I'm having trouble with my Z AXIS

[slasher]

Hello everyone, I have a Shizuka 3 axis mill with a Centroid CNC4E controller. I am having trouble with the Z axis depth. It goes to far down. It looks like it goes about .4 to deep. I really don't know why it is doing this. I am using bobcad V22 with this, so I don't know if the problem is in the program or machine. If anyone could give me a few pointers I would verry much so appreciate it. It's been driving me crazy, we invested over $1000 in the bobcad and have'nt even been able to use it.

[jdelaney44]

Can you enter G-Code directly into the Centroid? I have Mach 3 and a custom DIY control set up, to calibrate it I wrote a short program to run each axis back and forth a bunch of times. If you can get a simple program to work right, then you can rule out the machine and the control and see what's up with the CAM software.

I don't really monitor the board, so e-mail me if you need anything and I don't reply or someone else doesn't reply.

Thanks,
John

[slasher]

Hello and thank you for the response, since yesterday it appears now that I am having problems with the computer. It boots up and goes to the centroid control screen, but the menu won't come up. It looks like it is stuck. What it's supposed to do is boot up and then I press enter and a list 1-9 comes up of options to select from. Such as "run auto", "run immediate", a few other "run" programs, "edit", and "setup". All it is doing is when I press enter or esc. is showing the first option and just rolling through the other ones on the same line so fast that I can't even see them. I will post a g-code program also, but now this is another problem I must take care of first. Again thank you for your help.

[slasher]

Hello everyone, I wanted to post sooner, but somethings came up. I have been piddling around with this thing and found out that the reason my program freezes up or locks up and does'nt all the way load is because of a error on the floppy boot disk. Now the next challenge is going to be finding another boot disk. This is an older controller that runs standard g-code. The program that is on this boot disk is "cencomm boot diskette 3.72" by centroid and this I think is going to be a pain to get. If anyone has this program and would part with it I would really appreciate or even if they know where to get one. After I get the disk then I will get back to the z axis problem. Thanks everybody

[slasher]

Hey everybody I just fixed my centroid cnc4e controller and I'm excited to get back to the z axis problem. Here is code for a circle, now it appears to be .2"-.3" to deep. That is just by the eyeball specs.

G90 F1.5
:TOOL #1 0.5000 ENDMILL ROUGH
M05
G00 X0.75 Y0. T1 /5. /0.5
M03
:JOB 1 POCKET
Z0.1
G01 Z-0.1 F0.9
G02 X0.75 Y0. I-0.75 J0. F1.5
G01 X0.5
G02 X0.5 Y0. I-0.5 J0.
G01 X0.25
G02 X0.25 Y0. I-0.25 J0.
G01 X0.
G00 Z0.1
:JOB 2 POCKET
:TOOL #1 0.5000 ENDMILL ROUGH
X0.25 Y0.
G01 Z-0.1 F0.9
G02 X0.25 Y0. I-0.25 J0. F1.5
G01 X0.
G00 Z0.1
: RETURN TO THE HOME POSITION
M05
M02

What I was wondering if anyone knew is if there is a setting in my program that is doing this? Also was wondering if anyone had any idea if taking the depth if it is to deep and measuring that and making a little touch off block that is the same depth that the axis is off? Would that compensate for the overcut and is that possibbly why it is off in the first place? I here that some people use a touch off block and I've heard that it is programmed into the controller. I've looked threw the manual and don't see anything that would be under, but maybe it is a term I don't know or I overlooked it. I'd really appreciate it if anyone could throw some ideas my way.

[machinist_1]

Sounds to me that is your problem. I don't know any thing about your control, but it sounds like there is already an offset in you control for a touch off when you set your Z, maybe .3??? If you are going .4 to deep or about, then I would look in your tool offset page and look for a .375 or so in your Z axis area.

Hope this helps.

[slasher]

Yea it is, but there is something weird about this problem. After I leave the machine and controller off for a while it seems to go away, I can zero the piece from the top and I don't have this problem. When I leave it on for a while and try to run the program the same or a different one it go's back to the same thing, which is a little under 1/4". It's like there is something in the controller that holds a little bit of power and slowly recharges when the machine sets for awhile. Then when you tun it on the off set is gone, after it running and using the power up it then goes back to being offset. I am no electrician, but I do know that there are things on the controller's boards that regulate power and I think this is where I get my theory, hold and slowly recharge small amounts of power. Right now though all I have to do is shim it up that distance that it's off and it works, but if anyone has any kind of idea why it flip flops I would like to hear what they think it is.

[machinist_1]

Try looking for a battery on your board. Maybe you have a epromm or cmos that stores user input info.???? Like on a PC, if the battery goes dead you lose your date and time.