Carbide Motion V6 Beta

Software Carbide Motion
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We just posted our first beta of V6 to Carbide Create Beta Downloads. It’s still a work in progress but we’ve been using it internally with good results.

Big Changes:

  • Lots of internal changes to simplify the code and make the system more responsive.
  • Setup wizard to configure new machines.
  • MDI is hidden by default. Go to settings to reenable it.
  • Maintenance counters in the settings window. Once we figure out what the proper threshold are, we’ll add some warnings.
  • The machine will never home in normal operation other than when first initializing it after connecting.
  • The Stop button on the left will give you the option to park and disconnect if you’re on the Idle screen. This should make homing faster next time you start up.
  • Debug information in settings to help support quickly get more information to help you out.

This release contains all of the internal changes we needed to tackle before making more of the “fun” changes. Feel free to give it a shot and see what you think.

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What is the timing looking like for the “PI” version?

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We’ll build for Pi once this is stable enough to move it to the “released” download page.

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By this do you mean that after a job is completed it does not return to home? If so , where does it go?

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It should still move back (if I remember correctly), but it will not run a homing cycle, which is a lot slower.

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I assume this applies more to hitting “Pause” then “Stop”.
User might be hitting “Pause” just to adjust something, where a re-home isn’t necessary.

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Will upgrading retain all User Quick Actions and settings?

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Settings need to be re-done using the nifty Setup Wizard which it has — not sure about Quick Actions.

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No, this should use a different directory to make sure there are no interactions.

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Thanks, will give it a try.

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As long as it moves back I’m good.

My co2 lasers come from the factory configured to stay where they stop. Was annoying loading and unloading them until I figured out how to change it.

I typically will run the same file for half a day over and over.

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We just uploaded a new build with a bunch of fixes. Please give it a shot and let us know how it works in this thread (the support folks are not heavily involved in debugging beta releases).

It’s also worth doing the Setup Wizard again to set the latest machine config data.

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I was ready to upgrade, but noticed your answer versus my question and just need some clarity. Will my current User Quick actions appear in User Quick Actions after the upgrade? If not, can I address it by swapping files? The machine is pretty busy and would take me 2 hours to duplicate the actions.

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I think the answer is ~no they won’t show up (but yes, you can probably copy them over manually from the old directory to the new one)

Though to be honest, if the machine is pretty busy it may not be the best time to try out a beta :yum:

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I was contemplating upgrading CM but ran across the following for 601: "You can no longer connect to the machine without a valid configuration. " I modified my 3XL by adding XXL rails so my settings are modified for the extended cutting area. These are not valid settings for any of your current machines. Will I run into connection issues with V6 of Carbide Motion trying to connect to the extended machine? Thank you.

Loving CC especially the notes feature where I keep detailed file revision history.

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I’ve just been trying out the CM608 beta & feel the Setup Wizard lacks some ‘Advanced’ checks. For instance, on my ProXXL, after ‘Downloading’(I think this should be Uploading as you are sending configuration data to the controller firmware or perhaps ‘Send Settings to Controller’ for clarity) the next step is Initialization. This is a problem on my machine as it moves left instead of right on the default configuration to Home the X-axis. I never determined the exact source of this issue as I found it easier to just change the ‘motor controller invert mask’ pins settings in the controller firmware. And my machine works fine like that.
However, there are no checks or options to do Advanced/Custom configuration changes after sending the default configuration data. There’s not even the Stop button to tell it to abort the Initialization if you see that it is moving incorrectly.
So I feel that for a guided Setup Wizard, it is lacking in being able to handle machines with quirks.

I also noticed that there is no way to adjust/customize the Travel Distance in CM608 Settings. Not sure if this will affect my setup in other ways other than being able to maximize my travel distances based on how much clearance I have to the hard stops. But it is something I like to do.

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Please imagine the complexity of creating an interface which could handle every possible special case, and then try to fit it on a screen and make it intelligible to the average user.

Any deviations from the norm should be handled with an e-mail to support@carbide3d.com

For your Pro XXL, we would ask that you send us photos showing how the X-axis motor and wiring extensions are wired up — we would then send a replacement for the mis-wired part.

Alternately, it will work to:

  • begin the wizard and send the configuration
  • quit it when you detect the problem
  • connect to the machine again — the program will recognize that the configuration has been downloaded and allow you to connect, then go to Settings and enable the MDI, then use it to invert the axis, quite again
  • relaunch for the 3rd and final time — skip downloading the configuration, since it’s already been done and complete configuring things normally

(I had to do this on my SO Pro so as to take the belt stretch calibration into account when setting the BitSetter position)

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I see no need to try to make an interface to handle all possible special cases - it just needs to be able to allow the user to tell it to stop & then bypass for manual configuration.

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Tried this and found:
-There was about a 3-4 second lag for the program to respond to any button clicks.
-Got stuck in machine setup loop.
-I went through the machine setup dialog successfully and then when connecting to the machine it said I had to go through it again.

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Which sort of computer were you using? What OS and version?

What kind of machine were you trying to set up?