Clear Board Sensor

[nwn]

I've just spent over an hour trying to clear this condition. I vacuumed the machine well, wiped the sensor with both a cloth and a Q-tip, and repeated these steps SEVERAL times. I power cleared the machine between some of these tries. I always apply pressure when cranking the head down.

This has happened before, and when it became resolved, I never knew what the solution was. However, on the final try I power cycled the machine with the head in the down position. It told me it had to do a roller compression test. When that test passed, the clear board sensor condition was cleared! I think this may have been the case once before, but I didn't really notice the relationship. Does this make sense, or have I once again magically cleared the sensor?

Neal

[cmorlier]

Hi Neal,

One possibility is that we have a bug that causes the machine to get stuck in a bad state, where it has trouble measuring with the board sensor. Rebooting allowed the machine to forget its state.

If it is a bug, it would be helpful to know what had been done prior to the problem. How many carvings had you done, or what built-in functions were used? I believe that most of the time the machine does the right thing, so this type of information will help me narrow down where it breaks. If anybody else has seen the same problem, let me know as much as you can about what you did before it got into this state.

There are of course other possibilities, but none seemed likely based on what you describe.

Also, clearing the sensors should be fairly painless. Around here, we usually give them a quick blast of compressed air or wipe them off with a clean finger or cloth. If it takes much more effort than that, then there is probably something else going on. However if you find that clearing the sensor does take a lot of effort, please let us know what you are having to do so that we can try and make improvements.

[nwn]

Nothing was done before this happened -- The machine had been off for 24 hours or so. When I shut it down the day before, I vacuumed it out as completely as I could. The condition occurs occasionally on initial power up, and usually clears out fairly quickly when I wipe parts down, power clear, etc, though I have never been sure why. I spent the extra time this time trying to find out exactly what the cure is -- I added one more step each time and nothing worked until I had to perform the roller test.

Another problem occurred last week when I tried a dark mahogany board measuring 10.5 x 21 for a 14 inch long project to be cut from the board. The board kept running off the rollers during the measuring process, sometimes to the rear, sometimes toward the front. I wiped and Q-tipped the board sensor a few times with no improvement. I finally loaded an oak board and the project completed normally. I haven't gotten around to trying the mahogany again. I'm not sure if that's useful info, but I thought I'd add it in.

Neal

[cmorlier]

If this repeats, try going to the options menu and select option "7) Sensor Check". Check the board sensor levels both over the board and off the board. You should see the level greater than 100 over the board and less than 10 off the board. If not, then give us a call.

As for the dark mahogany, it could be that the wood is too dark for the sensor to "see". To help it "see", one trick is to put masking tape along the edges of the board, where the sensor is measuring.

[applik]

Removed

[lpcsales]

I found with my unit, that as time moved on, I received more and more of the Clear board sensor msgs. At first, a simple cleaning with the vacuum would resolve the problem, then it would take a good vacuuming and blowing out with air to get it resolved.

Finally, it failed completely. THe board sensor quit working all together and I had to send the unit back to the factory. I still haven't gotten it back (it's on the way though), but if you go into the options menu and select option 7 and scroll down a page, you will see the reading for the board sensor. Mine would only flicker a 0 & 1, never producing a reading higher than 4 (with board held right up to the sensor) where it should have gone over 100+.

If you check this on your's and it's reading low, you are probably experiencing what I did...a gradual weakening of the sensor. Unfortunately, this problem has to be fixed by and at the factory.

To LHR's credit they were very efficient in handling the return of the unit. I received email notice a few days ago that it was on it's way back to me.

Good luck with yours and hope it's not as serious as mine was.

[nwn]

Reese, Dave, Chris;

Thanks for your inputs. Reese, I thought I was keeping things clean until I read your post. If what you do is necessary, I hope a change to the manual is forthcoming. Dave, I thought "Deja Vu" when I read your post, but after several tries I see the board sensor output consistantly at 160+ with a board under the carving head and near 0 without one. My first attempt showed 18, and I thought I had found the problem, but that was with the head homed and the sensor not over the board.

Chris, the last project I tried gave me the error message again, so I went right to the loaded board power clear, ran the carriage up and down as instructed for the roller test, and then everything proceeded normally once again. I also tried the measure board option from the machine menu, and that worked fine. Thanks for the tip on masking tape for dark woods. I'll keep trying to figure it out; I know how tough it is to design software for use by others who may not (make that surely don't) think the same way you do. This forum is a great help for you and us -- the more inputs you get, the easier to solve problems, both in the software and in the users' methodologies.

Thanks, again,
Neal

[Ron Baird]

Dave
I have also been getting this sensor problem. The sensor readings are good 0-160 and a visual check shows very little dust but I clean it anyway. When I clean the sensor and then press enterit will display measuring board but just does nothing. Eventually the problem clears for no apparent reason and the m/c works fine. I don't think it is a dust problem as I am only getting about 10% of the dust now with the dust collection system I have on the m/c and the problem is occuring often.
Ron Baird

[cmorlier]

Hi Ron,

Eventually the problem clears for no apparent reason and the m/c works fine.

Do you mean that if you wait long enough and retry it clears, or do you have to abort the project, or do you have to reboot? Just trying to triangulate where to look for the problem.

Thanks.

[Dan-Woodman]

Look at the little round glass just behind the router bit. I get sawdust behind this glass and have to blow it out with compressed air.