New Machine has problems

[gapdev]

Brand New version C machine, not even a week old. Has done 2 carves total of about 7 hours usage time.

The flex shaft was getting hot (averaging in the 150's). So today I rubbed some Moly around the center foot or so of the cable to see if that would help.

I did an Air Carve of a project that is 14.5 inches wide, 3/4 inch thick, and on a 1/2 inch sled. Got asked the "how thick is your project" question, answered .75 inch.

Let it go for 10 minutes then measured the temperature. Averaged in the 120's. That seems a bit high to me for doing an Air Carve. No doubt the temperature would go higher if I let it go for an hour (which I'll do this weekend).

The biggest problem is that I pressed Stop to see if it would error out like my other B machine does. Sure enough, and I'm really sick about this, When I pressed Enter to continue, the damn thing stopped with the dreaded Fatal Error 3.

Then I loaded another project for a 9 inch wide x 24 inch long x 3/4 inch thick board, started an Air Carve, let it go for a minute or two and pressed Stop. Pressed Enter to continue and it continued on. Pressed Stop again, let it stop, then Enter. It continued on. Then did it 1 more time (3 times total) and when I pressed Enter to continue, I got a Fatal Error 2. 2 this time, not 3, but the result is the same, machine hangs up while it writes its debug data to the card - no way to continue. Wasted project, wasted wood.

So, now I have the same problem with the new machine as I do with the old one. I cannot pause long carves to let the machine cool off, blow out some sawdust, or continue a long carve the next day. With as much heat as the Shaft generated yesterday there is no way it will last through a 7 hour carve, it barely made it through a 5 hour carve yesterday.

And then, to top it off, I noticed that the Cut Motor briefly starts and turns the shaft a few revolutions when I turn the Power Switch on. What's this all about? Is it supposed to do this? Doesn't seem normal to me.

This all just sickens me.

Kenny

[mtylerfl]

Hi Kenny,

You definitely need to call CarveWright Tech Support regarding the issues you are having. I am sure they can help you.

[Digitalwoodshop]

The Cut Motor Starting upon power up was a broken off C1 Cap on the X Termination Boards with the "A" model.....

I would get on the Horn to LHR... I am thinking bad computer....

Try re formatting the card before you call, I am sure that will be the first thing they will ask you to do... Load the latest Designer...

Air Carve would be a bad encoder, loose Encoder Wheel, bad FFC Cable.... Do this test before you call LHR.... Move the Z head to the highest position then call up the Z data on the LCD. It should be 0000. Now move it from upper limit to bottom limit 10 times quickly stopping at the top. If all is well stopping at the top should result in 0000 again. If something slipped then you get a different reading...

Now do the same test but this time move the FFC Cable gently as if the head were moving back and fourth looking for a broken encoder wire in the FFC Cable.

Good Luck,

AL

[GrammaPam]

Seems to be a lot of that going around. Keep after it. Sooner or later LHR is going to have to start believing us. It is not always operator error. Everyone that ever had to replace the flex shaft within 10 hours of operating a new machine and everyone that replaced the flex shaft and it still over heated, should be due a new one free.
G.P.

[lynnfrwd]

Kenny:

Double check the flex to make sure both ends are fully engaged and the core is able to float between the two ends. Make sure there is no burr or rounded ends on your core. Make sure there is no moly on core that can leak down into your bearings. Monitor it and maybe put a fan blowing on it until it starts running cooler. 120F should be nothing to worry about whether it is air carving or really carving. There is not enough difference whether there is a bit in there or not. It is still turning at 20,000 rpms and it is the rubbing (friction) that is the issue. 150F is high end, but a fan may cool it down enough to prevent it from melting. One other thing...check your carving bit to make sure it is not one of the short ones. What is the deepest depth of your carve?

Believe me GrammaPam, if there is an issue with the flex or other issue resulting in an overheating flex, we would like to know. We just haven't been able to identify anything consistent in the different cases.

The Fatal 2 & Fatal 3 errors happen when the projects are wide (around 14" usually). What happens is when you pause it, it goes on "memory overload" (my words not the engineers). It should not do it on a 9" wide board, but "memory overload" could have been caused by the STOP/START three consecutive times and it just went TILT. It is a bug that we already have a fix for and will be in the next update expected out next week. As long as you do not pause it, you should be fine.

[Digitalwoodshop]

Kenny:

Double check the flex to make sure both ends are fully engaged and the core is able to float between the two ends. Make sure there is no burr or rounded ends on your core. Make sure there is no moly on core that can leak down into your bearings. Monitor it and maybe put a fan blowing on it until it starts running cooler. 120F should be nothing to worry about whether it is air carving or really carving. There is not enough difference whether there is a bit in there or not. It is still turning at 20,000 rpms and it is the rubbing (friction) that is the issue. 150F is high end, but a fan may cool it down enough to prevent it from melting. One other thing...check your carving bit to make sure it is not one of the short ones. What is the deepest depth of your carve?

Believe me GrammaPam, if there is an issue with the flex or other issue resulting in an overheating flex, we would like to know. We just haven't been able to identify anything consistent in the different cases.

The Fatal 2 & Fatal 3 errors happen when the projects are wide (around 14" usually). What happens is when you pause it, it goes on "memory overload" (my words not the engineers). It should not do it on a 9" wide board, but "memory overload" could have been caused by the STOP/START three consecutive times and it just went TILT. It is a bug that we already have a fix for and will be in the next update expected out next week. As long as you do not pause it, you should be fine.


