I have the Ex Controller and normally after a bit change the Z DRO displays the distance to the spoilboard instead of the machine coordinates. I have been doing some extensive calibration the last few weeks and have not made any bit changes or run any g-code but have turned the machine off and on a number of times. All of the sudden the Z DRO started displaying the machine coordinates (0 to -8”) instead of the distance to the spoilboard for the last bit I used (+7.4” to 0) even though the bit number is still displayed at the top of the page. Is this normal? Is there some kind of time out for the last bit used or spoilboard calibration?
Can you post a screenshot of your screen? This can happen for a few reasons but seeing your screen will answer the question pretty quickly
Ok, I see the issue right here, on top right under “JOB NAME” you see how it says “T14 H1” that means you are on tool number 14 but you’re using tool 1’s height (which is probably zero)
Tool height is a negative number and it gets “added” to machine position, so that’s why you’re seeing machine position for your Z height instead of the height of the end of the cutter.
My guess is that you’ve run some G code that set the height to the wrong number. You can temporarily fix this by doing an MTC and changing tools and it will reset that height for you.
T14 was the last tool I used and I haven’t run any g-code since but have used the MID and jogging functions with no tools selected to do calibration. Not a big deal just wondered why it happened. So the H number should match the T? In this case it should read T14 H14. Still getting used to how Acorn does things.
T number and H number should always match. There are only two ways they become on matched:
-You run g code that has a G43 Hxx command that switches the height to another tool number
-You typed “H1” into the MDI and manually switched the tool height to tool 1
My guess is that it’s the first thing. Are you using generic Centroid code, or generic g code instead of g code posted with one of our official posts?
All I have been doing is using the MID to command Y axis positions to gather error data with a connected glass scale. The error data is then used in the Acorn compensation tables. I have already successfully finished the compensation tables for the X axis and now I am working on Y. The T14 was a surfacing bit I used to level the mounting board for the glass scale which I used just before I started collecting data for the Y axis. The only G-code used on the MID is G90, G1, F30, Yxx. Jogging is used to position in X and Z for connection to the glass scale and the Parking button is used to position X, Y, and Z prior to shutdown. I worked for several days before I saw the change in the Z DRO which messed up my glass scale connection value for Z. I have no idea how H got changed to H1.
G and Y are pretty close to H on the keyboard. All you’d have needed to do was enter an H1 instead of a G1 or a Y1 and that would swap the tool height to H1
It’s a guess.. but really the only two ways to swap tool height are outlined in my earlier post.
OK, we will rack it up to a fat finger. So if I want to change the Z DRO in the future to display machine coordinates all have to do is run Hx in the MID where that height is zero. Good to know.
No, that’s not a wise way to proceed. Having the tool height not match the tool number can cause problems in edge cases. We have automated away most of that, but there are situations where this can be a problem. If you want to see machine coordinates they’re always on your screen:
IF you want the main DRO to read machine coordinates (duplicating the mini display I just pointed out) you CAN swap that by pressing ALT-D
That’s on page 34 of the Centroid router manual: https://www.centroidcnc.com/centroid_diy/downloads/operator_manuals/centroid-cnc12-router-operator-manual.pdf