Odd behavior when carving

[2A Finishing]

Ok, so now that I've got a working computer and seem to have solved my memory card issues that were being caused by a faulty USB port (mostly anyway - still intermittent "format your card" errors, but nowhere near as common as on the old dying PC), but I've noticed that when running a carve, sometimes the head moves slowly and sometimes it'll speed up notably - I'm not talking about the difference in speed between routing curves and routing straight lines, I'm talking running the carve itself - it'll do two or three passes slow, then it'll do a pass or two really quickly, sometimes causing chip-out where it wouldn't have been caused if the bit hadn't sped up.

This speed change seems to affect both the speed of the head moving back and forth, as well as the rotation speed of the bit.

Any ideas?

[aokweld101]

Are you running your carvewright on it's own circuit breaker and outlet ?

[2A Finishing]

no it's on the same circuit as the dust collector. I'm very limited in what I can modify here - I don't own the home
the carvewright and the dust collector are literally all that is on it though. Also, dirty rural power. I could probably stand to use a good surge protector - the one I have is kinda cheap.

[aokweld101]

I have had that problem with both running the same dust collector and carvewright off the same outlet it pulls to much power useing the same outlet have you a diferent outlet to run on the dust collector with a different curcuit breaker and run a extention cord ?

[2A Finishing]

I have had that problem with both running the same dust collector and carvewright off the same outlet it pulls to much power useing the same outlet have you a diferent outlet to run on the dust collector with a different curcuit breaker and run a extention cord ?

I don't have a way to chase the circuits (there are two in the shop) and I have no clue what runs where - an idiot ran the electrical here.
I can run an extension cord to the dust collector though, and plug it in in the office and see if that makes a difference. I'll set that up now and try the carve again (for the 20th time - see the "cw will not read card" thread a couple down from this one in the troubleshooting section for an update of my night)

I'll update in an hour or two after I nap some before the kids wake me up for breakfast (unless they wake up before I finish, in which case no sleep for me today lol)

[DianMayfield]

I have had the motor surging issue before, ran an extension cord from the back porch for my DC, helped a lot.

Did you ever get a chance to try another card/reader combination?

[2A Finishing]

nope, it gave me the same thing literally 5 seconds after starting the carve this time. At least it didn't run through to 60% then stop this time :(

[2A Finishing]

I have had the motor surging issue before, ran an extension cord from the back porch for my DC, helped a lot.

Did you ever get a chance to try another card/reader combination?

No, AOK wasn't able to make it out when we planned. Haven't addressed the issue since, just kinda been focusing on other things while the carvewright more or less collects dust. I'm really close to just sending it back and recouping what losses the company forces me to take through the cost of the software and restocking fees because this is more hassle than the machine is worth at this point. For $4000, you'd think they'd make me breakfast after screwing me.

[2A Finishing]

completely random format error (6) and (2) literally all night long. Over and over. probably 15-20 times last night through this morning. I've been trying to complete a 1 hour carve for more than 10 hours now. The ONLY good news is that my odometer only reads 52 hours on time.

[2A Finishing]

Not to keep harping on the issue, but these PCMCIA flash cards are literally the biggest pain. They didn't work well when they came out 15 years ago, and they don't work any better now. The company REALLY needs to rethink this part of the system. I'd even be happy to be a product tester if they decided to upgrade to microSD (current standard), or even SD or (shudder) HD flash card system. I don't know why someone building top of the line machinery would choose to run it off outdated components like this.

[DickB]

What you describe may be normal behavior. If your project includes deep carves, the machine will plunge the bit and the initial pass or two will be slower. It will speed up as the area to be carved becomes less deep. I have observed this behavior many times. It would help if you posted your mpc. If you have deep carve regions with no feathering or draft, this behavior is more likely.

You say that the rotation of the bit "seems" to be affected. I am wondering about that. How can you tell? As the bit makes a deeper cut, it can get loaded more and the sound of the cut motor will change, but is it really slowing? I could be wrong, but if were really a power issue I would think you would have other problems. I run my machine and 1 hp dust collector from the same 20A circuit with no power issues for many years.

[2A Finishing]

What you describe may be normal behavior. If your project includes deep carves, the machine will plunge the bit and the initial pass or two will be slower. It will speed up as the area to be carved becomes less deep. I have observed this behavior many times. It would help if you posted your mpc. If you have deep carve regions with no feathering or draft, this behavior is more likely.

You say that the rotation of the bit "seems" to be affected. I am wondering about that. How can you tell? As the bit makes a deeper cut, it can get loaded more and the sound of the cut motor will change, but is it really slowing? I could be wrong, but if were really a power issue I would think you would have other problems. I run my machine and 1 hp dust collector from the same 20A circuit with no power issues for many years.

I hate to laugh but you'll understand when you see - the maximum depth of my carve is only .135"

At any rate, this was just an oddity I noticed in between flash card errors last night through this morning. The errors, by the way, don't follow any pattern, nor is the error code predictable based on anything I can discern.

77778

[bergerud]

Is this not just a simple case of a bad card?

[2A Finishing]

Is this not just a simple case of a bad card?