There is a post a very long time ago about people pausing the machine to clean with a HUGE project and the machine was doing the Fatal Error.... One of my Guesses was that when you press stop once or open the lid the machine must store where you are in some memory someplace.... With Huge Projects I guessed that the card or the computer RAM just ran out of space and said... "Fine.... I QUIT"... So with this post I get confirmation that I really did have a clue what was happening....


And remove the 2 screws on the Top Hat to inspect the top of the truck for excess chain lube... Wipe dry....

AL

[gapdev]

Connie,

Today I did an Air Carve for 2 hours. The Air Carve is just to keep from wasting wood and creating a bunch of sawdust. After an hour, the shaft got up into the 140's. Way too hot for me. I put a fan on it and it went down into the 120's. Still way to hot for my liking when you consider lots of folks claim 90 degrees.

Doesn't the fan just cover up the problem? When I was talking to you on the phone last week, I had just pointed a fan on the shaft, and right after we hung up, I went out to feel the shaft and it was warm but not hot. 5 minutes later it melted.

I did buy a fan just to keep the machine cool. I'll be using it on the next carve to see how things go.

Today, after the 2 hour Air Carve I took the shaft out and soaked it in Moly for 30 minutes. It is now hanging up to drip dry overnight. Will try again tomorrow to see how hot it gets.

When the tech had me turn the core around, I looked at both ends and they seemed OK to me. The core goes quite a ways into the motor. At least 1/2 to 5/8. I'll measure it tomorrow. But, after inserting into the motor, it only leaves 1/2 inch for the Z-Truck. Somewhere in the middle between the minimum 3/8 and the maximum 5/8.

I don't have any of the shorter Carving Bits. I sent the one I had back to you.

If I were able to stop and start the machine every hour or so, I'd be happy. But the fatal errors are preventing that.

I had thought that the 14.5 inch projects were the cause of the Fatal Errors as the machine seems to really struggle with them and the Fatal Error 2/3 happens every single time when I pause the machine with the wide boards.

However, my tests for the hot flex shaft are with a 9 inch board and I get the Fatal Error 2/3 with it as well. You have to do it in rapid succession, Pause for as long as you want, then start then Pause within a few seconds (I wait until the Z goes back to where it was), then Start, then repeat, and usually on the 3rd attempt you get the Fatal. I have gotten the Fatal Error with boards much less than 14.5 inches, but its not consistent like it is with the 14.5 inch boards.

But, today, when I was finished with testing, I thought I would do one last pause just to see if it would act up. I'll be darned if it didn't give me a Fatal Error, but this time, it was Fatal Error 4. Is the software fix going to fix this one too? Please!


As long as you do not pause it, you should be fine

Yea but, if you need to let your Flex cool off, pausing is a good way to do that! And I used to always Pause my machine to take the dogs on a 1/2 hour walk. Don't like leaving it running unattended.

Is this going to be just a Firmware fix or is Designer also being updated? If Designer as well, remember the OS x Lion problem where Designer won't remember its settings or Last Projects opened because it doesn't have permission to write to the Library folder.

Kenny

[gapdev]

Al,


Move the Z head to the highest position then call up the Z data on the LCD. It should be 0000.

The Air Carving I'm doing on purpose just to test without wasting a board.

But I did try the Z test and when I move to the top, I don't get a 0 reading. The number is negative, a couple thousands of an inch. I forgot to write the number down. Is the negative number a problem? My other B machines does this as well.

Kenny

[gapdev]

The tech had me do some tests to determine the cause of the Cut motor starting up when power is turned on.

We first pushed in on the Cut Motor micro switch in the cover in rapid succession. When you do this, the cut motor starts up and this is normal.

We then checked connections and I was to call back if the problem persisted.

It did, and I called back.

Second time around, the tech went away for about 5 minutes and came back and said it was normal for the motor to do this. Not supposed to do it but its nothing to worry about if it does. Hummm.

I do know that the motors on my CNC shark turn a smidgen when power is applied. I think they are basically just tightening up to hold their position, but the act of doing that makes them move a tiny little bit.

But, sometimes with the CarveWright, the cut motor turns cute a few revolutions. Doesn't seem right.

Kenny

[gapdev]

So today, I was doing some Air Carving to test the Flex Cable after I lubed it (it still gets up to 140 after an hour - too high for me) (and yes, it dried overnight, lots of fluid on the towel on the floor that it was hanging above). I even used a rifle cleaner and jeez, a lot of gunky stuff came out of the sheath. Are new cables supposed to be full of grey gunk? When I first tried, I couldn't even get the weighted end of the cleaning snake to drop down the sheath (yes I removed the spring, carefully). So, I had to blow it out and then the cleaning snake dropped down through the sheath. Back and forth with the bore cleaner a few times and I then had to clean the cleaner!

Anyway, today I got a new problem.

I stopped the carve and then when I restarted it, the Truck took off towards the bit plate and kept banging up against the plate while I was panicking and pressing stop a bunch of times. It then stopped and gave me a "Y Axis Stall" E05-0303.

And then, to throw insult after injury, this morning when I turned the machine on, it asked me to enter the Unlock Code. What's up with that? Doesn't it store this info in NVRAM?

The machine is jinxed and I'm not at all happy about it.

Should a person be going through all of this frustration with a machine that only has 10 hours on it? Most of that time with Air Carving?

Kenny

[gapdev]

The Fatal 2 & Fatal 3 errors happen when the projects are wide

Please add Fatal error 4 to this list and it doesn't always happen with wide boards. The Fatal Error 4 was with a 9 inch board and I wasn't pausing/starting in rapid succession.

And see last message. Y Axis going berserk after pausing and then starting.

Kenny