Z-Axis error err E06-0313 during setup

[billybehr]

I am getting a continual error of "err E06-0313" every time I try to do this one project. I have read multiple posts on bit length and can't seem to get it right. I have an RC and have adjusted the length of the bit up and down to no avail. I had a similar problem with a carve about a week ago with the carving bit and after a few times, it finally didn't even check for material thickness and went right to carving. I am using 1.178 which from some of the posts may be my problem. I have attached the MPC to see if you guys see anything wrong that I am missing. (ok, maybe I won't attach. It said it exceeded the file size to upload.) Any help would be most appreciated.

Bill

[unitedcases]

Need a little more info, is the bit moving at all? If so at what point do you get the error? Things of that sort. Plus your MPC didnt load.

[billybehr]

Ok, sorry... It is going through the whole setup, up to telling me to load the 1/8" cutting bit. It does it's bit-plate check, finds the surface and then when it goes over to the guide plate, lowers down through the "U" shaped hole of the guide plate and then comes up and pushes against the guide plate, actually bending it a little and stops and gives me the error.

[unitedcases]

I would definitely check the encoder on the back of the z truck, may have to blow it out. Then I would do a sensor check on the Z travel, while doing so I would wiggle the FFC cable a bit and see if it has any shorts. Might want to think back if you have rebent that cable at all. When you start the check the truck will read "0000". Note the reading at the other end of travel. If you get any different numbers then you may have a short. I highly recommend having extra cables on hand. They are less than 3 bucks a pop.

[billybehr]

It only seems to be doing it on this carve. It works on other carves. It does seem to have this problem when it checks for thickness. When it does carves that it doesn't do a material thickness check, it doesn't fail.

[unitedcases]

A long time ago I had a MPC that I had made and the same thing happened, I spent alot of time on the phone with LHR and what not trying to get it resolved. Long story short, I deleted it and re up loaded it. To this day I have no idea what it was. But basically I just formatted my card and re did the MPC. I would go ahead and upgrade to the latest software as well. I believe it is 1.179.

[TerryT]

If it is only this mpc that is messing up it sounds like the machine is not finding the bottom (depth) of the board where it is expecting it to be. Check the board thickness on your MPC before loading it onto the card. Make sure board thickness in the mpc matches the thickness of the board you are carving.

[Wood-I]

I am having the same issue. I brow red my friends Z motor and replaced the flat ribbon. It did not help. The problem started after I upgraded to 1.179. I have run this mpc many times before on previous version with no problems.

Wood-I

[unitedcases]

On 1.179 you have to manually input the board thickness under "board settings" in designer. It will not auto correct for you. Didn't know if that would help or not.

[AskBud]

I am getting a continual error of "err E06-0313" every time I try to do this one project. I have read multiple posts on bit length and can't seem to get it right. I have an RC and have adjusted the length of the bit up and down to no avail. I had a similar problem with a carve about a week ago with the carving bit and after a few times, it finally didn't even check for material thickness and went right to carving. I am using 1.178 which from some of the posts may be my problem. I have attached the MPC to see if you guys see anything wrong that I am missing. (ok, maybe I won't attach. It said it exceeded the file size to upload.) Any help would be most appreciated.

Bill
Bill,
Here are the words from the trouble shooting Guide - PDF.

E06 - Z axis stall (Normal)
Description of Issue
A Z-axis stall is caused when the difference between the commanded distance becomes much
more than the actual distance over the allotted time interval. An easy example of this would
be putting your hand on the cutting truck and preventing it from moving during an operation.
The computer is commanding it (and expecting it to move a certain distance in a given time
interval) but your hand is preventing it from moving; or stalling the movement. A stall does
not have to be a physical obstacle to movement. For instance if a power lead to the motor was
broken then the motor would not move when commanded and the computer would record a
stall.
Possible Causes
Causes include: obstacles blocking the movement of the cutting head, outdated firmware,
faulty electrical circuit in the shop, and electrical short in the machine, a loose connector, a
faulty power supply, or a cut motor that is not spinning.
Troubleshooting Steps
Consult the troubleshooting document titled “Z-Axis Stall” for detailed diagnosis instructions.

George had a similar problem yesterday and as we talked, he discovered that the Z-truck had a catch in the up & down movement as he moved it by hand. He slightly loosened the the right hand bearings and got better results. However, it was not a complete fix. We started by checking the mechanical items rather than any electrical.

Here are his findings on his problem:
Hey Mr.Bud,
(With the machine turned off)
I found out what the problem is.... The rods that the Z Truck ride up and
down on.....I guess they are wore out!!!!!....like me now!!!!!
I'm gonna order a new set from CW in the morning.....I took off the Z
Truck 2 times and tried to turn the rods to find a smooth place but they
have tiny or little ridges or maybe tiny,tiny grooves on them........I do
know this, the least little bump or groove and it will have a catch!

Here is my response:
George,
hopefully the rods are/were your problem!
I would closely check the bearings on the Z to make sure they are not
damaged as well (you might as well get everything you need in one order to
save added shipping costs and further delay).
It's possible that the excess bearing pressure, we spoke about, could be part of
the cause but who knows for sure!

If you have not done so, bookmark this link for a first line of solutions. It is dynamic (ever changing), so it's better to go to the site each time rather than saving it to your PC.
http://www.carvewright.com/2010CWweb/service/Maintenence/Troubleshooting_Guide.pdf

I hope this helps you with your situation.
AskBud

[Digitalwoodshop]

Lots of GREAT ANSWERS but I think I have the more Correct answer....

