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well it has moved as it should for a few months.
Then this last week it decided that when you tell it to cut a pocket ot do a PVC project it wanted to plunge into the wood and drag across the material leaving a trough and then come up a bit and cut the edges like they should be. Then the whole thing went to hell doing what ever it wanted.
Now I am back to just plunging and that is about all I can get because I don't want it cutting any holes in my work table, bench...floor...yard...

Newfangled Solutions Mach3 Wizards / Re: PHOTOvCARVE problems!!

« on: December 21, 2014, 04:46:18 PM »

All of the above=done.
The issue I had at the start of all this is still the issue.
I still get the head plunging into work piece. I cant get the machine coords to chang because the head still wants to just go down with out stopping.
I switched back to an original set of values I had that were working perfectly last week and it still does the same head dive thing. I tell it to go an inch in calibrate and it does. But to make it do a cut on work or any other thing it just dives into the material.
I don't have another computer to test it with and wont be able to get one until maybe after the holidays so I am dead in the water until then.
I don't expect any help from the gecko people or the mach3 support staff at least, if they do contact me it wont be until after the holidays.
Until then my mill is dead in the water and I am making nothing from it.
I appreciate the help but it seems I am stuck for a good while.
I really wish I had something that didn't require a parallel port. That is so old that it is so damn hard finding one that can run modern software and if it does it is amazingly slow and crashes.
Why cant they make something that runs off modern cables and machines?

Newfangled Solutions Mach3 Wizards / Re: PHOTOvCARVE problems!!

« on: December 21, 2014, 03:53:07 PM »

Ok, tried your xml. It locked me up and wouldn't let me do anything. Estop and nothing would unlock.
Went back to the new fresh off the website xml and and one thing is clear. It wont hold settings. So that means it is either mach3, my computer or the g540.
Nothing has worked right. I have sent a call for help to gecko and nothing since yesterday.
I am going to find another computer to use if I can. I have checked it out and if it IS the computer it is between the computer and the software or the computer and the gecko.
I don't know where to go from here.

Newfangled Solutions Mach3 Wizards / Re: PHOTOvCARVE problems!!

« on: December 21, 2014, 03:09:19 PM »

Just tried to calibrate the x,y an z. They are all running to the stops and I have to manually stop them. This has never happened before. Not happy...not happy at all. It seems like it is constanly failing, one thing at a time. I have never had it do that and when I move everything to "my zero" and clear everything (like I have always done) and tell it to go to zero the head wants to try and punch through to the floor. I set it at max height just to see if it is just going a bit farther than 1 or two inches and it just keeps running down. Same with X and Y. They don't stop. I went to motor tuning and set them to 5000 and tried it...same deal. Then 1000...same thing. Then 40000, same thing. Nothing seems to change anything.

Newfangled Solutions Mach3 Wizards / Re: PHOTOvCARVE problems!!

« on: December 21, 2014, 02:21:00 PM »

I always set Z zero to top of work piece
I have the X and Y zero set for dead center of the table (measured with a micrometer) and leave it there. Never had to change it but once and its been set back again since. Thats where the table lives after work is done. It gets sent to HOME before I shut things down.
I have never messed with "machine" zero and wouldn't know how. Would have to refer to the manuals for that.

Yes, a G540. Once I placed the gecko xml in place I was able to make things function like the jobs and hot keys and reading instructions although it doesnt do the work like it did before. I just fired up the mill and PC so I will look at the other stuff you mentioned.

Newfangled Solutions Mach3 Wizards / Re: PHOTOvCARVE problems!!

« on: December 21, 2014, 10:09:09 AM »

I had to uninstall everything associated with the machine, software and all files to include the pvc files and cut2d files. Everything "CNC" before I could get things to work.
I still have one glaring problem. Everything is functioning again but the machine still plunges the tool bit into the material no matter what I set on the cut profile. Why is it doing this?
Before I uninstalled everything it would only go in just so far. Now.. it wants to plunge and just keep going. Even if I tell it to just cut .125 in. Everything is set to inches, I give it direction to go into the material 1/8" for a cut max depth, the martial is 3/4" thick and that is exactally what I tell it it is. One thing I noticed is that at least on cut2d it is telling the machine to cut .80 on the first pass, I can't find the settings to change that. I have nothing in my settings that tells it to cut anything that deep.
This is really driving me nuts.
I also have edited the .txt file before it goes into mach and when I set it to run it will go in deeper than what I tell it to still and then when it begins the cut for the pocket it wants to go, instead of the 2" over and begin the pocket, it goes all the way to the end of the maximum and I have to stop it so it doesn't crash into the stoppers.
I tell it the material is 3" high and 5" wide. I set the pocket off center by 1". I tell it to cut 1/8" deep into the material.
As of now I am back at the first day when it stopped working like it did the day before when I was cutting aluminum just fine and now...nothing.
As far as the computer I have nothing to test the "bad computer" theory on so I am at a loss.
I have one computer in the closet that has a PP but it is so old that it wont run anything not made when people still walked to school.

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