a viable option, for us we are a company of manufacturers, we deal with precise daily. Again, I am one person running this machine, but consulting this site, as well as my team, we just can not make this machine work properly. I reached out to inventables directly, they advised i post the above video, i emailed their help desk advising them the above video was posted, no email reply, no forum post from an actual inventables team member. Seems like unless you are carving strictly wood, the chances of success are slim, unless you invest another 1000 to rebuild a machine that doesnt work out of the box.
Yea that returning to path incident was also a random occurrence. If the machine goes off path, it stays off path. Rarely does it return to the exact home position, no matter the cut.
Originally we were directly connected from the laptop to the arduino, it was recommended we get a powered usb hub, so that is what we are currently using. We’ve stuck with one laptop, mainly to keep “universals” in place. The idea being we should be able to use the same components each time, with the same results. While that does also mean the same screw ups will exist, at least there is a starting point in narrowing down the component failing. But that being said it might be a good idea to try a different pc. More than likely the machine will scraped after today however, the time and money spent on this far exceeds what it would cost us to just outright purchase a cnc machine(man hours, wages, time, material, parts, etc). But who knows, maybe we start carving wood signs on the side to make up for the cost, at least we know theyd be successful.
Thank you Robert for your insight, and suggestions thus far, if I can convince my people to keep the machine, im sure will be posting here again.
That is correct, we can carve wood all day, intricate, no issues.
We did actually ground the lexan as well, we have an ESD Specialist onsite, he came through and completely grounded the entire work area. We have a dedicated ESD “Clean” room onsite also, so he basically just revamped the xcarve work area to account for static.
Here are some more ideas:
Do you use exactly the same equipment when you are cutting wood as opposed to Lexan? All vacuums, etc. If not, are all of your devices running off the same breaker in the distribution panel. Multiple outlets in a room frequently share the same breaker.
It does sound like a static electricity issue. You can try lightly coating the Lexan with a mixture of Downy Fabric Softener and water prior to carving. It will help keep the static electricity down. A 50/50 mix is a good place to start.
Your computer is very close to equipment that produces a huge amount of electrical noise. You might try moving it some distance from the X-carve to see if it makes any difference. Static build up on the Lexan would possibly cause more of an issue with the computer than wood carving.
Another thought is to hook up a conductive brush to the spindle mount that is grounded. As the spindle moves around the Lexan the grounded brush contacting the Lexan would remove the static charge.