XCarve 1000 running Easel. I’ve been doing the exact same cuts for 2 months, I had a life interruption and returned to my machine after 2 weeks away. NOTHING has changed. Now the X-carve will get about an hour into a 2 hour v-carve cut and then just stop and go to the carve complete screen. Work zero is waaaay off to the far side of the machine (have to e-stop it). it’s basically wasted material and time. I tried moving my carve to a new project, same result. Re-booted everything including PC. Easel simulates the complete project, projects the correct estimated time, but gets half way through and decides it’s done and just stops right there. No work zero home, just stops and says “Done”. Any ideas?
Same thing today, 3 repeats, different spots and times into the cut. Router was beginning to drag a bit, so replaced it. Noticed that when the Xcarve decides it’s done, that the manual control and carve boxes go blue, and I have to cycle the USB plug to get them to go back to green. Power light on x-control is lit.
I would download and set up UGS and try that and see what happens. Maybe it’s not Easel, but electrical or the X controller.
Forgive my ignorance, and my hesitation to download from links, but what is UGS and what does it do? I spent hours sitting at my x-carve this weekend, waiting and watching. No triggers, it just stops cutting, stays where it is, and throws up the “I’m Done” screen.
UGS is the Universal Gcode sender. It is free and runs a grbl powered CNC, which is what X carve is. You load your gcode file into it and it has a screen like other senders that are similar. I don’t use Easel to run my cnc, I use UGS, as I’m not in a place with wifi. It’s possible you are getting some electrical interference too, as that seems to be a common problem. The reason I suggest UGS is that if it still does not work, then you know it’s not Easel causing the issue and then it probably boils down to your x controller, computer, or electrical.
The BEST FREE Universal G-Code Sender (UGS) Setup, the alternative to Mach 3
Martin,
Thank you very much for taking the time to respond!
Sos
I am having a similar issue except it’s a random number of minutes into the cut that it just stops. It’s really frustrating when you are trying to plain a large piece.
Replaced the dying router with a new one, and pulled the front and top panels off of the x-controller to clean off the thick layer of dust. Nothing looks discolored! Reassembled and running my first test cut. Hopefully it just needed a little bit of advanced maintenance!!
Well, she finished 1 hour of cutting with no issues!! Hasn’t done that in 3 days! 1 test is a success!
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So I have two XCarves running side-by side, both on dedicated Macs that are past updatable OS thresholds. Both are plugged into a remote controlled 8 outlet power supply. Three plugs control machine 1’s XCarve, Makita and an LED light bar mounted to the back of the machines. I sometimes have to start a long carve and step out of the garage, so I also have a camera to monitor them if I have to be in the house for any length of time. I can shut them down from inside using this config. I sell shields at RenFaires and had been carving non-stop for a couple weeks. Suddenly, BOTH machines would simply stop dead mid-carve, much like you described.
At the same time, both routers started to struggle with power.
I’ll skip the day of testing various issues and get to the solution. I replaced both the carbon brushes and blew out the control unit in #1 and it ran fine. Did the same in #2 and it ran fine.
I believe that having both machines on the same circuit allowed a problem with a router to cause both machines to have an irregular electrical glitch since both would stop at the same moment, regardless of pattern, start time, or distance into the cut.
My conclusion was that the router having issues with the brushes caused the issue with the XCarve. If this is not the case, then I guess I got lucky and have no idea what the issue was…
Everything’s been great ever since.
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3 more cuts with no issues!!!
Glad it seems to running ok. I was wondering how or even if you have the machine grounded? I had this same a few years back, and after doing some research, found that I needed to ground the machine chassis to the building ground (not the plugin ground). Once the x and y were grounded and I installed chokes on the stepper motor wiring, I haven’t had an issue since. I also quit using Easel as a controller and went with UGS, later I was directed to Gsender which is a much better product. Both are free. Good luck.
Can’t say that I have the machine directly grounded other than through the electrical system. The machine is running like new now, with no issues! Need to get this production run completed so I can assemble my Altmilll!!