X and Y Are On The Job, Z Not So Much

I decided it was time to dirty up my machine so ran a drawing thru Estlcam into Repetier Host. Moved all 3 axes to where I wanted (0,0,0), put power to the board and router and hit print. X and Y are doing as expected, Z remains at 0. The little box in Estlcam shows the 0.5mm toolpath depth I set but no joy. I think I’ve looked at all the usual suspects I can think of so ???

Edited to add when I did the crown the Z lifted pen from paper between shapes, when I try to run a program now, X and Y behave as expected but Z remains at 0. Z moves as expected under manual control.

0.5mm is an awefully small depth. Probably imperceptible, especially if the tool is moving on the X and Y.

I’d suggest dry running the tool way above the spoil board, with a fairly large Z depth to ensure things arent/are working.

Edit: didn’t see you are using a pen based plotter. Are you sure your work surface is perfectly level?

I set DOC to 5.0mm and did a dry run, Z did not move and the indicator on the right side of the screen showed Z remaining at 0. The only difference was it now showed the work on the left side of the screen.

I only used the pen for the crown and the Z did move up between segments of the crown, I have a V-bit in the router now. I doubt it’s the work surface as I watch the X,Y numbers change on the right side as the file runs while Z remains at 0.

I just can’t think of anything I’ve done differently since running the crown and that was fine the first time thru.

Try moving the Z with the lcd controls. Does it move up when the number gets highers? Is 10mm about 10mm (most mistakes are double or half the distance)? If that seems fine, try the test crown again.

If that works fine, then you’ve probably missed a setting in estlcam basics. Go back through and copy them 1:1. If that doesn’t work, then you’ve got to show us some more about the paths, tool settings and paste the gcode.

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Being the instructions stated “For the beginners software is usually easier to learn than the LCD screen.” I haven’t hooked up the LCD yet the movements seem correct in both direction and distance when using manual control on Repetier Host.

I’m going to double check the Estlcam settings before anything else.

Screen shots of my Estlcam settings:


I know it’s very easy to look at something and not see it bit it looks OK to me.

I dry ran the crown and the panel on the right side of Repetier Host shows no Z movement while running and I know when I ran it the Z lifted between sections.

Try moving it with repetier host.

I have, both direction and distance seem correct. Given the Crown Gcode ran correctly the first time I have to think something has changed in Repetier Host Now to find out what?

If it’s still moving correctly, it’s not repetier.

I’m curious, I was looking through the printer settings on Repetier and there’s a box that’s checked 'Printer has an SD card" which at this point I don’t. I never changed anything there so have my doubts but possible?

Pretty sure that’s a default setting.

It was, I unchecked it and dry ran it, no joy.

You didn’t happen to try to control stuff through estlcam did you?

No, I’d already been warned about that.

Okay, if you can still move it up and down with repetier, it’s the code estlcam is spitting out. Can you post a screenshot of your cam before you export it?

‘I probably can with a little guidance as to where to find it’ said the noob.

Yea, just a screenshot of your estlcam window like your first up top with one of the lines selected so we can see the settings.

Also check the basic setting page to make sure it’s in mm not inches

I posted a screen shot of basic settings above in post #5 and they seem to agree with the instructions.