Power outage

[fatguy1965]

Is there any way to resume a project after a power outage? I was 22% into a 3-hour project when the electric went out.

[FINGERS]

This happened to me all you need to do is use some masking tape and cover the carved part and start over( JUST TAKE THE TAPE OFF BEFORE IT STARTS TO CARVE) I've done this before and it came out OK.

[fatguy1965]

Thanks! I might try it.

[chebytrk]

This happened to me all you need to do is use some masking tape and cover the carved part and start over( JUST TAKE THE TAPE OFF BEFORE IT STARTS TO CARVE) I've done this before and it came out OK.

Don't understand........ If you put tape over the already carved part and you start the project over.... why wouldn't it just start carving at the original point on the board (meaning thru the tape)? Don't see the purpose in putting down the tape in the carved part. Just wondering about the explanation.........

[Steven Alford]

The way I see it.....
The masking tape fools the machine into thinking that you are starting from scratch with a "whole" board when it does it's measuring thing. After removing the tape, the machine restarts it's carving from the beginning, which is OK because it is already carved and it just recarves the same area. When it gets to the part that was not carved, it just carves!!

[DocWheeler]

fatguy1965,

For firmware prior to 1.132, you could put a zero depth carve region over the area that you want "hidden" to the machine and it will sit there as the % of carve increases to the point where you wanted it to start - have done that several times!
The latest versions of the firmware are similar, but both times I did it (with 1.132 and 1.134), it re-carved an edge (no harm done unless you really didn't want anything carved there).
The problems with re-carving the entire thing is that being even slightly off, you will lose detail, and you are putting more hours on the machine.

There is no need to cover the project with anything if you have at least 3.5 of uncarved material on each end. Place the material so that the sensor in the bottom of the Y truck is over an uncarved area so it can measure the width correctly in the Y direction; no need to worry about the X direction.

[ChrisAlb]

Agreed. No tape needed to simply run the project again.

Ken, I'm hoping I get the chance to test the zero depth region mask this weekend. I've used that trick a lot and it would be a real shame if it no longer works.

[DocWheeler]

Chris,

I'm just checking the Forum when I'm compiling programs, so I didn't get back when you posted.

The zero dept thing works for the most part, but it does carve about a 1/8" "line" that is the edge of the pattern that is supposed to be hidden.
When it did it the first time, I thought that my region wasn't covering the top of the pattern since it carved a line the length of the covered pattern under my zero-depth region.
I later noted that my region extended well over both the top and bottom of the carving before having to do the exact same thing on my second attempt at the project, but this time it carved the line along the bottom of the covered pattern - go figure!

[ironsides]

The "Zero Depth Carve Region" works very well.

I have used it when a power outage occurred in the middle of an 11.0+ hour job and also on purpose to test the concept.

I usually make the "Zero Depth Carve Region" about .050 inch shorter than the region previously carved.

You, of course, need to make a new .mpc file for this trick. Give the .mpc file a new/different name so it will not override the original file.

Also be sure to jog to an uncarved region to make the "Z" set before carving, otherwise the software may try to set "Z" on a previously carved region and yield unexpected results.


ironsides:)