This is the second release version of firmware 1.5
This is test firmware. As with all test/alpha/beta software, DO NOT INSTALL unless you like to be on the bleeding edge and can live with potential bugs.
Beta 1 adds:
NEW: Added text to the play, stop, load, ect buttons for clarification as many didn’t understand the difference between the upload FOLDER button (which only sees folders with gcode in them and will not show gcode) and upload FILE button (which only sees gcode, not folders).
Use the FOLDER button to upload a folder that has a bunch of gcode files in it.
Use the FILE button to upload a single gcode file at a time.
Updating via USB
You’ll do an update via USB using the following steps: After downloading, DO NOT UNZIP THE FILE!!!
Copy the blue .bz2 file above onto a usb stick (it must be formatted as fat 32 or ntsf). Click the flyout menu (three bars on top left), general, under firmware click ‘UPLOAD’. Select the 1.3 file.
If you are on firmware 1.0.8 or lower, it may ask for a password. the password to update will either be buildbotics or onefinity
I always get the “upload” and “download” icons wrong.
My thinking is I’m “downloading a file TO the CNC” (from the network / USB stick). not ““FROM”” the CNC to the network…
@cyberreefguru did a series of tests on that and found it to be pretty repeatable but you may see issues trying to continue a cutline without some noticeable deflection. Check out his YouTube channel to see his results.
Given that homing is not a precise function with stall homing, how dependable is remembering the xyz if we have to rehome
As Jim said, I did a number of tests and found homing to be +/-.005 accurate on average. I never computed the variance, but it was significant at times – I never nailed down why exactly, other than what OF alluded above, which is stall homing isn’t very accurate at times.
That said, I have not upgraded to test the save function. I have to believe it accurately saves the position each time, so your precision (repeatability) and accuracy comes down to the homing process.
When time allows, I need to upgrade to the elite and I will test the new homing switches (optical if I recall).
I installed it last week and used it for a few hours of laser work this weekend. No issues to report, but I didn’t specifically test out the new features to remember zero yet. I hope to get back to testing that out this week.
I did some testing of the zero memory tonight. It seemed to work as intended. It remembered XYZ zero numbers correctly after an e-stop+homing cycle, and after a reboot+homing!
It’s worth noting that with my wallmounted setup my vertical axis drops on e-stop, so for testing I was manually “parking” my vertical axis where gravity wanted it ahead of e-stop.
This will probably be the motivation I need to figure out and mount hardware homing/limit switches. The repeatability I was getting on my wallmounted (unsupported with a spindle) X50 was not close enough that I would trust it over re-probing my workpiece or spoilboard for a known zero. I’m excited about the potential. Thanks!
Not sure what the “remember last XYZ zero position” does. Either I’m missing something or it doesn’t work for me. Here’s what I did:
Uploaded simple job
Homed machine
Set job zero
Run job
Press E-Stop
It looks like it might have remembered X and Z but failed on Y (see screenshot).
I tried various other scenarios such as rebooting machine. After machine restarted and re homed just couldn’t see what it was supposed to remember. I had to reset job origin each and every time.
Based upon the language in the description, I’m assuming that the machine is supposed to retain the job origin X,Y,Z values and not the last X,Y,Z position where E-Stop or restart occurred.
FWIW…I uploaded the beta FW from USB and performed update. Did not re-flash memory, if that makes a difference.
