I used to surface stock by adding small values to the Z in mach4’s dro to step down in between passes until the surface was level.
It is not immediately clear how to do this quickly in Centroid. What is the proper procedure on this? @Eric
Mach4, current positions editable by clicking on the number:
Did you happen to set up your touch off probe?
Yes, but the point is that I don’t want to use it between every pass. Just once at the start.
I think I found the solution:
I can just add the new Z value here. Lots to learn with this new software!
I guess ill have to read the instructions 15 more times because i cant get mine to work for the life of me
What issue are you getting hung up on?
I did the settings in the wizard, where do i input the machine coordinates for the probe, which option to choose, i dont see any of this in the instructions
I think this will help: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6G4Ljdou3qo
Perfect, got that to work, now im trying to run a simple job and its not letting me tun it and throwing up a z axis travel exceeded, but i can manually lower the bit 3 inches below the spoilboard and the job is .5" circles…
CNC12 needs to know the tool number (T#) and tool offset (H#) when you set Z0.
You can see in greg.obs post above there is a place to enter Tool # before you do a tool touch off. If you try to set part zero Z0 without specifying the tool number you will get those sorts of errors. Basically, you’ll be off by the tool offset value.
Another way of saying this is that if the DRO doesn’t show something like T50 H50 (top center of the screen) when you set Z0, you will have a problem.
So i did all that, i did the offset, i entered tool number 1, i then used the touch plate to set my x,y,z zero of my work surface to the spoilboard and i got the error, am i missing something or do i need to run the tool setter again after zeroing my work surface? Is there a procedure that needs to be followed? I dont know if my frustration is getting the best of me or something but with such a big change over avid should have made a video of software setup, running a simple job something to could give us a procdural stepping stone, not this vague instructional manual that then has to be supplemented by a youtube video that adresses a singular item leaving who knows how many more things to be figured out… so greatful for you and the forum or i wouldnt have gotten anywhere.
I’d like to see the full screen so we can see where your g-code wants you to be , where your WCS is thinking it is , and also where you are on the whole machine coordinate system.
It would also be good to look in your tool library to see what the tool offset is for T1. That would be behind Tool/ATC>Tool Lib.
Hey @LucasPe your question is best answered in this video:
But I think I have an idea of where you’re getting hung up. First let’s talk through some features/details:
There’s a feature you likely have enabled called “Prevent Work Surface Dig In”
This feature will help prevent your tool from cutting too deep into your work surface. As you can see in the screenshot I have mine set to allow up to a .06" dig-in.
If I send a job that will command the spindle to dig in farther than that, you get a Z limit error, which is what you are seeing. It should be noted this is ONLY for when running a job, you can still jog the tool manually past this limit.
I think this is only part of your problem however.
The second thing you want to check out is what your Z zero is, so do this:
Go into the touch plate utility and Z zero to the top of a piece of material that you know the thickness of. While still in the touch plate utility to to WCS CSR table and check what your Z height is:
See how mine is .75?
That means I zero’d off of the top of a .75" thick piece of material. (note for those that want to tweak this number to shave more material off on the fly: you can just type in a new number here or use the ABS/INC button to easily add or subtract material thickness here)
If this is accurate when you jog your bit on top of the material the DRO for Z should read 0 (see the setup video above)
If it doesn’t click on MTC and pick a tool number, input a diameter and remeasure the tool again off of the touch plate (this is all automatic if you have already setup the touch plate) Then try again. If you see Z zero with the bit on top of the material you’re good to go.
If everything is good and you try and run your G code file again, and you get that Z limit error that means your G code is trying to command the tool to dig into your work surface. That could mean a couple of things:
If your Z zero is NOT accurate (IE you put the tip of the bit on top of the material and you’re seeing something that is not even close to Z zero) it could be:
You could have inserted a new tool and skipped pressing the MTC button, which would mean you measured your material with an unmeasured tool.
