Would be nice to have the controller remember the previous XYZ zero and home location before the controller has been turned off so that if you are someone who has a specific XYZ starting location for repetitive cuts you won’t have to redo the homing and XYZ zero process every time the machine is powered back on.
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I think you can use G28 to store a known location, but it relies on the machine being homed to work properly. Otherwise, there is no guarantee the machine wasn’t moved after powering off - it has to start from a known location to return to a fixed location.
I’m curious what the accuracy of the homing process with the 1F is - that will probably be something I’ll dig until when my machine arrives in a month or so (assuming they stick to the schedule).
-Tom
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My x-carve had a custom off-line CNC controller, and I could do this. Very handy when I had a fixture in place and was returning to work on the same fixture. But the G28, as @cyberreefguru mentioned, is dependent on how repeatable the homing sequence is to be of any value. I’m not familiar with this homing method, but it seems to me that the switchless homing could possibly vary or float over time, depending on motor & machine wear-in, motor heat, etc.
It seems that it would be perfectly accurate enough for soft-limit reference, but beyond that will require some testing. Man, I can’t wait to get my hands on this machine!
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I failed to mention, when I need a reference for multi-part milling, I usually create a reference hole in the work piece and use that to re-register the machine for subsequent cuts. It works ok, but does have registration error in the +/- 0.2-0.5mm range. I’ve also put the machine at a know location, cut the power and not touched the machine. That works well, but only works if you trust your machine has not been moved in any way (X-Carve jumps a little when you connect to it, so you can’t always trust the power on location completely). I’m guessing other folks have other ideas too.
-Tom
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Yes, the nature of stepper motors is such that any given motor will jump +/- every time it’s powered up, and I’m sure the 1F is no exception. My x-carve was screw driven, so this was less of an issue, but it would still be off over time. I would re-zero the Y axis using 2 equal length blocks for reference. I think 1F has addressed this issue with stall homing, provided the machine is set up accurate to begin with.
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It’s something I believe I can deal with PERSONALLY because I’m not making production runs of stuff with a reference location to start every project. Usually I’m just doing all kinds of random stuff. I just thought this could be helpful for some people.
LOL, sounds like my normal mode of operation.