Carbide Motion chokes if you press buttons too quickly (build 542)

Software Carbide Motion
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This has sort of been an issue for as long as I’ve been using CM. I was recently on build 517 and just updated to 542. The main place I’ve noticed this before is that if you click to start in the Run section and click Resume on the popup before Stop has gone from slightly faded to full saturated yellow, you have to click Start again. I used to just sit there wondering what in the heck happened, then figured it out.

On 542 (and perhaps somewhere between 517 and 542), if you click Resume too quickly after a program runs on the stop spindle dialog, the machine becomes unresponsive. I’ve been unable to proceed without removing and re-inserting the USB cable, re-initializing and so on.

Here’s a video I made to show this experience.

This has to be known, right? It is 100% reproducible. I found one mention of it here by @NewToThis.

What’s been happening, randomly and without me being able to prove it, is that CM will sometimes require a click of the Start button after the Resume button has been clicked when the BitSetter has finished it’s thing (with the BitSetter enabled), or after being prompted to set the spindle speed (with the BitSetter disabled) - which is why it can’t be the BitSetter.

My take on @WillAdams 's response is it wasn’t obvious what was happening, which puzzles me (hasn’t everyone experienced this at some point?).

Sanity check: if you’re reading this, next time you click start, leave your mouse there and click Resume within ~1 sec. See if the machine just sits there and forces you to press Start again. Or try the same at the end and see if you get locked out of being able to jog/rapid/run.

In any case, this is a major nuisance. I don’t want to wait for software, and definitely don’t want to unplug and reinitialize (and re-check my zero if I’m paranoid) because I clicked a button quicker than software was ready for! Sure, I can work around it, but why add “remember not to click too fast” to the things in my brain while I’m machining (it’s usually full thinking of other things during that time!)?

Suggestions for the CM devs (in order of what I think is preferable):

  • reduce the time thinking/waiting/etc. that causes Stop to go from faded to full color (like, what is the process in the background it’s unsure about? Can it be made to be nearly instant?)

  • stop even showing the Resume dialog before whatever is going on in the background that causes Stop to transition in color. Basically, don’t show me a box I can’t click immediately.

  • leave it as-is, but find a way to get back to Run and continue on with life. Like, I’m wondering if the system is still stuck thinking I’m running and haven’t turned off the spindle and thus it gets stuck on the home screen because the Run section is still “processing/frozen”? Pop up something that says “Oh, I think I’m still running, are you actually done?” I dunno…

Thoughts?

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Please send that in to support@carbide3d.com and we’ll do our best to get a developer to look into it.

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Devs don’t hang out here!? :slight_smile:

Sent!

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Yes, they do, but it’s better if we have the single point of control, and the support queue has better tools for ensuring that a given message is seen/acted on — here, all I can do is @ people and that gets old for everyone involved real fast.

3 Likes
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I have had this happen, I trained myself to go in slow motion when using the menu items. It used to just crash when I tried to start a file downloading from my one drive too quickly, not sure if it still is doing that I trained myself to start the download and go make a cup of coffee ha ha…

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Good to know. I have also “trained” myself to go slow… but I think it shouldn’t be necessary. The pre-run behavior is fine as you still want to run the file so you can teach yourself to remember “Oh, right, just click start again.” The new popup after a run is what hangs me up as it looks to be finished but I just think “ok, now I want to jog again,” can get to that screen, but then realize it’s borked.

I’m in dialog with c3d right now and the claim is they can’t reproduce. If anyone else sees this and wants to restore my sanity by trying this out, I’d appreciate it! Here’s another video from my phone showing the behavior, as I don’t think the screen recording captures the mouse accurately.

The key questions for any willing to report back on their next run of a program:

  • from the Run dialog, after you click Start, does the Stop button change colors for ~2 sec during the tool change and spindle popup dialogs?
  • at said popups, if you click Resume before the Stop goes from faded to full yellow again, does CM just sit there without moving on? (if so, you just click Start again to either get to the second popup or run the program)?
  • if you click Resume after a program very quickly, can you get to the Jog dialog, but not actually jog and not get back to the Run dialog?
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I never followed up that I contacted support, but I did on the 29th to close the loop. I hear you… but from my perspective, the interactions required to solve are more or less the same so it’s no extra work (they ask something, I respond, and it doesn’t matter if that’s via email or this forum), and the advantage of troubleshooting publicly is that others could potentially find this and self-help.

As it stands, if the issue is on my end, whatever the ultimate solution is requires my good will to document here instead of it happening automatically. If I don’t circle back and close the loop, CM support can end up solving the same problem again and again.

It is what it is, just wanted to explain my thinking. c3d seems so community oriented with other official representatives participating here that I was surprised at the non-open approach to solving a technical issue that might affect others.

1 Like
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I agree
I have found many solutions to issues I’m having very quickly via this forum

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