Issues with BitZero & subterranean bit plunge

I’m having difficulties in trusting/relying on BitZero and Carbide Motion to set and honor Z zero.

I go through the whole process of using BitZero (probe) to set X, Y & Z. To validate those settings, I go to “JOG” then rapid position the gantry to center (C). Then I chose “rapid to current XY”, then rapid to current Z +6mm. Both result in accurate measurements.

Load a new job - START. The gantry moves front and center and asks me to load the appropriate bit. I comply, then chose resume. Carbide Motion runs the routine to measure the bit, returns to center and asks me to turn on the router.

All of this is VERY REPEATABLE.

However, probably 10% of the time, the job will start, Carbide Motion moves to the appropriate position on the workpiece and drives the bit through the workpiece and into the spoil board. I hit the STOP button, which forces a reinitialize. Once complete, I can jog to current XY and Z+6mm and those measurements are accurate. At this point, I reset Z only using the paper method, and restart the job WITHOUT issue.

Frustrating??? Yep!

Is there any kind of debug/tracing via Carbide Motion that I can turn on to be able to capture the issue and further troubleshoot these subterranean death plunges? :slight_smile:

Any help or suggestion to isolate/troubleshoot this issue would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Walt - coincidentally…

Since your issue is predictively repeatable, you may want to contact Support and walk them through your process so they can recreate on their end and hopefully provide info and/or a long-term solution.

Please contact support@carbide3d.com

Yes, you can open the Log window in Carbide Motion and it will show the commands sent to the machine and its responses.

Can you dump all of those transactions to a file?

Here’s what I do… I wrote this yesterday about a post written by RichM concerning this same thing… Its extra work but I don’t ruin material…I’ve gotten into the habit of checking my Z AFTER I start a job. I won’t start my router when prompted, I “resume” and then I’ll hit the “pause” button, then the “stop” button. After the machine homes I rapid to current X and Y, which as I said is always good, and check my Z with a 123 block. Sometimes Z is good, sometimes not. But you can bet if I don’t check Z it will plunge.

Thanks for your suggestion - hadn’t thought through many workarounds.

That said…it certainly appears to be a “coding” issue (its ALWAYS the code :slight_smile: ).

I’m going open a ticket with Support the see if there is a checked/debug version of CM, or if there are startup switches to implement when launching CM that will write ALL transactions to a trace file, so that I can capture the exact instance when BitZERO doesn’t operate as expected. Viewing the code in a window is “ok”…but not as good as saving the info in a trace file for future analysis.

I have had the same thing happen several times as well. When it happens I zero all in carbide motion. If you fined a solution please post it.

You can leave the log window open and do the steps you would like to do. Then copy the window text and paste it in a text editor. Finally, scroll through within the text editor and remove the parts that you are no interested in. I agree, not the most convenient way, but you can get the info.

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Just out of interest, which model and configuration is it? I did not see it mentioned, sorry, if I missed it.

SO4XXL, just upgraded CM to 575 today.

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