Several of us have noticed the Z zeroed settings aren’t consistent, either between jobs, after an e-stop, or after a reboot and rehome. I’ve seen a drop of about 1/4 inch fairly regularly. This isn’t happening during the job, and mechanical difficulties with motors, loose bolts, etc. don’t seem to be a factor here. My problems got worse this week, so I’m working on troubleshooting.
Guess 1: The USB dongle. Before I updated the WiFi, it didn’t reach the garage, and I was walking over the files to the Masso. There’s a little play in the data stick now. Twice I’ve seen the Masso not see the files loaded on it. New USB stick has been formatted, and while I was at it, I updated the software to 5.13.
Guess 2: EM. I’m using a 2.5” dust hose. It is not grounded. I was always going to put in a 4”; now’s the time.
Guess 3: Tool setter order of operation. This isn’t relevant to me for this test. There’s a bunch of discussion on the correct procedures for using the tool setter. However, I’ve had these problems with, and then later without the tool setter, so I’ll leave that out of the troubleshooting routine.
I’m on the first production run with a file I’ve used before, but now with the new dongle and upgraded Masso software. I won’t know if the problem continues, potentially for another week, as it is intermittent. I won’t change out the dust hose until I see if the USB solution works, to keep things simplified. Updates to follow.
While your theories aren’t impossible, my gut tells me they are unlikely. The dongle can be tempermental, but I’ve only ever seen it disconnect entirely.
I would point my attention to the tooling side. Is your cutters slipping in or out of the collet? Are you using an ATC? Is there potentially a tool mix-up going on? Are you setting Z0 with a tool with an incorrect stick out, causing every subsequent tools to be off?
Is your material, spoilboard somehow moving? Flexing?
Is your spindle dropping in the collar because the bolts are a little loose?
After you experience the dropping, try jogging the spindle all the way up. Does it go all the way up? If you re-home does it go further?
As for EMI, our brains love to naturally blame things on EMI, not sure why, but I believe it to be true. Convince yourself it’s not EMI and you’ll be better at diagnosing the problem!
It’s the mysterious catch-all for things that take too much time to solve, EMI. As for my particular setup that I’ve been using, this problem is happening with not using ATC, not using tool setter, not using touch probe, using the same bit, never removed from the collet. The table is not the best, but the flex is much smaller than .25 inches. After I would set the Z height, it might stay exactly there for three runs over a week (I’m up to hobbyist uses here, not full business production), or it might upon reboot visibly drop the z about this distance before the brake catches it, then error on home, then home just fine. That last one was rare, there’s usually no sign it will loose the location while still saying it is at 0 for the start of the next run. It jogs smoothly fast and slow.
For the experiment with my first guess, the USB stick: I ran three jobs today, checked the Z stayed put (it did), powered it off for over 30 seconds, turned it back on and rehomed, checked the Z again (still right where it needed to be), and cut all the parts as perfectly as I wanted. AND, during one of the reboots, I saw the Z jitter/drop a small fraction, got an error at homing, hit the homing button again, it homed, and this time remembered exactly where Z was. The opposite of the times before; that would have lost z-height. I can’t conclude anything yet, but if it continues, even if the setup isn’t perfect, I will have solved enough of the problem that my bottleneck returns to CAD/CAM/woodworking experience. I’ll keep this updated. Silly if it really is just a USB stick!
Occasionally, maybe once every two weeks, my z axis will freak out while homing. Jerks up down harshly. The solution is to power down, and reboot. Perhaps you are experiencing the same glitch, but not so bad that you cant home. Try rebooting the controller when it doesn’t home right, instead of attempting to home again immediately?
Still not sure if its your cutter moving up in the collet. Perhaps it slides up, then eventually “bottoms out" in the collet and your problems go away until you reinstall the cutter?
I’ll have accumulated a little more data later today, as I’m running another long job. My Z really is consistent in the middle of cuts as long as it is one run, and the spoil board agrees. I expect to find the occasional Z jerk glitch was a distracting detail, and my problem really was a USB stick. If just reacting to seeing the jerk upon startup, it would be best to power off, back on, then begin homing. Interesting that even with just rehoming without powering it off, that it didn’t forget my z-home position, meaning the system works. I can tolerate the occasional glitch now that I don’t think it’s a big indicator of a problem. However, it’s a reminder that at the end of a day we should leave our Z with enough room to drop and not damage anything should the glitch greet us the next morning.
I’m not sure I could be that tolerant My machine consistently loses steps and ruins the project it happens on (inlay cutting boards) - I think due to EMI despite all of the grounding steps I’ve taken. Those have reduced the issue but it’s a crapshoot and any given project is as likely to fail as it is to succeed. I have to run without dust collection and build my boards oversized (2 or 3” thick) so I can resurface & remove a failed inlay and try again. I’m hoping they get these issues fixed as they shake out the hardware. My old BB based Journeyman was rock solid.
The USB stick that came with the Masso was the problem. It had a loose connection that got worse over time. Everything works as it should now, Z height is remembered between jobs, reboots, rehomes, power downs and days spent unused. All this time, a $10 part! Maybe some of you having intermittent problems like Z-height issues might just try using a different USB stick. Thanks for all the suggestions while I worked through this!
My machine consistently loses steps and ruins the project it happens on (inlay cutting boards) - I think due to EMI despite all of the grounding steps I’ve taken. Those have reduced the issue but it’s a crapshoot and any given project is as likely to fail as it is to succeed. I have to run without dust collection and build my boards oversized (2 or 3” thick) so I can resurface & remove a failed inlay and try again. I’m hoping they get these issues fixed as they shake out the hardware. My old BB based Journeyman was rock solid.