If the card were bad it wouldn't read in my PC, and it wouldn't function SOMETIMES. It hasn't stopped yet this attempt, and it's at 49%, though I expect it to stop within the next 10 minutes or so. The furthest it's gotten is 60% I would estimate. This is after doing two smaller carves and cutting out a 3 piece shelf from a length of poplar successfully last night. At any rate, the card is 6 weeks old and has been stored in a static bag in a climate controlled setting when not in use, so I can't imagine that it would be bad... (Edit - yup, just failed again, same BS card error. You'd think with the amount they charge for these things, they'd actually work) I really can't fathom how some of the projects I've seen posted ever get carved. I've never been able to carve something out that takes longer than 45 minutes or so without seeing format your card errors repeatedly. Sometimes they'll finish after multiple attempts, but usually they won't.

[bergerud]

I would think that the card being bad is the most likely explanation. Something like part of the memory cannot be accessed. Try this: Load up the card with projects and then put the one you want on. Maybe this would put your project into a different place in the memory.

[2A Finishing]

I would think that the card being bad is the most likely explanation. Something like part of the memory cannot be accessed. Try this: Load up the card with projects and then put the one you want on. Maybe this would put your project into a different place in the memory.

I'll set that up now and get back to you in a little while when it fails or in an hour and a half when it completes... Wish me luck, because I'm about this far from infuriating my wife by launching this POS out the front door of the shop and putting a magazine or two full of .45ACP into it.

Another question - Why when I open my memory card in the designer 3 pro software, does it show me two copies of projects I upload?

[DickB]

Dan, it may be a bad card, but as 2A said this was a "good" run between errors, and what he described sounded normal to me.

2A, you have no draft on your letters. Even though they are only .125 tall, they are not large and are subject to chipout. Adding medium draft will reduce the likelihood, and make it easier for the machine to carve. Without draft, the bit must plunge and pull up abruptly, and potentially slow down in y movement. With draft, the z movements will be more gradual. Likewise, with no feather on your rectangular carve region, the bit must plunge immediately to full depth and probably move more slowly in the y direction at first, maybe even making two passes. Once the initial "wall" has been carved, the bit can move faster.With feather, the bit is gradually plunged.

Try adding medium draft and feather, and note the projected carve times when you upload your project. In Normal mode the carve time is was cut by more than 5 minutes when I ahhed draft and feather to your mpc.

Good use of draft and feather was one of the lessons that I learned early on. Many new users, myself included, started out doing exactly what you are doing. Good use of draft and feather not only reduces chipout, it allows the machine to carve faster and with less strain.

[2A Finishing]

Dan, it may be a bad card, but as 2A said this was a "good" run between errors, and what he described sounded normal to me.

2A, you have no draft on your letters. Even though they are only .125 tall, they are not large and are subject to chipout. Adding medium draft will reduce the likelihood, and make it easier for the machine to carve. Without draft, the bit must plunge and pull up abruptly, and potentially slow down in y movement. With draft, the z movements will be more gradual. Likewise, with no feather on your rectangular carve region, the bit must plunge immediately to full depth and probably move more slowly in the y direction at first, maybe even making two passes. Once the initial "wall" has been carved, the bit can move faster.With feather, the bit is gradually plunged.

Try adding medium draft and feather, and note the projected carve times when you upload your project. In Normal mode the carve time is was cut by more than 5 minutes when I ahhed draft and feather to your mpc.

Good use of draft and feather was one of the lessons that I learned early on. Many new users, myself included, started out doing exactly what you are doing. Good use of draft and feather not only reduces chipout, it allows the machine to carve faster and with less strain.

I can understand your tips on draft and feather which are extremely useful - HOWEVER - it won't matter if I can't get the machine to carve successfully. If it only carves half the project, but does it really nicely, it still doesn't help me. Also, you can call me Chris ;) I should probably have noted that somewhere or other lol

Does carvewright make a habit of sending out bad cards? Do they just go bad randomly for no reason? It seems to me that the bulk of the bad reviews centered around the cards, and there are a great many troubleshooting threads regarding the cards... You'd think the folks building these machines might realize there's a weak point here?

[DickB]

I feel we are jumping around a bit. I was addressing the topic of this thread, and offering my opinion that the behavior that you described is normal, not a card or power issue. That is not to say that you are not having card issues, as you most certainly are. But I believe that this thread topic's behavior is normal and a result of your mpc. I was offering possible explanations. It appeared to me from your initial post that you had gotten by the card issues and had completed a carving.

You have another thread going on card issues, so it might be better to stay closer on topic in each thread.

[2A Finishing]

I feel we are jumping around a bit. I was addressing the topic of this thread, and offering my opinion that the behavior that you described is normal, not a card or power issue. That is not to say that you are not having card issues, as you most certainly are. But I believe that this thread topic's behavior is normal and a result of your mpc. I was offering possible explanations. It appeared to me from your initial post that you had gotten by the card issues and had completed a carving.

You have another thread going on card issues, so it might be better to stay closer on topic in each thread.

My apologies - I did drift my thread back to the other topic, my fault. I haven't looked at the other thread because folks were responding here and it seemed easier for me to just discuss it here. Yes - the motor behavior was apparently normal based on my MPC. Thanks.