I was on the forum a couple years back when I bought a WorkBee kit.  I scrapped their electronics and got a ESS Smoothstepper with Gecko drives, and used Mach4 Hobby.  And it worked just fine. 

I had to step away for a little while and am now back.  In 2021 I bought a kit to upgrade the mechanical aspects of the WorkBee to the QueenBee pro.  The linear rails with bearings seem much more rigid and smooth. As usual, I make things with VCarve Pro and produce a gcode for my machine.  I have not updated my Mach4, nor my computer in anyway, since I know it worked perfectly before.  I keep the WiFi shut off.

Anyway, I had to carve a large "M" and have noticed this same defect every time on the same place, and it also happens with any letter I make that has straight sides, like a "W" too.  I've enclosed a picture.

Is my Smoothstepper acting up or do you all think it is a mechanical failure?  The mistakes are ALWAYS in the same places.

Hi,
I'm dubious that is the ESS, if there were a fault it would show up again and again. Remember the ESS sees a stream of numeric position data in 1 millisecond slices, It does not
know or care about whether its cutting a W or any other letter.

I would guess its the code rather than  the machine, an electronic or mechanical problem would show up at other times.

Craig

Grasping at straws but it may be worth checking for backlash in the leadscrews.

Another test you may consider is to download and run a V-Carve letter produced with F-Engrave (free software). If that exhibits a similar fault it rules out any possible artifacts that could be caused by Vectric.

Tweakie.

Hi,
I'm dubious that is the ESS, if there were a fault it would show up again and again. Remember the ESS sees a stream of numeric position data in 1 millisecond slices, It does not
know or care about whether its cutting a W or any other letter.

I would guess its the code rather than  the machine, an electronic or mechanical problem would show up at other times.

Craig

Thank you for the feedback!  I sent my VCarve file and the .txt filed sent to the CNC to Ventric.  They did not see an error. 

Grasping at straws but it may be worth checking for backlash in the leadscrews.

Another test you may consider is to download and run a V-Carve letter produced with F-Engrave (free software). If that exhibits a similar fault it rules out any possible artifacts that could be caused by Vectric.

Tweakie.

It is a good feeling to get these responses. The help IS appreciated.

I will check again for backlash, but after setting the machine right before I carved I did, and there was just zero movement on any axis I tried.  Solid. 

Perhaps I'm overstressing the machine, and slightly pushing the bit out of the path.   

It's often difficult to figure out just what is the proper depth on each cut for the bit.  It was an Amana carbide 90 degree v-carve bit.

Write some code that just routes out a square pocket and a square raised boss. Then see how those pieces come  out. It looks like possible backlash or slop in a connection causing it to move in ways you are not expecting.

I would check that all the drive couplings are solid and not slipping on the motors and or pulleys.