Hi all,
I want to say straight away that I am relatively new to all of this - I’ve only been doing this for about a year and a half with absolutely zero formal training. I built this machine myself and have been flying by the seat of my pants the whole time.
This issue has happened in the past from time to time but has been getting more frequent and I’m starting to lose serious progress in my work and it’s very frustrating. At some point during the cut, the machine will hiccup or skip and then be off by 1/8" for the rest of the toolpath. Even if I catch it quickly, I can’t uncut what has been cut away.
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4x8 Pro Machine using a DeWalt Router
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The PC is a dedicated refurbished Dell tower. It has been properly configured - the only thing it cannot meet is Performance Options: Virtual Memory - Manage Paging File Size.
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I’m not maxing out on Memory (20% steady) or CPU (10%-15%). Notifications are turned off. I even made sure it didn’t even have a wifi chip built in, I have to use an external Wifi antenna to get updates etc.
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I recently re-leveled the machine but had successful cuts after this.
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This used to only happen with larger gcode files but it’s gotten steadily worse and happens even with a very small file.
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I’ve only noticed this occurring on Pocket Cuts but that could just be luck.
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It has happened on both the X and Y axis.
Troubleshooting Steps I Have Taken:
-Mach4 is up to date (bought this computer in January after the most recent update).
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Checked the PC Configuration. As stated above the only thing it’s not able to meet is Virtual Memory: Turn off automatically manage paging file size for all drives.
— I recently tried to change the Performance Configuration match the SCU suggestions. My Virtual Memory page was measured in MB instead of GB so I set it to 32000 MB in lieu of 32 GB. I have just reversed this setting to see if that was the issue.
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I’ve ordered a new, shielded ethernet cable to run from the PC to the machine.
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I’m taking apart the Rack and Pinions one by one to determine if any of them are problematic.
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I’ve checked the squareness of the machine and I’m fairly certain it’s within tolerance.
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I’m going to run some of these files again tomorrow to see if I can get the issue to replicate consistently but so far, the only consistence is the skip amount of ~1/8".
I’ve dug through some of the old forum posts to get most of these ideas but if anyone has any suggestions of other troubleshooting steps to take, I would really appreciate it!
Thanks for your time!
MO
I have had an Avid machine for about 6 years. The laptop I ran it on barely met spec. At first it was fine, but as time went on I had more issues. For me, running a job too fast with lots of short movements caused problems like what you are describing. For me it was mostly short movements in the Z direction. I bought a new computer and the problems vanished. With Mach4 all the computing happens on the PC side so the computer’s ability to pump commands down to the control board is a real limit on the system. If you have a different better computer you can try, try that.
Another thing to try is run the same GCode but slow the feed rate down to 75 or 50%. If the problem goes away, it’s likely your computer.
Hi Garth! Thank you for your reply!
I was running on a laptop before and now I’m on a dedicated PC that has previously been able to send the same commands I’m asking of it now. This is leading me to believe it might not be a PC problem but a physical problem with the machine or that the setting I messed with has caused this issue.
The PC doing all the computing makes sense, thank you for confirming that. Do you know what it’s pulling from to send the commands to the machine? Is it Memory? CPU? GPU? A mix of all three?
I meet or exceeding all the spec requirements Avid has listed for Mach4
Operating System:
- Recommended: Windows 7 or later (Windows 10 or 11 preferred)
- Mine: Windows 11 Pro
Network Connection:
- Recommended: Ethernet Port or Adapter
- Ethernet (I have a wifi adapter but there is no on board wifi chip)
CPU:
- Recommended: 2Ghz; 4-core; Intel i5, AMD Ryzen 5, or better
- Mine: Intel i7-9700 CPU @ 3 GHz (8 Cores)
RAM:
- Recommended: 8 GB
- Mine: 16 GB
I’m also running an Intel UHD Graphics 630 with 128 MB
Because I’m working in hardwood doing very small details, my Feeds and Speeds are already quite low: 1/8" bit doing 12000rpm with a Feed of 50.
There are a lot of shorter, staggered vectors involved but I’ve successfully cut them in the past with no machining issues.
Here are some photos of the issues I’m experiencing:
I’m cutting Poplar Hardwood with 1/8" Bit at 12000rpm and a Feed of 50ipm.
This is from the first time it had issues on the X-axis
This shows how it lost position by 5/8" on the X-axis. It’s unclear to me at what point in the cut it did this because you can see the clover pocket on the top model and not on the bottom one but the upper one had more of the model damaged (it’s not supposed to look like that… at all)
Here’s one with an example of the Y-axis issue - this has been more prevalent. The X-axis issue has not replicated.
This one is even more strange - the top model “Peasant” is how the cut should look.
It seems that the “Princess” lost its position in two different places in two different ways. On the left it looks like it lost it’s Y-axis negatively but on the right it looks like it lost the Y-axis positively.
Here are two separate “Princesses” each with their own issues. I am letting Aspire set my toolpaths and so it’s not always completing one before moving onto the next - that’s how we get this top “Princess” where 3 of the 4 borders get cut perfectly and then a skip happens and when it comes back to do the 4th border, it messes up.
I’m afraid I don’t know the answer to your PC question - I’m sure Eric or one of the other Avid engineers could answer that. Dumb question -are you sure nothing has changed with the toolpath? Does the simulation in Aspire look right? I assume so but I had to ask.
I’m afraid I don’t know what’s going on here. If nobody on the forum gets back to you soon I would suggest opening a support ticket with Avid. They have been really responsive when I’ve needed help.
Best of luck,
Garth
