Adjusting Z-zero with DRO in Centroid?

21

No, there’s an easier way:

G53 Z0 will move the machine to the top of Z travel, regardless of what you tool length is (that’s what the “ZUP” button on the VCP does)

Machine Z zero is ALWAYS the top of z travel no matter what tool lengths or offsets you have.

If you want to remove your Z offset, or your “material thickness” you just go into the set part zeros menu, WCS table and find your Z offset. Just clear it out by setting it to 0

Now when you jog to Z zero when your DRO reads zero your bit will be resting on top of your spoilboard.

22

Just to clarify here, the G53 command isn’t a move command. It just says “for this command, use machine coordinates instead of work coordinates.” You must ALSO specify a move command (like G0 or G1). That command might have been specified already, i.e., whatever the last move was.

So this code:

G0 X0 Y0
G53 Z0

does a rapid move of Z because the G0 is still active, but this code:

G1 X0 Y0 F300
G53 Z0

does a feedrate move instead, because the G1 is active.

It’s best to include the move command with the G53 command, .like G53 G0 Z0, in case the active move command isn’t a G0 or G1 - you wouldn’t want do do an arc or drill cycle at Z0 by mistake!

23

This isn’t the case with Centroid. G53 is a one shot command rapid positioning command that will move the machine to machine coordinates at a rapid pace regardless of G0-G3 being active or previously called.

It cannot be used in relative (G91) mode

So, as long as you’re on absolute mode (G90) at any time you can issue a G53 command just like this:

G53 Z0

or

G53 X12 Y12 Z0

etc.

If you want to use a feedrate that’s not the full rapid rate of the machine you can add an L parameter:

G53 Z0 L100 would raise the Z to the top of travel at 100IPM (if your machine is in inches)

24

Hmmm… If you do add a G0, like G53 G0 Z0, would it still work? A bit of searching shows that some interpreters do it one way, and others (like linuxcnc) do it the other way.

(so much for “standards” :wink:

25

There are no standards in G code :upside_down_face:

It looks like you can use a G0 command preceeding a G53, but there’s no need to.

26

Can you send me a g-code file for a simple cut? This way I can determine if it’s my code or something else. I have tested g-code from Fusion, Easel and V-carve Pro with all of them giving me the error.

27

Cabinet.cnc (8.7 KB)

28

Your program looks fine. I’d gather that you get "“z travel exceeded” if your tool hasn’t been measured. But if you don’t change it, and re-run the program, you don’t get the error. Right?

Corbin

29

When I run programs with multiple tools, I often get a Z error statement when CNC12 initializes the g-code. It hasn’t been an issue. I think it is just due to the next tool in the program being unmeasured.

30

That’s exactly what that is. Centroid can’t predict the future length of a tool. If you actually did get to a cut that would go outside the bounds that the machine is set to go it wouldn’t actually do it.

31

Yep - not an issue at all.

1 Like
32

I am having too many issues with this machine. I really do believe I have all the physical parts set up correctly. I have a couple avid users that have looked at my machine and they say everything looks good. But then I try to set up my tool height setter and it only runs part of the sequence. Midway through, it turns the z brake off and digitally says the z is moving all the way to 8.6". The z is just slowly dropping while all this is happening. I just tried it again and after the first touch of the tool plate, it zoomed down fast and hard into the tool height touch plate. I’m like 35 minutes away from North Bend and really need this machine to be running.

33

Hey Adam, I’m also active on the Avid Facebook group and I’ve been following your posts there as well.

image
image1422×1618 322 KB

That’s a really custom machine that is using our control and by the looks of it motors from us as well, and maybe some sensors.

I also see that you’re running our version of CNC12.

Here’s where I think things are getting tough for you:

Our version of CNC12 assumes that you have it hooked up to one of our machines with our motors, our sensors and our mechanical system. If you bought a machine from us the setup is very easy: You just choose your machine model and off you go.

We don’t prevent customizations in our software and that allows users with some customizations to push boundaries and still get the use of the “Avid-ified” version of CNC12 we offer.

I think what is happening with your setup is that it’s so custom you’re running into too many of the guardrails and automations that we have put it that under normal circumstances make things easier for users.

However I think there’s a better way for you to go: Use a stock version of CNC12.

The Centroid Acorn (the board at the heart of the EX system) started out as a DIY machine builders board. it’s PERFECT for a machine like yours. With CNC12 stock you get the ability to customize whatever you want to fit whatever machine/motor combo you have AND you won’t be fighting against our automations.

Additionally it is VERY well documented CENTROID CNC Manuals and Documentation and Schematics AND there is a wonderful community that helps support builds like this every day:

https://centroidcncforum.com/

You’d likely spend far less time setting up CNC12 from scratch and learning it VS trying to bend our version to that very custom setup.

While we can (And are happy to) help you with what we sold you, we really can only do it effectively up to a point. Really what we can do is make sure that what we sold you works properly. In custom applications there’s really only so far we can effectively help you…

One example is that you have the motors connected to a completely different mechanical setup (those gearboxes) our motors were tuned for our belt drives. They can be retuned (in some cases automatically) but we have no experience with your type of system.

This video will give you an idea of what motor tuning looks like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIdjfaTE544&t=250s

So if I were you I’d look to the Centroid support system for help with stock CNC12, and I’d also look to Teknic to see about getting your motors retuned. There are a lot of Teknic users in the Centroid forums so that may be a good place to ask as well.

In the next few days we are releasing a technical manual that will show the wiring in the EX control box. That may be a resource that you need as well.

Hopefully that’s helpful. If there’s anything else I/we can do please let me know.

PS that machine is a total beast. I know you’re probably a bit frustrated with it right now, but in the end that thing will be awesome.

1 Like
34

Thanks Eric,

I appreciate the info and the assistance. I probably will transition over to the stock cnc12 setting to hopefully not have this continued problem. I did record a couple of videos showing what I am experiencing with the tool height setter.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1YU1LfE48DztCBoRs1C1-li7nQH_lSHFF?usp=drive_link

35

Aces4days - What gear box are you running on your servo motors?

36

It looks like in that video of you trying to use the tool height setter the motor is stalling out and going into a fault state when it retracts.

As I mentioned in my earlier post this could be linked to motor tuning. Our motors are tuned for our belt drive systems:

You have some kind of a gear drive system. I suspect that’s behaving very differently than our system. You’re going to have to get those motors tuned, or at least plug into them and start digging into why they’re potentially faulting out like that. Check out that YouTube video I linked from Clough42. He does a very detailed breakdown of Teknic motor tuning.

37

I already followed that video and did the tuning.

38

What looks like is going on here is that after the second touch off the Z is trying to go all the way to the top (that’s what it’s programmed to do) and the motor stalls. If this was on our machine and there was a stall you would get a drive fault.

On your system that’s not happening for some reason… It could be the custom motor tuning, it could be something mechanical slipping, or it could be a software configuration too (perhaps a re-configured or bypassed drive fault signal)

In the wizard you should check to see if this is configured as a stepper or servo system. That could potentially bypass the drive fault signal. However even if that gets the drive fault signal working… and what you’re seeing IS a drive fault you’re still going to need to solve for the root cause of that.

And make sure you take note of the assumptions I’m making here, I could very well be leading you down the wrong path :slight_smile: