Thank you for the information. Unfortunately, ramps don’t appear to be an option in Carbide Create. What CAM software do you use/recommend?
What sort of mods have you done?
Ramping in is a an option in Carbide Create Pro:
I have Pro, guess I need to look again. Thanks!!!
And there it is. Not sure how I overlooked that one! Thanks!!!
BTW… I’m still waiting to hear back from support about the homing issue. Sent a message on Monday and a few follow ups. Anyone you can poke there to help me please?
If you’ll let me know your e-mail address in a PM I’ll check.
But we can’t change a person’s position in the queue — it’s FIFO, first in, first out insofar as possible, since that’s fairest to everyone.
We’re still catching up from a long weekend where it seemed everyone decided that cutting something on their machines was the perfect way to celebrate President’s Day (I think Thos. Jefferson would have approved — bummed I’m not done w/ my lap desk replica yet), but we will do our best to get to all the tickets as quickly as possible.
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Your experience is almost a replica of mine. Short version is, I’ve had 3 spindle boards now die on me in the same way (3rd one happened yesterday). Waiting to hear back from support for the most recent board failure but have done some digging, I posted about the details in this thread if you’re interested.
I can actually help here! This happened to me too. I discovered that the board settings for my machine was not set on the control board, all the config was default grbl settings. NOTE: if support tells you to run “$22=1” and try homing you might find that it will move VERY slowly and when it starts doing the X axis it will move the wrong way and crash into the side.
If you open the log window and run the “$$” command you will get the current settings, if you’re like me, you’ll find it’s the default values listed in the grbl docs here.
IMPORTANT: copy the current values when you run $$ into a text file!
So, to solve this I opened back up the back of the machine, plugged the power button connector into the old control board, plugged in the power and USB and connected to the board with carbide motion. (NOTE: make sure your old board isn’t on anything conductive if you do this!). If you run the “$$” command on your old board, you should see the correct config that needs to be set on your new board. To set each one it’s just a matter of running each line as a command like “$1=25”.
After doing this (and triple checking the values were correct again by using “$$”) I restarted the machine, connected, and was able to initialize as expected.
If you don’t have the old board, then you can probably save a round trip with support by sending them the current settings by running “$$”.
Hope this is able to get you back up and running!
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Hi Matt,
Thanks for the reply. I heard back from support and they got me up and running again. Here is an excerpt from the reply that fixed the issue (in case someone else has this issue).
I’d like for you to download carbide motion v5 here from the link - Downloads
Once downloaded, turn your Nomad on and connect to carbide motion, click on settings > click on the machine tab > click on Send Configuration Data > once complete, click okay on the bottom of the window.
So it appears that the send configuration option was removed from Carbide Motion V6, but you can temporarily install V5 to get it working again.
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Interesting, I wonder why they’d remove the option to send config data? Seems like a kinda important feature. Hope they add it back, maybe hidden behind some “show advanced settings” button or something.
Wanted to give an update. Initial tests are showing pretty positive results with the new pair of boards. Still haven’t built my confidence with machining metal on this machine but I will continue to work on it.
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My Nomad has been performing quite well, I’ve produced a number of parts successfully. Still concerned that an oopsie could kill another board but I feel more confident that the machine will do what I need it to. Thank you for all of the support!
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I apparently just jinx myself. Spindle board just died. It was running so well too! Just messaged support 
Did it stall before it died? Can you describe your toolpath settings, the cutter you are using and the material you are cutting?
Yes, it stalled ramping into 6061-T6. I’m sure it was my mistake going a bit too aggressively.
Unfortunately, it appears that the spindle electronics do not have proper protection. I’m attempting to determine what failed on the board, no physical damage is visible.
If you can reveal your toolpath and cutter details we can have a look to see why you keep getting stalls. Whilst that does not solve the underlying electronics problem it could keep you up and running. On the other hand if the toolpath looks good then there may be another issue with the machine causing the stall, like intermittent backlash or missteps.
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Appreciate the willingness to help. I am using a #102 1/8 endmill from Carbide3D. Taking a closer look at the tool path, I can see that my DOC was set to 0.016” with a 20deg ramp instead of the default of 0.008”. I do mostly wood projects on my full size CNC and I can tell that have a lot to learn about metal. Also, I’m switching over to the CAM feature of Fusion to better control these cuts going forward.
Your ramp is VERY steep, I usually go 1 or 2 degrees, 20 is too much of a plunge for the Nomad.
Should be able to cut up to 0.01" quite nicely in Alu so 0.016 is possibly pushing it a bit.
What RPM and inches per minute?
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I’m using all defaults in Carbide Create Pro for a 1/8 endmill in aluminum (Plunge Rate 10IPM, Feed Rate 20IPM, 24000RPM). 20deg is the default as well so I left it. I notice Fusion defaults to 2deg which makes more sense.
Fusion does default to 2° and I have got away with it occasionaly in 6000 Alu but it is way happier at 1°.
Good info. Thank you.
I do like how you can properly simulate the cut in Fusion and even set it up for crash detection.
While I wait to hear back. I’ve been probing around the failed boards that I have and interesting enough it’s not a mosfet or the BLDC controller that is dying on them. It appears that the 5V voltage regulator and potential whatever else using 5V (like the ATMega328P) that are being cooked. I’m hoping that Carbide3D is looking into this to improve the board.