Job Stops at 6 Seconds

[stevebe]

Hi-
I have had this happen on more than one file now, but not on every file. I create my tap file for my Shark Pro HD. When I go to run it, it stops at 6 seconds, and sure enough that is the time it shows in the header, although in VCarve, it showed 20 some minutes for the estimate. I am using CNCShark-USB Arcs (inch) postprocessor.

Any idea of what is going on or what I am doing wrong?

Thanks,
Steve

[4DThinker]

It may be that the SD card in the controller is starting to fail. You might try replacing it with a fresh one just to see.

[stevebe]

First, I reformatted the SD card; no luck.
Next, I tried a different SD card, though not a brand new one. Still only thinks there are 6 sec worth of file. The file when loaded shows 5000+ lines of G code.
Any other ideas?
Thanks,
Steve

[BillK]

You should be using CNCShark-USB_NewArcs_inch which is the newest one. Check here http://www.nextwaveautomation.com/DownLoads.aspx

[stevebe]

OK, I will use that from now on. But, that is apparently not the problem either.
I will experiment some more tomorrow......
Steve

[Consultingwoodworker]

Is it only one program or more than one? If only one, then I suspect you have a corrupted .tap file. If it is all of them, it is more likely to be a machine/mechanical/connection issue.

I have had times with other machines and software where a program gets corrupted, and even re-saving won't fix it. Only rewriting the CAD/CAM files and outputting the g-code under a new name solved the issue.

If you want, you can send me both the VCarve and .tap files and I'll be happy to see if the issue resides in the g-code.

Ralph
Rbagnall@consultingwoodworker.com

[KevinO]

Steve - I was wondering if you ever solved your problem with the file stopping after 6 seconds. I'm having a similar problem with one of my .tap files, except it's stopping at 27 seconds. The Shark consistently just stops in the middle of the cut and doesn't return to 0,0,0. As with you the header at the top of the Control Panel says 27 seconds when VCarve 7.0 says it should run for 5 minutes 50 seconds. I can see when the problem .tap file is loading that it is not scrolling all the way through the file as it does on all the other .tap files.

The VCarve preview shows that the cut should complete.
It's only the one .tap file that's not running fully but it's driving me crazy that I can't fix it.

I've tried it with VCarve 6.5, I went to an earlier version of Control Panel, reseated my SD card, checked that I'm using the right PP, and finally concluded there must be something in the original .dxf file I started with that's corrupting the .tap file but I can't figure out what. I'd really like to know what you did if you were able to fix it.

Kevin

[4DThinker]

If the drawing was an imported DXF file then that may be part of the mystery. I've seen all sorts of problems show up when the source file was made somewhere else and not in VCarve itself. Sometimes they won't preview as expected, sometimes there will be errors that show up when trying to toolpath. Until I get a preview that I like I never save the file to cut out, Sometimes I can fix by exporting back out as a DXF then starting a new file and importing what I just exported from Vcarve. Sometimes it takes zooming in as far as possible to find lines that cross over or loop over themselves. A little node editing will often solve the problem, unless there is more of it happening than I've found at that point.

Any chance you can post the CRV file? We may be able to trace down the problem when we see the file itself.

[KevinO]

4D - At first I thought I wouldn't be able to post the .crv file since I bought the .dxf file online from makecnc.com (http://www.makecnc.com/proddetail.php?prod=Pegasus) and it's copyrighted. I then realized that I was only having the problem with the internal slots so I created a .crv file with only the slots. That should be OK copyrightwise. Anyway, I've attached the .crv file of the slots (rearranged to make the wood size smaller) and the .tap file. I still have the same problem even with this simplified file so if you want to take a look I'd appreciate it. Note that the depth of cut is only 0.03 inch to speed up the test.

With this file the preview in VCarve Pro 7.0 works fine and shows a cut time of 5 minutes 24 seconds. When I create the .tap file and load it into the Control Panel, it shows a runtime of 1 minute 16 seconds in the header at the top. Sure enough, when running the Shark with this file, after 1 minute 16 seconds the machine stops after cutting only 8 of the 19 slots. It also doesn't return to 0,0,0.

I hope you find something obvious so I can fix it and get back to cutting chips. Thanks in advance for taking a look.

Kevin

[4DThinker]

Looking at the CRV file I don't see any problems. I searched for flaws in the vectors and the only minor thing that was odd were the dogbone corners. Some were simply circular arcs and some were bezier curves. I edit the file to change them all to circular arcs, and then redid the toolpath. I ended up with a TAP file exactly the same length as yours. Comparing the two TAP files I can see no differences. I haven't tried cutting the file yet, but will tomorrow.

On the assumption I can cut all the slots, I'd suspect a flaw in either the SD card, the USB port on your PC timing out, or a 6 second curse. Any chance you are using a laptop to feed the TAP to the controller? If so, they often have an energy saving "feature" that shuts off power to the USB ports you might look into.