We’re working on CM V6, and one of the things that people have asked for is a way to restart a program without any tool probing for production jobs where they just want to get a short job done quickly. We’re calling this a “Production Restart” in CM6 and we think it would work like this:
If a job has a single tool, it can be restarted without the need to do a tool change cycle and use the last probe data. This would not work on jobs with more than one tool. The first run of a project would be “normal”, and additional runs would have the option for a “Production Restart”
The questions are:
Should we do a “fast probe” to ensure that the tool is roughly where it was last time the program ran? This would help eliminate workflow mistakes mistakes and tool slippage/breakage errors. It would not require human interaction (as long as there’s a BitRunner or VFD), and it would be pretty quick. Assume this would not be an option, you have to pick yes or no only.
I think we still need to popup spindle change dialogs so users don’t forget to turn the router on/off if they do not have a BitRunner or VFD. It seems to me that you’d have either a BitRunner or VFD spindle if you were into minimizing human interaction for production so this is not a big deal. (And you could always lie that you do have a BitRunner if necessary). Seems correct?
If you do have a BitRunner, we’d suppress speed change popups under the assumption that you set that correctly if you’re into productivity. Seems correct?
I haven’t done enough runs like that to be bothered by the probing but it sounds interesting for a run of coasters potentially.
As long as you are talking about ideas, lots of people have asked for a way to restart a job from a particular toolpath. Would it be possible to build in on the fly editing of the gcode to do that based on a selected path? Bonus points if you could present a menu showing all the tool paths in the file and allow the user to selectively turn them on/off. My CC machine is upstairs from my CM machine so that would save me time and file creation if I am running multiple steps. One set of coasters I did had 3 different sets with 4 steps each so 12 files but only 3 sets of geometry.
I truthfully haven’t really looked at the gcode so I am not sure if they are structured such that they can be broken down that way.
And, as long as I am asking, how about a time to next tool change or at least next tool path in addition to total time remaining. I swear when I first got it that is what it reported but then it started showing total time. Maybe I messed up a setting?
If it wasn’t an option, I’d prefer no “fast probe”
Generally I’m going to run one job after another in pretty quick succession because the nomad doesn’t have the bed for running multiple items in one job. So many more small jobs would translate to many seemingly unnecessary fast probes.
Especially for things like engraving which only take a few seconds. The fast probe routine would feel especially annoying.
(In theory I’d just run a continuous job with a user pause for swapping pieces in a jig but that’s not an option afaik)
I’m really excited for this. When I do production runs waiting for the probe slowed things down. I don’t see a need for a fast probe. Been using my machine for over three years and never had an issue. You definitely need a dialog popup though to remind us old timers to turn the spindle on and off. Thank you for your hard work and dedication.
If you’re doing production runs, unless you are constantly hovering over your machine, you would really benefit from have a Bitrunner. It makes for an audible signal that the process is done when it turns itself off.
I know it’s not one of the 3 questions / options being considered, but figured I’d bring it up because it is Production related; what about the option to set a Park location?
It’s not on the short-term todo list, but that is something we’d look at for V6 now that we’re redoing all of the machine configuration and setup code.
Is there a way to have a return to zero option after an error? Sometimes after an error with cutting all I need is the setup to return to the zero and not reinitialize everything. Having the machine and go back to the zero and reconfirm the bit set as an option would be so much faster. Similar to a soft reset instead of a hard reset if that makes sense.
If this works similar to the way it is implemented in Mach 3, you should be able to verify your zero, and once they are verified, or corrected, then you would enter the line number you want to restart with.
I’m in the same boat. A full reset is so frustrating and slow. Probably my least favorite part of working with a Shapeoko. If I stop a job for some reason (e.g., I realized I hadn’t tightened my clamp or something), it would be great to be prompted: “Would you like to reinitialize machine, or go back to zero?”
somewhat related… would it be possible to have a “re-home machine” kind of button on the pause screen? Maybe also a “redo bitsetter”
(scenario: the sweepy bristles hit the material, I can’t trust the Z entirely anymore, so hit pause, switch to the brushless sweepy but would like to recalibrate my x/y/z before continuing)