X and Z not moving during gsender generated surfacing. X and Z move to zero to start but then no movement afterwards besides for A axis and spindle. Worked once, I paused and changed the feed rate cause it was so slow and restarted and now the problem wont go away.
@Lumberparty More information would be helpful.
- What CNC machine are you running?
- What controller do you have?
- Is this a new issue or have you always been unable to surface?
- You mention that the A axis moves. In gSender, are you in rotary mode or 4th axis mode?
- What version of gSender are you running?
Altmill
New but I’ve barely used it.
4th axis
Newest version
I’ve restarted everything. I switched settings around in the rotary surfacing window and it will work sometimes but then sometimes it’s won’t. My most consistent results so far are if I turn off rehoming.
It appears there’s an occasional issue with the touch zero on my plate and the vortex as well.
It’s the randomness of the issues that concern me more than anything.
Hi lumberparty,
Have you looked into the troubleshoot section sienci has inside the altmill manual?
It might help you tackle your problem.
@Lumberparty I don’t use the Sienci surfacing routine, but I had a similar issue with a VCarve project. The A axis turned but X did not move. It turned out that I had not set A0 before running the project. So, the A was rotating until it hit 0 before starting to move in X. Since A was at some ridiculous number, it was going to take forever to get back to 0. I didn’t realize what was going on, so I stopped the job, looking for a problem. Being a slow learner, I did this a few times before picking up on the issue.
I don’t know if the surfacing routine is looking to start at A0, so this may not be relevant, but you can take a look.
Ah! This is something I noticed last night but I didn’t put two and two together to realize that’s what was happening. It just looked like erratic behavior to me. I’m going to switch to vcarve surfacing so it’s all getting along in the same gcode. I appreciate the help!
@Lumberparty Please post back after your experiments. One thing, though, be aware that you will have the same issue with VCarve-generated projects. We are accustomed to setting X, Y and Z0. It’s obvious when they are set. It’s not so obvious with A0 since, when first starting the project, one view of the material looks the same as any other - at least if it’s a cylinder.
That’s what caught me out. I had rotated A a bit to use the gSender module to set the Y0 location and the Z0 location. So, A was not at 0 any more. Since I had a cylinder mounted, I didn’t pay attention. When I ran the first job, the A rotated, but nothing in X. I swore at Sienci and gSender as many of us do in these situations.
I did this more than once. It was only after a few times that I saw what was happening. X was not moving until A reached 0. Duh! The solution was easy. When starting the job, I simply ensure that A is set to 0 in gSender. Problem - at least my problem - solved.
Good luck.