Question Tracking Wrong

I've been trying to set up the files for the Stepcraft and getting the machine to run correctly. I haven't ran the spindle since I can't get the tracking correct. I've been setting the z high so the spindle doesn't make any contact and it's also off.

I drew the lines roughly how the machine should be tracking. I have 2 items it is suppose ti cut out. Rather than moving to the first cut path, it just starts cutting as soon as it begins. The whole top item messes up completely. There are times it sounds like it gets hung up, but when jogging the coordinates there are no hang ups. Everything moves free. The "skipping" I think is just somehow misreading the coordinates set up in Cut 2D. The bottom cut paths seem to track closer to what it's suppose to.

Anyway, I uploaded a video to youtube to show what it's doing. Any help would be very appreciated! I've been trying to get this going for a couple weeks now.

It sounds like your Y axis is jogging. Did you adjust every axis as the manual indicates?

I would remove the floor and run the program again so you can see what's going on.

On my stepcraft 840, the wires were catching with some metal parts and that jogged my Y axis sometimes.

J_Man wrote: ...
Rather than moving to the first cut path, it just starts cutting as soon as it begins.
...

Did you zero the machine coordinates according to work coordinates? Is that your first part, if yes I would try something smaller and simpler to test the machine at first.

jvalencia wrote: It sounds like your Y axis is jogging. Did you adjust every axis as the manual indicates?

I would remove the floor and run the program again so you can see what's going on.

On my stepcraft 840, the wires were catching with some metal parts and that jogged my Y axis sometimes.

Jogging? Do you mean jamming?

tikka wrote:

jvalencia wrote: It sounds like your Y axis is jogging. Did you adjust every axis as the manual indicates?

I would remove the floor and run the program again so you can see what's going on.

On my stepcraft 840, the wires were catching with some metal parts and that jogged my Y axis sometimes.

Jogging? Do you mean jamming?

lol, yes, bad english is bad.

I did keep an eye on the cord on the bottom and wasn't seeing anything it was hanging up on. I did do the test piece and that worked fine. I can manually jog all axis without it hanging up on anything. It moves freely. I am zeroing out everything and placing the start up in the center. I think it's either Cut 2D is generating the code wrong, or UCCNC is reading it wrong. I'm saving the file as a Mach 2/3 Archs (mm).txt as suggested. It's something off. I might buy a bungee cord and attach inside the machine to help hold the wire parts like someone had shown a mod they did. That seems like a good idea.

Your machine is getting stuck in Y-axis direction.

The first such thing happens at 00:33 where the machine tries to do fast movement from the end of first L to the start of next L cut. The machine should move both in X and Y in straight line, but Y-axis gets stuck and it continues only moving on X-axis. You can hear also that the sound of machine changes, and there is higher pitch noise coming from the motor when it tries to move, but cannot.

Next stuck location is at 00:54, where it moves from the end of L to the outside cut. Almost all of the Y-axis movement is skipped, thus the cut is in completely wrong place in Y-axis direction. Then again 02:01, 02:10-02:16, then during 02:21 it is happening even during the cut, so not only fast travels are getting stuck, i.e. the cut feed rate is fast enough to cause it. Then again 03:01 etc.

All the stucks seem to be in the Y-direction. You can test this also in UCCNC, by first homing the machine, and then typing following in the MDI:

The first will Y to 10 mm from the other end, and another moves it location 47 mm from the other end. Both of those should run with just one move, and while the machine is making sound it should be moving all the time. Note, that if the first command gets stuck, the second one might end up hitting the home switch and stop because of that. If that one works perfectly, mark the Y800 location and Y10 locations with tape on the railings, and run it few times to see if it ends up to exactly same location every time.

You can also try this manually in the UCCNC, by setting the jog speed to 100%, and then pressing up- and down-arrow keys to move the Y-axis around. It should be moving as long as you press the key, and if it stops while you have key pressed it got stuck. Releasing the key and pressing it again will make it work again. If it gets stuck on 100% speed, try 50% speed and so on. Find the speed where it does not get stuck.

For the workaround you can go to the UCCNC axis configuration and change the max speed in Y-axis direction from 3000 units/min to something that is still working (adding suitable safety cap, i.e. if it was working on 60% speed, but not with 70% speed, limit the speed to 50% by setting speed to 1500 units/mm.

Then you just need to find time to find out why it is getting stuck in Y-axis direction... I have not yet found time to do that myself, and I am running the machine with slower max speed in Y-direction now.

If your Y axis is sticking pay special attention to the these two videos.

I did finally figure out the sticking. The cord was going under the machine and I wasn't seeing it. When it tried move back after the cord was under, it was sticking. The cord would basically pop with each segment. I ended up making a lip along the otter edge of the opening and now the cord rides along that. It doesn't fall out. A slightly larger lip might still be needed, but I'll worry about that if it comes up.

Now it's just trying to learn the rules of CNC and making sure to get the right speeds and right amount of times it cuts by layer. Also trying to figure out how to get the scrap plywood level. I made some cuts with it though. It'll just be some time to learn what I am doing... then relearn when I attempt a 3D cut design.

Thanks for the replies and help on this! I hope I can figure the rest out, but it's great to know there's a good community to come to if I need a little help.