Why does Carbide Motion hate me?

Software Carbide Motion
1

Admittedly new to Carbide Motion but I have been in the software industry for about 30 years.

I have a Pro XL with the Bit Setter as well as the Bit Zero V2.

First a question or two: Why does the jog menu show up sometimes and not at other times? It seems like being able to move the cutter is something you may need to do at any time except when it is actually executing a job. Meanwhile the big red stop button is available even when the machine is not doing anything – shouldn’t it be grayed out when there is nothing to stop? And lastly, CM tends to unceremoniously crash a fair amount.

OK, so on to tonight’s adventure. I have build 566 installed on a Microsoft Surface tablet running Windows 10. I connected it to the cutter. My job is a simple vCarve with a single #301 vee bit. I have the height of my workpiece set to the top (.75"). The cut depth is set to 0.2"

I used the Bit Zero to set my my workpiece’s X,Y and Z.

I checked in CM settings that “PROBE” showed up when I manually pressed on the button of the Bit Setter.

I put my #301 Vee bit in the router.

I loaded the job and started it. The cutter immediately went over to the Bit Setter and lowered the cutter to touch the Bit Setter button twice (I saw the red light come on twice).

The software told me to set the speed to 18,000 rpms. The cutter started and the machine moved over to my work piece and plunged straight down until the bit was completely buried as though it thought the Z was still not to the start point! Arghhh! Luckily this was a test scrap piece. I had to stop the job.

At this point, having the jog commands available would be nice to unbury my bit but alas they weren’t there. The only way to get out of the situation was to hit the initialize button which retracted the bit and went over the right rear corner.

I checked everything I could think of and tried again with the exact same result. I know someone is going to say the definition of stupid is…

Anyway, what did I ever do to Carbide Motion to have it treat me this way? If there is something I did that was obviously wrong I will gladly apologize to the CM team for my remarks but…

Bladen_Owen_1.c2d (152 KB)

2

Jog only appears when it is appropriate for the machine to be under user control.

For the machine plunging too deeply, this can have a couple of possible causes:

  • disconnect between how origin is specified in the file and how it is set relative to the stock
  • changing the tool w/o using the interface for the BitSetter
  • mechanically losing steps for some reason (a typical cause is the dust hose interfering w/ retract)
  • electrically losing steps (usually this is accompanied by an awful noise)

We have an article on this:

Please let us know what you find out at support@carbide3d.com and we will do our best to assist.

3

It doesn’t hate you. It’s a machine. It doesn’t get pissed off. It doesn’t get happy. It doesn’t get sad. It doesn’t laugh at your jokes. It just runs programs. - Newton Crosby

Sorry you’re having these troubles, Bruce.

CM unceremoniously stopping probably due to some kind of EMI. I had this happen a lot early on and found that the USB cable that I was using (not the C3D supplied one) was the main culprit. Are you using an aftermarket USB Cable? If you are, then maybe look into grounding your machine (and dust collection) and keeping power cables away from data cables. Lots of info on these forums about grounding the machine.

Regarding your setup steps, as far as I can tell:

Powered on the machine fresh with, assumedly, a straight bit
Initialized with straight bit
bitsetter found zero with straight bit
you set X Y Z with straight bit
Then you changed the bit to the v-cutter - Now the machine no longer knows where Z is.

When you change a bit, use the “Load New Tool” function and load your bit (it will go to the bitsetter and do it’s thing). Then re-set Z zero (manually since you’re using a V) then start your job. I think that should fix it.

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There are a couple of potential causes for this difficulty:

  • disconnect between where the origin is set in the file and how it is set relative to the stock
  • changing the tool w/o using the inferface
  • lost steps on retract from some mechanical cause
  • lost steps on retract from an electrical issue (usually accompanied by an awful noise)

see:

If you can’t puzzle out the specifics of the difficulty, let us know at support@carbide3d.com and we will do our best to assist.

5

In your first reply it is not clear to me when you installed the #302. You only install a bit when prompted or at the very beginning of initialization. If you manually change a bit when not prompted the height of the bit is not synchronized. As long as you only change a bit when prompted that might help with plunges that seem wrong. When initialization starts the previous X Y and Z zero are in memory and are persistent over power cycles. So if your last project was say a 1/4" thickness the Z is set to 1/4" top of the material. This job you uploaded is 3/4" so maybe that is something to look at.

If you did change the bit when prompted possibly pushing the BitSetter got your machine out of sync as well. When you get ready to start a job and after you set the X Y and Z zero you can go to jog and the rapid positions has one for X and Y and one for Z + 6MM. Maybe as a precaution before starting a job check out where the machine thinks is zero for X Y and Z until you get this sorted out.

You mentioned you had several disconnects with CM. Disconnects are almost 99% of the time static. There are a lot of write ups on grounding here on the forum. When you mix colder weather, lower humidity, machine movement and dust collection the potential for static is there. So proactively read about grounding our machine router and dust collection hoses.

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Where is the big red stop button? Ive never seen this but sure could use it.

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In Cm when running a job on the left side of the screen is a red STOP. I have not used it so not sure how immediate it is or what happens when you want to start again.

I have a magnetic on/off switch with an emergency stop button. I have had to use a couple of times. What I like bout my magnetic switch is if the lights go out and then come back on my router/Shapeoko will not come back on until I hit the On button. The emergency stop button immediately stops everything.

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I need to set up a magnetic switch like this. Ive had a few disasters. On my carbide motion when running a job i only have a green start, green pause, and yellow stop. Ive learned the hard way that clicking stop doesnt stop anything unless i click pause 1st. Ive also never understood why my carbide create looks different than everyone else’s.

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I bought mine on Amazon.

It was easy to wire up. I put a male plug on the input to plug into the wall. The other end I put a female plug on and attached that to a electrical strip. The electrical strip is to plug in the Shapeoko, router or other device. The Switch is rated for 16 AMP and most wall plugs are rated for 15 AMP. Just be careful that you do not overload with a dust collector. My dust collection is a dedicated Jet DC1100 and I have two remotes to turn it on/off. I keep one remote on the Shapeoko table and the other on my table saw.

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