Your tool height offsetter (fixed touch plate) could not be setup correctly. You can do the setup again in the UTILs menu and recalibrate it, and the work surface again. We have a user guide on this and that video above.
You could have some bogus numbers in your WCS CSR table. Check a couple of things there:
Make sure your active WCS is the one you’re looking at:
You can insure this by clicking on which offset you want to use (most likely the first one) and clicking “set as active WCS” this will make sure you’re not looking at one, but actually have another one set.
You want to make sure your Z number is the thickness of your material, and that it’s not a negative number.
I am certain that once you run your first job this will all make sense, and be so much better than what you had before. The tool height measurement system is more accurate, and requires less work for the operator.
When you have it all calibrated right your WCS Z should always be the thickness of your material, and you can always double check that in your WCS CSR table. Changing to a new tool does NOT require you to re measure Z (which is awesome!)
Essentially everyone that will buy a pro machine will encounter this problem then, i can run other jobs and evem run the existing program as long as i set z zero above the spoilboard. The issue is that this is the program to cut the mounting holes for the spoilboard. I did take off the "cutting into the spoilboard feature and still no go
That is an awesome feature! My spoilboard is not really a spoilboard, I call it a worksurface, and I never want to cut into it. So I can set this number negative as well (like -0.050) and then it will never be allowed to touch the surface, unless I’m jogging?
That’s correct! Jogging will allow you to touch it.
I have been getting too many of the “z travel exceeded” errors. This is where I miss using Easel. I never had to ask anyone anything on a forum for using my X-Carve. I can’t recall a single issue that I couldn’t immediately diagnose and fix. Sure, Easel is a CAD and CAM web based software that is run using GRBL. I never had any 2D cut issues. On a side note, my wife is currently finishing up an AI engine to help with these types of issues. She already uploaded all my cnc related manuals for both software and hardware. AI is truly a game changer.
Those errors come from either exceeding the machines travel limits, or trying to send a job that will dig too deep into your spoilboard. These messages are the software trying to protect you from damaging the machine, or breaking a bit off in your spoilboard.
The spoilboard dig-in warnings (which show up as a “work envelop exceeded” error) are off by default unless you turn them on.
If you have a file that you’re trying to run that’s giving you problems post it here and we can take a look
I wrote the explanation below as a question to see if I understand things correctly and I am pretty sure I don’t. Eric, please correct me where I am wrong.
For those of us coming from Mach4 to the Acorn controller the concept of offsets must be thought of in a very different way. In Mach4 all offsets are captured in the G54-Gxx tables and are applied to the machine coordinates. The machine coordinates are set to zero when the machine is homed and thereafter always reflect the homed position as the reference.
In Acorn there are two more offsets defined for the Z axis. One is the tool offset stored in the tool table that reflects the difference between that tool length and the reference tool length. The second is the offset applied to the Z axis machine coordinate that sets the work surface as the new Z zero in the machine coordinates. Once the work surface is calibrated and the tool is touched off on the tool setter, the Z value in the machine coordinates now will reference the surface of the spoilboard not the homed position. Any Z axis G54 offset applied using the touch plate placed on top of the workpiece will now reflect the thickness of the work piece. If your G-code file is using the work surface as the Z reference then the G54 offset will be zero and the use of the touch plate will not be required at all prior to running the G-code file. The tool used to calibrate the tool setter prior to calibrating the work surface will be the reference tool. The offset values stored in the tool table for other tools reflect the difference between that tool length as measured by the tool setter during the tool change and the reference tool length. It is then automatically applied to adjust the Z zero machine coordinate for the tool length difference.
The key thing to keep in mind is that the machine coordinate for Z no longer reflects the homed position as the reference if the tool setter and work surface have been calibrated. It will always reflect the work surface to be Z zero for the specific tool that has last been touched off on the tool setter.
I am really surprised but I have another question to ask.
If you want to return to a state where the machine coordinate for Z reflects the homed position one needs to go into the tool table and zero out the tool offset values. Is there a better option?
