In carbide motion, when I am mid run I often discover something that can not continue without pausing and then choosing STOP. Yes, these are 99% of the time me screwing something up or forgetting to disable a step that shouldn’t be cut with the present bit. The painful part is that when you pause and then choose stop, it completely goes back to back right for homing switch reset. When this happens I always need to go back and re-zero everything as the homing isn’t always accurate (I’ve noticed this is more true with the new homing switches.
Is there any way to just stop the run after hitting pause without the machine going to homing switches. makes sense for an emergency stop, but that is rare, and most of the time i just need to load a new .nc file.
I’m currently running a 20 minute pass with my bit out as I didn’t want to try to re-zero the machine as I’m working on a really small cutout.
hopefully I’ve just been wasting my time and there is a trick I’m not aware of!
This makes sense if I’m trying to recover exactly from where I paused, but that usually isn’t needed. I’m trying to avoid “stop the job and shut things down”.
It would be SUPER handy if you can pause and then, either skip to next operation (if multiple exist), or skip to end of code, which would just return the router to the back like it normally does after it finishes a job.
If you have concerns about the accuracy of homing and need to come back to the exact same spot then make a spot on your spoil board and mark it. I would use a #301 90 degree Vee bit. Then you have a reference to a fixed spot on the spoil board. Now jog to your origin and write down the coordinates in reference to your fixed spot. You can then zero on your origin. If you have the stoppage you can find your known spot, zero and jog to the coordinates you wrote down and you are back where you started.
I know this is a pain but if it is important to your project then the extra step is worth it.
Create a job set up sheet and check off everything that needs to be done so you can avoid having to stop in the middle of a job.
My machine has been more accurate after I installed the proximity homing switches. If there is a discrepancy, that likely points at something mechanical. I have had it happen where there was a difference after homing, but it directly correlated to something like a skipped step that happened in the first attempt. I also had it happen a long time ago when I didn’t have my frame square and it hit the frame before triggering. But that is on an older SO3 before they machined the extrusions and had mechanical switches.
If personally refined going thru the mechanicals of you haven’t. Check belt tightness, eccentric nuts, and the set screws on the pulleys.
I’ve checked over everything, I’m really just trying to avoid the need to “shut things down” and re-zero everything when I, the machine, or the bit messes up.
I was just hoping there was a hidden trick, that after you hit “Pause”, you could just choose to cancel job and return to ZERO, or something similar. I’m guessing from the responses, this isn’t an option yet.
In thinking about this a bit more, if you break a bit mid-project, could you use Pause to replace the bit, initiate a BitSetter (if you have one) and recheck the X, Y and Z zeroes (or use the BitZero)?
Peter, How would you “reinitiate bitsetter”? You won’t have access to the “Change Tool” command (I don’t believe). How else, without ending the job, could you get to that point…or am I missing what you’re suggesting?
You’re not missing anything, Gary, I was just thinking it through, but I know we can’t.
It would be great if we could do it, though, to go back to a known point after changing a broken bit, maybe?
I know this could be achieved by stopping the project, changing the bit, re-run the BitSetter and BitZero workflows and edit the *.nc file, but this is a long-winded process (which I’ve had no success with!) when a Pause with those features would overcome it.
To me CM appears to be a methodical process of disparate workflows, with no ‘intelligence’. Programming allows sub-routines to be ‘fired’ based on triggers, so why not in CM?
Having said that, it is free software, so perhaps I’m being a bit uncharitable
@NewToThis I’m sure the Carbide team would LOVE to put those kinds of things into the product…I’m sure it’s just a trade off in priorities. The request for a “Restart” is definitely on the request queue…the idea of re-initiating the BitSetter, when paused, is an interesting one I haven’t seen before.
I could imagine some problems that would need some software engineering to get around. For example, how do you allow gantry movement while you’re paused? You would need to remember the position of the gantries, do something like executing the bitsetter workflow, and then return to the position before resuming.
But then, you’d have the possibility of a person hitting the feed hold during the BitSetter operation! And you’d have to resume that operation before returning to the original operations. I can see some potential problems (and confusion)…so it’s probably not so simple.
Creating Forum posts is clearly an art form that I am not very good at.
I find it really hard to make a post with enough information included, without getting people fired up about all the sidebar details I may have done incorrectly.
I think I should have just made a software feature request for the future releases.
It would be very helpful to have a new feature to allow for more control options during a Carbide Motion Run. After hitting pause it would be nice to allow for (Skip to next toolpath, Skip to End, and a bonus would be re-zero with bitsetter).
@bbparsons Hey Brad…product request is definitely the way to go. You might find some already there with very similar features requested…great minds thinking alike, and all.
I can tell you that it’s not you. I think the reason you’re seeing some of the reactions you do is that many problems people report end up being self-inflicted. I have had many “duh” moments myself out here…complaining at the top of my lungs only to find out it was my own oversight that caused the issue. That happens enough that people always want to check out exactly what was done to create the issue.
Gary, Fully agree. I did some COVID work in 2020 where I had my process fine tuned. I was producing a lot of repetitive parts and dong so efficiently and accurately. On the other hand, most of the time I’m using my Hobby CNC as a simple tool to build one off parts and things, which I love to do. With these one off projects, I often learn as I go and CERTAINLY make mistakes.! Example below is the first and likely last time I’ll make a set of these
I make these clamps in BULK. I used a wider design that gives it more strength compared to the standard HDPE clamps. Thought about selling them in bulk also. Its hard to have too many!
What Gary said.
