Hey! Hopefully someone with a bit my experience with CNC’s can point me in the right direction to solve my problem. I followed the guides on the site using estlcam and repetier and was able to generate the gcode and make 2 successful cuts. But for whatever reason I have to stop and restart the cut before it accepts the g code properly like 5-10 times. Sometimes as soon as I hit print it just starts moving in one direction, (sometimes angled slightly) and other times it seems like it’s heading to home (but of course there’s no endstops to set home) and then other times it starts perfectly. I’m not even trying anything complicated, just a 50mm square with holding tabs.
Issue prevalent on both, Microsoft surface 3 and my laptop, with fresh installs of arduino estlcam and repetier. Also I’ve personally never had any luck with repetier with my 3d printers, is there any program like pronterface for CNC?
Well I tried pronterface instead seems to be the same issue though. Right now it seems to only be manifesting itself in +Z drift from origin to starting spot. Here’s a video + gcode used. https://youtu.be/qw7VAteEVMohttp://pastebin.com/qmZ4KSXJ
It drifted up because you told it to lift the z axis 15mm in your start gcode (and you should open with g91 and close with g90, I’m pretty sure). Why the z move? That is what the clearance plane setting is for.
The 15mm lift isn’t in the start. It’s in the end of the gcode, to just add some security that my bit is clearing my material.
The starting g90 was set by Estlcam’s marlin setting. But my understanding I should be using relative positioning because I’m working from where I set the bit, not from a static origin(ie home position)
Sorry I didn’t catch tat part, thought it was all under start. Well the gcode looks good. A few possibilities I guess. Is your home is not being set correctly. I reset my arduino before I start a cut to make sure it is zeroed out. I see it in the code but maybe it isn’t taking?
Try setting the spindle at 0,0,0 reset the adruino and run the code again. This has got to be something simple we are overlooking.
Are you manually moving the carriage in between cuts, and zeroing out at home? If repetier/pronter thinks the carriage is away from the intended starting point, it’ll truck along in a straight line to wherever it thinks it should be. Even in relative positioning mode, it should be remembering that relative origin.
Your current Gcode starts off with a G90 (absolute positioning) and then:
G00 X0 Y0 Z0 (move to last set home)
I would expect your starting gcode to roughly say:
G91 ; Relative postioning mode
G92 X0 Y0 Z0 ; Set that we are currently home, all measurments are from here.
G00 .... ; Your first move
Then the Gcode should go off as planned, unless I’m way off base.
Hope this helps,
–Matt
–Edit, I think I understand your desired behavior better.
Matthews gcode seems to put me on the right path. I did have to make one tweak of G90 instead of G91, for some reason g91 sends my carriage to the -xy position you assume it was looking for home whereas g90 assumes wherever it started from is 0x0 and goes about its day. Seems backwards to me but hey its cutting like I expected it to now lol