The Elite Masso machines comes with a great feature that allows for ‘dry runs’ (air carving) to see where a carve will go before actually carving. Masso refers to this as ‘dry run’ / ‘laser pointer’ (as you could add an optional laser pointer if you’d like).
Enable:
To enable this, load any file, zero your material, then click MDI and click the ‘dry run’ button, then cycle start. This will run the file without lowering Z or turning on the spindle.
We think this feature is great so we have it ‘enabled’ from the factory.
The problem:
For this feature to work, it uses “Tool #0”.
In some rare instances, the CAD program or user will assign a tool in their library as tool #0. If they export the gcode with any tool #0, this toolpath will only run as a dry run.
The Fix:
To fix it, either, change this bit to any other tool number (1-100) OR uncheck ‘enable laser pointer’ under multihead settings: dry run-laser pointer on the F1 Setting of the Masso.
It is very cool that there is a dry run mode. Unfortunately, I cannot run a file without dry run kicking back in. I had never selected this yet somehow it keeps changing to dry run.
Can anyone help with this?
Thank you Chris. I tried editing the file to change this and then reload the file. That did not work. I am next going back to VCarve Pro, renumber my tools and then recalculate and save my files to see if this fixes the problem.
Anybody tried the “Dry Run” function with a laser pointer yet? I was carving some very intricate overlay work and using Dry run with a bit 2 inches above the surface wasn’t providing enough detail so I mounted a $10 laser pointer in the spindle and it did the trick. This is also great to determine if you will miss knot holes or certain grain areas of the material your using.
The link 1F provided to Masso vaguely explains how to set up an automated laser but doesn’t provide a link for the laser and you would have to buy their relay. But the El Cheapo version fits into a 1/4 inch collet using the provided orange o-ring. I wouldn’t over tighten and definitely don’t power on your spindle!
Those are the ones I had bought when I first set up my laser. I found an aluminum mount with the correct diameter hole, then 3D printed a transition plate to mount it on the front of the spindle mount. It worked well at various heights, and was convenient to run from my Masso (3rd party) touch screen.
I have since taken it off as I have been focused aluminum jobs not really benefitting from it, but plan to mount it permanently to a spindle cover I am currently designing.