Remember the other day I posted in the Dust Collector Thread that I placed a 3/4 inch thick block of wood on my Bit Plate in a Experiment to be able to raise the Bit Plate to let the Dust Collector Shoe fit under it.... WELL IT WAS A FAILURE..... And the machine did JUST WHAT BOTH OF YOU ARE SEEING.... A Z Stall after PUSHING DOWN ON THE BIT PLATE HARD..... The KEY is HARD...... When I placed a 1/4 block of wood on the Bit Plate it touched NORMAL but at the board surface test the bit stopped just above the board then gave me the Load a Bit Error..... So the 3/4 inch Block was TOO HIGH.... Bit hit before it was expected... The 1/4 inch worked but gave a AIR CARVE or NO BIT Touching the wood in a Surface Check.

SO the Bit Plate has a Defined Area or WINDOW that it looks for and this is determined by the CARVTITE Bit Length. The Machine is TAILORED or OPTIMIZED to the CARVTITE BIT LENGTH. SO..... IN YOUR CASE.... Your 1/8 inch Cutting Bit is loaded into your "UN Supported After Market Chuck" TOO LONG.... YOU are outside the WINDOW of the CARVETITE. The FIX.... Chuck up YOUR 1/8 inch Bit SHORTER..... The tip of the bit is hitting before the CW Expects it and the Z CURRENT MONITORING is not on YET..... Hence the HEAVY PUSH DOWN..... Once the Z Current Monitoring is turned on it is EXTRA Sensitive to Z Current and reverses as soon as it detects a bump into the bit plate.

The Closing up of the window for Bit Length does one GOOD THING.... IF you have Dirty Z Rails it will not REVERSE 1 inch away from touching the Bit Plate and will now POWER THROUGH and get to the Bit Plate PREVENTING AIR CARVES of the PAST.

This is LHR's Machine.... They can "Optimize" it to work better with the CarvTite.... ALL we must do is match the bit length in our after market chuck to that of the CT Bits and we will have NO PROBLEM....

Note in my picture that my Locking Ring is as far up as I can get.... I am still using 1.178 and have no Bit Problems...

So Thinking like the machine again finds the more correct answer....

AL

That TOP Bit is a 1/16th inch End Mill that was 6 inches long until I cut it off. It is for my Star 912 Rotary Engraver. It does not have a stop ring as I use it to cut my Fire Tags and with only 1 bit being used, set it and Forget it..... There is a stack of about 45 sheets of double sided Tag Stock that I cut on my CW. I cannot buy tags that are 2 sided so cutting my own is the only way. THE CW has made my Business a STAR..... Without it..... I would have gone Bankrupt 2 years ago....

[Digitalwoodshop]

I posted this 3 days ago and tonight got a call from George "Mannwranglers" He has been working with Ask Bud and the result was he ordered 2 Z Rails and 2 Bearings. I asked him if he had seen this post in RED and he had not seen it yet....

So I had him go thought the process on speaker Phone. Before I had him do it I ran to my Shop and grabbed my 1/8 Cutting Bit that is in the picture. I measured from the top of the Lock Ring, the area that would hit the ROCK CHUCK and to the Tip of the Cutting End.... HE had 1.51 inches.... I had 1.41 Inches.... I said that there is the problem.... He Moved the Ring back and was now at 1.41 inches or close.... He fired up the machine and Drum Roll Please.... IT WORKED.......

SO again we find that WE must make the 1/8 inch Bit the SAME LENGTH as the CARVTITE as the machine is OPTIMIZED for that length and if your outside that length then you will get a error.....

Please Read the RED post again if you get a Z Stall or Z Error with a 1/8 th bit....

Again thinking like the MACHINE has resulted in the Correct answer....

I just looked and George never posted in this thread..... Ooooops....

AL

[billybehr]

Al,

I have changed over to a new project to see if it was something with that one particular project and still having the same problem. I have adjusted the cutting bit up and down numerous times with the same result every time. When it gets to the point of finding the surface and pushing the bit down into the "u" shaped portion of the guide plate and then pushing on the guide plate, it errors. When it pushes on the guide plate it even bends it slightly before giving the error. I am at a loss on this one. I am attaching a copy of the MPC I am working with. Maybe there is something in what I am doing that is causing this.

Bill44871

[Digitalwoodshop]

Bill,

Not Sure I understand what you said but give us some measurements between the under side of the Chuck and the tip of the bit.... In the post above 1.51 NO GO 1.41 GO.... It sounds like you are too long or too short.... And check the Brass Roller Plastic Holder to see if you drilled a hole through the plastic when at bit change then spins up and goes to the left and bobs down. If the bit is spinning it will drill through and give you unknown errors.... Epoxy the hole shut... Open the Cover from the time it spins up at bit change before it bobs down... Cut Motor Brushes more than 1/2 work cause this... The Motor spins longer.... 250 Cut Motor Hours to change the brushes... My machine is doing it at 150 Cut Motor Hours since last brush change with over 1000 hours on the Cut Motor.... copper commutator is getting thin on my motor.

So I looked at your .mpc The Errors could also be from all the Yellow Restraints in the artwork.... Once you do your setup and everything is set. Then I recommend going to every yellow number and right clicking and remove restraint. I think with Restraints and a different size board and the machine gets confused.... Lets see... The Owner wants me to LOCK the length from this top edge even with a different size board.... Plus Centering.... See.... how confusing the computer can get with lots of locked angles and numbers...

AL