Just got my CompuCarver but...

[Idioteyes]

Hey all thank u for taking the time to read this posting. I just got my new compucarve today. I brought it home and ran thur the Operator's Manual on the "Unpacking and Setting Up the CompuCarve'. I have finished all of that and thought that I would have the Machine Measure a board to verify that the X and Y Board Sensor's where working correctly. I have seen on this forum that the Board Sensor's seem to be a point of endless problems.
What happened is that the Y Axis Sensor work's correctly and measured the board's width just fine. However, when I had the system try and measure the X Axis or the lenght of the board I got the following message:
Check Front Roller Stuck Enter=Cont. Stop=Abort

Trouble Shooting
- I restarted the unit 3 or 4 times.
- I try'd to measure 3 or 4 different board's lenght.
- Checked in Compucarve Trouble shooting, for anything that might help.
- Called Carvewright and am waiting for call back.

So at this point I am hoping that one of forum poeple out here may have an idea of what to try next. It does not give an Error code that I can search by. I have also tried to search the forum for "Check Front Roller Stuck". The search results are, well, unrelated as far as I can see.

[Greybeard]

There was a post in the last ten days I think, that mentioned a roller being stuck, although that wasn't the prime reason for the thread, more of a comment in the body of the posting. I'll start searching as well.
Regards
John

[Jeff_Birt]

There is a little brass roller, with a black rubber o-ring on it, in the bottom-front-center of the machine. This is the sensor that measures travel in the X direction. It should depress slightly when you press on it and then spring back up. When you load a board into the machine it MUST be placed squarly againt the long black plate above this roller (the 'Squaring Plate') and MUST be in contact with the brass roller. There should be no board defect in this area as that will cause problems with the sensor.

[Greybeard]

Thread was "Cannot measure board" by Greg. Posting by pine acres workshop, Feb 8th.
I hope it helps.

John

[The Bard]

could also be a pressure issue.

place a bathroom scale under the rollers. We're looking for 75-85 pounds of pressure.

[pine acres woodshop]

Mine was the back roller and was caused by me blowing out the machine with the rollers compressed, The issue you are having is the same as the one that Greg posted, fresh out of the box it wouldn't measure a board, he stated he located his problem and it was that the sensor was unpluged, I don't know myself where the sensor is located, but it should be right around the roller. Hope this helps.


Mark

[Idioteyes]

Well Ok, thank u all for the help. I'm headed out to the shop so see if I can resolve this issue. I will keep u all up to date.

[Idioteyes]

Well after reading all the threads listed above....

- I started by access the one half of the X Axis switch from under the unit. You have to remove about 12 screws, there is a set of 4 small thin black wires that come into the unit close to the sensor and plug into a connection with about 8 other wires into a circuit board just below the entrance point. The switch side I accessed by removing 2 screws inside the unit itself on the top of the Squaring Plate. U can remove them and turn the plate upright. There is not much to see there, other then making sure nothing is damaged or out of whack.

- I also checked to make sure that the X Axis Sensor was able to be pressed down by the board, not to low for some reason. I used extra wide straight edge across the sand paper drive belts, and on top of the brass sensor itself, it was working also functioning correctly.

- I also tested the clamping press of the unit, it was almost 80 pounds.

So I'm left with an almost $2K desktop paper weight at this point, but it is new. The other interesting thing I didn't find the whole time I was taking apart or even working on this machine. Was any Quality Control markers, No Stamp from line checks, No markings at all that make me believe it was ever tested or even turned on before I recieved it. I find it very hard to believe that this is posible but, see is believing. I also noticed several cable connection while I had the bottom off. These connection where the connection point to the circuit boards and there was nothing holding them into the unit itself. Normally I would expect to see then silcon'd in place, some of the connection had them, but not all. Please understand that I am not un happy with the unit, these are just things that I noticed while working with the unit.

I have also have been waiting for CarveWright to call me back now for almost 6 hours.

So at this point not knowning if Carvewright will call back, I'm going to start with the Return of the unit to Sears.

[The Bard]

sorry we couldn't help you with your problem.

[pine acres woodshop]

I might be mistaken but I believe the sensor should be above the front roller , the brass piece between the two drive belts is for measuring the length of the board and to keep track of the boards location, check to see if there is a sensor above the front roller on the LED side. That would be my guess. Good luck.


Don't give up this machine is great!




Mark