Hi New to CNC & Enroute

[CNC Oz]

Hi I wonder if anyone can help me with a problem I'm having. I'm pretty new to all this so please excuse my lack of technical expressions! I'm shaping hardwood blocks and am using Enroute 3. I've applied a relief to the shape and then put a mask over it to toolpath an island fill strategy. This seems to work fine until I go to the machine which cuts beautifully until it gets to a flat surface when I get the message "waiting for dwell" and then "moving" flashing on and off while the machine seems to shudder. Has anyone experienced anything like this or have any tips? The timber blocks are 45mm thick and vary in size from 1400x700 to 300x300mm.

Thanks in advance!

[cnc_oz]

I have been using this moniker for a couple years.
Mine does have an under score in it though. Just wondered how it got through.

cnc_oz (John)

[Stewey]

Hi to both of you...
(from CNC-Qld!)

Actually, I'm afraid I don't think I can be of much help, except that I also use Enroute, and it does a few funny things at times, which I have finally put down to some sort of software/g-code conversion glitch.

Mostly it's great, and with 2-d files it's fine, but I've had it getting positioning error 'seizures' at exactly the same place from time to time in certain 3D files.
I've eventually solved it by setting about a 22 degree hatch-fill angle of hatching (rather than 0 degrees, default).

HOwever, the "dwell" setting should be able to be edited in the advanced edits section of the toolpathing menu, where you can set the depth, feed speeds, number of passes etc. I'm sure there's a dwell delay that is adjustable there. Try setting itito zero.

The shuddering I have experienced, and used to think it was a blockage in the lead screw, but I have since decided it's a glitch in the Gcode when the toolpaths were created.

Try and generate new toolpaths with a different hatch angle & see if that helps.
I did find when it was being cantankerous, that 0, 90 and 45 degrees made no difference to keepinmg it happy, but the 22 degree enabled it to create toolpaths that ran right through.

No idea why the glitch is there, though.

Hope that helps!

[kch]

Hi
I have used EnRoute 3 a lot in the past (by the way, you made an excellent choice with this software), and have never encountered this problem. I think dwell refers to the amount of time your spindle rests before changing speed. In other words say for instance you want to change the speed from 12,000 rpm to 18,000 rpm, the spindle needs time to stop thinking 12,000 and start thinking 18,000. Maybe it is something to do with the spindle controller software and not the G code itself?? Or I could just be talking rubbish!

Alternatively, you could read the code on the machine, and check other operations to see if there is some code missing in this instance?

Allways remember that the actual code you can see on your machine screen is very simple, logical, and easy to inertpret, so if something is wrong with the code, you will be able to find the location of the error and actually see it.

I hope this helps

Keith Handley
Tel +64 021 426 202

[tgm]

What you are describing appears to be a machine related issue either the machine itself or whatever is translating the Gcode that Enroute generates. I don't ever recall being able to do anything like this in Enroute itself. Is the machine capable of handling a large 3D file in code or is trying to catch up which then gives the message?
Have you tried another file by itself, similar in content??
If it's stricly code related I would look at the code during the 'shudder' sequence.

Good Luck,

Tom in PA

[Field Worker]

Hello,

I use Enroute 4 wood so it does not do reliefs so I have nothing to help here, but are you doing arcs when it shutters? I have had it shake the whole machine when doing this and it was a simple G code change that corrected it.

Can you post your G codes maybe we can help by seeing what it is generating.

[CNC Oz]

Thanks for all the suggestions. It definitely is a G-code glitch. It is missing Z parameters in some lines which is precisely when the machine shudders. I'll try the 22 degree angle Stewey and see what happens! If no luck with that I'll post the G-codes - that would be great if someone can see what the problem is.

John, I'm not sure why I was allowed to use CNC Oz if you're already using it. Hope it doesn't cause confusion.

Luci

[CNC Oz]

OK, I've still had no luck with the shudder problem but have discovered that there is a problem with the G Code - I have no idea how to resolve this so any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

This is an example of the G Code being generated - I haven't put the whole thing here as it's 40,000 lines - but this is what shows before the z axis is dropped and before it comes back again:

N240020 x521.509 y547.589 z62.057
N240030 x521.389 y547.928 z62.079
N240040 x521.589 y547.928 z63.
N240050 x512.412 y544.821
N240060 x512.182 y545.292

It then continues without any z until

N273590 G0 x512.412 y544.821 z78
N273600 x558.198 y635.784
N273610 G1 x588.198 y635.784 z25.02 F1000

It's applying a curve to the z of an oval shape - I hope that makes sense! If a picture would help I can try and upload one.

Many thanks again. Luci

[Field Worker]

At the begining of the G codes, see if G61 is present, if so change it to G64 this should smooth it out on arcs.

[CNC Oz]

I've had a look and it doesn't have G61 - what does that relate to? I'm wondering if we are using different G "numbers" for the same task. Thanks again for the help.
Luci

[Field Worker]

Here is a sample of the G-codes when Enroute produced them for a task I had. If I had an arc toolpath I would change the Line "N50" where it shows
G17 G61 G90 G94 from G61 to G64 and save it. This will allow the tool steps to go from absolute to incremental mode making a smoother pass without shuttering.

N10 (Last bottom an)
N20 (9/22/2008)
N30 G20 (Inch mode, Change to G21 to activate Metric)
N40 G40 G49 G80 (Cancel radius comp, cancel tool length comp, cancel canned cycles)
N50 G17 G61 G90 G94 (XY plane select, exact stop mode, absolute distance mode, feed per minute mode)
N60 G54 (Fixture offset active)
N70 M06 T5 (1/4" End Mill)
N80 G43 H5 (Apply tool length offset)
N90 M3 S18000 (Spindle On)

[CNC Oz]

Thanks so much for all the tips. I've managed to resolve the problem - it was really simple in the end! I changed all the G1 codes to G2 codes - I decided since there are no straight lines G1 commands shouldn't be there. It's still not perfect but much more workable.

Thanks again - all your posts really helped.

Luci