CNC Shark Forum

I purchased a Shark Pro for my high school woodshop. I am trying to do the "Bull's Head" demo. The problem that I am running into happens at the start of the program run. I choose the bottom left hand corner, top surface of the work surface and zero out X, Y and Z. When I run the program the Z axis runs straight down until the router collet bottoms out on the work surface. Then the carriage runs on the X and Y axis while Z is still bottomed out on the work surface. I cannot for the life of me figure this out. Any help would be apprciated...

It sounds to me like you are not zeroing the z-axis. The other possibility is in your design you may have specified a starting level of z to be below the surface. If you post the crv file or the project that you are doing, I might see more clearly what could be happening. The shark is pretty predictable LOL I have found that most of the time when it screws up, its because I told it to. HA HA HA

Upload the CRV and maybe we can help

Roger

Attached is the CRV file

Everything looks right with the crv file. Going to state some things that should be true, lets back up if they aren't. You are using 3/4" material. You have the cutter that came with the machine in it (90 degree x 1/2" cutter. You have everything set to inch and using the post processor "CNC Shark USB Arcs Inch" to generate you tap file. You have installed the proper drivers on the machine that you have connected to the Shark Control box. You jog over to the lower left hand corner and lower the bit to the face of the material, then (what I sometimes forget to do) push the Zero XYZ button on the control software. Then start the program. The Shark will pull up slightly (to the safety clearance point specified) and plunge back down to zero (ie the top face of the material) then lift and move over to the starting point of the carve and plunge down to some appropriate depth and begin to carve.

I may be overlooking a software install somewhere that I don't remember and maybe one of the more experience guys will chime in but these are a few things to start with. Its got to be something simple and my suspicion is something to do with zeroing the control software once you have jogged the bit to the zero point. That is my biggest failure so far.... take great pains to get it to the zero point then start the program with out having pushed the zero button that actually tells the software you are now at the zero point. Its got to be something pretty simple... maybe so simple it gets overlooked.

Roger

Find the problem yet?

No, have not found the problem. I am using 3/4" MDF material, using the 90* cutter that came with the system, using CNC Shark USB Inch, drivers are the most up to date, and the machine is hpoked up correctly. When hitting start, bit does not go up and jog over to the start point. It goes straight down and then tries go goto the 0,0,0 point.

Sent a PM with my phone number if you would like to call.
Roger

For what it's worth, Just downloaded your Bulls Head CRV, loaded it into VCarve Pro 6.5 ran it against CNCShark-USB-NewArcs_Inch postprocessor created Tap file then loaded it on my SharkPro and it started just fine, no straight down z move. Head moved up just a tad than down a tad, head moved up to clearance then X and Y moved. I stopped the file at that point. I don't think I was much help, but if you post your tap file I will download it and try it on my machine.

Bruce

Is it jogging correctly?
Is it just this tap file or everyone?
If its jogging correctly but every tap file is doing this my money would be on a setup problem in V-Carve. You might try posting one of the tap files.

I was contacted by Next Wave and we are currently working on the issue. I will report back after we get things figured out.