Your assistance is needed in troubleshooting the homing/unhoming issue. I upgraded from Woodworker to Journeyman. I swapped the new Journeyman X-Rail and I am running into the following issues. These issues were observed during the manual WB Surfacing. I have searched the other posts regarding homing issue but it seems my issue is little different; maybe you guys can point me to right directions. (The only settings I changed from Wood Worker to Journeyman were the necessary for Motor “0” to increase the area [soft limit changed from 816 to 1219, and travel per rev changed from 10 to 10]).
I also noticed a dent in picture 3 and 4 on the side of new X-Rail. There was no damage to the shipping box, so I am assuming it was shipped like this. Don’t know if this would cause concerns.
X Homing is not consistent (Y homing is good): I set the home position multiple times and each time the homing is off by 1/16th to 1/8th inch. While homing, at times the Z gantry is snug with Y Rail and does not move back few mm, thus leaving no room between left Y Rail and Z carriage, while leaving quite a bit of room on the right side of the Y Rail (see photos 1 and 2).
Home position lost during and after carve: I set home prior to starting the manual surfacing and tested by joy pad by jogging the machine all around. However, during the WB surfacing, the homing was lost at least twice. This caused the IF to run into X and Y axis. Additionally, after I completed a portion of the WB flattening, I paused for approximately 15 minutes to vacuum dust. During this time, the homing position was lost again.
Machine stalled while jogging right: During surfacing the WB, the 1F stopped stalled moving to the right. After I released the joy pad buttons, and attempted again, the machine started moving again. This also caused stutter and lost of homing.
I am having very similar issues with my woodworker. I have been letting the machine home its self all the time. If I do carve with one bit, shut off the machine to come back the next day to do a second carve on the same piece, often the machine doesn’t home exactly like it did the day before and the two different carves are not lining up. Would I have more consistent homing if I use the touch probe and home the xyz to the corner of my spoil board every time?
I don’t believe the touch probe will help in homing, but it would definitely help in setting zero for your work piece. Homing sets the soft limits of the machine while zeroing sets the origin of the work piece. If sucks when the machine doesn’t home properly. I never had this issue with my woodworker.
In your case, you can use the xy probe to set zero for your project and as long you use the same 1/4" bit (inserted upside down) to zero your work piece, you should get consistent results. Hope that helps.
I would recommend that you check your X and Z connections on the X-rail. They appear to be in need of some sort of strain relief to keep them from wiggling and perhaps losing connectivity.
I have chosen not to put drag chain on my machine and printed some strain relief supports for these two connections. They are now supported to avoid straining and moving the connectors as the machine traverses and works.
Thank you. I will have to acquire some sort of clips to keep the wires from moving. I could see how the wires may move and lose intermittent connectivity. Meantime, I am not sure if that would cause losing home and specifically cause the homing to be off each time the machine is homed. Nevertheless, good suggestion on securing the wires. Thank you.
Are you aware that you do not need to home your machine everyday? If you have your xy set, that is all that matters. You can come back the next day and resume where you left off without homing. As long as xy stays the same you do not need to home it. You can even change your xy without homing it.
Alden, Thank you for your response. I understand that if I don’t turn my machine off, I don’t have to home the machine. However, once I turn off the machine, it loses the home.
With my prior Woodworker, I was used to homing the machine and then set the XY zero either the left corner or the middle, depending on the project. I usually don’t use the probe to set my XY, I only use it for my Z setting. So I eyeball the XY. In the past more than few times I had to hit the E Stop for various reasons. This would require the machine to be rehomed and XY reset. Since I never had the issue with homing being off, I would simply jog the machine to previously written XY value and restart the carve. However, with the home now not being consistent, I can’t jog the machine to predetermined XY, as it would obviously not be exact.
Not sure if I described it well enough, but that is where I am at. If there are any other workarounds I can use to set the exact zero, I would be willing to try it.
Kamran, What I often do when shutting down the controller is bring the router back to xy. Then shut down. When I fire it back up the next day the machine recognizes the startup position to be the new xy position. So no need to home. Each time you shutdown it remembers xy to be where you were when you shutdown. You can use this same xy endlessly if you choose to. So no need to home every time you shutdown.
I was excited to read your answer as this would have been the perfect solution if the the machine remembered previous XY. Then I tried testing out this solution. And again, maybe I am doing something wrong, I brought the machine back to XY zero position and shut down the machine, using the monitor. I then turned on the machine and it displayed the following (see picture below). I attempted to reset the XY at the same location, but the screen did not turn green, still showed under/over/unhomed. Am I missing something? Sorry for these “stupid” questions.
Maybe it doesn’t remember it as such, but it will, upon reboot, accept the last position as the new xy. I do this all the time. So where you leave the router when you shutdown, it will start your new session xy at that position. I don’t see why my machine would be any different than others.
This makes some sense but when a machine powers on and locks in on the motors there is a risk they spin slightly. This is likely repeatable enough for most of us but there is some risk.
I do hear the motors engage but haven’t noticed any deviation from its position. I doubt it would be enough to be concerned about or that it would exceed the tolerance of the machine.
I was able to set the same (or similar) XY upon reboot. After setting the XY to previously “parked” position, I jogged the machine and after hitting XY Zero, it returned to the XY Zero. However, the monitor still displayed “unhomed” and does not turn green.
Now, my question is that since the “home” is not set at his point, only XY is set, the machine does not know the it’s limits (no soft limits set) and could potentially run into XY. Would the machine slamming into XY cause the XY to become off?
After doing some carves last night, the Journeyman is no longer losing it’s home and is not stalling while moving to either X or Y position. My homing is still not consistent, so I might have to play around with stall homing. Thank you all for your comments and replies. At the very least, I learned I could still set the same XY after rebooting, given it may not be exact and with some other caveats.
The homing is only useful for the extreme limits of the machine. It will not affect the xy position as long as it is set within the extreme limits. All homing will do for you is set the extreme limits of your machine. This can be a hard or soft limit. Once the limits are set you can place your xy coordinates anywhere within those limits.
When the screen says unhomed and xy is the previously parked position, xy becomes the extreme limit for the for anything going into the negative positions and will not travel negatively beyond xy. As long as your xy has plenty of positive space to handle your program limits, your machine will not hit the positive limits of the machine. When you hit return to xy it will do so without any issue. And it will not move that position at all. This has been my experience which I have learned to trust from that experience.
As a new user to the 1F family, I just got my Journyman installed (on a secure from above QCW) and secured all to my table. I will be using drag chains and will need to install cable extensions - but adjusted for this before function testing, and do not feel I have connect-re-connect issues. Comments here and elsewhere about cable movement/hold downs and reliefs helpful once I do install wires in chains.
My question, however, is on homing the Z axis. Why is there no concern or conversation about the Z axis showing the error ‘over?’ Mine homed fine but also showed it was over. When I clicked on it, it said it would exceed parameter by 4.6mm!! Really?!? (In fact, in the downloaded software manual, the layout identification page shows an error while XY are 0 and homed). I started trying fixes using the Stall Homing instructions but felt this was more of a self-preservation fix for when the machine does try to exceed limits, it uses motor voltages to control the motors before damage, but not a ‘command’ for limit setting.
So, I started using the on-screen jogging function to slowly jog one or two .05 steps to whittle away and manually re-set Z as close to 0 as I could get. Then, hit the individual axis set 0 icon to lock it in. I still cannot seem to get it to 0.
